I want to hire a car from Udon Thani airport for a few days but all the online dealers do not seem to respond, I would want a car with gps if possible and would like (if possible ) at the end of my few days/week for them to pick the car up from me (not absolutely necessary ), or has anyone got any other ideas. (I arrive in Udon Thani 9/11/2006 at about 8ish I think).

Thanks Steve

I want to hire a car from Udon Thani airport for a few days but all the online dealers do not seem to respond, I would want a car with gps if possible and would like (if possible ) at the end of my few days/week for them to pick the car up from me (not absolutely necessary ), or has anyone got any other ideas. (I arrive in Udon Thani 9/11/2006 at about 8ish I think).

Thanks Steve

Steve I've never had ANY trouble booking through Budget or Avis in Thailand, online.

Budget operate out of UTH airport for sure @ http://www.budget.com/budgetWeb/home/home.ex.

If you take ALL the insurance extra's, you are looking at about 1350 baht per day (for 7 days) for a 2 door Toyota Ute. They're perfect for 2 people, (and can fit at least 12 monks in the back).

I always book with Avis, as they have a little booth in the airport at around 1400B per day, but you might get a discount if booking for a week. There is also another outfit that offers the same cars for 999B per day with discounts on longer term rentals. But my view is that it's worth paying the little extra for a world wide brand incase anything goes wrong. Not sure if you are going to get GPS thou!

Trouble with the World wide brands is that they are very quick to keep your deposit if you have a minor mishap.They don't care much about "Customer Service" or if you come back and use them again or not. Smaller companies want to build a good reputation and NEED you to use them again, or reccomend them,not only do they offer good rates ut they all use the same insurance companies as the bigger ones, yet their excess damage charges are normally lower.!

If you book a rental up here in CM you can expect to pay around 5,000 Baht deposit, and if you have an accident, your fault or not, you will loose it. That is with a small company. The large ones will charge between 5-10,000 Baht, so you can be sure that if you have a "big bang" you will loose nearer 10 than 5

When I was in the UK I hired a car from one of the big companies at Heathrow. Brand new car, not expensive but the "Excess damage" charges were outrageous.

The car cost 375 quid to hire, reasonable I thought so I booked on line. When I went to pick it up they told me that there was a 600 quid excess damage charge, even if you get a small scratch that costs 10 quid to repair they will charge you 600!!

However if you DOUBLE your rental rate you could avoid this charge.

Had I known this at the time I would not have booked

Now, tell me that that is fair !!!

So don't discount the smaller rental companies just because they are small, Mr.Avis and Mr.Hertz had to start somewhere

is it possible to hire a car on the day from the airport or does it have to be online.

thanks again guys

steve

I think you can do it at the airport as long as you have all the right paperwork ,,International Drivers Licence being a must if you do not have a Thai one

If you book a rental up here in CM you can expect to pay around 5,000 Baht deposit, and if you have an accident, your fault or not, you will loose it. That is with a small company. The large ones will charge between 5-10,000 Baht, so you can be sure that if you have a "big bang" you will loose nearer 10 than 5

So don't discount the smaller rental companies just because they are small, Mr.Avis and Mr.Hertz had to start somewhere

for a car with a driver do they ask for a deposit?

what's happening if there is a crash?

I think you can do it at the airport as long as you have all the right paperwork ,,International Drivers Licence being a must if you do not have a Thai one

It's not a "must", for now:

I rented cars from Avis, National, Budget, with no Int driving license, only with Oz national one.

They will rent their vehicles but....

If you are involved in an accident, all the insurance is void..unless you had that Int driving license.

Last time, one small renter told me - if there is an accident, I should tell the police I am the renters friend, just driving around, never mention any renting. Then, he would come to the scene and sort it out.