Why Book Your Car Hire Early with COVID-19 Uncertainty?
Last week we had a customer call into our customer service team and ask whether it was really worth booking his car hire for next year when there is uncertainty in the UK and abroad due to coronavirus. This was a great question! With increasing restrictions here and also across the world it's easy to want to put all plans on hold. Many of us faced difficulties cancelling travel plans that had been booked in 2019 for 2020 when it became clear that travel was not an option with COVID-19. Many hours on the phone, struggles to get refunds or vouchers and endless emails were just some of the obstacles we faced ourselves at Clarify Car Hire and heard many of our customers experience the same.
As we look forward to 2022, it's easy to ask if it is really worth booking your travel plans early. Currently there is nervousness and the thought of going through the pain again of cancelling plans is not appealing. So is it really worth listening to the advice from travel experts and booking early?
In short, yes, particularly when it comes to car hire. As we've shared before, there are less vehicles available to hire this year. This is due to computer microchip production delays, these chips are needed to make cars so vehicle manufacturers are now well below on the level of vehicles they need. Vehicles they are getting in are tending to be sold to domestic customers and not car rental firms. One of our partners disclosed last week that they were due to have 250 vehicles delivered in October, November and December this year and so far they have only had 12 of their order. This microchip issue is causing massive knock on effects, as even if the car hire firms want to increase their fleets it is just not possible to get the vehicles to do so.
This in turn has led to price increases for car hire. If you compared prices from Summer 2019 to the current prices for Summer 2022 you will see that there has been a substantial rise. This is due mainly to high demand and not enough vehicles to fulfil this.
So why on earth would you book early? With Clarify Car Hire we only take a small deposit when you book your vehicle online, you pay the rest when you arrive at the desk. This is advantageous in many ways, it keeps your money in your pocket for longer and gives you more control. Our policies include free cancellation up to 48 hours prior to the booking start time, so should you need to cancel your hire you know you can do so and receive that small booking deposit back with no questions asked. But perhaps most importantly, if you book your car hire early, you know that is the most you'll have to pay. We offer free rebooking should the price decrease, so you can take full advantage of any lower cost.
We have many customers rebook and we fully encourage periodically checking car hire prices for your dates even after you've booked so you can make a saving where possible! Though uncertainty is rife, we deal with all cancellations within 24 hours and ensure that you can rest assured that you will not have to keep calling or chasing any refunds. We would strongly encourage booking your car hire early and being confident that you have rebooking and free cancellation benefits with Clarify Car Hire.
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