Why hire independent
Indie Hire lists owner-run vehicle hire businesses around New Zealand. Here's what booking with one of them gets you.
You deal with the owner
Every listing names the business behind it, and usually the person. When you have a question, you're asking someone who knows the vehicle, the roads and the time of year you're travelling. Will this car suit a winter crossing of the Crown Range? Where do you park it in town? Will that van fit at the campsite you've booked? You get an answer from someone who has done it, not someone reading from a script.
Room to work around your trip
Small operators can often bend in ways a big brand can't. A pickup at your accommodation, an early drop before a flight, the exact vehicle you saw in the photos rather than "or similar". It's always worth asking. If it can be done, they'll usually tell you how.
Book direct, with the terms up front
You book with the operator and pay them. Indie Hire doesn't take payment and isn't a party to your hire agreement, so there's no middle layer between you and the people looking after you. Each operator sets their own price, inclusions and terms, and you see them before you commit.
Listings in a fair order
Results aren't sorted cheapest-first, and operators can't pay Indie Hire to sit at the top. How results are ordered.
Your hire stays local
The business you hire from is based where you're travelling. Your booking pays local wages, gets spent in local shops and keeps a small business going in a town that relies on visitors.
Meet the people behind the fleets.