We are delighted to bring you reduced rates for the spring. Our Budget cars now lead in at just £110 per week or just over £15 per day for an Economy 2 door, and of course the standard rate includes 2 drivers. The collection date must be on or before June 15th to qualify, and an additional bonus is that this period also includes Budget’s complimentary upgrade for cars in the compact, intermediate and full size ranges (subject to availability on the day). Combined with the excellent Fast Track facility at Orlando International Airport this makes a rental from Budget an all around winner.
Posts Tagged ‘Pre-registration’
Spring Sale on Budget Cars
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011Alamo Choice – get the high spec models
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010Alamo’s ‘Choice’ product, as the name suggests, allows you to choose the specific car you would like from the range available in the line up of vehicles in the category you have ordered. Available at the major Florida locations: Orlando Airport; Fort Lauderdale Airport; Fort Myers Airport; Miami Airport, Tampa Airport and West Palm Beach Airport, this is a great way to bag yourself a high spec car.
The ever popular Minivan 7 seater (people carrier) category features many different vehicles such as the Dodge Grand Caravan, Ford Freestar, Chevrolet Uplander etc, but some of these are larger than others and some feature useful upgrades such as DVD systems. A quick look through the car can be most revealing, you can check to make sure your luggage fits, and if not, move on to a different car! The ‘Choice Product’ is only offered at locations that have a barrier gate on exit, and it is there that your choice of car is logged against your reservation.
Combined with Alamo’s ‘Save Time’ online check in facility (pre-registration), pre-bookable Sat Nav’s and the Young Driver Package for drivers under 25, this makes Alamo your first choice for car hire in Florida. Although Alamo staff are often known for their fondness of trying to pursuade you to upgrade your car – their customer service should things go wrong is quite superior, and probably worth sticking it out with a few polite “no thank you’s” at the desk! And there is no Christmas Surcharge!!
If you would like more information about how many drivers can be included on the standard package, or anything else to do with your rental, please do give us a call in the office on 01428 741438.
Daytona 500 side trip
Saturday, February 6th, 2010February 14th is Valentines Day for some people. For others with a rather different love, of cars, it is the day of the running of the 52nd annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Raceway Florida.
Here, one of our regular clients tells us of his visit in 2009.
The race is 500 miles long which is 200 laps of a banked oval with cars, which look very similar to the every day American drivers, circulating at 200 miles per hour. ‘Awesome’ as the Americans say! As my wife and I had done the trip to Florida many times before we hired a Mitsubishi Gallant from Budget Rent a Car through Carhireflorida.net. The nice touch with carhireflorida.net is that Elle is able to pre-register the car before we arrive and we go straight to the garage at Orlando International Airport thus avoiding all the long lines at the rental desk which is not what you want after a 9 hour flight. The other nice touch about this system is that you get none of the high pressure selling trying to upgrade the car etc. Literally within 2 minutes you are underway and I would recommend everybody to do this. [Thank you for the plug John!]
A few days were spent before the race at our house in Kissimmee doing maintenance jobs etc before 2 very good friends of ours joined us to go and see the race. They both race back in the UK with Dave sharing my car in speed hill climbs. After a couple of days showing them around the sites it was time to go racing.
We left home on the Sunday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, at 9.00 am and enjoyed an equally leisurely drive on the Greeneway toll road to Sanford and then on the Interstate 4 to Daytona. For the previous 4 days rain has been forecast for the race but we have a nice warm sunny day and hopefully it will stay away although a 60% chance of rain is forecast!
We arrived about 11.00 am and eventually found our free car park at the back of the Airport. After parking and walking a ½ mile to the complimentary school bus ride we get on a bus and are taken to the circuit. Daytona is a 2 mile steeply banked oval and is huge with seating for about a quarter of a million people. Every ticket sells including the tickets from the touts outside the circuit. If you haven’t been before you must get a cushion to sit on as the aluminium seats get a bit hard after a few hours. Every team has a trailer selling goodies including cushions and our friends purchase one each. We get to our seats at about 1.00 pm and start to watch all the pre race show including a live rock show, air display, marching bands and the driver parade.
After the very moving National Anthem was sung the inevitable “Gentlemen start your engines” was proclaimed by the Governor of Florida at 3.00 pm. The Pace car, driven by Tom Cruise of ‘Days of Thunder’ fame, leads the pack round for 2 or 3 laps and the green flag is dropped. The noise is amazing and is similar in volume to being by the side of a Jumbo jet taking off. The sight of 44 odd NASCAR race cars each having over 800 horse power and dashing into turn 1 which is banked at 37 degrees is stunning. For the first 15-20 laps everybody stands up when the cars go past but then the race begins to develop some semblance of order and we are able to watch the race all the way round the circuit on a big, and I mean big, screen TV. The inevitable yellow flags come out every time there is an incident, then every body has to follow Tom Cruise around the track in the Pace car.
We are supporting Juan Pablo Montoya, ex Formula one driver, who this year has gone into team ownership as well as driving and he starts to make good progress but is involved in several incidents and slips back down the field. After several more incidents it starts to get a little cloudy and the spot lights at the track are gradually turned on so that you would not even notice that it was getting dark.
