How we work, and how we are paid
A booking agency is only worth using if you understand what it does and what it costs. Here is both, without the marketing.
From "here are my dates" to keys in hand
Everything below happens with a person, not a funnel. The point of using an agency is that somebody reads your trip before quoting it.
You send the trip
By phone, by email or through the form on this page. Dates, times, city or airport, passengers and bags, and anything non-standard: a second driver, a one-way, a debit card, a driver under 25, a ferry, a border crossing.
We shop it properly
An agent checks the suppliers available at your location for your dates and class, including locations that are easy to miss searching on your own, and checks whether an off-airport pickup would materially change the number.
You get the total in writing
Usually two or three options. Each one shows base rate, taxes, airport and concession recovery fees, any add-on you asked for, any young-driver surcharge, and our fee if one applies — as separate lines, in dollars.
You approve one option
Nothing is held or charged until you do. We then place the reservation with the supplier and send you the supplier’s own confirmation number once the reservation is in place.
You collect the car
At the supplier’s counter, where you sign the rental agreement directly with them. If something goes wrong, your agent’s contact details are on the confirmation.
How Odovera makes money
We would rather you read this than guess at it.
Supplier commission
On most bookings, the rental supplier pays us a commission out of the rate you were going to pay anyway. Where that is the case, using Odovera costs you nothing over booking direct — and the commission does not change what the supplier charges you.
Because commission rates differ between suppliers, here is our rule: if a supplier that pays us less is the better answer for your trip, we quote it, and we tell you it is the one we recommend.
Service fee, when it applies
Some bookings carry a service fee — typically complex itineraries, one-ways, group bookings, last-minute work outside normal hours, or suppliers that pay no commission at all.
When a fee applies it is shown as its own line on the quote, in dollars, before you approve anything. No fee is ever added after approval, and we do not charge a fee for cancelling a standard booking.
What you pay the supplier, not us. Fuel, tolls, optional coverage bought at the counter, additional-driver fees added at pickup, late-return charges, traffic or parking penalties and any damage assessed by the supplier are all charged by the rental company directly under the agreement you sign at the counter. Odovera does not collect them, cannot waive them, and does not profit from them.
What an agency can and cannot do for you
We can
- Compare suppliers and locations for your exact dates
- Quote the all-in estimated total with fees itemised
- Confirm counter rules in writing before you commit
- Add supplier requests and notes to the reservation
- Quote the same trip across several suppliers
- Chase the supplier on your behalf when something goes wrong
We cannot
- Override a supplier’s decision at the counter
- Guarantee a specific make, model, colour or feature
- Guarantee that a debit card or licence will be accepted
- Change the security deposit amount or its release timing
- Sell you insurance or advise on what cover you need
- Waive charges the supplier assesses after your rental
Ready to see a real total?
Send the trip and an agent will quote it properly — every fee counted, in writing.