pricing and payment options with IdeaMerge
Please click here for an explanation of our excellent pricing and payment options.
reservation and booking
In accord with the automobile rental industry standard,
reservations may be made for a vendor's particular vehicle category
(what we might call a vendor's "group") only, not for a specific vehicle.
Which is to say,
although the various images, model numbers and vehicle specifications presented
throughout the IdeaMerge motorhome rental pages — especially on the
vehicle-specification pages — are carefully selected to accurately
and precisely indicate the vehicle that you will get, the vehicle model
(and layout) you get might not be identical to what is indicated by said
information.
In the very unlikely event that
a vehicle in the reserved category is not available upon the pick-up date, the
rental company reserves the right to substitute a comparable or larger vehicle
with the same equipment and the capacity to accommodate the number persons you have delineated (in terms of, say, adults and children) as being in your party. In this case there will be no additional charge for a larger
vehicle. However, the higher ancillary costs associated with a larger
vehicle — such as ferry charges,
tolls, and fueling costs — are to be borne by the customer.
Of course IdeaMerge will not charge your credit card unless the vendor you select does have availability in the
particular vehicle category you select.
After you place a complete online reservation request with IdeaMerge (i.e. including your credit card details), IdeaMerge will straightaway query the vendor.
If a vehicle in the selected vehicle category of that selected vendor is indeed have available, we will immediately book the rental with that vendor and charge your card —
binding you per the cancellation policy noted below. Either way, we will then inform you as soon as possible,
often within an hour but most certainly within 24 hours
(or perhaps 48 hours if you enter the reservation request on a Friday or Saturday,
since the booking facilities of some vendors are closed on weekends).
cancellation fees
We require the aforementioned downpayment and prepaid balance because the vendor
imposes a schedule of considerable cancellations fees. Necessarily reflecting that schedule of fees,
our cancellation policy is as follows:
However, for rentals occuring in conjunction with the
Rugby World Cup in New Zealand September–October 2011 the
cancellation policy is such that
cancellations made 149–91 days prior to the pick-up date entail a cancellation fee equal to 50 percent of the gross rental amount
(this involving the non-refundable down-payment or down-payments listed above), whereas cancellations made within 90 days of the
pick-up date entail a cancellation fee equal to 100 percent of the gross rental amount.
changes
A. Authorization required. Once a rental is booked, any request to change any part of the booking,
such as adding or eliminating accessories or changing the dates, must be authorized by the rental company in advance.
Do not expect to make changes when you pick up the vehicle.
B. Cost. The vendor may charge a modest change fee, usually NZD 25.
C. Rates. If a client requests an official change to a booking, the flex rates that will apply to the changed booking are the higher of the original
versus the current rates.
D. Cancellation Fee for Shortening. If you request to shorten your rental duration, you must pay a cancellation fee
on the days that you eliminate. For example, if you reduce the number of rental days by moving the pick-up date closer
to the return date, or the return date closer to the pick-up date, or both closer to each other, you must pay a
cancellation fee on the days you eliminate. The general cancellation fee schedule for this vendor applies.
E. Cancellation Fee for Shift of Rental. If a change involves a shift of both the pick-up date and return
date away from of their original dates, or of pick-up or return location away from the original location, it may be
considered by the vendor a full or partial cancellation rather than a mere change. The general cancellation fee
schedule for this vendor applies.
F. Early Return. There is no refund for early return of the vehicle.
G. Return Location. If after the rental has commenced the client wants to
change return location, the client should first obtain authorization
from the vendor and ascertain the additional charge that would
apply.
H. Extension. If after the rental has commenced the client wants to extend
the duration of the rental, the client should obtain authorization
from the vendor. Failure to obtain such authorization will result in
a daily fee of NZD 150 in addition to the daily rental rate (which rate
will be the present rate, not necessarily the rate the vehicle was booked at).
security deposit
Upon pick-up, the vendor requires directly from the client a security deposit.
The amount and form of that deposit depend
on the client's choice of insurance option.
The default security deposit is
NZD 7500
to be actually charged to a credit card
(namely a Visa or MasterCard credit card);
insurance option 1 reduces this amount
to NZD 2500
and entails merely an imprint and authorization of such a credit card rather than an
actual charge;
insurance option 2 reduces this amount to
NZD 220 (NZD 440 for 4WD).
An authorization only blocks that amount of credit; it is not an actual charge. …
The person whose name is on that credit card must be present upon said pick-up occasion and be one of the persons
signing the vendor's rental contract on that occasion.
(However, the credit card can be different than the card that was used to pay us for the rental.)
