Car hire

A question about : Car hire

I've hired maybe 30 cars this year. Even by my own standards that's quite a lot.

Having used almost all of the big players and some of the smaller ones I've learnt a lot. Hiring a car has its risks and I've encountered most of them this year. Here then is my experience and hopefully some tips so that your next hire is smooth and painless.

Price:
A quick look on brokerage sites/aggregators such as travelsupermarket.co.uk, rentalcars.com and others and you'll see some really cheap deals. Are they too good to be true? Sometimes yes, but not always. The cheapest I have paid in Europe is actually right here in the UK, where you can hire a basic 2 door mini car (fiat 500 or similar) for less than Ј7 a day with no extras. In order to get this price though there are some basic rules you need to apply: Check what's included and once you've checked check again. If you make any change to your search or booking make sure you review again before committing. Does the rate you see include unlimited or at least the desired number of miles? A good way for a hire company to make a profit is to apply the Ryanair effect - go in cheap then pile on the extras. A per mile / KM price or a very low included milage is one of the ways hire firms do this. Is insurance included? In the EU this is mandatory however you may find that you inadvertently select additional insurance which will bump up the price and you may not know this until you collect or return the vehicle. What is the fuel policy? Is there a cleaning fee? You can see more of this in the Fees section below.

Damage and Insurance:
It's something we all dread; returning your hire car with undocumented damage that could cost you a small fortune. In almost every case the hire company will take a deposit to cover any damage and retain your card details in the event that you need to pay even more. I found the lowest deposits to be with Enterprise and Avis (between Ј50 and Ј100 for me) and the highest to be with Green Motion who wanted an incredible Ј1000 deposit. The only way to reduce this is to buy additional insurance which may reduce both your deposit and your excess but may increase the rental cost hugely. For example a 24 hour hire of a mini car from London Gatwick can come in at less than Ј10! Add insurance to that and the price may increase to Ј16 - that's a 60% increase. My tip would be to take out your own insurance policy (can cost from around Ј30 a year) to cover any excess and check deposit requirements before booking.

When you pick up a vehicle generally you are expected to check it for damage. This isn't always possible. Most of the big players will provide you with a number to call the following day if you find any undocumented damage. Given that you may be collecting your vehicle at night or during inclement weather I strongly recommend you re-check your vehicle in daylight. I have had to call for both damage, and incorrect fuel levels and have not had any issue.

Remember when you return the vehicle that not all companies are the same. What one company would class as damage, another may class as fair wear and tear. I was amazed to return a vehicle to Enterprise only to be told that there was a mark in the tyre which would require it to be replaced. Cost to me in excess of Ј200. Most people would consider tyres as consumable items which would be covered under the fair wear and tear policy. In this case no. More annoying was that the mark (or cut) was invisible to the naked eye, hence it could very well have been there upon collection and only a very keen eye (or a hire car receiving agent) would spot it. Despite arguing this point in this instance I had no choice but to accept liability since the office manager clearly outlined the multi-point checks carried out which would have ensured that no vehicle would be hired in this condition. Fast forward a week and at the same depot I was collecting another vehicle which amazingly had an illegal tyre fitted with a cut far larger than the one they had charged me for. Having hit the roof and declined the vehicle a swift conversation with the area manager resulted in the refund of my previous Ј200 charge.

Returning a vehicle to Thrifty at London Heathrow I was amazed that they found damage despite me having been careful to check it multiple times - including when I dropped it off. I insisted on checking this with the agent and when outside he lay on his back on the floor and shuffled under the car. The damage was to the front skirting under the bumper. Neither I nor the checkout agent had seen this - nor would we have unless we were performing an in depth inspection far beyond that which anyone else may do. Having refused to accept responsibility I requested that they re-check their records whereupon the damage was located logged on a previous return but not documented anywhere else.

Fees:
In a recent article in an in flight magazine a rental office manager wrote about how he requested a demotion to rental agent. The reason for this was simple - fees. In many cases the agent may make commission on every extra they sell, from car seats for kids to insurance and sat navs. But before we get to those there are some fees that are very well hidden. Firstly those rental aggregators that search for the best deals and then come up with some incredible prices. In the main there will be a disclaimer somewhere in the small print to the effect that ' the price you pay excludes any extras chargeable by the rental location'. Now that's a very broad comment which leaves you potentially open to some horrendous fees. One which almost stung me was the one way fee. A search in an aggregator (rentalcars.com) produced a quote for my one way rental from Gatwick to London City airport. The final rental agreement indicated that this price was final and fully inclusive with the exception of any additional fees chargeable by the rental location. Fast forward to collection and I was presented with an Ј80 one way fee. In this instance I had a document that stated my collection and drop off details and the final price. This was enough to threaten legal action since the price received and documented was related to my pre-specified one way requirements. The rental company (Europcar) backed down immediately and refunded my costs. With the advent of smartphones GPS systems are almost redundant. Even buying an application for your phone may work out cheaper than the cost of renting a unit from your hire company, and even better you get to keep it. Better still if you have internet connection (check cost if abroad) then google maps navigation is often perfectly sufficient, and it's free.

