Every now and then I find myself struggling to find affordable rental cars online. So I thought a short article like this one could help my future self with some tips.

Companies

In my limited experience of renting cars in the USA and Europe, Hertz oftentimes has very competitive prices. In Europe only, Europcar or Rentacar (France only) are sometimes even more competitive than Hertz. I rarely ever check other companies like Sixt, as they are usually more premium companies.

It's worth noting that all rental cars companies provide roughly the same level of service. When searching for reviews on Reddit for instance, you'll find an equal number of people complaining about each of them for being "scammed" or charged for scratches or whatever. Also, each "store" is different, has different personnel, etc. So in my opinion it's pretty pointless to categorize one company as scam or another one as great, since the service you'll get will differ based on which of their stores you go to.

Discounts

Most companies have rewards based on loyalty. Hertz and Europcar will give you a 10% discount or more only for creating an account, even for your first rental.

Some companies will occasionnally send coupons over email or will reward you gradually over time as you book cars repeatedly. It's worth googling for discount codes online before renting, as some of these coupons can be found on aggregators. Here's one for Europcar.

Company deals

If your company has such deals through a portal for instance (in Germany, mitarbeiterangebote.de is a popular one), chances are that you'll find discounts for some car rental companies.

Better fares on aggregators

From time to time one might get better deals on aggregators, such as booking.com or kayak.com, as opposed to booking directly on the company website. In my experience, this happens rarely. In Germany, it's worth checking Check24 and Billiger-Mietwagen.

Varying prices across borders

Lastly, when booking at the border between two countries, if you're flexible enough, one country might have far better prices than the other, for the same company. An example is the French-Swiss border. Hertz for instance will be a lot cheaper if booked on the French side than on the Swiss side.