Son and fiancee are on holiday on Corfu. Arrival was in early hours of today local time, 2-3 hours behind schedule, due to compounding delays on the orange airline's fleet. When they arrived the hire company's desk was closed with no obvious means of contact.
They got a taxi to their resort at a cost of E100.
Rang hire company, one of the brands owned by a well known international outfit, expecting them to offer to make good and perhaps deliver car to the resort - Kassiopi.
Err no. He's told there's a 30minute grace period after their booked pick up time beyond which they're treated as a no show. They can return to the airport and pick up a car but there is a charge of E100 to do so.
Decided to say sod the hire car and stay in resort using public transport etc.
Car was booked through Booking.com rather than directly with hire company which will no doubt make untangling it more complicated.
I'd be blowing my top with the UK end of the company but he's just sitting it out and enjoying his break.
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Tricky one though isn’t it. Booking.com brokered a contract with the airline and another with the car hire company. These are not the same businesses and can’t be held responsible for each other’s problems.
Then you have the car hire staff who will presumably have been rostered to work until a given time, probably on relatively low pay, and who will have their own personal lives to attend to outside of work.
The only really reasonable outcome would be a refund of any pre-paid car hire charges from Booking.com. If your bus is late and the pub is shut it’s not the landlord’s fault is it?
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>> Tricky one though isn’t it. Booking.com brokered a contract with the airline and another with
>> the car hire company. These are not the same businesses and can’t be held responsible
>> for each other’s problems.
Depends if Booking.com are an agent or not. If they are an agent then there is the chance that they are contracting on behalf of the hire car co.
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Looking online and it seems this is common.
EG www.theguardian.com/money/2019/aug/20/car-hire-airport-cost-delayed-cancelled-flight
Shoddy behaviour IMHO because they can easily check flight numbers to see if the flight was delayed - assuming of course one had been supplied with the booking.
Not expecting the staff to stay late but they should make the car available the next day for collection as it has been booked after all - especially if it hasn't been rented out to someone else.
I'd be looking through the T&Cs in detail when I returned to the UK with a view to claiming back from the credit card co if possible.
Last edited by: zippy on Thu 1 Aug 24 at 11:55
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>> I'd be blowing my top with the UK end of the company but he's just
>> sitting it out and enjoying his break.
>>
He sounds quite sensible, little point get worked up on holiday.
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Just one of those things surely. If you don’t turn up to pick up your car on time it’s not the car hire company‘s fault. Not every little misfortune is someone else’s fault.
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Maybe not. But a car hire company working from an airport is relying on its main business arriving and departing from the airport and as such should have processes in place for dealing with what will be inevitable delays.
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>> Maybe not. But a car hire company working from an airport is relying on its
>> main business arriving and departing from the airport and as such should have processes in
>> place for dealing with what will be inevitable delays.
>>
Last time I hired a car at an airport was for work. The flight was delayed by several hours and I got there well after closing.
One of the car hire desks stayed open with a sign for all other companies' customers to see them.
They had the little paper bags with the keys, car details and contracts in them from the original co.
I guess this was for prepaid bookings only and seemed sensible.
As FC states, they are at an airport. They should know customers can be late - even baggage collection can take a while.
If nothing else, the E100 charge is poor customer service.
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>> Just one of those things surely. If you don’t turn up to pick up your
>> car on time it’s not the car hire company‘s fault. Not every little misfortune is
>> someone else’s fault.
It's not about fault or a 'blame culture'; its about customer service.
You book a hire car to collect it at the airport after you arrive.
Delay, for any number of reasons, is commonplace on flights. At this time of year many of those to places like the Eastern Med basin leave the UK mid/late afternoon and, allowing for time zones that are BST+2 arrive late evening.
Treating pax who arrive on flights delayed, and the hire company know they're delayed, should not be treated as no shows and forfeit the money they paid in advance. That's nonsense; it just needs a system.
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I booked a hire car to the IOM. Flight was cancelled and we were bussed to another airport. I kept in touch with the (local) car hire firm, who stated they could see the problem and would be there when we (eventually) landed. It was a Sunday and I suspect the rep went home had their lunch. When we arrived, the rep was there and directed us to the car park round the corner (have you ever hired a car at IOM?). Brilliant, but try finding somewhere for a meal late on a Sunday outside of Douglas.
Loved the IOM, but soon became aware the national speed limit was NO limit!
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I must say 30 minutes before marking as no-show isn't a very long grace period at all. I often have guessed my arrival time when I book cars but I do make sure I always include my flight number where asked (it's usually an optional field in the booking somewhere), or update the booking later.
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Car Hire Trouble - Runfer D'Hills
