Car rental
 

I'm in a bit of a dilmema.
I'll be arriving at Tullamarine aiport in Melbourne on the 30th of march at 9pm. Now all the car rental firms at the airport that i've find on the web close at around 8pm.
Does anyone know of a 24 hour car rental firm at the airport or would it be best to take a taxi to our hotel and organise a rental the next day?

Re: Car rental
 

Fuzzy, how long are you renting a car for? If for a week or two it may be cheaper to do the taxi anyway and pick up car in city/suburb location. Reason for this is that with most car rental companies you pay an airport surcharge for the privilege of pick up or drop off at an airport :rolleyes: . This is not a flat fee but a %age of the overall rental. So over say 2 weeks, this could be $60 (but then again, that's prob a bit less than taxis to/from airport/city (taxi to city is about $35).

Have you spoken to the carhire firms - do they not allow out-of-hours pickup? Seems a bit strange that you can't pick up a car after 8pm at an international airport. I would have thought if you pre-booked you would just collect the keys from somewhere - it might just be admin that closes at 8??

Are you staying in CBD? All the main car hire places have CBD outlets - you could also enquire if they would deliver a car to your hotel.

Take a taxi every time! Saves time, hassle and money.
You will save a day's rental, airport related charges and you'll get straight to the hotel. Most rental companies will bring cars to the hotel and can be pre-booked before you go. Otherwise enjoy a day or two without the encumbrance of a car and pick it up later.
We once had a lucky escape driving a hire car from the airport to the hotel at night - the car was a write-off - and we endded up a few feet from going over a cliff! We had a few bruises but it's a taxi every time now after a long flight, especially at night.

Lesley