Spain Travel Car Hire

We’re heading back to Toronto to visit some relatives soon and, in hunting for the best car-rental deal online, I stumbled across a number of online car-rental coupon sites.

I’ve never been much of a coupon-clipper. And whenever I’ve seen a space for a coupon code on car hire sites before, I always figured it was for people who had some sort of frequent-renter code, or CAA membership, or something. But it turns out there are plenty of coupon codes that anyone can use, and plenty of sites online that list them all. You just enter the code into your booking and, if the discount is still valid, you get a deal on your car hire. It’s as simple as that. Some coupon sites don’t even require you to enter the code yourself — you just click on the car hire agency link and it sends you to their booking page with the code already entered.

In doing my comparison shopping I found a code for Budget that knocked 10% off my rental. And the best deal was a temporary special at Alamo that dropped what would have been a $120 rental down to just $46! The irritating part is that not all of the codes work all the time — I spent a frustrating few minutes trying to find deals on Enterprise car rentals only to find each one I tried had expired.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether it’s worth a little hassle to find the best deal. But coupon-clipping online is a lot quicker than sitting at your kitchen table with a pair of scissors.

Alamo’s discount, I later noticed, was promoted on their site, too. But if you didn’t click on the ad that said “Weekend Rentals Starting at $10 a Day”, and just did a normal booking, the site charged you the normal rate, not the great deal.

So why do car companies give out discount coupons to outside sites? Or only give you the deal if you click on a banner ad on their own site? I remember reading The Undercover Economist (a fun read if you have the time) and the author Tim Harford made the point that businesses can usually make a profit even after offering steep discounts. But they can’t stay in business very long if they offer the steep discount to everyone. So, ideally, they’d like to offer one price for those willing to pay full fare and one price for those who will only buy if you offer a discount. Businesses can’t do this, of course. But things like clippable coupons — or online coupon sites — essentially do the same thing.

That’s because the person who’s desperate for a deal and will only buy your product at a discount will go through the trouble of hunting down a coupon online. The person who isn’t as concerned about money won’t. So you can charge two separate rates for the same product.

I wonder, though, how well that principle works when saving a chunk of change only requires an extra couple of minutes online. I know, from here on in, I’ll be looking for a coupon the next time I book a rental car.

Source: The Vancouver Sun, by Chad Skelton