Holiday Autos Car Rental, anything to worry about?

JQ.

I've been charged with hiring some cars in Austria for an upcoming ski trip and Holiday Autos are coming up by far the cheapest. Is there anything to worry about with hidden charges or nasty surprises?

Cheers

rca779

I used Holiday Auto's a couple of years ago for a holiday in Spain. No hidden charges, no problems. They're basically brokers. Although the car I had was perfectly OK, it was a bit old and when I got home I contacted holiday auto's, not so much to complain, but just to make it clear that the car wasn't 100% and holiday auto's gave me a partial refund. I work near their head office in Camberley, Surrey.

marlot

I've used them a few times. No problems at all.

longtimelurkersam

Have a GOOD read of the quote as I suspect it doesn’t include the €9 a day (approx) and capped at €90 (approx) compulsory winter tyre surcharge that I believe will be levied locally on collection. This will apply to most car hire places in countries where the use of winter tyres is mandatory/highly recommended.

You don’t get the choice of tyres even if you are not going to the mountains.

ballyblack

Holiday Autos are coming up by far the cheapest

is this quote include full comprehensive insurance?

Strongly advise you take out the full comprehensive

Iceweasel

longtimelurkersam wrote: »

Have a GOOD read of the quote as I suspect it doesn’t include the €9 a day (approx) and capped at €90 (approx) compulsory winter tyre surcharge that I believe will be levied locally on collection. This will apply to most car hire places in countries where the use of winter tyres is mandatory/highly recommended.

You don’t get the choice of tyres even if you are not going to the mountains.

Sam is right - it's nothing to do with mountains, or going to ski-resorts.

A choice of tyres is not available as Austrian laws state that all vehicles must have winter tyres fitted from 1st November till mid April even if they never venture outside of a city.

For winter tyre requirement throughout Europe there is very good info here:

http://conti-central.co.uk/winter-tyres/winter-driving-laws-across-western-europe/

zagfles

Few things to watch out for.

Fuel policy - a lot of car hire companies (over)charge you for a full tank of fuel which you don't get back if you return it with any fuel in. So you either have to waste money or risk running out of fuel on the way back.

Insurance - there's usually a big excess (maybe £500-1000), and they'll try to flog you an excess waiver at some silly price when you pick the car up. This can be £100-200. Some claim to have zero excess but then have exclusions like tyres, windows, underside and roof! Sometimes even the expensive excess waiver policies have these exclusions! You can get a free-standing excess waiver policy much cheaper (eg insurance4carhire).

Look up reviews - loads of nightmare stories about people getting charged for damage they didn't cause.

Check the insurance doesn't have exclusions for negligence - some do! Most accidents are probably caused by negligence...

Make sure you check the car when picking it up and make sure any damage, scratches etc are recorded (take photos), and try to make sure you drop it off in hours when someone can check the car over on return.

zagfles

Iceweasel wrote: »

Sam is right - it's nothing to do with mountains, or going to ski-resorts.

A choice of tyres is not available as Austrian laws state that all vehicles must have winter tyres fitted from 1st November till mid April even if they never venture outside of a city.

For winter tyre requirement throughout Europe there is very good info here:

http://conti-central.co.uk/winter-tyres/winter-driving-laws-across-western-europe/

If it's a legal requirement then it should surely be included in the hire rate quoted!

longtimelurkersam

zagfles wrote: »

If it's a legal requirement then it should surely be included in the hire rate quoted!

EXACTLY! But they don't. I got done over by Sixt because of this although I complained and got refund. When I was weighing up train v hire car for 12 days an extra €90 made quite a bit of difference.

To the OP. Where are you flying, how many people, which resort are you going to and how long are you there for? It is possible that a train/taxi combo will be more cost effective and just as practical (I did Zurich to Ischgl in Austria for 100chf 1st class return (no changes) and €180 return taxi from Landeck main station to resort. There were only two of us but was still way cheaper than a hire car.

iolanthe07

I have used Holiday Autos every year for my visits to the USA for many years and found them just fine. Indeed, on many occasions I have received a free upgrade, though I suppose that is down to the rental desk at the airport. They did charge an extra £30 or so when my flight was delayed for 25 hours, because they had to rebook the car, but I got that back from my insurance. I shall use them again this year.

Sidnick

Been trying to contact Holiday Autos about our booking. The UK Freefone number listed put me through to a guy in Poland who said he couldn't help and had no access to the headquarters in N Ireland. We have a 'guaranteed' model on our booking voucher but the voucher also states OK car rental may offer a similar model. Holiday Autos clearly advertises 'guaranteed' models - I have screenshots - yet then says, no our website says 'or similar'.
Does anyone have the phone number of their headquarters?
They are on Twitter...