Renting Tips

Renting a vehicle in India can be a frustrating experience if you have not done it before or do not know where to start looking.  Who’s got the best deal?  How do I acquire it?  How do I know when I should book?  Renting can actually be an exciting experience, when you have the us, to do all the work for you!  We have arranged tens of thousands of rentals over the years.  In doing so, We discovered there are a number of key factors that establish car rental pricing.

Car rental prices are based on supply and demand. 

The more cars a company has available for your particular dates, the cheaper your rate will be.  Likewise, prices will be higher if they have fewer cars available.  Booking your rental 3-4 months in advance can be advantageous.  The benefit is, you have a locked in rate that more than likely will continue to rise as they book more rentals. Most of the time to confirm booking in India credit card information is not required to book a rental so should a lower rate present itself, it does not cost you anything to cancel the original rental and move to the lower rate option.

As per our experience, the busiest months of the year to book  Cars in India are Oct to March: 

November-December – January:  By far December and January are busiest month of the year to hire cars in India particularly the last two weeks of December and first 2 weeks of January.  This is the busiest time of year to visit India. Lot of European and American comes as Tourist and also its festival and marriage season locally.  If choosing to rent during this time period, you should book 3-5 months in advance, especially if you are looking to rent a SUV or Minivan. They are always the first models of vehicles to sell out.

February- March-May-June-August:  Second busiest time of year to rent.  School vacations and Indian marriage seasons.  With the kids out of school, Mom and Dad love taking vacations! Again, it is best to book 2-3 months in advance

our experience tells, the least busy months of the year to book are: 

Late August and September:  With monsoon arrival all across, kids  back to school leaving a gap in the rental market later in August.  You will find rates start to decline towards the end of the month and continue somewhat low all through September,

One-way rentals. 

One-way travel is typically always more expensive than if you were to drop the car off at the original pick-up location.  This is because each individual car rental outlet, regardless of the company is locally owned.  That means, once you return the car, the company must pay someone to drive it back to its original place of rental. You have to pay for that!  Companies either bury a “drop charge” fee in their price or charge it as a line item on your bill.

Renting  Car With  Driver in India

Is renting a car with a driver starting to sound like a good option? It’s much more common in India than renting a self-drive car, and it doesn’t have to break the bank. When you hire a car with a driver for the day or even for a few days, you don’t have to pay that large deposit, and you’ll benefit from having a local behind the wheel. Remember driving skills are different in India, and Also cheap Labour available.

Here are a few things to consider when hiring a car and driver.

Rates vary. Everything from the size of the car to whether your driver speaks English to the number of days and distance travelled contributes to the daily rate of the car and driver for hire. Rates will usually include fuel, insurance, tolls, state taxes, parking, and the driver’s food.For a multiple-day trek across India, rates will also include the driver’s accommodations.

Tip your driver. It’s customary for travellers to tip their driver on a daily basis. Depending on how happy you are with his services, 200 to 400 rupees per day is reasonable.

Your driver is not your personal tour guide. While your driver will be happy to get you to each destination and answer general questions, you shouldn’t expect a personal tour guide who is well-versed in every historical detail of major sites and able to make restaurant recommendations. Your driver won’t accompany you inside monuments and attractions; he’ll wait in the car and simply be ready to take you to the next destination when you are ready.