Debit cards, cash or travelers checks are not accepted for the
security deposit; only Visa and MasterCard credit cards are accepted,
and the amount cannot be split between credit cards.
Naturally the security deposit is refundable depending on whether the
vehicle is returned on time, to the correct location, undamaged (and having caused no damage to third-party property),
with a clean interior, the toilet cassette and waste water tank emptied, no items
lost or damaged, and with appropriately full fuel tanks (fuel being gasoline/petrol, diesel,
and LPG gas).
The vendor reserves the right to retain an NZD 220 "soiling" fee if the vehicle
is not returned with the interior in a clean condition. The toilet and
waste water tank (if present) should be emptied prior to the return of the
vehicle, or the vendor will retain a separate NZD 220 fee.
Maui and Britz impose a 2 percent credit card surcharge on the
Visa/MasterCard transactions they themselves process
— and a 4.5 percent surcharge on the American
Express transactions they themselves process —
i.e. insofar as they charge
the optional items and/or the security deposit or possible traffic fines
or penalities and such locally (that is, upon the
pick-up and/or return occasions).
Maui and Britz do not refund their credit card surcharges.
The vendor is of course not responsible for any associated
surcharges levied by the credit card company nor for any fluctuations in
the applicable exchange rate (if any) between the time of the charge and
the time that the vendor credits the charge (in
full or in part) back to the card.
age and license(s)
The minimum age limit for renters and other drivers of Britz vehicles
is only 21 years. Britz requires from drivers
75 years old or older a written statement from a medical practitioner noting that
the client is fit to operate the booked vehicle (the vehicle being characterized by
its weight, dimensions, and transmission).
Upon pick-up the vendor requires of the client
a valid, non-provisional resident-country drivers license, held for at least one year.
Moreover, if said license is not primarily or secondarily (i.e. in parallel)
written in English, the vendor also
requires of the client an international drivers permit (IDP). Such IDPs are available
for a small charge (about USD20) from the automobile club offices in the
client's country of residence (but not outside their country), and
a person need not be a member of such club to obtain the IDP from the club.
See the IdeaMerge "Resources" page for more about IDPs.
Drivers must of course possess their valid domestic drivers license.
The Australia and New Zealand motorhome and camper van rental
vehicles presented on the IdeaMerge Website are designed such that relative
especially to the laws of Australia and New Zealand
virtually all non-provisional domestic drivers licenses suffice for operation of these
vehicles, even in nearly all cases where the inherent limits of such
license (i.e. relative to your domestic laws) would preclude the holder from
driving the vehicle in his/her own country. (Which is to say, standard foreign
drivers licenses are translated by the laws of Australia and New Zealand such
that these licenses basically function in Australia and New Zealand as
standard Australia or New Zealand drivers licenses.)
Nevertheless, you might be interested in researching the inherent limits of
your drivers license. To do so you can
check the back of your license and visit the Website of the
governmental agency that issued your license.
You can also see the following Wikipedia articles:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver's_license and, say,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Driving_Licence_codes.
animals
No animals other than humans and guide dogs are permitted to use the vehicles.
no smoking
Smoking is not allowed in the vehicles.
what's included
All Britz's New Zealand camper rentals include unlimited kilometers,
airport transfer to/from depot (except at Wellington, which
depot is located 40 minutes from the airport) and
24/7 nationwide roadside assistance via a toll-free helpline.
The rates also include the 12.5% federal tax (GST), and the total rental cost computed by
the (highly specialized) IdeaMerge online reservation software includes
any applicable one-way fee and other charges that might apply,
even if certain of those other portions of the total will actually be
paid locally by the client upon the pick-up occasion instead of
up-front to IdeaMerge
— e.g. charges for optional extras, Queenstown fee, and Wellington fee,
insofar as said fees are indeed paid for locally instead of pre-purchased
as part of the vendor's "bonus pack" of optional extras.
The IdeaMerge online reservation software automatically
determines whether the vendor's premium package is the best deal for the
client, this based
on the particular options selected by the client.
There is no charge for additional drivers.
The included liability insurance
(i.e. third party) also covers (although very partially) personal injury to
the client and to members of the client's party.
The included collision and
comprehensive insurance inheres a deductible (a.k.a. excess; applicable no
matter who is at fault) of NZD 7500, but
clients can reduce this figure by purchasing
one of two optional damage waivers (a.k.a. excess reductions):
These insurance options also have positive effects in terms of the security
deposit charged by Britz upon the pick-up occasion:
the default security deposit is
NZD 7500 to be actually debited, i.e. charged;
damage waiver 1 reduces the amount
to NZD 2500; damage waiver 2 reduces the amount to NZD 220
and entails a mere imprint rather than an actual debit.
