Rental cars give one the chance of temporarily using a car privately for a specified period. Companies known as car rental companies are in charge of administering and renting out these rental cars.
At some point in history, you could only rent a car by visiting the counter at a particular rental company. Nowadays, thanks to the internet, you can book a rental car right from the comfort of your couch. All you have to do is press a few buttons, and Voila!
Given these developments, there have been questions about whether car rental companies can deliver the rental cars straight to your home. In this article, we’ll be focusing on that question while providing far-reaching answers.
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Here’s the Short Answer to Whether Rental Cars Can Be Delivered to Your Door:
Some car rental companies can deliver your choice car right to your abode. However, this is not a very common practice, as not all rental companies have a home delivery package. Note that home delivery may also attract extra charges besides the rental car fee.
What Rental Car Companies Deliver Cars to Your House?
Like we said before, not all rental companies deliver cars to your house. Some rental companies shy away from home delivery packages because of the logistics and complications involved. Having mentioned that, below are rental companies that deliver cars to the renters’ houses:
Turo
Turo is more like an indie rental platform where private persons can put up their cars for rent. On this platform, a number of owners offer to deliver the cars to you at home and, of course, that goes for an extra charge.
Some members on this platform also offer pickups and drop-offs and some even do it for free.
Sixt
Sixt is a reputable rental company with branches world-wide. Some Sixt locations offer delivery services strictly to hotels. As a rule, Sixt does not deliver to residences or business offices and they make that very clear on their website.
Some Sixt locations also offer pickups and drop-offs to renters, all for free. To know if your location offers delivery services, you could visit their website or send them a mail.
National Car Rental
The National Car Rental Company is one of the few rental companies of repute that offers any form of delivery services. However, they only deliver to private airports, and this option is only available to those with the Emerald Club Executive Elite Membership.
Also, the airport has to be within 50 miles of the rental location and no further than that.
Hertz
Hertz is one of the top car rental companies globally, and it offers a program known as the Hertz Neighborhood delivery.
This program gives you the option of having the company deliver the rental car directly to you and then pick it up once the rental expires. The service goes for $30 and may vary depending on your location.
Only a few rental companies offer delivery services, and the few who offer this follow them up with a number of restrictions, as seen above.
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How Exactly Does This Work?
The first step to getting a rental car delivered to your house is booking with a rental location that offers delivery services.
Having checked that, you’d then have to check the conditions to be sure you qualify. For instance, you’ll not enjoy the National Car Rental’s delivery services if you don’t have an Emerald Club Membership.
Some rental companies like Sixt also do not deliver to private residences or places of business. These companies only deliver strictly to registered hotels close to the rental location.
What Is the Fee to Have the Car Delivered at Your Door?
To have a car delivered to your door, you’ll be looking at an extra charge of anywhere between $12-$30. The costs vary, and they largely depend on how far your location is from the rental office.
Forbes reports that some companies charge as much as $50-$100 for delivery services. In contrast to that, some car owners on rental platforms like Turo offer delivery services for free.
So, there are no fixed delivery fees for rental cars. It all depends on the mile distance and the company’s discretion/policies.
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Can Rental Companies Pick You Up?
While most rental companies do not offer delivery services, a great number of them offer pickup/drop-off services. This simply means they’ll pick you up wherever you are, as long as it is a certain number of miles within the rental location.
Companies that offer pickup services include Sixt, Budget, Avis, Ace, Enterprise, Thrifty, and Hertz, amongst others. While the pickup services have varying restrictions and conditions subject to the company policy, there are some general parameters. They include:
Distance and Location
The locations for pickups and drop-offs have to be within just a few miles of the rental locations. Most rental companies are reluctant to offer pickup and drop-off services to people who are over 30 miles away from the location.
Prior Notification
Rental companies require informing them beforehand if you need a pickup or drop-off service. If you call them just hours before your rental starts to notify them, you may not get the service, especially if they have a small staff.
Shuttle Services Only
Some rental companies only offer shuttle services from the airport to the terminal. This is common practice with airport rental companies, i.e. rental companies at airport locations.
So, it is important that you check in with your preferred rental company and make extensive enquiries about their services.
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How Far Away Will Rental Companies Deliver the Car?
As we mentioned before, few rental companies offer delivery services. However, those that offer these services have some strict conditions. One of such conditions is the distance of your hotel, airport, or residence from the location.
For instance, National Rental requires those interested in delivery services to be at a private airport within 50 miles of its office.
To be clear, even for the companies that do deliver, the delivery services are only available in select locations. This is regardless of whether it is in a rural county area or a big, fancy city. Be sure to inquire and ask if the specific rental locations have delivery services.