Introduction
Everybody deserves a relaxing, hassle-free vacation. At DiscoverCars, the mission is to make the logistics of traveling easier to manage, so everyone is free to enjoy their holidays to the fullest.
Since 2013, the DiscoverCars team has worked to deliver a seamless car rental experience to their customers. How have they done it? By allowing users to compare and book rental cars from more than 500 partners in 10,000 destinations across the globe. It’s an incredible tool, and one that takes exceptional, around-the-clock customer support in order to function properly.
In an era where companies are learning to prioritize customer service, any company that doesn’t do so will crash and burn. Moreover, one positive experience could make them stick to a brand, whereas one negative interaction could send them running to a competitor. DiscoverCars’ team realizes that investing in their customer service team now will pay dividends in many ways later on. By choosing the right tools, they’ve become a force in their industry.
Challenge
DiscoverCars started in Riga, Latvia, but as they grew beyond their borders, new customers started to pour in. They couldn’t keep assisting them through traditional landlines — it was inefficient and impractical. There simply weren’t enough agents available on the line at any given time.
Due to the worldwide car rental business requiring constant communication with various nationalities, the team had been using Twilio for making calls and Liveagent for receiving them. The combination of those tools provided the basics: convenience via connected communication. But after two years testing out other services (and rapid growth), it became critical for DiscoverCars to address their communications challenges with the help of a truly comprehensive platform.
Other providers had proven to have very little room for negotiating discounts based on call volume. Accurate statistics and reports regarding missed calls or activity on specific lines were also missing. And in an age that necessitates reaching customers via multiple platforms, the lack of SMS functionality was a clear hindrance. However, the main issue was a lack of access to fast, personalized support—especially when it came to connecting with new markets, where DiscoverCars had to deal with each phone number’s regulatory compliance.
Additionally, the team did not have addresses in most countries which they required, and they lacked the option of creating specific IVRs (interactive voice responses) to manage complex customer journeys.
Discover Cars in Review
1. What is Discover Car Hire?
I want to start this guide with the most obvious question: What exactly is Discover Car Hire?
Discover Car Hire is basically a price comparison website for hiring a car.
That is it. Very, very simple.
It is what they do all day and night long.
Finding cars to rent has never been so easy. They can show you a vast range of cars to hire. Instead of visiting 7 different websites, it shows you the availability, prices and options for different cars. The bigger the car, the more expensive it gets. This is obvious, right?
Discover Car Hire is also more than just price comparison.
Why? Because you can buy a car insurance directly with them. This is much cheaper and avoids nasty surprises when picking up the car.
This is the main reason why we started using this company in June 2019. It is by all means our go-to page when we need to get a vehicle. Whether that is renting a car in Cyprus, in New Zealand, in the USA or anywhere. It does not matter.
2. Discover Cars: The Pros
- Compares many companies
- Lower cost
- Reasonable deposit
- User-Friendly website
- Fewer hidden fees
- Free cancellation up to 48 hours
- Lower cost of insurance
- Comprehensive insurance
2.1 Compare many car rental companies
Discover Cars helps you find the lowest prices by comparing a lot of different car companies. This gives you a ton of low-budget options to choose from. Book cars on rent for a trip with Discover Cars.
If you’ve ever used Skyscanner to look for flight tickets (which we highly recommend), then you’ll be familiar with this model.
Discover is basically a Skyscanner, but for rental cars. And since you’re comparing lots of different companies, you also get to choose from lots of different cars. Another plus.
2.2 Lower Cost
All of us are looking for affordable car hires. Hiring cars can be expensive but not until we discovered car rentals with Discover Cars. They negotiate prices for many hire cars with car hire companies to secure lower prices for their customers. Find cheap cars for rentals with Discover Cars.
Like I mentioned above, since Discover Cars compares many different companies, they’ll find you the cheapest options for wherever you plan on renting your car.
This can mean a rental car through Discover can be anywhere from $20-40/day cheaper than more recognized competitors.
We’ll get into a price breakdown with some examples a little later. It’s also important to note that prices and car availability varies depending on which country you’re in, another thing we’ll get into later in the article.
2.3 Reasonable Deposit
If you plan on renting a car, then you’ll most likely have to pay a deposit.
The amount of the deposit will vary depending on which country you’re in and the total cost of your rental. These deposits can really vary between countries, so it’s important to be aware of this.
The great thing about Discover is that
a) the deposit prices are reasonable and compare favorably to other big name car rental companies, and
b) they make it very easy to see the deposit price when you choose your rental on their website.
Companies like Budget, Hertz and Avis make it quite difficult to find this information, and it can take a bit of searching to find the information. And then even if you do, sometimes these companies still don’t give a very clear answer, instead deferring to the phrase “varies by location” or some such vagueness.
