As a long-time taxi drivers, meeting people from all around the world, we realized that a lot of times customers are misled when they wanted to reserve transportation from the airport to their destination. We have heard for a lot of different situations, like there is no driver waiting at the airport, excessive charging when passengers arrived at the address, a completely different vehicle class than it is booked and similar.
This are the most common complaints, and we will try to help you on which things you have to pay attention if you are traveling to one city for a first time.
Look for recommendations
First of all, always try to get some recommendations. Call your friends, if they have been there, and ask for an advice. If you don't know anybody who has been in the city you plan to travel, than of course internet and Google will give you a lot of information how to book an appropriate taxi for your airport transfer. But you have to be very careful, who to trust and how to book appropriate taxi service for your ride.
We advise you - safety must be your highest priority. If you start looking for the cheapest possible transportation, you can easily become a victim of some fake company, especially if you can't find any contact information on their website, just online booking form. As an association of private taxi drivers which is providing cheap taxi rides from airport Podgorica, we know well that at least one third of taxi offers for transfers from/to Podgorica airport at the internet, are absolutely not conected with any regular taxi company, or licensed taxi entrepreneur.
Look for recommendations on internet. In this case travel website TripAdvisor can be very, very useful. But also don't make your conclusion immediately, just after one good review you read about one provider. TripAdvisor is quite difficult to cheat, but also it can be found an ordered comments by a friends or relatives. But if you pay attention closer, and you see that comments are coming from different countries, it should be all right. Proven companies, especially those which are already a long time on the market, have their own TripAdvisor page. Usually they are visible somewhere on their website, that potential clients can read previous comments, or post their own after they use a service.
Always book at one of first five websites
Why this is important? The first five natural search results are the most relevant. Please do not count advertising, paid websites on the top of the page that are usually painted in a pink area, and have a sign adv. First couple of websites are generally the most visited sites, and they are with a reason in the top of search results. Usually that are the oldest sites, and if Google believe them, then you can also. This is not a general rule that you should always follow, but in a practice it shows as the most reliable. Here you can see TripAdvisor reviews about taxi from Podgorica airport, and to check how it looks like.
Don't pay online your airport transportation. Even if they are asking just a small commission, be very careful. You can do this only at the websites for which you know for a sure that they are proven and reliable. Even in such situations, reservation does not make a sense from a financial point of view. If you don't know why, please pay attention. The biggest websites are usually just an intermediaries between taxi companies and taxi service users. Their big advantage is that they have a good and large Web sites, usually in the search results appear above the local companies that have websites with just a few pages. Basically this type of reservation is reliable, you will have the driver at the airport, but you will pay at least 20 percent higher price than you get that you have booked contacting local company that drives you.
One little thing on which you maybe not pay attention, can help you a lot to distinguish whether you are on the site of a local taxi company, or on the site of an intermediary service provider. That is a phone number which must be somewhere on the site. Let's say that you want to book a taxi from some airport in Germany. If contact number is not starting with international country dialing (code for Germany +49) then you probably didn't find a website of taxi service in Germany.
Appropriate Vehicle
Ride by another class of vehicle than the one that is reserved is very often case that we have heard from our customers. Passengers are booking a taxi vehicle which suits the best to their airport pick up. Sometimes they simply need a comfort and nothing more, sometimes travelers require a car with big trunk, wagon car or minivan. At many websites you can see nice pictures of luxury cars, and reading the text you will find the option to book economy transportation. This is usually the cheapest solution, but unfortunately the worst if you need airport pick up for two or more persons with the luggage. Most often you will get very small city cars, which have no place in the trunk, and they are very uncomfortable to travel by rustic Montenegrin roads.
Always ask the operator which car they have to offer, and at what price. Also please indicate the number of persons and the number and the size of your bags. By that way you will you will let them in advance which car you actually need, and you will not be obliged to pay their arrival to the airport, in the case you need to cancel transportation because of inappropriate vehicle.