By the hour or the day
Private chauffeured services
Sometimes you do not need a transfer — you need a car, a chauffeur and the freedom to change your mind at three o’clock. That is what hourly, as-directed hire is for.
Transfer or hourly?
The rule of thumb: more than two stops, book hourly
A point-to-point transfer is priced as one journey. The moment you add a wait, a detour or a second destination, transfer pricing starts working against you — and you spend the day re-booking cars instead of doing what you came to do.
| Situation | Book as | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Airport to hotel, nothing else | Transfer | One fixed price, no clock running. |
| Four meetings across a city in a day | Hourly | The car waits between stops; no re-booking, no surge. |
| Dinner with an uncertain finish time | Hourly | You are not committed to a return time you cannot predict. |
| Shore excursion from a cruise pier | Hourly | The chauffeur stays with your bags and your schedule all day. |
| Wedding party across three venues | Hourly | Multiple short legs and long waits, priced once. |
| City-to-city with one stop en route | Transfer + stop | Still one journey; we add the stop to the quote. |
| Same chauffeur every weekday | Monthly retainer | Cheaper than daily hourly hire and gives you continuity. |
What is included
What an hourly booking actually gets you
The chauffeur stays
No dismissal between stops and no re-dispatch. The same person drives you all day, learns your preferences by lunchtime, and keeps your belongings in the car while you are out of it.
The route is yours
Add a stop, cut one, reverse the order. As-directed means the itinerary is a suggestion, not a contract. Only the finish time affects the price.
A three-hour minimum
Hourly hire starts at three hours in most cities, and five in a few where positioning distances are long. Below that a transfer is genuinely cheaper and we will say so.
Overtime by the quarter hour
Run over and the extension bills in fifteen-minute increments at the same hourly rate. There is no penalty multiplier for going long, because going long is the point.
Local knowledge, not a satnav
Chauffeurs working hourly in a city work it regularly. They know which hotel entrance is usable at 8am and which venue makes you walk four hundred metres from the drop-off.
Discretion as standard
Unmarked vehicles, no livery, no conversation unless you start one, and an NDA on request for commercially sensitive work.
Common uses
Who books by the hour
Executives on a city day. Three or four meetings, a lunch and an airport run at the end, all held by one car rather than five separate bookings.
Investor roadshows. A tight sequence of buy-side meetings where a ten-minute overrun cannot be allowed to cascade. See corporate accounts.
Cruise passengers on a port day. A private shore excursion built around what you want to see, with a hard return to the pier that we own rather than you.
Wedding parties. Multiple venues, long waits and a late finish — the classic case where hourly costs less than the transfers it replaces.
Production and press days. Talent held between commitments, covered on our film and sports page.
80 countries served by our own fleet and vetted affiliate operators
Reserve
Price an hourly booking
Choose the hourly option in the booker and set your start time and duration. Extend later if the day runs long.
Prefer to speak to someone? Call (877) 403-1177 or send us the details and a coordinator will quote it by email.