Indigo Car Hire

New Spanish Local Rate Number

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:33:52 +0000

Everyone here at Indigo is extremely proud of the great relationship that we have with our Expat customers, particularly those living in the (much) sunnier climes of Spain and we are pleased to announce that in order to make it cheaper for our customers to get in touch, we have arranged a dedicated local rate Spanish number so that you can avoid paying expensive international dialing charges.

If you are looking for car hire in the UK, Our new Spanish phone number is 0034 965993260 and you can contact us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Remember, you can also contact us for free on Skype, just add our username: indigocarhire.

Spanish Car Hire Company Cease Trading, will the rates over the summer period shoot up?

cherie — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:14:47 +0000

It has been confirmed car hire supplier Aurigacrown have ceased trading which is very sad news, I really thought the times of car hire companies going under was behind us. Aurigacrown are a well-known car hire company with a fleet of over 15,000 cars.

Is this something to do with the ridiculously low prices? Over the last 6 months i have seen cars go out to customers for a full month for as little as £200.00. This is a great price however the way the car hire suppliers make up for the low rates is through selling extras. Such as fuel, it is very common and also very annoying to customers renting cars in Spain, as most car hire supplier’s terms are to collect the car full of fuel and return back empty, charging the customers for the full tank of fuel at premium rates.

I really think due to the shortage of cars this summer, as 15,000 cars is a lot to reduce by. We will see the rates shoot up. Going back 3 years ago, when car hire supply was short exactly the same happened, cars were selling at over £300.00 per week and this was for the box standard Peugeot 107 or similar model.

We arrange quite a lot of Car Hire at Alicante Airport where the supplier has an office, really hope for all our Indigo customers the prices are not affected too much but it’s a matter of watch this space really…..

Manchester Airport comes in 4th place, as the UK’s most child friendly airport….

cherie — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:21:46 +0000

A recent study has ranked Manchester Airport as the countries 4th airport when it comes too been child friendly. Me been a mother of a 2 year old knows full well travelling with children is not the easiest and let’s face it extremely stressful. Most flights you need to be at the airport and checked in at least 2 hours before the flight leaves. Keeping a little one’s occupied is very challenging.
The study conducted asked 1,000 families to score the UK’s 10 major airports out of 10 points. Factors which were taken into consideration were children’s food choices, airport security and also play areas. Below is a list of the 10 airports and how well they scored.

To my surprise Heathrow Airport came in 10th place, I really think putting play areas into all airports is a must as you can sit close by and let the children play. Before long an hour has passed and you can grab something to eat and board the flight.

1 – Edinburgh Airport 7.26

2 – Glasgow Airport 7.18

3 – Liverpool Airport 7.13

4 – Manchester Airport 6.95

5 – Gatwick Airport 6.91

6 – Luton Airport 6.76

7 – Birmingham Airport 6.76

8 – Stansted Airport 6.69

9 – Bristol Airport 6.56

10 – Heathrow Airport 6.53

Sourced from - http://mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/06022273-manchester-airport-ranked-uks-fourth-most-child-friendly-airport

At Indigo Car Hire we work with many car hire suppliers which means collecting your car hire when you have children can be less stressful. We always recommend when travelling with children to choose our suppliers that have a desk in the terminal building.

BAA loses its appeal – Stansted Ruling

Mike — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:59:58 +0000

Today saw Spanish owned company BAA lose its appeal against the forced sale of Stansted Airport by the Competition Commission. Some three years ago, when the ruling was first introduced BAA had to sell London Gatwick, Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh Airports, this because of their dominance in the market.

Having already sold Gatwick and recently agreed to sell Edinburgh BAA stuck to their guns over Stansted and fought to overturn the original decision. The basis of their argument was that it wasn’t reasonable to consider Stansted as covering the same Market as their other London Airport, Heathrow and as a result that it wasn’t anti-competitive to operate both airports.

Today was not the news they hoped for when the UK Competition Appeal tribunal decided to uphold its original decision. The appeal tribunal, consisting of judges and industry experts delivered their verdict earlier today much to the disappointment of BAA.

The company released a statement to stress there were “disappointed” with the verdict and are currently considering their options. Laura Carstensen, an original member of the inquiry back in 2009 stated she was very pleased the original decision has been upheld.

It still remains to be seen what BAA’s next course of action will be but as things stand they will only be operating Heathrow Airport in London should they choose not to proceed and challenge this final verdict.

A potential buyer comes forward for Stansted airport (travelnews.britishairways.com)
Stansted is finally put up for sale by BAA (independent.co.uk)

Best selling cars for 2011….

cherie — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:51:24 +0000

Reading this post does not surprise me at all – http://cars.uk.msn.com/news/europes-best-selling-cars-of-2011 - Reports confirm the number of sales of new cars purchased in 2011 is down which is understandable given the current financial climate. However the figures are not as low as predicted which means some people are still spending….

UK Sales were down by 4.4%, reports released recently confirm which makes & models were most popular throughout Europe. I have worked in the Car Hire industry all my working life and the good old VW Golf is always very sought after. Booking a compact car could be a Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, some suppliers stock Hyundai’s which means the Hyundai i30 falsl into this group. Some customers are willing to pay a little bit more to ensure they get the VW Golf and not a similar model. I have drove a VW Golf and know why we get these requests as the car is a great drive and you can feel the quality. We have all seen the advert ‘it sounds like a Golf’ this statement is very true. Reason for me mentioning the above, is that VW cars fall into the most popular models purchased last year.

