Using the world's best mobile-first car rental service: I loved it!

Here's my experience of how I saved about 400% of the standard car hire cost and got to experience one of the world's best mobile-first car hire services.

When we moved to Denmark back in 2016, we sold our car. Or, more accurately, we 'gave it back' to the leasing company. I'm wondering now - 6 years on - if it wouldn't have been cheaper to continue to lease the car and store it at my parents. More on that later.

We need a car when we're in the UK because we're visiting friends and family mostly. We have to drive across the country to see everyone.

I took to using Sixt to rent a car since there was a special deal for customers of Scandinavian Airlines EuroBonus members. This meant that we got used to visiting the Sixt branch just outside Heathrow Airport's Terminal 2/3/4. Sometimes, if we flew with British Airways from Denmark to Terminal 5, we'd use the Sixt branch 'on site' via the Sofitel Hotel connected to the terminal. But mostly we got used to the minibus-to-the-branch experience.

And we've done this a few times from Muscat, too - since Oman Air also arrives into Heathrow's Terminal 2, Sixt was an obvious and familiar choice.

Given there's 5 of us, usually with a lot of baggage, we used to opt for a big car. This was always eyewatering when it came to the rental fee, but it was always just-about-doable. The cost was, in my eyes, just-about-fair. Plus, I've been a regular long-term customer of Sixt. Sometimes I would buckle at the branch when they asked the 'do you want to insure the tyres' (etc.) but more recently I just answered a flat no to everything apart from the standard insurance.

We travelled back to the UK in October and then December last year. The first time we used Sixt. The second time, the prices had turned crazy - "Christmas" I assumed, and we managed to arrange a short-term lease sponsored by my UK resident bother (thank you Fraser). All was 'ok'.

And then came our trip in April this year.

Every single car rental site was quoting astronomical figures for the period of time we were in the UK. Sixt was 6,500 GBP for about 12-14 days. Everyone else - all the other well known brands, were very similar.

Yes, I was looking for a 'big car' so I was expecting to pay four figures, but not 6.5k.

More informed colleagues have since explained the considerable challenges that the car rental industry has been facing getting stock for all sorts of various Covid and silicon-related supply chain issues.

The output was... I needed to buy a car. Or something. I needed to be able to get around the UK.

And that's when I wondered... 'what about that car app service I read about?'

I confess I couldn't quite remember their name. My first attempt was Trivago. Nope. Then I hit upon Turo. "Is this it???" I wondered. No.

And then I found it: Virtuo.

Yes, my dear reader, Virtuo was the solution.

I quickly queried their system and found a Mercedes GLA-2020 (like a mini SUV) for about 650 GBP for two weeks. Now you're talking, I thought.

I investigated further... it's a fully app-enabled car rental experience.

When I write 'fully', I do mean fully. Ground up, they've made the whole thing work from your phone.

And, dear reader, it is a masterpiece of a service.

You can rent for the hour, half day, or the like - or you can do as I did and rent for a longer period. Pricing is clear, simple and clearly less affected by the issues the incumbent car rental companies are facing.

Now, this wasn't a top of the range SUV I was renting - just to be fair to the incumbent rental companies. But they were charging in the region of 2,500 GBP for an equivalent mini-SUV like this Mercedes, so I was still making a substantial saving.

The only challenge? I wanted to drive around Hampshire. The car itself - or the cars - are located in and around the city of London. So I resolved that we would get a taxi from the airport to our place in Hampshire and then I would get the train into London the next morning and pick up the car.

And that's exactly what I did. I selected Waterloo Station as my desired pick-up location. Booking was incredibly simple. Tap, tap and done. I paid by credit card. I uploaded a copy of my driving license and the Virtuo system approved me. I even added my wife as an additional driver. She got a prompt to upload her driving license and was swiftly approved. All mobile-first.

Aided by frequent text messages from the Virtuo system, I located the car garage and found the car.

I followed the in-app instructions to document the state of the car - it was in great condition with no damage - but nevertheless I took a few photos via the app to confirm.

Then, with a slight hesitation, I pressed 'unlock' on the app.

Tah-dah. The car unlocked. All via Bluetooth. All instantaneous, seamless, easy, smart.

I loved it.

I had brought a spare lead to plug-in my iPhone to the car's entertainment system. I didn't need to. There was already one there, ready for me.

I started the engine and drove off. 90 minutes later I was at home in Hampshire.

The little GLA stayed with us for 3 weeks. Owing to a family emergency, we had to extend our trip by a week. I did this on the app with 3 taps - including paying for the additional week. Astonishingly good.

Using the app to lock and unlock the GLA became routine. At the farm shop, I would get out of the car then tap the lock button on the phone as I walked away. Seamless. Then as I neared the car, I would tap unlock. To the untrained eye it looked like I was just checking messages on my phone.

Virtuo is available in France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the UK. In the UK this means London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh at the moment.

If you're thinking about renting a car in these countries (in the major metropolitan areas), I would strongly recommend you take a look at Virtuo.

Clearly, the team behind the service have employed some of the best customer experience, user experience and mobile development engineers in the business. You really cannot be making mistakes or dropping the ball when it comes to automating the whole car rental business - you need to be able to get into the car, unlock it - and do the basics really easily, otherwise frustration will mount really quickly.

I was very, very impressed with the standard of the whole experience, and chiefly the way they have created a fantastic mobile-first service.

Really nice work Virtuo. I will be using your service again!