UKC

I'm in the process of hiring a car this summer in the USA and came accross Happy Tours
http://www.happytoursusa.com/en/index.php
They are considerably cheaper than any other sites I have searched, about 20%, which sounds good but also rings an alarm bell.
As you can see from their website they are just a broker and use the big name companies, Budget, Avis, Alamo etc which is a good sign and they offer no cancellation charges. So I'm thinking if I book it through them and then check my booking on the actual car hire company site it would verify it to be genuine and if not I could cancel it, plus I have the protection of having done it on a credit card. Does this seem reasonable?

Obviously if anybody has used them I'd be pleased to hear of your experience. Perhaps since they are a US based company they do a lot of business over there to get the cheap rates but don't have much of a UK profile so my concerns are unfounded?

Thanks.

In reply to pec:

Have you tried 121carhire and carrentals. I've used both in the past and they both appear to quote prices that are significantly lower than happy tours.

In reply to timjones:

Thanks, yes I have tried them both but they are over £200 more!
Have you actually used Happy Tours and if so were there any problems?

In reply to pec:



That's interesting, I've never used them but I'm always on the lookout for savings

When I saw your post I ran a series of quotes for car rentals that I have used in the past or may want to use in the future and happy tours were always at least 30% more expensive than 121. I wonder how these sites work?

In reply to timjones:


Goodnes knows, why do I get car insurance quotes that are three times more expensive than others for the same cover?
I've checked the small print and the CDW, fuel policy etc are all comparable, in fact Happy Tours gives you a second driver free which would bump up the others by nearly another £300, on top of the £200 extra. Though in practice they don't always charge if the extra driver is your spouse but oddly, don't tell you that in the small print.

In reply to pec:

Bump

In reply to pec:

I've had good experience with Alamo. When they learned how far we were intending to drive from Phoenix to San Francisco via Grand Canyon and Death Valley, they insisted in upgrading us to a bigger car for no extra cost on the basis that it wold make our journey a lot more comfortable