Car Hire Finder: every hire car price for your dates, the best ones checked

Enter the city or airport, when you collect and return the car, the driver's age, how many people and bags. It searches Discover Cars for those exact times and returns every offer it can read: the full-rental total, price per day, class, gearbox, seats, bags, mileage, fuel policy, deposit, excess and free cancellation, with a link to each offer.

Cars that do not seat your party or fit your bags are flagged, the cheapest that fits comes first, and the three best prices are re-opened on their own offer pages and checked: a quote whose price, dates or car changed is dropped, never shown as checked.

What you get

Field	What it holds
Every offer	Supplier, car, class, gearbox, seats, bags, doors, air-con, mileage and fuel policy.
The real price	Full-rental total for your times, price per day, deposit and excess as stated.
Party fit	Seats and bags against your party; the cheapest that fits first.
Checked prices	The best three re-read on their offer pages (priceVerifiedAgainstOfferPage).
Picks	Cheapest in each class, cheapest party fit, best-rated supplier.

What people use it for

• Holidaymakers: Compare every car at the airport for your exact flight times before you book.
• Travel agents: Quote clients a checked rental price in one run.
• Apps and AI agents: A live car hire price feed by API for trip planners and chatbots.

How to use it

1. Enter the city, where you pick up, and the dates and times.
2. Add the driver's age, passengers and bags.
3. Run it: every offer comes back cheapest-that-fits first, the best three checked on their offer pages.

Input

Field	Example	Notes
City	Cape Town	Where you collect the car.
Pick-up at	airport	airport, city, or an airport code such as CPT.
Pick-up / return	2026-12-12 14:00 / 2026-12-17 12:00	Same place; at most 60 days.
Driver's age, lives in	35, ZA	Young-driver rules and prices depend on them.
Passengers, suitcases	4, 2	Cars that do not fit are flagged.
Currency	ZAR	Prices are in this currency.

Output

Each result is one row in the run's dataset (download it as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or read it through the API). An example row (values shortened):

{
  "kind": "car",
  "rank": 1,
  "supplier": "Example Car Hire",
  "carName": "Example compact hatchback",
  "carClass": "economy",
  "transmission": "manual",
  "seats": 5,
  "bags": 2,
  "priceTotal": 1410.84,
  "currency": "ZAR",
  "pricePerDay": 282.17,
  "rentalDays": 5,
  "mileage": "unlimited",
  "freeCancellation": true,
  "partyFit": true,
  "luggageFit": true,
  "priceVerifiedAgainstOfferPage": true,
  "pick": [
    "Cheapest party fit in class"
  ],
  "url": "https://example.com/offer"
}

Example row from a real Cape Town airport search on 19 October 2026 (100 offers, cheapest that fits R1,401, three prices checked); supplier and car names were replaced. SUMMARY records the rental, the search link, offers seen and parsed, and each price check.

Pricing

• $0.49 per completed search (one event, however many offers it returns).
• A search that returns no priced offer is free.

What typical jobs cost at the list price:

Job	Cost
One airport search	$0.49
Ten date options	$4.90
No offers found	$0

On Apify's Scale and Business plans the per-event prices are lower (Store discounts). Set Maximum cost per run and the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached: you never pay more than that.

Tips

• Use the exact flight times: rental days are counted from them.
• Give the airport code when a city has several airports.
• Set the driver's country: some prices depend on residence.

Use it through the API

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("zaiq/car-hire-finder").call(run_input={"city": "Lisbon", "pickUpPlace": "airport", "pickUpDate": "2027-03-15", "dropOffDate": "2027-03-20", "passengers": 2, "currency": "EUR"})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row)

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('zaiq/car-hire-finder').call({"city": "Lisbon", "pickUpPlace": "airport", "pickUpDate": "2027-03-15", "dropOffDate": "2027-03-20", "passengers": 2, "currency": "EUR"});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

HTTP (one call, results back)

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/zaiq~car-hire-finder/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"city": "Lisbon", "pickUpPlace": "airport", "pickUpDate": "2027-03-15", "dropOffDate": "2027-03-20", "passengers": 2, "currency": "EUR"}'

Integrations and schedules

• Schedules: run it every hour, day or week from the Apify Console (Schedules) and keep a history of results.
• Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack, Airtable: connect it through Apify's integrations, or send each finished run to a webhook.
• Datasets: results stay in the run's dataset; export them or read them by API whenever you need them.

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

Add Apify's MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com) to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client. The agent can find this Actor and run it for you: ask it for "Find the cheapest automatic hire car that fits four people at Cape Town airport from 12 to 17 December". AI agents can also pay for runs directly through Apify's agentic payments.

Limits

• No login, CAPTCHA solving or forged challenge tokens; a source can withhold public data, and the run says so.
• Prices are public snapshots for your dates and party, not held reservations; check again before booking.
• Included insurance terms are not in the search results; read them on the offer page.
• Same-location return only.

FAQ

Does it book the car?

No. It finds and checks prices; you book on the offer page.

Why only three prices checked?

Each check opens the offer page; three keep a search quick and cheap. Every other price is the search result as shown.

Related Actors from Zaiq

• holiday-planner: the whole holiday in one run: stays, days, car hire, experiences and a budget

Support

Questions, a site that changed, or a field you need? Open an issue on this Actor's Issues tab: we answer there, usually within a day.

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Also found as: car hire, car rental prices, rental car comparison, airport car hire, cheap car rental, car rental API.