Car hire pick up

mirkle01

I have just reread the cheap car hire section on this website, and noted that there is a paragraph concerning returning the car which mentions the importance of returning it on time. However there is no advice concerning picking it up. I used a comparison site to identify the car I wanted to rent at Rome airport and put down the pick up time as one hour before the flight arrived, without giving it much thought, apart from wanting to be sure it was there when we got there. When we arrived we were told that the car was no longer available as we were more than one hour late. When I insisted that there was nowhere on the voucher that mentioned this rule, I was shown that right at the bottom of the voucher under the innocuous sounding 'business hours' the following sentence appeared: 'Period of time, during regular working hours, when the car is still guaranteed for the customer, if the customer is late for pick up (the grace period) is 59 minutes.' This applies if your flight is delayed, or if you just took your time to get to the shuttle pick up point. We had no choice but to pay three times what I was due to pay for the car to rent one then and there. I do think that the importance of putting the right collection time down on the application form should be emphasised - obviously it's better to end up arriving early for it than late. I have never come across this rule before but it fairly ruined the beginning of the holiday. 

born_again

mirkle01 said:

I have just reread the cheap car hire section on this website, and noted that there is a paragraph concerning returning the car which mentions the importance of returning it on time. However there is no advice concerning picking it up. I used a comparison site to identify the car I wanted to rent at Rome airport and put down the pick up time as one hour before the flight arrived, without giving it much thought, apart from wanting to be sure it was there when we got there. When we arrived we were told that the car was no longer available as we were more than one hour late. When I insisted that there was nowhere on the voucher that mentioned this rule, I was shown that right at the bottom of the voucher under the innocuous sounding 'business hours' the following sentence appeared: 'Period of time, during regular working hours, when the car is still guaranteed for the customer, if the customer is late for pick up (the grace period) is 59 minutes.' This applies if your flight is delayed, or if you just took your time to get to the shuttle pick up point. We had no choice but to pay three times what I was due to pay for the car to rent one then and there. I do think that the importance of putting the right collection time down on the application form should be emphasised - obviously it's better to end up arriving early for it than late. I have never come across this rule before but it fairly ruined the beginning of the holiday. 

This regularly crops up when flights are delayed on the forum.