I've been checking car hire rates for 1 week at end of May and Economy Car Hire seems to be the cheapest (collect/return to Faro Airport). Does anyone have experience of this company and are they ok? Also, they seem not to charge the insurance for the EXCESS - is this the case? Sorry if this sounds stupid but I am bear with small brain. If anyone has first hand experience of any other car hire firms they could recommend, I'd be grateful. Thanks folks.

If you mean economycarhire.com they are good, they are a broker who book rental cars for many hire companies..there is no excess however like all others you will need to decide if you want windows, locks and tyres covered for a small charge. If it is these chaps you ask about then create your account log in and you can choose your rental company. We have used them for a long time and they have never let us down...its always 30% cheaper to collect and drop off at Faro rather than Cvo

I would endorse that. More than 20 consecutive hires now and not a single problem. Even during the volcanic ash chaos a quick phone call extended the hire when our flight was cancelled. The only additional insurance you may want to take out covers tyres, glass, underside of car, loss of keys etc. This costs just over £1 per day.

Thanks very much. Just booked through economycar.com and have been supplied via AutoRentals. You can't create your own account on their website until you have booked. Then you can go in and look at the vehicle supplier. Now, if only I can book some really nice weather to go with it...........

DaveK wrote:I would endorse that. More than 20 consecutive hires now and not a single problem. Even during the volcanic ash chaos a quick phone call extended the hire when our flight was cancelled. The only additional insurance you may want to take out covers tyres, glass, underside of car, loss of keys etc. This costs just over £1 per day.

I agree unless you book Travelrent via Economy Car Hire. They do not recognise the excess waiver & charge you cash on the spot for any damage. I pointed out a scratch on the door that had occurred during our rental expecting the normal reaction "no problem" , a phone call to the boss prompted an on the spot charge of €120.

So ECH have different suppliers with differing terms of business!

Whenever booking services in an untried area, personal recommendation is a very useful indicator. As a freguent visitor for the past 10 years I've been impressed with the company that the Carvoeiro website advertise, Algarve Driver. Like previous post, I took got caught in the ash cloud delay (did wake up thinking I was in a dream....."all Scottish airspace closed to flight travel"!!!!) After 5 emails amending our booking without any hassles we picked up our car.
Also I realised this year, I'd started my bookings thro my personal email address then changed to my professional email address. As you get credits for each booking I was, in fact, running two accounts and as I was 'retiring' my professional account, a quick email to Steen resulted in both accounts being amalgated very efficiently.
So there's my tuppence worth...............showing my age.

A further endorsement for Economy Car Hire. In my experience, all their suppliers are reliable - and I have used Travelrent several times without problem! And I too had a positive experience during the volcanic ash episode.

For very short trips they can be more expensive than some because they charge for 3 days minimum rental but even then, it is worth paying a little extra for assured service.