Rent A Car In Bkk, Drop It Off In Hat Yai

[jeebusjones]

I'm planning to do some traveling in the south of Thailand next month with my cousin. He's never been to Thailand before and I've never been to the far south, so we're planning on heading from BKK straight to the deep south. We'd like to rent a car and take a few days to drive down, but I was wondering: Is it possible to rent a car in BKK and return it to a different office in Hat Yai? In the US such a thing is no problem, but I have no idea about Thailand.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[jeebusjones]

Wow, I think I just answered my own question by clicking on the Thaivisa link for car rentals. It's unbelievably cheap! I guess my next question would be, what license do I need to have? My cousin and I both have US licenses (mine from Oregon and his from Maine), but we don't have International Licenses. Will the US license do?

[ovenman]

The rental agencies here usually whack you pretty good with a one-way drop-off charge. Does "unbelievably cheap" for you include that charge?

[jeebusjones]

The rental agencies here usually whack you pretty good with a one-way drop-off charge. Does "unbelievably cheap" for you include that charge?

Haha, I guess not. Actually, the booking page did include a tiny footnote stating that a one-way fee "may" be charged. Do you have any idea how much that would be?

[ovenman]

5000 baht rings a bell, but don't take that as gospel.

[jeebusjones]

That's more than the rental itself. dam_n.

[ovenman]

So much for "unbelievably cheap"! Giving this some more thought, I also recollect that the agencies usually require a minimum three-day rental on a one-way rental. I've thought about doing this myself on occasion between BKK and Chiang Mai, but it's always been cost prohibitive whenever I have priced it.

[jeebusjones]

The quote page was pretty vague regarding the one-way fee; it simply said the fee would be announced after making an inquiry. I submitted my inquiry just to find out how much it will be and received two emails with rather conflicting information. The first email said:

"One Way Drop fee: TBA"

But the second email said:

"One Way Rentals

Three day rentals, and over, are free. One & two day rentals, cost THB3210, inc VAT, payable locally. Can be cheaper to hire the car for 3 days, and return car early - no refunds. "

If the second email is true, then that is a pretty good deal. The rental for three days on a Toyota Vigo is 3,900 baht, including an 800 baht deposit. So it's actually just 1,000 baht per day. Anyway, I think I'd want at least three days to drive all the way to Hat Yai; it's a good 16 hours, isn't it?

Edited November 21, 2008 by jeebusjones

[torrenova]

I suspect all the majors, Budget, Avis, Alamo, Hertz etc. will allow this.

A one week rental from Avis from Swampy to Hat Yai one way for a Toyoa Vios is Bt8225. This has NO one way fee. Excess of Bt5000 for accident / loss.

A Vigo 4 cab auto 3.0L is Bt13,090 For a 3 day rental the costs drop to Bt10,195 (including OW fee). OW fee drops off at 7 days hire.

To put things in perspective, you can hire a Vigo for a day in Pattaya for around Bt1500 or a month at about Bt30,000 so 7 days at Bt13k including OW is not a bad deal I think for the Vigo. It gives you a lot of options and a car for a week !

You can check others but this info is from Avis.

[jeebusjones]

Thanks for the info. I think Budget is offering a better deal though: Toyota Vigo for 3,100 baht for three days, plus an 800 baht deposit. I doubt you could find much lower than that, even in the US. Excess insurance is something like 300 baht a day, which I think I'd take just for peace of mind.