New parking facilities fort long and short stayment periods at the airport of Murcia.

Victoria Parking will open soon its parking at Murcia airport San Javier.

The San Javier airport of Murcia is each time attracting more air traffic from different parts of Europe. Currently it has become one of the preffered low-cost airports by many airline companies.
Many of its regularly visitors are people that live in Northern European countries and that come constantly around. Tourists are atracted by its long sandy beaches, la Manga del Mar Menor and its many golf courses that have kept on being built on the course of the years.

Part of the visitors have decided to purchase for a second residence in the area to spend their holidays or longer season periods for those who have more free time.

Some of them have even bought a vehicle in Spain to make their travel around the area easier and more practical. On their return to their countries of origin, or either when the inhabitants of the area decide to go on holidays, they have to park their car at the airport of Murcia.

Victoria Parking has decided to anticipate this increasing demand and open a new parking in 
Murcia, San Javier airport."Just like at our other parking facilities that we have in different Spanish airports we will offer a wide range of services to our customers. We will have a big area with many car parking places, monitored 24 hours a day" declares Teresa Martinez, VictoriaCars´s Communication Manager.

"The service will be very simple. The customer will arrive with ist car to the parking facilities and we will take the customer to the airport with one of the companies courtesy vehicles. By giving us the return flight number, we will be waiting for the customer at the exit terminal and bing him back to collect his car. We will also offer a special car cleaning service and covers to protect the car in case the customers requests for it"

"Our goal is to offer the customer a perfect service and for a much more affordable price than parking at the airport" -she says.

Victoria Parking belongs to the company group VictoriaCars. It has a wide experience in the privat car parking sector at the major airports. It has its facilities at the airports of Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante, and also in Calpe where its main offices are.

Tips for parking your car at Valencia airport.

How to solve the problem about where to park your car if you are planning to travel by plane from Valencia airport.

Valencia airport, not so long ago, has carried out a major renovation and expansion of its facilities. Nowadays it is becoming a very important airport, increasing its air traffic for both national and international public.


Going on holiday by plane, for a weekend or simply go out on a business trip, the easiest and most practical way to get to the airport is by taking your own car. This ensures you to get on time to check in and also you don´t depend of the public transport and its timetable.

But first and foremost, there always comes up to your mind where to leave your car during our time out.
What options do we have about parking the car at Valencia airport?
First option is parking your car in the neighbourhood of the airport. In this case you can park in any of the industrial zones that are near to the airport. You have to be aware that there is no public transport to go from there to the airport, but you can take a taxi or go walking.

What disadvantages does it has?
Having your car parked on the street in an area with much traffic activity, you never know what might happen. It might happen that they rob your car, damage it or scratch, etc. On the other hand, taking a taxi to the airport and back to your car on your way back might cost you even more than parking your car in a private parking area.

And the option about returning by foot to your car from the airport we can discard it directly, because everyone of us who travells always take with them some luggage that might weight considerably.

So....shall I park my car than at the airport parking?
Another option is parking your car directly at the parking of the airport.

One of the things to keep in mind of parking there is that our car will also be parked in a free access area. We must be aware that these parking areas are very busy areas, cars are parking there constantly, driving in and out all day, with the risk that they possibly scratch or even damage our car.

Also, you have to be aware that the price for parking there is quiet expensive. In many cases the parking at the airport of Valencia might cost you even more than what your flight ticket costs.

Regarding these options the best way to get to the airport is not driving your car, right?
No, there is a third option which is hiring a parking place through a private company near the airport.

Generally these companies offer parking in Valencia airport at a very affordable price and with delivery/collection service to the airport, which usually free of charge.

You also have to bear in mind that yo be able to leav your car parked with one of these companies, you previously must have received a confirmed your reservation. On the same confirmation voucher there will be indicated where too you have to go with your vehicle and also detailed instructions of it.

Once you get there, an employee of the company will guide you to the place where you will have to park your car and afterwards with one of the companys courtesy vehicles he will take you to the airport departure terminal.

