Car Rental & Insurance Tips
To save a significant amount of money renting a car in Vegas, this is what we suggest:
If you plan to drive a lot around town, it may be worth your while choosing a hybrid from the more ‘advanced’ rental companies. We found out that, renting a Toyota Prius (hybrid) we ended up paying one quarter in gas than with most other cars! The problem with trying to hire a hybrid car is that some car rentals consider them ‘special cars’ and overcharge for them.
We ended up paying around 12 dollars a day for our car rental, no matter which car we chose; the ‘secret’ is to decline their insurance and use your own if you can (see our explanation below under the heading ‘insurance’).
Choosing car rental company: when you choose you could also perhaps bear in mind the following tips:
1 – which drop off location is more convenient to you? Your own hotel or the airport? We often rent a car for a fraction of our stay in Vegas, since we stay for long periods each time. We therefore rent from the resort we stay, for practicality purposes.
2 – insurance – this is where rent car cost will spike; we therefore recommend that you use your own insurance and don’t buy rental insurance in Vegas, wherever possible, with the exception explained further. For example, if you live in BC, you can purchase the ‘Road Star Plus’ insurance for only 20 additional dollars per year: this will save you about 50 dollars a day in Vegas! If you don’t live in BC, you need to ask your own car insurance company which additional insurance would be applicable in a similar way.
The only case in which car rental insurance purchased with the car rental company is indicated is if you are a ‘bad driver’ and may return the car with multiple scratches or dents, since you will not suffer any monetary consequences of any kind; however, if you use your own insurance the way we mentioned, there may well be a deductible and your own insurance (which will cover the rest) may raise your premium (always worth checking).
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