Price Drop ProtectorAt first I kind of wanted to complain. I was checking car rental prices in Yerevan in Armenia and they kept changing. Sometimes cheaper, sometimes suddenly more expensive. It made me a bit annoyed. This time I booked a car with QEEQ. I chose an Autounion car, a Skoda Rapid automatic, four doors and five seats, for my trip in mid July. When I placed the booking I kept thinking, will the price go up again or go down again. Do I have to keep watching it every day. Then something happened that surprised me a little. One day I opened my email and saw a message that said the price of my booking had changed. My first reaction was, did they charge me more. I felt nervous. So in my mind it was like a little Q and A. First question, did something go wrong. I checked the order number and saw it was my Yerevan booking. Next question, did the price go up or did it go down. I read more and saw the answer. It was because of Price Drop Protector. The price went down and they made a new booking for the same car and gave me back the extra money. I saw the difference was a bit over ten dollars. Then I asked myself, did I just earn money for nothing. The answer was yes. I did not do anything. I did not compare prices. I just booked the car like normal. Later when the price dropped they sent the money back to me. That day I sat at my computer and was a bit stunned for a moment. Then I felt happy. I even counted how many meals that ten plus dollars could buy me in Armenia. I imagined myself at the airport in Yerevan, maybe around the afternoon on July thirteenth, walking with my luggage to the Autounion counter. I see the Skoda Rapid parked there, the car body a little shiny under a clear sky. The staff at the counter hands me the key. In my head I ask another question. How much did I really pay for this car. Then I answer myself. It is less than the first price I saw, because there was a quiet price drop in the middle. I like this kind of feeling. It is not a big surprise. It is more like a calm feeling that I saved money. I do not need to refresh the page every day and watch the price. They check it for me in the background. When the price moves I save a bit more. When I plan the return I already count the whole rental cost. I think I will return the car around the afternoon of July nineteenth. The sun is still up, the city lights are just starting to turn on. When I park the car and walk away I replay the story in my head. At the start I was annoyed by the changing prices. Later I got the price difference back without doing anything. I thought it was just a normal booking. But because of Price Drop Protector there was a small extra story after the booking. I asked myself, if there was no this service, would I rebook when the price dropped. Maybe not. I am lazy and I also might not see the price drop at the right time. So the ten plus dollars is money that normally would not exist for me, but now it really came into my budget. For an overseas traveller like me this kind of auto saving feels important. Travel costs always move. Sometimes I stay one more day in a city. Sometimes I go to another place. Extra costs keep adding up little by little. At least for the car rental they help me watch the price so I do not need to worry about every small change. I told my friends about this too, in the same Q and A style. My friend asked me, is this thing really useful. I said, yes, my Yerevan booking really got cheaper and they sent me money back. My friend asked, did you need to apply for it. I said, no, I did nothing, they just handled it. My friend asked again, will you use this next time. My answer was simple. Yes. I think this auto refund feeling is nice for someone like me who does not enjoy checking price details. I also asked myself, did I take advantage of the system. My answer is that it is not a big win, but it is a small and comfortable saving. When I stand on the street in Yerevan in the evening and watch the cars getting fewer and the sky getting darker, I think I will remember this story. I will ask one more question in my head. Why did I choose them. And my answer will be very simple. Because with Price Drop Protector I paid less money and I worried less too.