By giving them our arrival flight number, the company will also be waiting for us at the arrival terminal with its courtesy vehicle and take us back to our car, it doesn´t matter with how many peoply we arrive and luggage bags that we have with us,

In case you want them to give your car a more special treatment, you have the possibility to hire several extras for a minimal cost, such as hiring an indoor parking place, full cleaning, etc.

And you, have you ever tried a parking place with one of these features?

As every year the January sales have begun.

As every year, the past 2nd of January began the January Sales, starting this year with very aggressive discounts due to the crisis.

On January the 2nd they´ve started with the famous winter sales. As usual the autonomous region of Madrid and Murcia were the first who began with there winter sales, followed by one week later the rest of the autonomous regions.


What is the sales origin?
The sales history goes back to early 1930 when a very important department store businessman from New York decided to offer big discounts to reduce all the stock that he had from all of its fashion shops. This sector doesn´t allow to have much stock in their stores due to the constant change of their collections, which made this method to spread out quickly throughout the rest of the world. Nowadays it has become almost a compulsory practice taking place twice a year, one in the winter and one in the summer.

The main aim is to sell all there stock collection from the past season at lower prices, this way the want to give rise to the entry of their new collection.

In Spain, the January Sales were initiated as a result of a "rival war" for getting new customers between El Corte Inglés and its than competitor Galerias Preciados, stores that were scattered throughout all spanish cities. Obviously, the fact that these two major stores also made profit of this new tendence forced the little and medium merchants to join this trend as a necessitty.

Nowadays sales have extended over to almost all kind of sectors, you can find sales in fashion stores, real estate, business service and even in supermarkets.

How long last the January Sales?
In most autonomous regions, the winter sales start on the 7th of January and ends on the 7th of March, except in Murcia and Madrid where they began on the 2nd of January and will finish on the 1st of March and on the 31st of March respectively.

What do they offer during major sales?

The range of sales is very broad and can vary from each store. As general rule, all stores offer between 20% and 80% discount on top of the initial price. In addition, as a reult of the crisis, having important discounts is just not enough, that´s why in some cases promotions are launched even more aggressively. For example, the Desigual shop in Madrid made lately a special promotion that all female customers who entered to the store with its underwear could take there selected clothes with them for free.

If I´m going to Madrid, where about can I go to sales?
If you decide to go to the sales in Madrid, there are several places where you can go to. Among the most prominent ones we can find them at the Gran Via and Preciados street, as well as at the Arenal street. Here about we can find almost everything.

By the other hand, if our tastes are a little bit more refined and our pockets are better filled, we can find the best and most exclusive shops in Serrano street, Velazquez and surroundings.

We cannot leave aside the big shopping centres. Among the most famous ones you have Factory with shopping centres in San Sebastian de los Reyes, Getafe and in Las Rozas.

Where to go on sales in Barcelona?
On the other hand, if our destination is Barcelona, we also can find there a variety of stores with all kind of offers and discounts at this time of the year.

Among the most popular areas for going on shopping is at the centre of the city.

In addition we can also go to the Gothic area, to the Portal del Angel area, Aviñon street, Daigonal avenue, Paseo de la Gracia... If you are visiting the city, the most advisable thing to do is hiring a car rental in Barcelona, this way you can drive easily to all these areas.

Besides of all the shops that we can find among the streets, like any other big city, we can find many shopping centres. Among the best knowns are those of Illa Diagonal, Lamaquinista and Glorias´s.

Which are your favourite places to go shopping? or, which ones you don´t recommend us to go too?


VictoriaCars
Car Hire Alicante
http://www.victoriacars.com/
www.facebook.com/victoriarentacar

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

Victoria Parking will soon present its new web reservation site

Victoria Parking presents its new booking web site for parking service in the main spanish airports such as Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante.



Once we have decided where to spend our hollidays, we have our plane tickets and when almost everything is organized, there comes up one of the most important questions before leaving: "Once at the airport, where can I leave my car while I´m gone? will it be safe leaving it in a public parking area? Victoria Parking is the perfect answer to this question, with over 8 years since they opened for the first time in Alicante Airport, with its own private parking area next to the airport.

You park your car in a secure and always supervised area. But not only that, also our 24 hour a day transfer to and from the airport are included in the service.

