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,
a booking 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 we present
— 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 of 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 We 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 us (i.e. including your credit card details), we 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:
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 EUR25 change fee.
C. 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.
D. 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.
E. Early Return. There is no refund for early return of the vehicle.
breakdown cover, and insurance
For starters, the vendor's fleet of vehicles is modern and frequently upgraded,
the average age of a vehicle normally being about 6 months.
Moreover, each vehicle includes membership in the AXA
24/7 emergency assistance service, tel. +49 089 500 704 841
(drop the leading zero if calling from outside Germany).
In addition, each vehicle is covered by an
international guarantee such that certain mechanical failure it may happen
to suffer will be repaired — free of cost to the renter — by
a member of the relevant and very wide-ranging service networks of
Fiat (tel. 0800 34 28 11 11) or
Ford (tel. 0800 367 33 87 or +49 089 76 76 49 64)
or Volkswagen (tel. 0800 89 73 78 423).
And as for possible malfunction of living facilities, such would be
addressed — again, free of cost to the renter — by the
appropriate distribution and service personnel, located throughout
Europe. See our "Insurance, etc" page for details concerning the included insurance.
The vendor's headquarters in Munich can be reached at the following numbers during weekday business hours:
tel. +49 08121 9950, fax 08121 99519. (Drop the country code and the
leading zero if calling from within Germany.) That office is closed on weekends and holidays.
The motorhome rental agreement is a contract between you the rental client (i.e. the renter, the client, the customer, the tenant)
and the vendor (i.e. the rental company, the supplier) and of course involves the customer in certain
responsibilities relative to the vehicle. These responsibilities
are analogous but far from identical to those typically associated
with a car rental. Motorhome rental customers typically bear more
such responsibilities than do car rental customers. The nature of
the motorhome rental industry is such that replacement motorhomes
are usually not guaranteed (although in many cases a replacement
motorhome may be
effected), as is the case with this vendor and
virtually every motorhome rental company. Instead timely service of
the rental motorhome is guaranteed and in this case so are limited reimbursements.
The customer remains responsible for returning the motorhome to the
rental depot, as contracted, unless relieved of this responsibility
by the rental company (i.e. the vendor).
extension or early return
Any extension of the rental duration (whether requested before or after the pick-up) requires prior
authorization by the rental company. Refunds are not offered for early return of the rental vehicle.
age and license
The minimum age limit for renters and other drivers of the rental vehicles is only
21 years,
and there is no maximum
age limit. However, said drivers must have possessed a valid drivers
license for at least one year prior to the pick-up date.
Drivers must of course possess a valid drivers license
relative to the weight of the vehicle.
Most domestic licenses suffice for operation of the vehicles presented on
the this website, for most of the vehicles are rated at
3500 kg or less.
Relative to vehicles exceeding this threshold, our online software will usually elaborate.
Regardless, you the driver or drivers are obliged to check your licenses and the vehicle's
specs page in this important respect (the latter by clicking on the vehicle
image during the online reservation process).
Many Singapore drivers licenses, for instance, limit the license holder to vehicles rated only 3000 kg or less.
Generally see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver's_license and, say,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Driving_Licence_codes.
Regarding the vehicles rated at over
3500 kg (i.e. 3.50 metric tons):
Almost all typical (i.e. class C) USA drivers licenses, for example,
suffice in this respect.
(In fact such licenses usually cover vehicles up to 13,000 kg.)
The same is true of, say, typical "old" British licenses
(i.e. class B issued prior to 1 January 1997).
But the typical new "European Union drivers license"
(i.e. class B) limits its holder to vehicles of
3500 kg or less;
and as such, a holder of an EU license must possess a class C license to operate in Europe
one of the European motorhomes which are rated at
over 3500 kg.
On the pick-up occasion the vendor will not release a rental vehicle
to a party unless a driver among them is licensed to operate such vehicle.
We are not responsible if such licensed driver is not present
to operate the vehicle upon the pick-up occasion and throughout the duration
of the rental. No refunds will be extended to the client if such absence precludes
the actual use of the rental.
See our "Resources" page for a discussion of the international driving permit,
which is required of certain drivers by certain countries.
There is no charge for additional drivers.
wintertires
For travel occuring November through March, special wintertires are obligatory.
Because these tires are relatively expensive and because they will likely have to
be specially added to the vehicle, the vendor charges 100 Euros total for
rentals which have pick-up or return within said winter time span, this in addition to the possible snow chain
charge. The IdeaMerge software figures that 100 Euros cost into the
total cost it computes.
geographic limitations
Entry to the following countries is allowed without authorization from DRM:
Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
Authorization from DRM — i.e. a formality to be signed in the rental
station upon the pick-up occasion only — is required for entry to the
following countries:
Albania, Bosnia-Herzegowina, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania,
Macedonia, Malta, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia.
