Why does being in the UK increase car rental prices so much?

[thatdavieguy]

Originally Posted by Spud_work

Here are the screenshots showing the difference between the UK and Ireland prices - imgur/a/s1YXVy7 exact same pickup times and locations, the excess on both are the same as are all the inclusions/exclusions. Don't be fooled by the Irish screenshot not having a mention of CDW in the same way as the UK one does, as it has this information on the next page -
"Covered for damage
If your hire car is damaged and repairs are required, an excess may apply. When you collect your vehicle ask at the counter about how you can significantly reduce the excess.This vehicle's excess is CAD 300.00" (which is about 30 bucks less than the UK site!)

There certainly isn't a buy now option for the Irish site, which is a shame as there is always the exchange rate fluctuation to worry about, but I suppose the Pound might strengthen if the political mess we are in gets resolved before next summer or we might be back to bartering as our pounds will become worthless

Overall, this really isn't on though as the same company shouldn't have radically different prices for the same product/service depending on where you live when there is no difference to them in the cost to deliver the product/service and surely this is against a whole bunch of EU laws?

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Not sure why you aren't getting the pay now option but i get it for my dates i'm going through avis.ie but i notice the car shown on yours is different but the same class.



You can either continue and pay the price now or click the link below it to pay on collection and pay more

[Raggyavn]

Originally Posted by Spud_work

Whilst you can argue that there has been an impact on currency values which have made it more expensive for us to visit the USA, I don't think that can really account for what is nearly a 300% increase in prices just for UK customerss.

I really don't want this discussion derailed by a political debate however, so please don't continue in this vein.

I'm very tempted to book via Avis.ie as even though I'm paying in Euros, the price for an identical vehicle, with the same insurances and excess is at a price that I am happy with and is 1/3 of the avis.uk price.

Has anyone here had any experience of doing this and is there anything I might be missing other than the Irish site doesn't have a pay now option and only a price for pay at the counter is available?

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Oh dear Irony really did a flypast today (hence thein my original post.