Child seats are another major earner for rental companies. A typical seat may cost Ј60-Ј100 to buy but can be rented out at Ј7 a day. At that rate they could make more from child seat rental than for the rental of the vehicle. Personally I bring booster seats from home that most airlines (including budget airlines) will allow you to check in free of charge, and save a fortune in fees. The other alternatives are to buy one on arrival (still cheaper than hiring) or to make use of one of the many child equipment hire companies that have sprung up in recent years.

Insurance is the biggest earner for rental companies. Want to bring down that excess or reduce your deposit? Then pay ЈX per day on top of your agreed rental for that additional peace of mind. Personally I purchase annual excess insurance for around Ј30 a year which will cover me for any rental worldwide.

Fuel is the latest fee to resurface. I say resurface as this has been around for a while but died off as people cottoned on. The original premise was simple: pre-pay your full tank at below retail cost and not have to worry about filling up on your return. This is great if you have cash to burn or know that you will return with an empty tank but otherwise this is just throwing money away. Effectively whatever is left in the tank you are giving away free to the rental company. The newest version of this is the 'Collect quarter full, return empty' policy. This looks great when you see it pop up on the comparison sites. Collect a car with a quarter of a tank and you only have to return it empty. The catch (which you only see in the small print upon collection) is that when you arrive to collect the car you will have to pay for that quarter tank, upfront, and at the rental companies price.

Another fee making the rounds is the additional driver fee. Ant your partner to drive as well? That'll be around another Ј9 to Ј10 a day on top; a hefty add on in most cases.

Location:
Airport does not always mean airport. If you're hiring locally then this may not be an issue for you, whereas if you're travelling and hoping to pick up a car on your arrival then that location can be very important. When selecting an airport rental location I advise you to check whether the company has an desk / collection point either in the terminal or within the airport grounds. Many companies consider airport locations as anywhere nearby and actually getting to the office or collection point can involve a shuttle bus, or even worse a long and arduous public transport ride to a remote location. Many of the cheaper rental companies do this. With small children in tow I tend to refuse off airport locations in favour of paying that little bit more to not have to spend 40 minutes waiting for a bus. I should single out Heathrow airport as a culprit here as there are almost no onsite hire companies with almost all now relegated to offsite offices - despite this almost all of the hire car aggregating sites will list them as onsite.

Sticking with Heathrow as an example the sheer number of people picking up cars can cause delays and picking up your vehicle minutes after passing through arrivals may be too much to ask for. I'm going to single out Alamo/Europcar here as the worst for customer service in my opinion and the only hire company I flatly refuse to hire with. Having been shuttled from T5 at Heathrow to their onsite/offsite location I waited so long for a hire car that I ended up having to pay for my wife and young children to get home by train and taxi. Ultimately I arrived home almost 3 hours after they did. That delay: Europcars horrendous inability to manage their customers. In fact when I (and many others) complained we were threatened with having our bookings cancelled. There's a lot more to that story but needless to say Europcar/Alamo managed to break every customer service rule ever written.

Aggregators and brokers:
There are lots of sites out there which promise to get you the best prices, but look closely before you commit. On a recent rental my rental 'confirmation' was no such thing; it was merely an email confirming my booking request and indicating that they would get back to me with the final booking confirmation within 72 hours. Effectively they were taking bookings that they were unable to confirm. In that instance they ultimately cancelled my booking as they couldn't get me the vehicle at the price they had promised and I was faced with a last minute rental at several hundred pounds more than I had originally paid. Another tip I have learnt is to call the office direct. On many instances it is clear that agents have the capacity to be very flexible on pricing - something you won't get online. It doesn't hurt to call up the rental office and check what their best offer is; it may be far better than you can get online.

Contract:
Who have you actually hired with? More importantly who do you need to contact if you have a problem? The example above of Europcars poor service was made even worse by the fact that they insisted that I held no contract with them. I had booked through eBookers.com and they insisted that it was through them that I complain. eBookers on the other hand insisted that any post service complaint was the responsibility of the hiring company. In their defence eBookers handled the incident very well indeed and gain top marks for good service but it's important to note that who your contract is with is different depending upon who you pay and when. For most rentals I have made either part payment of full payment at point of collection. Aggregators often take a 'deposit' payment which actually covers their commission. The remainder of the rental is payable upon collection and the agreement outlines this. Some of the larger sites take full payment up front, meaning that from that point your contract is with them and not the hire company.

Upgrades:
Some give them, some don't. Often the car you thought you were getting isn't the same as the car you get. All rental companies use vehicle classes and should always provide you a vehicle within the class that you ordered. Where a vehicle isn't available they should offer you one from the next available class. I always ask for a free upgrade. It doesn't hurt, and if there's a car available there's little reason why they shouldn't consider it. I almost always get one. To back this up I am a member of most of the loyalty schemes. They're free to join and in many cases even give you points or air miles - and better access to upgrades.

Alliances:
There actually aren't that many major hire companies. Many have been acquired or merged but retain their own 'Brand', hence while their proposition may change you may get premium service from a more budget brand. Avis for example the the owners of Budget. Europcar own Alamo and National, Thrifty own Dollar Rent a Car . Pretty much the only major players who are standalone are Enterprise, Hertz and Sixt.

Best answers:

• WOW. So much useful information in one post. Thanks for spending the time to write it.