Information to make a reservation abroad

Planning to go abroad

If you are going overseas for a business trip or to have a rest you, naturally, apply to a travel agency first, buy a tour or order an individual package. When buying a flight, a hotel, excursions and many other things meeting your vital needs and preferences, are you sure that you have ordered everything you might need?!

You may get even greater mobility! Order a car in the city you are moving to – Avis car rental stations are everywhere! Avis operates in 185 countries of the world and has over 5000 stations in all countries and continents. Not a single large airport does without the Avis counter. Upon arrival in Paris, Milan or Barcelona you will collect the ordered car at the rental station and drive to wherever you want, quick as the wind. You need not worry – you will be given a detailed map at the rental station, the personnel speak English and will provide you with the needed information. You will be able to see and do much more with a car. Far more!

How to make a reservation

How to order a car? It is very simple! There are several options!

• The first way, the easiest.
  
  You call St. Petersburg international booking office of the Avis company by reservation phone number, and the Rental Sales Agent will book a car for you. This service is free of charge in our office. You just need to give the following information:
  
  - the name of driver-renter (and the name of additional driver, if any);
  - country and city to be visited;
  - date of beginning and termination of rent;
  - car group*;
  - personal data (full name, contact phone and fax, to be used by Rental Sales Agent for sending a booking confirmation to you);
  - method of payment;
  - your discount numbers in Avis (AWD, Wizard number, FT number, etc, if any).
  
  * - if you have difficulty in choosing a car brand, the information about the Avis Car fleet might be helpful. Most popular groups of cars are presented. You may choose a car for any European directions similarly.
  
  Our Rental Sales Agent will enter the information provided by you in our internal information system WIZARD and will make a reservation.
• The second way.
  
  You may book a car abroad, using the reservation in Russian language, using the links:
  Rent a car abroad

  Note!

  Please print the names in LATIN LETTERS.
  
  Cancel/change the booking

  Note!

  The booking number must be given without the dash symbol and spaces. Example: 12345678RU9
  

  There exist as well two Internet resources in English http://www.avis.com/or http://www.avisworld.com/. The first web site is run by the American Avis Inc., the second site belongs to the European Avis Plc. The possibility of car booking is envisaged in both resources, with special space for entering discount numbers.

• The third way.
  
  Apply to a travel agency that makes use of the global booking systems (GDS) like Amadeus, Galileo, Worldspan, etc. and ask for booking a car through Avis – the further actions are as above. We shall see your order in our system, and if you do not cancel it the car will be waiting for you at the Avis station. Naturally, we can not guarantee a concrete brand of a car, we guarantee a group only, but we do assure you that all the cars are well prepared for rent and are absolutely safe.

Avis' tariffs and prices

We are convinced that this information will be useful for you in any case. Avis' tariffs (and those of our competitors) include several components.

• The first component is the actual cost of car rent.
• The second component is the cost of franchise insurance
• In addition to these two components, the total tariff will include the taxes chargeable in the country of rent (for instance, for Russia it will be 18%VAT). If you wish to hire car at the airport you will have to pay the airport fee from 10 to 20% of the rental cost, the amounts are differing.
• Additional services. If you want to have an additional driver (your spouse, friend, business partner) you will need to order this service in Avis in advance. Please note that all of the listed additional services require payment.

Besides, different countries practice different extra fees, like road tax in Austria or Contract Tax at the rate of one percent of the rental cost. If you make reservation through the Internet or global distribution systems, then the amount shown on the screen will not always include all charges and extra fees. Therefore we advise you to apply for explanations to the office of Avis in St. Petersburg or your travel agent.

Payment for the car

In most countries of the world where Avis has its activities a credit card is required for car rent. When you draw up a Rental Agreement, a deposit of 100% of the rental cost will be charged (frozen) from your card plus 30% (gasoline, extra services). When closing the Rental Agreement you pay only the factual rental cost and the cost of gasoline, if you return the car with non-full tank. The most popular cards are accepted for payment: VISA (Classic, Gold), Master Card/Eurocard, American Express, Diners Club. We should note considerable success of the Russian tourists and travellers in Europe! Spain and Germany already accept cash for car rent, though only for groups А to С. When hiring a car of higher class, you will still be asked a credit card. The credit card will surely be asked in Italy, France, Holland and Sweden. These belong to the most strict-regime countries, therefore one should be extremely accurate when hiring a car.

What is a franchise, its purpose

Actually, the accuracy will not harm anyway. Not all of the Russian travellers know foreign language, which fact may be taken advantage of by the guileful southerners – Italians, Arabs, the Spanish, the French. For that reason we always recommend our clients to be physically present, when opening (naturally) and closing (mandatory!) of the Rental Agreement.

The same way your presence is required, when opening a Rental Agreement, filling in the Check-List; if necessary, you should insist on entering all scratches, car defects, no wheel caps, underfilled gasoline and other minute facts in it. The Rental Sales Agents may not notice the damage, but you are certainly not willing to have it noticed later and made to pay for it? Of course if it were you who damaged the car you will have to pay for it on the spot, at the rental station counter.

However if your liability is limited to "Collision Damage Waiver" franchise (the amount is differing in different countries), irrespective of the damage caused to the car (up to quite considerable impairment), the penalty may not exceed the franchise amount (approximately 500 Euro). Your liability is as well limited within a certain fixed amount with respect to car hijacking (Theft Protection). These franchise insurance types are recommended; normally 100% clients buy them. In addition to this, you may purchase non-obligatory franchise insurance at the counter, for instance, PAI (Personal Accident Insurance) – this is insurance of the renter and the passengers travelling with the driver specified in Rental agreement in Avis car, against the risk of bodily injure or death in accident plus medical aid in case of accident. The other optional franchise insurances are Super CDW and Super TP reducing the renter's liability practically to naught. They are much more expensive than the ordinary insurances, but if your safety is of top priority for you, especially in a foreign country, then you should think of their purchase.

Non-stranger's advice

First, let us repeat: be always present in person, when opening and closing the Rental Agreement and completing the Check-List. In many countries the Avis company has special places where you may leave the keys, telling us preliminary where you will leave the car, and not close the Rental Agreement in person. In this case, if you return the car with incomplete tank gasoline or if the car has some damage, then Avis' employees will debit the cost of petrol and the damage from your credit card.

If you hire a car with payment envisaging not a credit card, but cash (which is possible for lower groups А-С in Germany and Spain), then the Avis' employees will ask for a deposit. As we have mentioned earlier, it amounts to 100% of the rental cost plus 30% (as insurance deposit). Naturally, if you return the car in perfect condition the insurance deposit will be returned to you. You will pay only the factual rental cost.

There are some simple fixed rules you should keep to when hiring a car. You will not be given a car by the counter employee even if the reservation is confirmed - if you are drunk, if your documents are not in due order (or if you have left them at home), if you seem suspicious to the Avis 'employee. Actually you should really make an effort to achieve the latter. We ask you to behave guardedly, reservedly and correctly, meet the requests of the Rental Sales Agents and remember that we are all people, and the business we are in is high-risk business, and our principal assets (cars) are very expensive; the theft, unfortunately, takes place quite often, and not everything may be compensated by insurance.

We are convinced that, complying with these simple rules, you will easily go through all the "trials" and enjoy the driving worldwide, because our services are available all over the world.