Is Brad Rees this summer’s unluckiest holiday car renter? Rees paid £364 to hire a car for his family’s two-week summer holiday in Sardinia, using online agent Holiday Autos. Things started to go wrong when the family arrived at Bristol airport, with the flight delayed by two hours. But it got worse when they finally touched down in Sardinia.
At the carousel in arrivals, the suitcase belonging to Rees’s wife Frances failed to show up. It turned out – 45 minutes after scouring the airport – that another couple had wrongly picked up the bag. They eventually found them bickering with a car hire agent on the other side of the airport.
By the time the Rees family joined the queue at their car hire rental desk, they were two and a half hours late, but it was only 4.30pm. Then, they were hit by the first bombshell. InterRent, Holiday Auto’s agent in the airport, said that, because they were late, there would be no car, not today, not tomorrow, and no refund. Because they were late, their contract was no longer valid, and the £364 would not be returned. The InterRent agent simply shrugged and said nothing could be done.
Rees immediately rang Holiday Autos in the UK. But he was told it was in the terms and conditions, and that there was nothing they could do about it. Rees, who ironically runs a consumer insights company, asked to speak to a Holiday Autos manager but was told “she didn’t want to speak to him”.
A hire car was essential for the Rees family holiday – they had booked a villa – so they had no choice but to find a last-minute alternative. At the Goldcar desk, they were told they could hire its only remaining and suitable car which, once the extra insurance had been added, cost €931 – almost £800 at the time.
Luckily, the rest of the holiday went smoothly – until Rees returned the vehicle to Goldcar. “Two weeks later, I dropped off the car to be met with loads of couples arguing with staff about the damage that they were alleged to have done. I handed back my keys and was told my €92 fuel deposit – in itself exorbitant – would be refunded automatically.”
The family returned to England but, a few days later, Rees checked his credit card statement for the €92 refund. “They took €150 from the credit card for ‘major cleaning’ – even though there was a just a bit of sand in the footwells. I just couldn’t believe it.”
Rees related his tale to friends and found that, while his experience was particularly bad, nearly everyone had some sort of similar gripe.
“Everyone was totally gobsmacked when I told them that Holiday Autos had refused to refund me the money I’d paid to book the car. However, almost everyone I spoke to had a terrible story to tell about hiring a car … You have to wonder when car hire became such a battle.”
In fairness to Goldcar, it refunded €120 of the cleaning charge to Rees after he complained. It said: “We have found that our internal notification process has not been followed correctly and the amount of time and work necessary to clean the car was not correctly evaluated.”
Back in England, Rees took up his case again with Holiday Autos, but was shocked to find a flat refusal to refund the £364. In an email, it said: “I regret that you were unable to use the car rental booking you made through Holiday Autos. Every effort is made to accommodate changing pick-up times, but the car rental agent is not always in a position to hold a vehicle after the pick-up time has passed or to keep the rental desk open. At Holiday Autos, our customer is our primary concern, but we must stand by the rental terms and conditions that you agreed to at the time of booking. For this reason, I am not able to offer a refund”
Holiday Autos’ stance is likely to horrify the thousands of UK buyers who book with it every year and, through no fault of their own, might arrive at a car rental desk late because of a flight delay.
Guardian Money took up Rees’ case with Holiday Autos, and the happy ending is that it has refunded the money as a goodwill gesture. But it makes plain that other holidaymakers could face a similar bill.
A spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring customer communication is as clear as possible, however additional charges around late pick-up [are] clearly outlined in the booking voucher documentation and rental agreement. To further mitigate against situations such as this, we also clearly recommend inputting flight details at the time of booking, which automatically alerts the car rental desk around unforeseen delays.
‘We advise all our customers to review their rental voucher document and familiarise themselves with the policies outlined. As a gesture of goodwill, we will issue a full refund as compensation for the effort in bringing this case to our attention.”
