Holiday Autos warning

GrandTourer

This is more of an annoyance than anything else, but it is something to be aware of when using Holiday Autos.

Despite booking on a UK site in pounds, and paying in pounds, they took the transaction in Euros.

Therefore there was an additional transaction charge applied to the booking by my credit card company - which Holiday Autos are not prepared to refund, despite accepting that it was their error.

The Customer Service process was far from a joy also - but that's for another day.

In future I'll be using a UK-based broker instead.

Obviously_the_best

Just don't use a broker, it's really very simple. All they do is muck bookings up and slow things down. Research a local, trustworthy company, using tripadvisor forums for your destination, then book direct.

ChrisWork

I think there are enough advantages of using a broker to still make it a good option for booking car hire - mainly in the savings you can make in the fact that they can search a large share of the market. But you just have to be a bit more switched on to the potential for being stung by unexpected fees/charges etc.

My best advice is to find a broker you can trust and stick with them. There are quite a few brokers out there who do things right despite the horror stories you read. I tend to stick to using bigcarhire.co.uk and they have never steered me wrong.

Obviously_the_best

ChrisWok

There are no saving to be made on decent, honest, local companies using a broker. Only the large firms that overcharge horrifically to start with, or dishonest firms like RecordGo or Goldcar.

Just do your homework on the tripadvisor forums, and you'll almost certainly get a better price, with a better firm, than with a broker, and with far less inconvenience and hassle when things go wrong.

BillTrac

Well I made the mistake of booking through the BA website when I went to Tuscany in May as my flights were BA and it was an option. Big mistake. When I had to return to Tuscany in August I used HolidayAutos and saved over half.

I tried to get other prices cheaper but couldn't. And I found a £15 voucher code which made it even better:T

Mxty

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

ChrisWok

There are no saving to be made on decent, honest, local companies using a broker. Only the large firms that overcharge horrifically to start with, or dishonest firms like RecordGo or Goldcar.

Just do your homework on the tripadvisor forums, and you'll almost certainly get a better price, with a better firm, than with a broker, and with far less inconvenience and hassle when things go wrong.

I see you commenting on this "don't use a broker" all the time, and your wrong good brokers get discounts, deals and they explain everything too you. I've made this point previously to this post, if you visit a site such as review centre on the right hand side you will see rating for the top rental companies, 9 times out of 10 its a broker not a supplier, and there's a reason for this majority view.

Obviously_the_best

Mxty, the real reason is that when stuff goes wrong, people blame the poor hire company the broker has booked you with. Look at reviews for GoldCar for example. 99 out of 100 people have booked with a broker.

Broker's don't get discounts on the decent, local firms. They get discounts one the ones that are generally so overpriced, certainly nobody on these forums would book direct with.

The advice still stands strong. It's the same with booking a flight too. Don't book via an intermediary, it's just another step added to the process, which increases the chances of something getting mucked up.

Look on any Tripadvisor forum, for any holiday destination. That's where I've taken the above example, of GoldCar from, but it happens all over the place. You'll see that there's a disproportionately large amount of car hirers (if that's a word) who have problems with a car booked through a broker, because brokers book cheap companies and pocket the extra.

There is simply no need for them.

Mxty

GoldCar get bad press because of their fuel policy, when you book a car anywhere with a broker or them directly they don't make you aware that you have to pay for a full tank of fuel when you get there. Therefor when you arrive at the location you have to pay 70-100 euros extra no matter the length of your rental period and then you have to return it as close to empty as possible, everything else they profit from. Brokers make you aware of this cost.

The ones that cost more are usually the reputable ones yes, you get what you pay for. You will however be surprised to find that most of the times the ones that appear to cost more on the face of it when you first get a quote often don't due to the companies that are "cheap" have expensive extras and hidden charges that you have to pay for which people don't necessarily know about and brokers do so they can give you an insight into the total cost and work out whats more worth it for your situation...

Obviously_the_best

Mxty wrote: »

Brokers make you aware of this cost.

:rotfl: Why are there so many problems then, if these angelic brokers make it so clear.

You don't hear nearly as many GoldCar problems with people that book direct, because GoldCar make their policies perfectly clear. It's bokers who obscure them.

Mxty wrote: »

The ones that cost more are usually the reputable ones yes, you get what you pay for.

OK, so going back to my example earlier, the Canaries, a winter sun destination with loads of tourists about to leave for. How come the company with the best reputation on the island (Autoreisen) are also the cheapest, and don't appear on the books of any broker.

The point I'm trying to make, is that brokers are comparing for personal gain, whereas comparing each hire company yourself gives an unbiased view, because there's always going to be one deals that's going to make the broker more money, and it's not always the same firm that's the best for the customer. Think comparing energy prices on a site where e-on gives the company a bonus if they refer customers there.

I'm not saying book with the most expensive. I'm saying book with a trustworthy firm, one that relies on reputation. If you're going somewhere where there's only big firms, however unlikely, or where the only firm with a reasonable reputation is a large one, then only if a broker is cheaper, and tells you which company you'll get, book with them. The problem is, if something goes wrong, you have an extra party, meaning your contract is with a broker, so you can't just resolve the issue with the hire firm. That means you've got a whole extra load of admin going on, meaning a whole load more room for mistakes. And all the time, the broker is trying to avoid doing it all because its extra work they aren't getting paid for.

Sory for the essay