Having considered the opinion of people who patronize rental companies in the first article, I will in this part be giving out my own professional opinion in the same topic “Things to consider before renting a car”. I believe it’s justifiable to say that renting a chauffeur-driven car especially for the first time or even for old-timers can most times be stressful. Having considered the opinion of Abuja residents and visitors, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of information for us to slice and dice on the whole rental process. I still want to pour out my own 10 important things to consider before renting a car. And I hope it helps.
1. Rent off Airport
Firstly, on or before arrival at the airport of a particular city, for airport rentals, you don’t want to wait until you have landed in Abuja or any city to look for a car rental agency. It has been discovered that renting a car in the airport at your arrival at the airport tends to constitute lots of challenges. This is because lots of people flying into the same location all want to rent a car there too leading to longer waits, higher rental charges due to facility charges and other charges, as well as loopholes for things to go wrong. But when you rent off-airport, one tends to save more even when both “on and off rentals” are from the same company and the same car.
2. Sieving the available cars
Choosing the right car to rent is obviously an issue in renting a car. Sieving through the available cars with Ape rental service company that understands the needs of their customers will go along way to help you make the right choice. Having in mind that Abuja to some extent has a reasonable road network, drivable roads, and swift trial. If you are renting for the purpose of cruising around, treat yourself with something sleek and sporty, because you deserve it.
3. Review Previous customers’ feedbacks
Before renting a car in Abuja or anywhere, always look out for reviews about the rental company you are renting from by reading customers stories on the sites or independent platforms. Doing that will go a long way to help you as a customer to learn from the experiences of previous customers of the company. For first-hand insight on the efficiency and effectiveness of the services offered by the rental company.
4. Book ahead of time
When planning on going to various places in a new city, it’s advisable to book a trusted and secured car rental company online or through the app to save the stress of being worried/troubled all through the rental period instead of just focusing on enjoying the trip. It’s also believed that most rental companies offer a discount to customers that made their bookings ahead of time. So to save cost and avoid last minutes’ rush bookings especially in surge areas which might give room to lots of errors, it’s always good to book ahead of time.
5. Check Rating
If you are certain about using a particular car rental company for more than ones, it will be wise for you to check and compare ratings online before deciding. For companies that allow customers or clients to choose a particular driver, it’s good to identify a dependable driver, ask for his/her name and stick to the person.
6. Check the car exterior and interior
It’s said that first impressions matter a lot and you don’t want to be uncomfortable on your trip as a result of another person’s misuse of the car. So make sure you inspect the car exterior and interior properly and ensure the comfortability of the chairs, seat belts, mirrors, tires, scratches or dents, et cetera and ensure it’s in good shape before proceeding to rent the car.
7. Know and plan your movements
Before renting a car, it would be advisable to know where and where you will be visiting, or better still have a trip guide with specific locations of where you are to visit in order to budget your time effectively. Abuja city or wherever you are traveling to might not be as small as you might think, hence the possibilities of having a lot of many attraction sights, events and historical places as well as unfamiliar road networks and landmarks in locating them.
8. Trifle with two Reservation
For those traveling to Spain, Sweden, Portugal, England, USA, and other developed countries it’s observed that rental season aside from holiday periods is at its peak from April through September. Since there are no penalties for canceling a rental reservation so long as it’s been done in advance, one can take the option of making two reservations while booking so as to get the best deal. the advantage is that, if one of the rental company comes up with better incentives down the line, you can grab the opportunity and drop the other one that didn’t work for you.
9. Read the Contract Carefully
Before renting a car, it’s very vital and utmost important that you take time to read the contract carefully to know the terms and conditions associated with it and ask about anything unclear in the terms for clarifications. Read the tiny prints in the contract carefully. Prices, date, location of both pickup and drop-offs, insurance policies, as well as fuel policies inscribed on the contract are the major things to look out for when going through the rental contract.
10. Consider the insurance policy when available
For extra cover and peace of mind, it is good to remove insurance before you travel to cover any outrageous claims. Most people especially those that have removed the main insurance beforehand tend to be usually conned by the hard sell of some rental companies. You can buy the insurance from elsewhere where the prices are leaser and not necessarily from the car rental companies. There have been cases where customers are asked to pay for extra cover at the desk, not knowing that their policies cover them all along. You must not necessarily buy the said insurance from the rental company. So shop around for the best offer
In conclusion, when you are in Abuja and need to rent a car, Ape rental staff will be delighted to show you how to get to where you want and also advise you about places that won’t be found on your Lonely Planet travel guide for visitors. Please do not hesitate to ask our staff about where to go for an adventure, business meetings, sight-seeing, among others. With us in Ape rental company, our customers’ maximum satisfaction is our almost priority.
