It seems like every day another new travel website is being touted as being the "best" place to go when booking travel on-line. There are literally thousands of sites out there, and it's often tough to know which ones stand out when it comes to getting a good deal or making your life a little easier. Being a travel industry insider as the founder of AutoSlash.com, people often ask me what travel sites I find most useful. The question has come up enough that I decided to share my share my go-to list.

Shopping for a car rental online can often be a confusing process. One of the choices consumers often face is whether to make a standard reservation in which you usually don't provide your payment information up front, but instead pay at the rental counter, or a prepaid rental in which you pay in full at the time the reservation is made. Is prepayment worthwhile for the average rental? Can you get a better deal this way? Let's take a look at the various options to find out.

You've probably been there before. You're standing at the car rental counter, and the agent is trying to terrify you into purchasing an insurance package that totals more than the rental itself. After all, they're not getting rich off that super $10/day deal that you snagged on-line.

Before you dismiss the pitch with a wave though, and initial eight times in the 'DECLINE' section of rental agreement, there are some things you probably should consider to ensure sure you're adequately protected in the event of an accident. Here's a quick guide to covering your bases when renting in the U.S. (policies outside the U.S. vary greatly).

When it comes to renting a car, there are some people who'd be perfectly happy with little more than a cardboard box and four wheels if it got them where they were going, while others have specific preferences about make, model, color and the condition of the vehicle. If you fall in into the cardboard box camp, you can probably stop reading now, but if you'd like to find out how to have a choice in vehicle selection when it comes to your next rental, then read on.

Ah Florida… The land of sun, sand and theme parks is the top destination state in the country. It attracts over 80 million visitors a year, and tourism is the biggest contributor to the state economy. Orlando is also the largest airport rental market in the world, so it's no wonder then that car rental companies are all angling for a piece of this pie.

Head to the car rental counters in the major Florida airports, and you'll find all the usual suspects there—Hertz, Avis, Dollar, Thrifty, Enterprise and Alamo to name just a few. You'll also find many of the discount brands and smaller regional players both on and off airport. What you wouldn't have found until very recently though, is one of the largest car rental companies in Europe, nor the #6 ranked company in U.S. car rentals by market share.

Let's take a look at these two players and see what they bring to the table.