Hi Friends,
I will travel with my wife and a friend to Kittilä tomorrow. My rental car booking was just cancelled by Europcar and I simply can’t afford the currently available offers to pay > 2.000€ for a rental VW Polo for 6 days.
Public transport would work up to our accommodation, however, reaching the booked activities will be painful…
Are there any car sharing options available in the region you could recommend?
Thank you in advance!
https://i.redd.it/0d0jh3jvpfjg1.jpeg
Posted by AndreezyWest
25 Comments
What was the reason for the booking being cancelled?
Usually they would need to find your a vehicle as per terms of conditions regardless.
Sheesus, 2k for 6 days in a Polo sounds crazy. Hope some local person steps in with better advice.
Europcar cancelled how and why? Did you pay any deposit? 2k for a Polo is extortion.
I presume you asked the activity companies for advice before you came to Reddit.
You could try 24Rent
Check out `24rent.fi`. I used them to rent a car in Kiitilä and it worked great. Everything is done through a web application and you don’t talk to a real person, just follow the app.
Sadly the prices are most likely due to Kittilä being a really small region with such a huge interest by tourists this time of the year. There are not cars enough for the amount of requests. Maybe check cars in towns or cities close by?
I’m afraid nothing else comes up, though you can rent that polo for a few hundred less on other sites but still very expensive.
Gomore and 24rent are other options but both show no availability for your dates in Kittilä.
Rovaniemi have some cars available around the €1100 mark but that’s 4 hour + round trip to get it and same to return it.
Does your travel insurance cover it or help at all?
Seems like you’ll save a lot by using publics and a taxi when necessary.
Pretty much all of the activities etc. are planned so that people can reach them without their own car, renting a car is not the norm in the area.
edit: that issue is up to me for not noticing in the last weeks I just received the confirmation from the intermediate service provider and not the actual rental company. Not trying to shame Europcar here, other than maybe for the prices they ask for right now…
My mom lives up there and would be more than happy to rent her car for 1999€ 😂
Call your travel insurance. They can advise what to do and take action to Europcar for breach of contract.
I would take taxi’s and save the receipts and claim them on Europcar, although it’s not a given that they would accept those claims. In your hotel or the airport information desk, ask them for local taxi companies (lähitaxi) that can offer deals if you book in advance or use app based service like über and bolt.
There are also special bus services, like bus services that have to be ordered in advance
[https://kittila.fi/en/living-and-environment/transport/commuter-and-other-transport-services-kittila](https://kittila.fi/en/living-and-environment/transport/commuter-and-other-transport-services-kittila)
I dont know how they work.
What sucks for you is that this is the busy week, where the kids have ski vacation. So it will be busy
Have a fun vacation!
Unfortunate timing to visit. There is winter holiday in southern Finland and prices are high because of that. Basically 50% of all school kids are on holiday and it’s very popular time to take whole family trips to Lapland to ski.
How far away are the booked activities? If I were you, I would call/mail them and ask for a pickup for some extra.
Does Kittilä have a lot of Bolt drivers? It’s an option to get a ride for the connections if you don’t need the car for anything else.
Ansiautuo enterprise worked out at 950 per month for me with a VW Tiago
Go to S-Market in Kittilä.
Spend an hour finding the least crazy person there.
Pay them 1000€ to drive you around for a week.
Profit.
Check out 24rent. I don’t know the local offerings they have, but that’s what I’ve used to rent vans.
The bastards rented the car you booked to someone else, for €2000. That’s a robbery. Terrible customer service.
It’s not like there are not enough cars in Finland or something. For €1200 it’s be easy to find a really nice car for a week
Which distances are you driving ?
for 1000 or 1200 eur you can drive a lot with taxis
for 100 e day you can find a local youth to drive you around
for 1000 a week I would rent a skiidoo 🙂
I had a camry rented from Oulu for 700eu for a week (Scandia rent) now ig they changed a bit, but jeez 2k is a lott i suppose even for Kittilä
Contact your travel insurance right away, so you’ll know what can be covered. Also call Europcar right away, they do have a responsibility to honor the booking, particularly if you paid in advance. I checked all the options I know, including Toyota kinto flex but nothing is available immediately for any reasonable amount.
Man, you could buy 4-5 new cars every year if you rent just one car… Hmm
Imagine paying 15% of what the car is worth to use it for less than a week 😭
GoMore has one car in Kittilä. It’s basically renting from a private owner with a company to organize it as a middle man: https://gomore.fi/autonvuokraus/
Edit: Damn, seems to be available only for a couple of days.
Taxi twice a day would be a lot cheaper option.
Download GoMore mate