by Eric Hartley was hoping to start a 10-day holiday ready to hand over €309 (£260) for his hire car at Milan Bergamo airport last month, only to be told his booking could not be processed .
The reason? The name on his booking – Eric Hartley – did not match the name on his passport and driving licence: Eric James Hartley. Although he was not asked for his middle name when booking through aggregator website stressfreecarrental.com, and had the same name on his credit card as the booking, staff from rental firm OK Mobility said it was not they can go on.
His experience shows the headaches tourists can suffer even before their annual break begins.
Hartley’s only solution at the time was to cancel and rebook – but at a cost of €514 (£433) instead of €309. “If the UK system, where I put the booking, didn’t require a middle name, most people, like me, probably wouldn’t have added it, so they’d be facing the same problem,” he says. .
OK Mobility says it regrets the inconvenience caused and says the booking – which is “unusual” – was refused due to “security standards”. These require details to be the same across the booking and on passports, driving licenses and credit cards. They continued to claim that the replacement booking fee of €514 included a damage waiver and roadside assistance, although Hartley claims he was not offered an option without them.
Stressfreecarrental.com apologized, refunded a separate booking fee of £25, and refunded the difference in the cost of the two bookings. He says: “Some of our car hire providers don’t accept middle names in their booking forms due to the way their technology is set, but others do. Not all car rental providers are specific in their terms and conditions about the need to include middle names in bookings, either.”
When a problem arises, reservations are usually amended. “Unfortunately, in this case, the reservation could not be amended,” the site says.
The Hartley holiday experience got off to a frustrating start. So what can consumers do to ensure that their holiday car rental goes as smoothly as possible?
When you make a book
Going through the various aggregator websites should mean you get a clear picture of the many local and international rental companies, and what they have to offer.
Skyscanner, Carrentals.co.uk, Kayak and many others will break down the deals, usually with details on fuel policy and whether you have to travel from the airport to collect the vehicle.
One of the most important things to check is whether there is free cancellation – usually up to 48 or 72 hours before the booking starts. This means you can keep monitoring sites to get a better deal by canceling and rebooking as often as you like before the holiday. For example, an SUV in Los Angeles for 20 days in August cost £725 when booked in April. Just over three weeks later, that was down to £544.
Often, car hire vehicles can be reduced at the last minute as the hire companies do not want to be left with unused stock. So consumers can keep looking until the free cancellation period ends to get the best deal.
Prices have been very erratic in recent years. Last year, holidaymakers had to pay 60% more than before the pandemic. A study by iCarhireinsurance, which provides excess insurance, showed that although costs are falling, they are still higher than five years ago. It now costs an average of £380 a week to hire a compact family car such as a VW Golf, based on a study of 12 countries, and in 2019 it was £310.
Who to book with
There are any number of car rental companies – from famous international names, such as Hertz, Sixt and Thrifty, as well as smaller local operators, who often come in with lower prices.
There can be big price differences between the major operators, says Ben Wooltorton of iCarhireinsurance. “Prices can vary by over £200,” he says. “The biggest price difference was in a survey in Nice, where Hertz quoted £593 for a compact medium car – for example, a VW Golf or Ford Focus – for a week, while Sixt quoted just £381.” He says that people in general feel more protected if they stick to well-known brands.
UK and EU residents who hire a car in Europe can go to the European Hire Car Conciliation Service (ECRCS) to complain if they have a problem, and have been dealt with by the company’s complaints procedure . It deals with cross-border rentals and applies to the companies signed up to the scheme: Thrifty, Dollar, Alamo, National, Firefly, Sixt, Europcar, Enterprise, Avis, Budget, Hertz and Maggiore.
Excess insurance costs
You will usually be provided with some level of insurance when you hire a car but you will need an ‘excess’, or initial amount, which can rise to thousands of pounds if the car is involved in an accident or damaged.
Car hire companies will often try to sell you insurance to cover these excesses, but it can be very expensive. Instead, it’s worth buying a stand-alone policy, which usually comes in at a fraction of the cost. These can be purchased for one or more trips. The cost depends on where you are traveling and how many days a year.
Annual European excess policies start at around £30, according to aggregator site Moneymaxim. There may be limits on the amount that can be claimed in one incident, such as £10,000 on a £32 policy from the Leisure Guard.
Avoid extra fees
If the rental policy says you have to return the car full of fuel, be sure to fill it up a few miles from the airport, says Mo Lindsay of Holiday Extras, which provides parking and holiday insurance services, as “petrol stations at the office. airport often marked up significantly”.
If you’re thinking of renting a satnav, remember that your phone is another free option – through apps like Google Maps and Waze, among others.
And remember that rental companies will usually require a credit card to take a deposit for any damage, so make sure it’s in the driver’s name.