Here we go, these are the best selling cars of 2011:

1 – VW Golf

2 – VW Polo

3 – Ford Fiesta

4 – Vauxhall/Opel Corsa

5 – Vauxhall/Opel Astra

6 – Renault Clio

7 – Ford Focus

8 – Renault Megane

9 – VW Passat

10 – Peugeot 207

Mobile Tickets Now Available for the Stansted Express

Mike — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:25:38 +0000

Stansted Airport is well known as a popular airport for catching budget flights to the UK and some of the biggest low cost airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet have flights regularly landing there.

One of the points that makes Stansted so popular is it’s close proximity to London which makes it a great option for those travelling to the city but not wanting to pay a premium for flying into Heathrow or Gatwick.

A great option for getting from Stansted Airport into London has always been the Stansted Express which runs regularly from the airport into the centre of London and takes less than an hour.
A new service has recently been launched that makes this service even more convenient as you can now order a mobile ticket online which can send a barcode to your phone which is scanned on board to verify your purchase.

You will still have the option of purchasing a ticket directly from the sales desk at the airport or printing off a ticket at home but it is great to have this additional option to make the process quicker and easier.

If you are flying into airport and travelling further afield then don’t forget that we provide car hire at Stansted Airport and a number of our suppliers are able to provide one way hires.

Family Friendly Christmas Travel With Heathrow Airport

Mike — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:48:19 +0000

Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for the Travel industry with millions of people travelling all over the world to spend time with Family and Friends with many of them using flights to get to their destination. Heathrow Airport alone sees over 3.5 million passengers go through their doors between mid December and the start of January. That’s over 180,000 people a day!

These huge numbers of passengers, all travelling within such a short period of time, not only take a toll on our transport infrastructure but can also be quite stressful for travellers, particularly those with young children in tow. Fortunately this year, Heathrow Airport have launched a number of initiatives to make passing through their gates this year that bit easier. Some of the services being offered include the following:

Free Christmas cards with postage anywhere in the world. Great if you are the kind of person who always forgets to send them until the last minute!
Family car parking bays with extra space and located close to airport transport links.
Pre-flight play areas for Children in all terminals. Additionally, there will be offers for kids to eat free in a number of restaraunts accross all the terminals.
Extra staff to offer assistance to travellers. These staff will also be carrying sweets and sticker books to help keep children entertained.

There are many other services that the airport is offering over the next few weeks and you can find more details on their Family Friendly Press Release.

* Update. I have just seen this great site Heathrow Airport have created where you can much more information on their Christmas Extras! http://holiday.heathrowairport.com/

It is really great to see the worlds busiest international airport going to such lengths to try and improve the experience for their customers over Christmas and we hope everyone flying into or our of Heathrow has a great journey and a great Christmas!

If you are flying into Heathrow this Christmas and haven’t yet arranged car hire then now is a great time to do so. We hope to try and do our part in relieving the stress of travelling over the festive period by finding the best deals from the most reliable suppliers to ensure that your journey goes smoothly!

Stansted Voted One of the Worlds Most Punctual Airports

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:49:30 +0000

Most people who fly regularly have experienced the misery of delayed and cancelled flights and it seems that an unlikely champion is stepping up to set the standard for punctuality throughout the world!

Stansted Airport has recently been voted as the third most efficient airport in the world when it comes to scheduled departure times, beating all other European airports.

See the full story here and don’t forget that if you decide to use Europes most punctual airport in the future, we are equally efficient in making sure that you get the same service when it comes to car hire at Stansted Airport

Current Driving Regulations in Britain…..

cheriew — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:24:01 +0000

Below is a list of the current driving regulations in force in Britain as we all know each country has different regulations and if you are unware of the rules you may find you are breaking the law without even knowing.

Below is a summary of the basic rules of the road in Britain.

Drive on the left-hand side of the road.
Always pass (overtake) on the outside (right) lane.
Do not block the middle lane if the inside lane is clear.
When approaching a roundabout, give priority to traffic approaching from the right, unless otherwise indicated.
You must always stop at a red traffic light.
At a junction there’s no general priority rule – priority is marked at most junctions.
All traffic signals and road signs must be obeyed.
All vehicles must give way to emergency services vehicles.
The use of a car horn is not permitted in built-up areas from 23:30 to 07:00 hours.
Do not drive in bus lanes during restricted hours. See signs by the side of the road for times.
It’s illegal to use a mobile phone when driving. If you need to make a call, find a safe place to stop first.
Seat belts must be worn by the driver and front seat passenger. Where rear seat belts have been fitted, they must also be worn.
The minimum driving age is 17.

Book your Christmas Car Hire early….

cheriew — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:39:14 +0000

Book your Christmas UK Car Hire early to avoid high prices or even no availability as this happens year after year. We are making our customers aware now to save money and also so they get the type of car required.

If anyone reading our blog needs a car hire over this period please call our office direct on 0113 2899281 or email sales@indigocarhire.co.uk