Entry to the following countries (among others, of course) is forbidden:
Belarus, Bulgaria, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Moldavia, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine.
Regarding the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, please note the following important restrictions:
You are welcome to transport your
rented vehicle by ferry and/or the Channel Tunnel.
Again, see our "Insurance, etc."
page for more details concerning the included insurance.
pick-up and return
When you pick-up the vehicle, and regardless of which IdeaMerge pre-payment option you choose,
the vendor will charge an
EUR1300
security deposit to the Visa or MasterCard credit card you present.
The person whose name is on that 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, charge cards (e.g. American Express), pre-paid cards, cash or travelers checks are not accepted for the security deposit; only Visa and MasterCard credit cards are accepted, and
the charge cannot be split between credit cards.
The security deposit — minus the cost of
damages (which cost is limited only by the relevant,
per-occurrence insurance deductibles) and traffic or parking tickets
— will be credited to that
card within a month after the rental end date.
A thorough explanation and demonstration of the rental vehicle will be provided
upon pick-up. This orientation, together with completion of the relevant
paperwork, requires approximately one hour.
The vehicle will be delivered with an ample amount of motor fuel in the tank;
you should try to return it with this same amount.
The water tank, propane tanks,
and toilet chemical repository will be full; but you will not be
charged if they are returned less than full.
The interior and exterior
will be clean, and the toilet tank will be empty of waste. Likewise the vehicle
should be returned clean inside. See below.
Smoking is not allowed in any part of the vehicle.
Only with special permission from the vendor are dogs or
other pets allowed in the vehicles. If such
permission is indeed granted, the client should return the vehicle
thoroughly cleaned of pet hair and odors
lest the vendor levy a special cleaning fee.
The rental includes unlimited kilometers.
The pick-up/return depots for DRM vehicles
are located at Berlin, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and
Munich. See our DRM "Locations" page.
Motorhomes/campervans picked-up at these locations must be
returned to one of these locations — and one-way costs between these
depots are quite high, as our online software will delineate.
Pick-up (or return) is not possible directly at airports, city centers (i.e., downtowns) or rail stations.
You must make your own way to the depot locations.
Any indications to the contrary are misleading.
These depots are open for
standard pick-up Monday–Friday, 3 pm to 4 pm (i.e. weekday afternoons; until 5 pm April–September);
and
(for an EUR75 surcharge)
on Saturdays, 10 am to 11 am (except during the period October–March, when the depots are closed on Saturdays).
They are open for
standard return Monday–Friday, 9 am (10 am October–March) to 10 am (i.e. weekday mornings); and
(again, for an EUR75 surcharge) on
Saturdays, 9 am to 10 am (again, except during the period October–March, when the depots are closed on Saturdays).
A non-standard pick-up time entails an extra night's worth of cost.
The same is true of a non-standard return time.
(The vendor accounts for cost according to standard pick-up and return times
so that most vehicles can be prepared during regular business hours and
delivered to a client on the same day that the vehicle is returned by the
previous client. Thus the vendor doesn't lose out on renting that vehicle
for that night.) Moreover, a Monday morning pick-up entails charge
not only for the preceding Sunday night but also for the preceding Saturday night,
this because the vehicle must be prepped on Saturday morning and therefore cannot be
rented out on the Saturday and Sunday night.
Generally the depots are
open Monday–Friday 9 am to 5 pm, although
in the duration April–September they open at 8 am and close at 6 pm and are open Saturdays 9 am to 11 am.
Actual pick-up and return times, however, are constrained along the lines indicated in the previous paragraph.
Clients should not plan to park their own vehicle at the rental depot. At some
rental depots such parking is possible, but only if upon the pick-up occasion there happens to be room
on the depot grounds. Typically rental depot personnel can direct clients to optimal parking
solutions nearby the depot.
The vehicle should be returned clean inside,
with empty and clean toilet cassette, and be empty of luggage by the reserved return time.
(The rental company will clean the outside.)
It is not possible to order interior cleaning or emptying of the toilet cassette in advance,
and it is not possible for the client to clean the vehicle at the depot.
The vendor will charge a cleaning fee ranging from EUR100 if the vehicle is not returned clean as described above.
The vendor's fee for cleaning the toilet, if they have to, is EUR150.
If return occurs after the reserved return time, a charge
of EUR28 (up to the daily rate) will be levied for each extra such hour; and the customer will assume
responsibility for claims made against the rental company by subsequent renters
due to delay.
Any extension of the rental duration requires prior
authorization by the rental company; and no refunds are offered for early return of the rental vehicle.
Upon or after the return occasion, the vendor will charge to the client all traffic fines (including parking tickets) which the
rental vehicle received during the rental.
Upon returning the vehicle the client should report to the vendor any such fines
the client is aware of; but generally the client is responsible for
paying such a fine, even if the entity levying the fine reports it neither to client nor to vendor
until after the return occasion (relevant statutes of limitation notwithstanding).
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