The big crash of the day came between Dale Earnhardt Jr and Brian Vickers coming off turn 2 where we were. The eventual winner was able to pick his way through the pack, which was spinning everywhere, without any damage. Ten or more cars were put out of the race at this time. The inevitable rain brought the Daytona 500 to an early finish and Matt Kenseth was declared the winner after leading only the last green-flag lap of an eventful Sprint Cup series season-opener. Kenseth overtook Elliott Sadler entering turn one to lead the race for the first time all night on lap 146, right before Aric Almirola made contact with Kasey Kahne on the backstretch, bringing out the caution flag for the eighth time during the day. While running behind the pace car, a slight drizzle that had kept teams with an eye on strategy and the weather radar, transformed into a heavy downpour that ended up washing out any chance for Kenseth’s rivals.
Following 20 minutes of waiting under the red flag, the 2003 Sprint Cup champion was declared the winner. Given that the race was past its halfway-mark and with the radar not showing any hope of the rain stopping, NASCAR decided to make the result official after 380 of the scheduled 500 miles.
We now leave the circuit to be taken back to the parking lot by the ubiquitous yellow school bus ready for the journey home. Our friends went home a few days later and then we settled down to relaxing in Florida for another 4 weeks. The Daytona 500 is a great day out for any motor enthusiast.
www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com for details.
Christmas is coming… Get your booking in!
Monday, December 14th, 2009I am sure you have noticed the signs, the shops are full, there are carols on the radio, and festive decorations everywhere – Christmas is coming!!
If you haven’t yet made your Florida car hire arrangements for the holiday season you may wish to attend to it as a matter of urgency. Popular 4 x 4 vehicles are nearly sold out, as are many of the larger, luxury cars.
Budget Rent a Car have recently taken delivery of a new fleet and we have clients reporting cars with less than 10 miles on the clock. That is like having a brand new car for Christmas!
If you do book a Budget car, don’t forget to take advantage of the pre-registration facility. You don’t want to be spending your precious holiday queuing up at the hire desk in the airport. Pre-register at least one week before arrival and then you can swan over to the car park booth at your leisure to collect your car. You will be at Disney World before you know it!
If you need any help selecting your car please give me a call on 01428 741438, or drop me an email: admin@carhireflorida.net.
Customer Feedback
Monday, October 5th, 2009Hi Elle
Just thought I’d like to advise you about Budget car hire (you may recall my phone call a few weeks ago – putting the world to rights on these companies!). In comparison with all the other rental car companies we’ve used in the past 15 years – they stood head and shoulders above them all!! Whilst I appreciate any service is as good as the attitude of it’s employees – everyone I came in to contact with was very pleasant, very polite and above all friendly. Our car was upgraded as per your deal and we were lucky enough to receive one with only 6 miles on the clock! (even if we had received an “old banger” we still thought everything was so much better with Budget.
I realise that this is my first experience of them (and because of registering ahead – I didn’t have to deal with the agents in the main terminal building) but first impressions count for a lot. The whole set up was much more slick – I definitely will be choosing them as my preferred hire company in the future.
Mr Sean Caunter.
Alamo’s ‘Choice’ car hire
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Alamo’s ‘Choice Product’ is very popular amongst travellers, particularly at Orlando International Airport. The ‘Choice’ means that after you have processed your voucher at the desk, you can go out to the car park and select your own vehicle from the available models in the category you have booked. So, say you want a 7 seater, you can choose the model with the best configuration for your particular group and luggage requirements.
Perhaps you want a really nice convertible – in that category there can be PT Cruisers (a bit like Marmite, you either love them or hate them), Chrysler Sebrings or Ford Mustangs. By using Alamo, you can choose your car from those available.
Maybe you want a particular colour – this is the best and easiest way to do it!
If you also complete your pre-registration for Alamo car hire at www.alamodirectroad.com, this will speed your process at the desk meaning you can be out of the airport and into your choice of car as quickly as possible! It’s all good!!
Pre-Registration
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009You will see several references to Pre-registration on our website. This facility is offered by Budget and enables you to ‘Fast Track’ the collection of your car.
When you have received your voucher for your Budget rental you will notice that about two thirds of the way down the main voucher page there is a subsection called ‘Fast Track’. This gives you a website address, which will take you through to a secure website operated by Budget car hire Florida. There you will see the basic detail of your reservation.
You then need to add your date of birth (American style with the month first), your home address (leave the sections for states blank), your driving licence number and a contact number. The last thing to add is the number of the credit card that you are going to use for the security deposit when you arrive (this can be AMEX), make sure you put in your email address carefully and then you are done.
The reason for doing all of this, is to save time on arrival. Instead of lining up in the queue at the desk, you can follow the signed directions out to the car park where there is a booth in the Budget area of the car park. Here you show the attendent your voucher, driving licence and credit card, and after a quick check to make sure it all matches, you should be on your way!
If you have the time to complete it, it is really worth doing. You must complete your pre-registration at least 7 days before you travel, otherwise the system will not register you.
You can use this facility at any airport that Budget offers ‘Fastbreak’ such as Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers. The booth at Sanford is not always manned, so it is worth stopping by the desk on the way to the car park to see if they are directing you on, or taking vouchers only at the desk.