After several years of providing this service of parking at the Alicante Airport - El Altet and due to a great success, the company decides to open new parking facilities. First, opening a new parking at Valencia Airport and Parking at Barcelona airport after only one year. Currently, bookings are made either by telephone or online with immediate confirmation.

To provide a better service to the customer, the company decides to release a new web site, making it much easier when browsing, booking and expanding the information on each destination. With the new web site they expect to increase the number of bookings and to increase the average of occupancy in less than 3 months.
"The number of parking places will soon be increased as they are now carrying out extension work at all airports" says Antonio Pons communications manager at Victoria Parking.

"Within our business strategy and according to our expansion plans, soon we will open new facilities at the airport of Madrid, offering the same personalized service", reafirms Antonio Pons

Victoria Parking belongs to VictoriaCars, car rental company with more than 25 years of experience, being a car rental supplier in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Murcia and from their web site and through its partners anywhere over the world.

Visit our web site http://www.victoria-parking.com/ for more information about Parking at Alicante airport, Valencia and Barcelona.

Alicante Carnival, the most open and democratic carnival starts on the 3rd March.

Alicante’s carnivals are one of the most emblematic festivals of this city. From the 3rd to the 9th March, the city will be filled with colour and festive atmosphere in every corner.
The city of Alicante can already taste the approaching carnival air. As every year, Alicante is preparing for one of its most traditional and re-enacted festivals for decades.

The Alicante Carnival is one of the most attractive within the Spanish scene. This carnival has been mainly characterized by being one of the biggest, most open and participatory. Anyone can participate; you do not need to be part of any group or pay any fees. It is not a marketed carnival as it is not supported by any sponsorship or commercial firms.

In short, the carnival is original, created by the citizens and for the citizens.

Original elements of the Alicante Carnival

Urban Archaeology: fleeting costumes are worn from different areas of the city, initially as a form of protest. In some places this is known as urban interventions
School Archaeologies: Schools are transformed into a carnival theme.
Carnival Banners: Transient canvas paintings are located in the streets.
Carnival cars: Satires represented on the Carnival’s Friday by carnival groups and clubs in different areas.
Fat Thursday (Dijous Gras): Preheating the start of the ritual under fire, fat and wine.
Ramblero Saturday: La Rambla de Alicante, the cities avenue par excellence becomes a great masquerade.
Tuesday (Mardi Gras): Carnival summary trial by the authorities and a procession with drums and fire through the narrow streets of Casco Antiguo (Jui d'en Carnestoltes i Processó bubbler).
Burial of the Sardine: Ash Wednesday. The different penitential fraternities and sororities of the carnival form the procession of the beautiful fish in the Casco Antiguo to its incineration.
Piñata Sunday: A celebration for the children in the morning.
Veterans Dance: designated for the elderly.


Travel to Alicante Carnival

Victoria Rent a Car is a renowned company within the car rental industry at airports, as is confirmed by their services in Alicante; and at other major airports such as their car hire Madrid, Car Rental Barcelona ...

So to enjoy the carnival and move freely through the city, there’s nothing better than to book a rental car.

If travelling by plane from another Spanish city, it's best to leave your car in a parking facility at the airport. In this way, when you return, all you have to do is pick up your car and continue, without relying on taxis or family, etc.

The Dec. 16 Victoria opened a new parking in Barcelona, with the aim of offering a parking service for travellers taking a plane; a service, of course, cheaper than the airport itself.

Victoria also has parking at Alicante and Valencia airport service.

For more information please visit http://www.victoriacars.com

VictoriaCars now offers car hire services in Seville and Malaga

From January VictoriaCars have been offering their services of car hire at Seville airport, thus following his philosophy of national expansion.
VictoriaCars has opened its car rental service in Seville and expanded their services in Malaga. This new inauguration confirms the philosophy of this company whose objective is to offer a car hire service at low prices at major airports in Spain.

With an experience of over 25 years in the industry, VictoriaCars began its journey through the 80's. In a short space of time it spread along the Costa Blanca, settling in major tourist attractions such as Denia, Torrevieja, Moraira ...

VictoriaCars adapts to changes in the sector

The emergence of low cost airlines boosted the changes to forms of travel.