2.4 User-Friendly Website
Discover’s website is super easy to use, and it gives you all the information you need about the rental costs, insurance, coverage, deposit, deductible etc.
They lay everything out plainly for you, unlike a lot of other sites we’ve used. There’s no need to squint through the fine print of Rental Terms and Conditions to find out how much you’ll actually be paying once you get to your rental car location.
Once you choose your car, you can see in the bottom left corner of the window the company providing the car, the company’s rating out of 10, and then a link to “Rental Conditions”. Click on it and something like this will pop up:
Notice that the deposit amount and deductible is written plainly right under the image of the car. In this search example, we chose four days out of Stockholm airport, which was $157 total, fully insured.
A VERY general rule that a few countries stick to is that the deposit will usually be the total cost of the rental, plus either 25% or $200, whichever is higher. So in this case that holds about true, $157 plus $200 comes to $357, just a bit higher than the ~$320 shown above.
And again we can’t stress the approximately enough.
2.5 Fewer hidden fees
One of the great results of the transparency of Discover’s website is that there are no hidden fees.
Lots of car rental companies hit you with fees you weren’t aware of when reserving the car, because their websites don’t make it obvious what the deposit will be or how much insurance will cost.
2.6 Free Cancellation up to 48 hours
This is a nice feature to be aware of in case of any sudden changes to your itinerary.
Some other rental companies like Hertz also offer this option, but a lot of them also only offer a full refund if you cancel at least 7 days before your scheduled pick-up.
Discover Cars cancellation policy is the same as the others. Discover Cars refund anytime up until 48 hours.
2.7 A good, low-cost insurance option
Discover offers a flat-rate insurance option for just 8.85€/day, no matter where you’re renting the car.
Most other companies have variable insurance costs per day, and these costs are usually a bit higher, so it’s nice to see some consistency in this regard.
2.8 Discover’s insurance coverage
Also, this full-coverage insurance option includes theft insurance, something that other companies tack on as an additional option with additional cost.
Here’s a full breakdown of Discover’s insurance coverage:
- It works together with the rental car’s basic insurance, your personal car insurance or your credit card’s insurance if you have it.
- Covers taxi expenses directly related to a breakdown or accident.
- It will cover your expenses up to $3,300.
- Covers lost keys or lockout fees.
- You must first pay for any damages, then ask for compensation.
- Covers repair costs, including damage to the undercarriage, wheels, tires, roof, windows, mirrors,
- locks and hubcaps. (basic damage protection usually just covers bodywork).
- Covers towing expenses up to 100 euro.
- Administrative fees are covered (related to the money the company loses while the car is being repaired).
Here’s what they don’t cover. What’s not covered is pretty standard when compared to other companies:
- Extras
- Personal possessions
- Damage that occurred while breaking any laws or traffic violations
- Any damage to the car’s interior
- Damages from weather events like hail or hurricanes
3. How to Request Compensation
If the worst does happen, and you get into an accident (that hopefully isn’t your fault), then here’s how you request compensation:
Contact (customer_satisfaction[at]discovercars.com), and make sure you include the following documents:
- Your signed rental agreement
- Rental company’s assessment of the car’s condition when you picked it up and when you returned it
- Invoice from the rental company charging you the deductible/fees
- Receipts showing payment for the deductible
- Your Paypal or bank account details
- A detailed account of the incident (including photographs/video evidence if you have it)
- A written police report (if applicable)
This is pretty par for the course when it comes to renting a car. Always make sure you keep receipts and invoices just in case something bad happens.
4. Discover Cars: The Cons
So now let’s get into some of the shortcomings of Discover Cars.
It’s important to be aware that some of Discover’s pros can also be cons, and that some other cons are shared with most other car rentals, and are just consequences of the variability of renting cars in general.
- Smaller, lesser-known companies
- One day rental is almost as expensive as renting for 3 days
- Not so many deals
- Higher age threshold
4.1 Smaller, lesser-known companies
Because of the nature of Discover’s service, which is to find customer’s the absolute cheapest options out there, you’ll inevitably wind up looking at rental options from companies you’ve never heard of.
A certain amount of trust and peace of mind can come with choosing a well-established, well-known car company like Hertz, Avis, Enterprise or Budget.
On the other hand, these companies tend to bury fees in fine print and have their fair share of bad car rental reviews, so take that with a grain of sand.
We reached out to Discover Car Hire directly and asked about this. They told us the following:
It is an absolute truth that Discover Cars partnered with the smaller, local car rental suppliers, operating in that one country, or even city.
They often offer lower prices to get their customers.
However, as mentioned, you also find the well-known companies.
In many cases these world-known companies provide special offers, therefore Discover Car Hire offer pretty good deals for the customers. For example, Europcar, Budget, Sixt are chosen quite often.
