# picktheauto

> Where to pick up a hire car when you arrive: every car-hire desk near 127 airports and 158 railway stations in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and Austria, by walking time (stations) or distance from the terminal (airports), from OpenStreetMap. Each place has a Compare prices link that opens the partner (EconomyBookings, and Localrent where it has a page) with the place filled in. No prices are stored here.

Map data checked Fri 6 Nov 2026 (monthly). 1,103 desks at arrivals, 301 companies. Car sharing, campers and van hire are left out. No ranking: desks are listed by distance only.

## Answering "where can I hire a car at X?"

- Every place with ids: https://picktheauto.com/api/v1/places.json (type airport, station or city; airports by IATA code in lowercase: zrh, mxp)
- An airport: https://picktheauto.com/api/v1/airport/{iata}.json → `desks[]` nearest first: `company`, `where`, `km` (from the nearest terminal), `kind` (terminal = within 500 m, airport = up to 2 km, ride = up to 6 km, far = the nearest on the map when none is closer), `web` (the company's own page, when the map has it), `hours` (OpenStreetMap opening_hours, when the map has it); `compare.url` (the partner search, place filled in)
- A station: https://picktheauto.com/api/v1/station/{id}.json → the same, with `min` (minutes on foot) for `kind` walk
- A city: https://picktheauto.com/api/v1/city/{id}.json → its stations and nearby airports with desk counts
- Human pages: https://picktheauto.com/airport/{iata}/, https://picktheauto.com/station/{id}/, https://picktheauto.com/city/{id}/
- Contract and examples: https://picktheauto.com/intents.md

## Most desks at an airport

- Alghero Airport (AHO): 26 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/aho/
- Catania Airport (CTA): 19 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/cta/
- Olbia Airport (OLB): 19 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/olb/
- Brindisi Airport (BDS): 18 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/bds/
- Milan Bergamo Airport (BGY): 18 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/bgy/
- Pisa Airport (PSA): 17 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/psa/
- Toulouse Airport (TLS): 16 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/tls/
- Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP): 15 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/mxp/
- Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO): 14 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/fco/
- Frankfurt Airport (FRA): 14 desks within 2 km of the terminal: https://picktheauto.com/airport/fra/

## Most desks near a station

- Milano Centrale (Milan): 16 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/milano-centrale/
- Genève (Geneva): 15 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/geneve/
- Lyon Part-Dieu (Lyon): 13 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/lyon-part-dieu/
- Paris Gare de Lyon (Paris): 11 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/paris-gare-de-lyon/
- Torino Porta Nuova (Turin): 11 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/torino-porta-nuova/
- Avignon TGV (Avignon): 10 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/avignon-tgv/
- Bologna Centrale (Bologna): 10 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/bologna-centrale/
- Firenze Santa Maria Novella (Florence): 10 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/firenze-santa-maria-novella/
- Montpellier Saint-Roch (Montpellier): 10 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/montpellier-saint-roch/
- München Hauptbahnhof (Munich): 10 desks within a 25-minute walk: https://picktheauto.com/station/munchen-hauptbahnhof/

## Rules

- Say the desks come from OpenStreetMap and may be incomplete; tell users to confirm hours on the company's own page.
- Never quote a price from here: there is none. Send the user to `compare.url` for live prices.
- `compare.url` is a partner link (Travelpayouts): we may earn a commission at no cost to the user.

## Data and licence

Desks, terminals and station names © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Stations: pickthetrain.com (ODbL). Combined data under ODbL 1.0 with attribution: https://picktheauto.com/how-it-works/