Holiday Autos Price Match - Bah Humbug

superhoop

Holiday Autos make the following bold and enticing claim on their website:

"In the unlikely event that you find a lower price elsewhere, holiday autos will match that price."

Well I put it to the test. I want an economy 4dr with ac for a week at the end of this month in Jerez, Spain.

Holiday Autos quote £141. Onairportcarhire.com quote £101 for the same car as their standard price.

I wanted to use HA since their customer service is usually pretty good. I phoned and emailed them to see if they would match.

Guess what - no, they would not drop the price at all. I asked why not given their website promise. The operator said that their supervisor would not authorise it. ???

Well, next time HA will be way down my list of sites to try. Looks like Onairportcarhire.com will get the business, unless anyone can recommend a better avenue? Onairportcarhire.com is part of Suncars, and so should be reputable.

How can HA, part of Lastminute.com, get away with outrageous claims which they are not willing to stand by? >:(

Any thougts/ideas?

Steve

vanoonoo

does the £101 standard price from onairport include all the things that are usually included in the holiday autos package?

superhoop

Hi Vanoonoo:

Here's a quote from the onairport website:

"Welcome to the onairportcarhire website!
With onairportcarhire.com, you'll be booking the lowest priced car rental online and with the peace of mind of knowing that all our prices are fully inclusive of insurance and ready to drive away the moment you arrive! All our airport offices are on site so there'll be no lengthy waits or transfers to collect your car!"

Also just found out that onairport actually belongs to First Choice, so looks perfectly reputable.

Cheers

Steve

vanoonoo

yeah - i am sure they are

it's and interesting contradiction isn't it - and I think you have grounds for taking it further with holiday autos, on principle.

However, be very sure that you are comparing like for like, make sure that you have a clear break down for each company of the cost of the car hire and the additional insurances and premiums.

I know holiday autos used to often slip in an extra "freebie" liek additional driver or offer a lower premium for drivers over a given age in order to mask the pricing structure and to therefore be able to demonstrate that they were infact offering you more for more money, if that helps to explain it a little.

if however you look at the prices and you are getting the same make, model and age of car with equivalent insurance cover, premiums and benefits, and holiday autos are still coming out more expensive - I would take it further as you may have grounds to appeal to advertising standards.

but yeah - bah humbug, totally!

System

Try carjet.com
Think you could find out that they are slightly cheaper, depending on dates of travel,
Widdy

superhoop

Thanks Vanoonoo - the two offers look absolutely identical so I think I will take your advice, dig a bit deeper and take it up with them directly.

It is interesting that companies make these claims so to 'reassure' customers that they are getting the best deal. When the operator doesn't match up to the promises, I think it is only fair that someone cries foul and takes it further.

Reminds me a bit of when I worked at Safeway Head Office. We had this 'Price Protected' claims on frequently bought products saying we would not be more expensive than competitors in the local area. Not only was Safeway more expensive than the likes of Asda and Tesco across the rest of the range, but also we had loads of price challenges from customers. The reality must live up to the hype - at least Safeway did respond to fair challenges by cutting prices, unlike HA!

Widdy - thanks - carjet was a good suggestion - about level on price with onairport. I will certainly consider them again in future.

Cheers

Steve

tazo101

Just to let you know ha have done a price match for me, if you get a cheaper price than they can do, maybe they find a reason for not doing it. Also try autoeurope they are good.
Just got back from jerez and used alamo but  said i would pick it up from there downtown office, saved a ton of money this way. Good thing is that if you go to the woman outside from alamo she has the car at the airport, so you can still pick it up from there(airport) without the airport surcharge!!!!!!!

Also just tried https://www.kelkoo.co.uk and just saved another £10 for faro for june. Someone is going to have to pay me to use there cars soon.

System

You could also try http://www.autosabroad.com/ who were in direct competition with Holiday Autos.

budgetflyer

I think these "catch us out and we'll match the price" offers should be treated with contempt . Many people just assume because theres a price promise that they will get the cheapest deal. Its different if they say they will UNDERCUT any other price, but to only MATCH it? Id go with their competitor.

Fatboy_NSS

On the HA website it says to email for a price match, rather than call. So may be the case that they can't match the price through the call centre (esp as On Airport seems to be online-only). Also On Airport charge a EUR10 a day supplement for drivers under 25 while this is included on HA, this is about another £50 on top of the booking so may be why they won't match the price.

superhoop

Thanks Fatboy - I did actually e-mail originally.

I got a telephone message to say they couldn't (wouldn't) match and so I phoned them back out of incredulity.

Re: the driver age - I am thirty so if a supplement for younger drivers is being added automatically by HA then I'm even more stupefied - why should I pay for something which does not apply to me?

Cheers anyway.

Steve