point fu

As I mentioned in my post about Turo , the huge fleet cuts rental car companies made during the pandemic have left people scrambling to find a rental car as the world quickly returns to its old travel patterns. We've had trouble finding any cars at our favorite location (Albany Amtrak) and when we do find cars elsewhere, they're always really expensive. I'd heard about a new car rental start-up called Kyte that completely does away with the concept of car rental lots and instead has an employee come to you on both ends of the trip to deliver and pick-up the car. We were planning a drive up the California coast through Big Sur and figured we'd give Kyte a shot.  Long story short : it was super convenient and really reasonably priced,  especially for a 1-way trip.  We booked our trip to start at 10am from the apartment where we were staying in West Hollywood. We got an alert that our delivery person (called a "Kyte Surfer" in their lingo) would be a little lat...

Given how the pandemic affected the major rental car companies and American travel patterns, it's been a rough year for people trying to rent a car. Some tourists in Hawaii got so desperate they were renting U-Hauls to drive around the island! In our case, we've not seen a single available date in all of 2021 at our favorite car rental place (the one in Albany that's inside the train station). Eleven years ago, I did a long-term consulting gig for a tiny company called Turo . They were aiming to be the AirBnB of cars and given that they're about to have their IPO, I'd say they've succeeded. Despite their huge growth and the current pain surrounding traditional car rentals, I'm surprised more people aren't familiar with them. The true genius of Turo wasn't the idea or the technology, it was the insurance. They were the first ones to figure out a way to cover the driver (ie, the renter) for accidents without passing on any liability to the car owner (...

I use Enterprise quite a bit here in New York mostly because they have cars right in the Albany Amtrak station parking lot. We can hop on a train at Grand Central, skip all of the NYC traffic, get off at Albany, and then quickly drive onward to Vermont or other upstate getaways. When I booked our recent trip to the Middle East, we needed to make two separate car renal bookings – one in Israel and one in Jordan. Booking the cars on Enterprise's website was straightforward and I received email confirmations like I usually do when I book in the USA. Once I arrived, however, I realized that there are no Enterprise offices in the Middle East . There are signs in the Tel Aviv airport for all kinds of rental car companies but no Enterprise. Luckily I got on the Wi-Fi and found out that Eldan is a subcontractor for Enterprise and I needed to go to their counter . Nowhere on their website or the confirmation email does it tell you this. Part two of this problem happened after we walked...

One of the things that makes car-free living in the city bearable is the occasional long weekend out in the country. Carsharing services like Zipcar and Hertz 24/7 have made trips like these vastly easier and more convenient but I still find myself needing to do a traditional car rental a couple of times a year – especially when I'm traveling. What astounds and irritates me is how  there's almost no information out there about how do handle liability insurance when you don't already own a car.  BOTTOM LINE (for Americans renting cars in the USA): If you don't own a car (and ergo have no insurance), you should probably take the Liability Insurance Supplement insurance from your rental car company.  Most credit cards offer coverage for the vehicle itself, but none offer liability. If you rent cars more than 30 days a year, call an insurance broker and get a "non-owners auto policy" for when you rent cars.   When I've talked with other car-free folk...