Cheap car hire in Tenerife South
What cheap car hire in Tenerife South actually costs, when the low prices disappear, and an honest note on where the Canarian incumbents undercut this site.
Prices are in euros. The deposit and the cancellation terms are shown on each car before you book.
Start with the part most sites leave out. If the only thing you are optimising is the headline price, the big Canarian incumbents will usually beat what you see here on a like-for-like comparison, and they include full insurance and no deposit in the bargain. You should know that before reading anything else on this page.
What you get here instead: the deposit and the cover level shown on the listing before you pay, free cancellation on many cars, euro pricing with no conversion in the middle, and a handover in the arrival area at the south airport or at your own address. If price is the whole decision, book with an incumbent. If price is most of the decision, the rest of this page is about how to spend the least here without ending up with something you did not want.
When is car hire in Tenerife South actually cheap?
In the quiet weeks, and the pattern is sharper than the averages suggest. Two things happen as a busy period approaches. The overall number of cars available falls, which is what everybody expects. And it is the cheap end of the list that empties first, which is what actually costs you money: the cheapest cars disappear well before the choice has visibly narrowed, so the starting price climbs steeply while the page still looks full.
Christmas week is the extreme of it, and February half term behaves the same way. Late October is still soft. The practical version is that booking well ahead for Christmas is not caution, it is how you see the cheap end while it is still there, whereas booking equally far ahead for late October buys you less.
The other half of the timing question is how long. The minimum chargeable period is twenty-four hours, counted in whole days, so a car for one outing costs a day whatever time you collect it, and two short hires cost two sets of handovers as well as two minimums. Whether a longer booking works out cheaper per day is worth checking in the search rather than assuming. What a car at Tenerife South actually costs for your own dates is the only figure that settles any of it.
The four things that actually move the price
First, book early. Second, book the small car rather than a bigger class to be safe: among the cars for hire in Tenerife South the small one is better as well as cheaper for most of this coast. Those two account for most of the difference anybody can control. The economy class is where the cheap end of the market lives, and it is genuinely enough car for two people going to a beach and up a mountain once.
Third, take the free cancellation rather than the non-refundable saving, at least until your plans are fixed. Many cars here carry it, and how many at any moment is on the listings, because it changes. Where a car does carry free cancellation, booking early and rebooking if something better appears costs nothing, and the terms of it sit on that listing.
Fourth, choose the pick-up honestly. The airport carries the widest choice, which matters most when you are booking late or want something specific, and delivery into Playa de las Americas or into any other town is a shorter list to pick from. What it is not, reliably, is more expensive: the cheapest cars in the southern towns sit close to the airport's. Some listings charge for the delivery itself and some do not, and that is on the car.
What does the cheap price not include?
Read the cover before you compare two cheap listings, because the gap between them is frequently the cover rather than the car. Cars here carry more than one level, priced on the car, and what the standard level excludes is the wheels, the undercarriage, the windscreen and the interior, which is exactly what a kerb, a mountain road and a car park do to a car. Which level a given listing includes is stated on that listing and nowhere else.
The deposit is not a cost, but it is money that has to be available for the length of the rental, and the amount and the way it is taken are shown before you book. A cheap car with a large deposit and no credit card in the right name is not a cheap car, it is a failed pick-up. That is the commonest reason a booking falls over, and it is entirely avoidable five minutes before you pay.
Fuel is the last one and it is the easiest to lose money on. You return the car at the level you collected it: lower and you pay the difference at the supplier's own rate rather than the pump price, and higher and you get nothing back for it.
Where this site is and is not competitive
Not on the sticker price against the Canarian incumbents, as the top of this page says. Where it does compete is on the things that are invisible until they go wrong: knowing what the deposit is before you pay, being able to cancel, seeing the cover levels priced on the car, and being able to have the car brought to the address you are staying at.
It also competes on choice, which matters most exactly when the market is tight: a wider list is worth more in a busy week than a slightly lower starting price is in a quiet one. That is the argument, and it is the whole of it.
One thing that is not an argument: the price of the drive itself. Tenerife has no toll roads at all, and fuel here is cheaper than on the Spanish mainland and cheaper than in the United Kingdom, so the running cost of a week of driving is genuinely low whoever you rent from.
Your dates. Your starting point.
Compare the cars available for your trip, then check the payment card and deposit requirements for the one you choose.
Find a carFree-flow driving times from Tenerife South Airport.
Useful answers
Everything below is about money rather than prices, which move.
When should I book for the cheapest price?
As early as you can for Christmas and February half term because the cheap end of the list empties long before the choice looks thin. For the quiet weeks, booking ahead buys you much less.
Is a longer rental cheaper per day?
Check it in the search rather than assuming, because it is priced per car. What is fixed is the minimum: twenty-four hours, so a short hire is charged as a full day.
Do the cheapest cars carry a bigger deposit?
The deposit is set per car by the supplier rather than by the price. Check it, and check whether a credit card in the main driver's name is required, before treating a low headline as the total.
Is free cancellation worth taking?
If your plans are not fixed, yes. Many cars here carry it, and how many changes, so the listings are where to look.
Are the local Canarian companies cheaper?
On a like-for-like comparison, usually yes, and they include full insurance and no deposit.
Does it cost more to have the car delivered?
Sometimes. Delivery is priced per car rather than per town, and some listings include it. The figure is on the listing before you book.