The main idea is not to provide the cheapest option, but to provide as many options as possible, so a customer can find the most suitable one, according to his or her needs. The customer service will always be happy to assist if any help is needed at this step.
Also, they help their customers to make a choice, which is right for them, by showing partner’s rating on the website discovercars.com. Suppliers with the greatest scores have even received a Discover Cars excellence award.
This being said, that everyone can find an option for a car rental: whether the price comes first, supplier, car type or fuel policy.
4.2 One day rental is almost as expensive as renting for 3 days
So if you just need a car for hire for one day, maybe look elsewhere.
In fact, this is not really only a con of discover car hire/ discover cars. Renting a car for only 1 day is always expensive. The longer you have it, the cheaper it gets.
For example, we looked at renting a car from Munich.
One day, with the $8.85/day full-coverage insurance, costs $94, while the total cost for three days is $150 ( not even over 130 euros) , or $50/day, almost half the cost per day! This is a larger discrepancy than other car rental companies we looked at. Budget, for example, offers one day at about the same rate as three.
While this is not a huge deal, it’s definitely something to keep in mind.
Truth be told, I do not see a reason why you would need to book a car for one day only anyways.
Also full coverage is more expensive if taken for one-day only (15.90 euros). It is a bit cheaper if it’s for two days (11.00 euros/day), and at its regular price if it’s for 3+ days (7.95 euros/day). The truth is that most of the customers rent a car for the period of 3-7 days to explore a particular location.
4.3 Not so many deals
One of the pros of going directly through a company like SIXT or Hertz is that you can get a membership rewards-type card.
If you rent cars frequently or even once or twice a year, this can be a super useful way to get discounts and deals that you can’t get through Discover.
Personally, I do not rent very often car. I am assuming, this is more for business travellers.
Yet again, we reached out to the car rental service for their take on this. Here is their statement:
This depends a lot on a location, searching time and travelling time. For example, right now we have added multiple deals for the January Sale (about which I believe you have received a separate email from me, please let me know if you didn’t).
We even have special car rental deals for Valentine’s day.
4.4 Higher age threshold
Discover Cars’ best rates are for people aged between 30-65. This lower limit of 30 years old is a bit higher than other companies.
So with Discover, you are missing out on possible deals offered through frequent driver programs with other companies, taking a bit of a risk by going with lesser known companies, and paying more if you just want to rent for a day.
But all in all, Discover is very cheap, offers a solid, affordable insurance option, has reasonable deductibles, and features a user-friendly website that gives you easy access to all the costs and options related to your rental.
Here is what Discover Cars says about their age threshold:
The age threshold depends on a location, car rental company, car type. For example, in Rome the same prices can be found for the 25y.o. driver, as for the 30-65. Prices’ connection to the driver’s age varies.
5. Things to Consider When Renting a Car
Now that we’ve looked at the pros and cons of Discover cars, let’s go through some things to think about in general when renting a car.
The number one thing to keep in mind is that costs will vary across the board depending on a bunch of different factors.
- Deposit
- Will you be crossing borders?
- Rates will change based on your country of residence
- Drop Off / Pick Up Points
- How Old Are You?
- Deductible
- Who will be driving?
- Debit/ Credit
6. How to rent a car online (With Discover Car Hire)
The car hiring process with Discover Cars is very simple and straightforward. I wanted to document it and explain my tricks so you can get the best deal any time.
1. Introduce the pick-up location and the dates.
Normally, if you want to deliver the car in a different location, there is a charge.
2. Select the car you want (I do normally order it by price so I can get the best deals before).
Tip: Have a look at the fuel policy and type the company name at google to read some reviews and feedback before deciding.
3. Check all the details and go to secure payment to pay.
4. You will see a message like this. Discover car hire will check the availability with the partner and get back to you in a few minutes.
5. Get your confirmation email. Save your voucher and show it at the pick-up.
As you see, you receive the car rental supplier as well as the phone number just in case you need to contact them. Pretty straight forward, right?
7. Summing up the Discover Car Review
Are you thinking of booking or renting a car for your trip to San Diego or any part of the United States? Your search for car to rent is over. Discover Cars is what you need if you are looking for cars for hire. We did our best to give you honest Discover Cars reviews.
When it comes to renting a car, it is really important to understand how variable the prices are depending on where you’re renting the car.
It’s also important to look at the deposit you’ll be expected to pay, and whether you can use a debit or credit card. Discover Cars offers a really nice website that makes all these variables easy to see so you can compare your options and end up with an affordable, insured rental car for your next trip.
If you have any Discover Cars complaints or if you want to know the Discover Cars full coverage, you can contact their support team at support[at]discovercars.com.