The best place for all your travel and pre-arrival requirements including where to find and book self-drive cheap car rentals, car hire, self-drive minibuses, self-drive SUVs and people's carriers, fuel policies, do and do not.

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We will also be examining whether it is cost-effective to hire or rent a car in Spain or whether it would be more cost-effective to use airport transfers in conjunction with the local taxi service in our town centre of Alhaurin el Grande.

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CARSHARING / CAR SHARING​​

Car Sharing or Carsharing and car rental clubs are a novel type of car rental/s where private persons or individuals can rent cars for short periods of time, frequently by the hour, day, week, or month.

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This P2P or person-to-person carsharing experience is a relatively new concept which has gathered momentum in major parts of the world and is now available in Spain. It differs from traditional mainstream car rentals through car rentals/hires companies in that the owners of the cars are often private individuals themselves, and the carsharing organiser is generally distinct from the car owner.

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Carsharing is part of a larger trend of shared flexibility. Car sharing enables an infrequent use of a vehicle or access to different makes and models of vehicles, including people’s carriers and minibuses.

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The network of cars on the car sharing platform becomes available to users through a variety of means, ranging from the simplicity of using an app to unlock the car in real-time, to meet the owner of the car in order to exchange keys.

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Our Honest Opinion & Review

Having personally experienced this fresh way of car rental, we confirm that this is a great and innovative system for our guests to rent a car direct from private owner/individuals. This scheme of car rental offers considerable flexibility and cost savings compared to car rental businesses due to the very low overheads and costs when compared to traditional car rental companies, which need to incorporate higher overheads into their car rental rates.

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As this carsharing scheme is operated by the car sharing organiser (independent of the car owner) all rental cars are covered with standard car insurance which can also be upgraded to premium car insurance and includes comprehensive cover for items such as windscreen and tyres to give the driver total peace of mind.

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Additionally, the damage security deposit charged by the organiser is often considerably lower, and can be as low as £150 on Spain’s popular carsharing platform “Getaround”.  In comparison, the amount requested by traditional car rental/hire companies, which can be as high as £2,000 and frequently exceeds the credit card limit on a credit card. 

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This frequently poses considerable problems for individuals looking to rent cars from mainstream car rental companies when arriving at Malaga Airport only to discover that they do not have the high-security deposit amount under their credit card, and are reluctantly forced by the mainstream car rental companies to upgrade their insurance cover from Standard to comprehensive cover at an extortionate rate, which could be 3–4 times higher than the daily car rental rate.

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Our recommendation for P2P carsharing platform for your car hire/rentals in Spain is as follows:

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Number 1: https://uk.getaround.com

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Number 2: https://www.socialcar.com/en

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Our recommendations are:

1.  Hire a car from one of the above carsharing companies or any other car sharing platform. 

2.  Choose a self-drive car or minibus from an owner in Malaga if you intend to pick up the car from Malaga airport. 

3.  Alternatively, decide on a car owner from the towns of Alhaurin el Grande, Alhaurin de La Torre or Torremolinos, these being the closest towns to our rental property.  In some cases, the owner can even deliver the vehicle to our property for a small additional cost.

4.  Send your booking request to at least 3-5 different car owners, as some new owners in Spain may be slow to respond or not respond at all.

5.  Wait to receive the owner's availability confirmation for your preferred car or 2-3 days for other owners' availability before making a final decision.

6.  Send out your booking request as soon as possible or 4 weeks before your pick-up date, whichever is later.

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Local Car Rental/Hire Company in Alhaurin el Grande - 2.2 miles from the property

In the alternative, if you are looking to hire a car from a local car rental company in the town center of Alhaurin el Grande, you will be surprised at the choice of cars on offer to meet your requirements.  Although this may be considered a little more expensive than the carsharing option above, the benefit is that you can hire your rental car from a local company that is a mere 2-3 miles from our holiday rental property.

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For further details, please see below:

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RentalPlus Car Rental - Alhaurin el Grande

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https://www.rentalplus.es/en-GB

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How to Book

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1.  Visit the Rental Plus Website.

2.  Under province, use Malaga from the down menu.

3.  Under the Pick up and return option, choose Malaga Airport to collect from the airport or Malaga Alhaurin el Grande if you would like to collect from our town centre.

4.  Then choose your time, and date and confirm your age to book now!

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