Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Google maps launches a new service of traffic information and forecast.

Google launches in Spain and in other 12 European countries a traffic information and forecasting service which can help us to avoid traffic jams.





"I have an emergency and I have to get urgently to the airport, which route shall I take? I take my cell phone and call to the Traffic Information Centre and ask them for the shortest route that has no traffic jam. Let me know once you have the information, or "I´ve just arrived at the airport, I´ve hired a car in Madrid and I need to go to the centre of the city, will there be any traffic jams? will I get on time to my meeting?"

From now on this want be necessary anymore. Goolge Maps launched in Spain and in other 12 European countries a traffic information service almost in real time. Just need to make a small query and we will know exactly which is our best route.

At the moment this service is not yet "in real-time", but the information that you receive is updated every 5 or 10 minutes, so you can alomost consider it as a "real time information".

Another interesting option is when we are planning our trip we can make a traffic forecast. This option is based on collected and filtered past information at the same date and time, so it can gives you this way a similar prediction.

Information can be viewed through our personal computer or through any mobile device that supports Google Maps, only by selecting the Traffic option. Immediatly there will apear on the motorway different colour marks like green, orange red and dark red meaning the flow of the traffic in that particular area.

Every day that passes by, the software giant is more familiar to us and it provides us more and more aplications that makes our daily lives more easier.

VictoriaCars
Car Hire Alicante Airport

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Key tips for hiring the cheapest car

Always when holidays are approaching we start to organise the voyage. We book the hotel room or the apartment where we will stay, the plane tickets and in case we are not travelling in our own car, the best option is to rent a car at the destination where we travel to.

10 tips for renting a cheap car in Spain.

1. Choosing the most economical pick-up location
Obviously, depending on the selected destination, prices for the same rental car will vary. However in addition, within the same destination in many cases we can find different prices depending on the point of delivery. Generally the cheapest pick-up points are usually the airports.

2. Book in advance.
Car rental prices, and specially in Spain, increases as we move into summer dates.
During the summer months there is such an important increase in demand which makes that the rental car price rises at the same pace than this demand. Booking a car in advance will avoid us now to pay such high prices. And also we will avoid the risk of not getting any car.

3. Prepayment of your booking.
During the low season we can find that most car rental companies launch tenders for "prepayments". For example, if the car is booked for June and paid in March we are usually presented with a significant discount. Reason of this is that these companies concentrate their business during the summer months but need to keep having incomes during the winter months, which is obvious.

4. 7 days rental or more.
Trying to save money by renting a vehicle for less days than what you need, will only increasing the daily price. At most car rental companies daily prices are less as longer the booking period is.

5. Making a booking through a provider with its own base at the selected destination.
It is advisable that the chosen company where you are booking your car with has its own base at the selected destination. This way we ensure that the rental price has no additional charges as for example extra commissions to third parties, intermediaries, etc...

6. Consult accurately the price of the extras.
Many times we make a reservation through a website where the car rental price is much cheaper than the own suppliers one, disregarding of the extras we need. However, by collecting the vehicle we are surprised how the price of the extras increases our booking price. It is advisable not to make any booking until we have checked the exact price of all the extras that we are going to need.

7. Hiring a fully comprehensive insurance.
Yes, oddly enough, by the end it will be much cheaper and will give us less headaches if we do not hire this insurance. In the first place we avoid holding onto our credit card the amount of the excess, which is the deposit that they charge us in case something happens with the car.

The credit on your credit card is to enjoy your holidays not to have a certain amount blocked on it that you can not use.

Secondly, in case of any mishap with the vehicle, and depending on the rental company, we can have the surprise that the insurance that is included in the car rental price does not cover that particular damage.

8. Hiring a fully comprehensive insurance once collecting the car.
Many intermediary car rental companies are offering full risk insurances at their own web site, which you can hire at the same time of making your booking.

Afterwards we find out that such insurance does not cover the totality of what the full risk covers from the company where we collect the car, who is the owner of the vehicle.

Therefore it is advisable that you hire the full risk insurance at the time of picking up the vehicle, this way we ensure us the maximum coverage.

9. Returning the vehicle at the same pick-up location.
Although that the selected company has an office where you want to return the vehicle, in most cases they will charge us a certain amount by returning it at a different destination.

This is because the rental companies have a determined fleet of vehicles for each of their destinations, calculated in base of the needs. The specific cases where clients require to return the vehicle to a different destination often involves that afterwards the car rental company must return the vehicle to its origin, having to assume this way extra personnel costs, fuel, increases wear on the engine and so on...

10. Fidelity has its reward.
Searching for any offer at the car hire companies website that they might have for their customers. Check their social networks, often just by becoming a fan on Facebook apply us discounts which at times can be up to 30%. In addition to discounts, some companies offer different awards, sweepstakes or contests only available for their clients.


VictoriaCars
Car hire Madrid
http://www.victoriacars.com/
www.facebook.com/victoriarentacar