If you’re a frequent traveler, you’re no doubt familiar with
the particular joy of desperately searching for a rental car at the last
second. Canceled flights, lost reservations, and double bookings are always
waiting to strand you in some part of the world that you’d just as soon forget.
If you still reserve your rental cars via a home PC, traditional phone call,
or—worse yet—in person, here are 3 brief reasons why you should get in the
habit of booking your temporary rides with a smartphone.
You Can Book A Last-Minute Rental Car While Still In The Air
Unless you want to be one of the five people in the last
decade to actually use one of those airline phones—and don’t mind parting with
a small fortune to do so—you need a way to make last-minute car reservations
while you’re still in your seat, soaring over the world’s flyover country. With
the airline’s in-flight wifi, your smartphone will let you secure a rental
before you ever touch down, giving you a leg up on all the other travelers, and
increasing the odds that you won’t have to sleep in an airport full of
passengers with cancelled flights.
Rental Car Apps Make It Easy To Keep Track Of Receipts
If you fly on your own dime, you definitely know how important
those travel receipts are around tax time. Even if you’re not footing the bill
yourself, most companies will be using your travel expenses for write-offs, and
will probably make it your job to give them a complete tally at the end of
every trip. Booking everything on one of the various smartphone apps for rental
cars gives you immediate access to well-organized receipts, relieving you from
the worry of scribbling everything down six months later as you try to close
out your expense account.
It’s Easier To Be Aware Of Special Deals And Last-Minute Savings
If you rent enough, you’re familiar with the wild price
discrepancy between paying online through a company like Hot Wire, and paying
directly at the counter of a rental agency. Internet deals are almost always
the way to go, and if you get into the habit of using your smartphone to scope
out rental cars, you’ll combine the flexibility of booking a car on the go with
the considerable discount from reserving and paying for your car online.
If you’re someone who’s already sold on using your
smartphone for as many daily tasks as possible, you probably don’t need any
more encouragement. But if you’re still booking car rentals the old-fashioned
way, you can save time and money by using that phone for something more than Angry Birds.
Author bio:
John is a blogger who is grateful that he hasn’t had to book
a car rental for the last six months. He writes for protectyourbubble.com,
an online insurer of rental cars, smartphones, and every type of gadget that
you may lose in one of them.