Soon, most tourists who had once travelled from their own countries of origin with their own vehicles changed their mode of transport to by plane. This promoted the need to provide airports with large fleets of rental vehicles so these tourists could reach their final destination and travel comfortably during their stay.

This change of situation was quickly detected by VictoriaCars. To achieve greater customer satisfaction, the company decided to expand their car rental service throughout major airports in the Spanish territory: Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Barcelona, Madrid ...

And with that same objective they have recently opened an office at both Seville and Malaga airport

VictoriaCars is confident that the opening of this new office will meet the needs of every client that requires a car rental Malaga or Seville airport.

More services at airports

Victoria Rent a Car is renowned within the parking service industry at airports and this is confirmed by their valet parking at the airports in Alicante and Valencia.


On the 16th of December Victoria Parking opened their new parking in Barcelona, in order to provide parking service for travellers going to take a plane that is cheaper than the airport itself.

For more information please visit http://www.victoriacars.com

VictoriaCars gives a positive report from their attendance at Fitur 2011.

Fitur 2011 has closed its doors for another year. This international tourism fair held in Madrid, has served as a bridge for VictoriaCars to get in touch with the major players in the car rental sector in Spain.

All agents attending this meeting; the celebration of the 31st edition of Fitur in Madrid, agree that it has been a resounding success. All factors involved in the tourism sector are pushing for a major comeback in the sector for the coming season in 2011.

Operators and representatives of the tourism industry, nationally and internationally, came together at this fair. The objectives; to network, negotiate and conduct business.

With these same goals came VictoriaCars to Fitur 2011, as a participant on the Costa Blanca Stand, in particular the Calpe City Council Stand. Attendance at this event has enabled them to present to the sector its new car hire in Barcelona and car hire in Madrid airport services, two of the destinations with the biggest boom in the market today.

Internet and the tourism industry

If something has been really evident in this edition of Fitur, it was the importance of the role that the Internet plays in the tourism sector. The social networking revolution has dominated this sector impressively.


Among the tourists who use the Internet to prepare their holidays in Spain, 96.1% used it to search for information about the destination, while 67.2% consulted the Internet to make their reservation on line (survey of tourist movements in Spain).

VictoriaCars; aware from the beginning of the changes in this regard, have already been underway with a major presence within social networks, with their Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/victoriarentacar), Twitter (http://twitter.com/VictoriaCars), their journalistic contributions to blogs (http://alquiler-coches-victoriacars.blogspot.com/) and multimedia forays through Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/victoriacar) not to mention their participation in forums and social networks from the tourism industry, in its eagerness to bring the company closer to its customers.

Victoria Parking Barcelona has announced the grand opening of its new parking facilities at El Prat airport for the 16 December.

On December 16 Victoria Parking will launch a new private parking area near Barcelona airport.
Victoria Parking is currently preparing the details for the opening of its new parking area at Barcelona airport, in close proximity of El Prat airport.

As is well known, this new service will offer parking in Barcelona, just minutes from the airport and with an airport service included.

With this service comes a parking space at Barcelona airport at a price significantly lower than the car park at the airport itself.

This service is especially useful for people who are traveling by plane and need to use their vehicle to get to the airport, unable to leave it any where else other than at the airport's car park facilities.

Victoria Parking has an extensive enclosed private parking area, under 24 hour surveillance, 365 days a year.
The price, besides being very cheap, includes a service to the airport, i.e. taking you from the car park to the airport and vice versa.


Victoria Parking is a company that forms part of the Group of Companies Victoria Rent a Car (www.victoriacars.com), car hire in Madrid, Barcelona, Murcia ... of national prestige.

Victoria Rent a Car is renowned within the private parking service industry at airports; and this is confirmed by their valet parking at the airports in Alicante and Valencia.

More information at http://www.victoria-parking.com

How to book a hire car in Spain when you’re younger than 25 years old.

The vast majority of Car hire companies limit their services to only drivers who are older than 25 years of age. What are the motives behind this restriction?

You get to 18 years old and finally you can start to travel without the need to be accompanied by your parents.

You start to prepare what will be your first holiday as an adult; where to go, accommodation, how to get there and in most cases how to get around and get the most out of your stay once you get to your destination… but alas, the last part isn’t an option.