For security reasons, only a credit card — namely Visa, MasterCard,
or American Express — can be used to provide the
security deposit.
The card holder must be present upon the pick-up
occasion and is jointly and severally liable for any damage to the
rental vehicle.
If the deductible/excess is reduced to zero, one windscreen and two tires are covered for accidental damage.
Damage to the overhead or underbody of the vehicle is not covered unless
the customer buys damage waiver 2 (noted above) and enhances that waiver
by purchasing the …
Again, the IdeaMerge online reservation software will
determine whether the vendor's bonus pack is the best deal for the client, based
on the rental parameters chosen by the client.
The following items are included by default at no extra charge:
Clients may store luggage free
of charge at the Auckland and Christchurch depots.
multiple rentals
Multiple rentals are also accommodated nicely.
If via IdeaMerge — and at the same time — a client rents consecutive Britz
and/or Maui
vehicles in Australia and/or in New Zealand and the pick-up dates are
within 92 days of each other, IdeaMerge will effectively combine
these otherwise separate rentals by not charging twice for any
overlapping day or days
(this by waiving the lessor cost or costs of the overlapping days) and
by applying to each rental a rate or rates based on the sum of the
durations (thus perhaps effecting long-term discounts).
Moreover, only one security deposit need apply to combined rentals if the
pick-up occurs in the same country and no damage or claim occurs to the rental(s) preceding the final combined rental.
If multiple hires are within the same country and the total, combined days
exceed 50, only the maximum charge applicable to the excess reduction option
of the premium package will apply, this maximum being the higher of all such
maximums that happen to be involved. However, in the case where a Britz hire is being
combined with a Maui hire and the packages have either the premium package
or the bonus pack these components cannot be combined to have a maximum charge
applied, but the vehicle rates can have a long-term discount applied.
If a client makes such a set of bookings but does not place all the
bookings at the same time, the booking or bookings placed later, i.e.
the new one or ones, qualify for such discounts relative to the original
booking but they do not
qualify the original booking for such discounts as well.
Note: Given this policy and
the cost of transporting a vehicle between Australia and New Zealand,
such transport is prohibitively costly. Our online reservation software, although highly specialized, does not
allow customers to place more than one reservation at once. Therefore
IdeaMerge will manually and at the client's request account
for multiple rentals as described above.
Our online reservation software, although highly specialized, does not
allow customers to place more than one reservation at once. Therefore IdeaMerge will manually
and at the client's request account for multiple rentals as described above.
"diesel tax recovery" fee
The so-called Diesel Tax Recovery fee will be calculated and collected
upon return of the vehicle. This small, government-imposed fee is based on the
number of kilometers the vehicle is driven during the rental. The fee does
not apply to the HiTop vehicles. Relative to the other vehicles
its amount per 100 kilometers traveled is as follows: NZD 4.45 for the
Voyager and Adventurer; NZD 4.70 for the Elite and Explorer; NZD 4.85 for the Frontier.
infringements
The vendor reserves the right to charge the client for any speeding or parking
fines, associated administration costs and/or accidents including third-party
property damage not reported by or upon the termination of the rental duration.
The administration fee will be NZD 60 per fine.
road restrictions
The vehicles may be driven on sealed/bitumen/macadam/paved or well
maintained roads only.
No vehicle shall be drive on Skippers Road (Queenstown), Ninety Mile
Beach (Northland), Ball Hut Road (Mt. Cook), Nort of Colville Township
(Coromandel Peninsula), and the Bluff Road that runs between Kuatunu and Mataurangi.
Maui reserves the right at its sole discretion
to restrict vehicle movements in certain areas due to adverse road or
weather conditions.
breakdown cover and repairs
For starters, the fleet of vehicles is modern and frequently upgraded,
the average age of a vehicle normally being less than 1 year.
All the vehicles do include 24/7 roadside service nationwide.
Any problems associated with the vehicle, including equipment failure,
should be reported to the vendor
as soon as possible and within 24 hours, this to give the vendor the
opportunity to rectify the problem as soon as possible. Failure to report
as such will compromise any client claims for compensation.
The vendor does not accept liability for claims submitted after this duration.
In the event, please contact the vendor toll-free at tel. 0800 831 900 (North Island)
or tel. 0800 304 304 (South Island).
Repairs costing up to NZD 100 may be effected without authorization from
the vendor and will be appropriately reimbursed if the client provides the repair receipt
to the vendor. For amounts estimated over NZD 100, the
client should obtain authorization from the vendor. Receipts relating to
any repair should be sumbitted to the vendor.
See our "Insurance, etc"
page for details concerning the included insurance.
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