Rights if car hire company doesn't provide a car

sforkes

Does anyone know your rights if a car hire company has "no cars left" when you arrive to collect your car?
We had to go to another company and hire at "walk-in" rates which was £900 instead of the original £250.
We have had the £250 refunded but they don't want to discuss compensation for the £900 we had to fork out as we had small kids and it was a Sunday night in France.
Any experience in handling this please?

eskbanker

Given that your additional costs were incurred as a direct result of the company's breach of contract then I'd say you have at least a moral claim - whether or not you have a legal one will depend on various factors including the legal jurisdiction under which the contract was formed and its Ts & Cs.

If the company isn't cooperating, you may be able to hold the credit card company liable under section 75 if you used one to pay (and didn't do so via an intermediary agent).

lisyloo

Do you have travel insurance?
Sometimes they have cover for 3rd party failure, worth looking.

michaels

One tip - even standing in front of the car hire desk you can still book through an online broker and get a much cheaper rate for immediate hires.  I had this in TRN once when the original hire company had a hidden out of country charge that would triple the rental cost but I was able to get online and rebook with another company that had zero 'international roaming' charge for 30% of the same company's walk up rate.