Being an adult does not imply that you have the experience and responsibility necessary for a car hire company to confide in your skills as a new driver, in fact, booking a car with most car hire companies is only available to those who are older than 24; but why is this restriction in place?

Is it legal to prohibit hiring a car to under 25’s?

According to the consumer associations, it is illegal for a company to not want to hire somebody a car due to the age of the driver, yet these hire car companies feel they need to have this restriction in place, why?

It’s very simple; the car hire companies are not directly responsible for this restriction. In the majority of cases it is the insurance companies that don’t offer cover for cars driven by under 25’s.

The same occurs when insuring your own vehicle, the age and experience of the driver are the basic factors that affect the cover of the insurance. Most insurance companies don’t want to run the risk of covering new drivers, even less when the car isn’t their own, and thus, not their responsibility.

So for these motives, the majority of services of car hire in Murcia, Madrid, Alicante etc. will not let you book if the drivers age is not over 24 years old.

Some companies offer the solution

Conscious of the problem imposed on an important area of their potential customers, some car hire companies have decided to offer an intermediate solution.

After arriving to an agreement with their insurance companies, they will now accept reservations for new drivers but only by contracting an additional insurance for under 25’s or for those who have had their driving licence less than 2 years.

VictoriaCars has assumed this initiative.

The national Spanish car hire company Victoria Cars has put into motion this new feature for their services of car hire in Madrid, Murcia, Alicante… with the aim of not leaving any customer without a hire car.

More information at http://www.victoriacars.com

VictoriaCars, pioneers in the launch of the OTA-XML technology for its car hire services in Alicante Airport, Murcia...

With this new system, the pursued objective by VictoriaCars is to speed up their car hire Alicante Airport, Murcia services when a reservation is made through an agency.

This technology enables the computer servers at Victoria Rent a Car and at the agency’s to communicate with out the need of any human interaction and always in real-time, eliminating any waiting times that would be caused if the reservations where made under human management.

What is the OTA-XML standard?

XML is a language used to distribute information and OTA is the standard of communication for booking tourism accommodation, allowing businesses to perform bookings through electronic transaction for hotels, airlines, car hire, loyalty marketing, etc. with other tourism businesses, automatically and unattended.

OTA is the standard for sharing information between reservation systems, and the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) association is the one who defines these standards.

It is a non-profit and self-financing organisation that includes large air lines, hotels, car hire companies, leisure providers, travel agents, GDS, technology providers and others that work to create and put into service e-business specifications for the entire tourism industry.

These specifications form a common language aimed at encouraging e-business system development to create new services that can better attend the demand and expectations of travellers and the travel industry.

How does this benefit the customer?

At present you can solicit, for example, services for a car hire Murcia from VictoriaCars website or also from the website of any of the agencies that collaborate with them.

If the reservation were to be made through VictoriaCars website, the communication between the website and the server would be done in real-time, so that immediately after making the reservation, the customer receives an e-mail confirmation.

However, if the booking was made through the website of one of the agencies, this would have been remitted to VictoriaCars manually for its validation, and the confirmation process on VictoriaCars part was also done manually. Due to this, the time it took to receive an answer confirming the reservation to the customer sometimes surpassed 12 hours, with the consequent discomfort that this put upon the customer.

With the implantation of the new OTA-XML technology the problem disappears completely. Thanks to this technology the computer servers at VictoriaCars and those of the agents are able to interact directly, without any human intervention.

Thus, when a customer solicits a booking through an agencies website for, for example, car hire Alicante Airport services, the computer servers will contact each other through XML in order to confirm the reservation in real-time.

For more information please visit http://www.victoriacars.com

The new blog of Victoria Rent a Car...Congratulations!

Car hire company, VictoriaCars, from Spain is offering this blog to everyone who is interested in our car hire service at Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid, Murcia and Valencia airport as well as at further locations at Costa Blanca.

You are welcome to post everything what is worth knowing about your Spain holidays here. On the other side, we will try to update it constantly and to let you know about our current car hire offers in Spain.
For more information and our current car rental rates, please visit www.victoriacars.com.