The holiday car rental minefield
January 18, 2010
A recent magazine article has described the holiday car hire industry as a
minefield, with some car hire firms using potentially unfair terms in their
contracts while others provided little or no information on terms of conditions
on their websites.
The article mentioned the names of three car rental firms Europcar,
Enterprise and Hertz, which had clauses if customers could not return the keys
of a vehicle that has been stolen, they would be liable for the full value for
the car.
The magazine said that in the event of a carjacking, the customer would have to
pay for the full cost of the vehicle. The magazine also found that two other
car hire firms Avis and Enterprise had no information about the terms and
condition of rental on their websites, leaving consumers unable to read all the
contractual information prior to booking online.
Researchers found it difficult to compare the cost of the car hire as many
firms did not include the full cost of waivers and extras on their websites.
One of the researchers for the magazine article pointed out that while hiring a
car for your holiday may seem like a good idea, research undertaken has shown
that it could be a minefield. Trying to work out the bottom line price you pay,
the insurance needed and what is or isnt included can be confusing that most
consumers just sign the contract, pay for the car and hope for the best.
Eight companies were investigated in the research Avis, Alamo, Budget,
Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz, National and Sixt, and looked at the terms and
conditions for hiring a car at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Londons
Heathrow Airport.
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