The hidden pitfall when you want to know how much the rental car costs

The rental car for the holiday had been ordered and paid for. But when Øystein Barstad turned up at the rental car company, the car was gone. It was rented by someone else who had driven off with the car.

Barstad had not caught a small detail in the rental car agreement. And there are probably many others who don’t know about it either.

We take it from the beginning.

The Alicante holiday started badly

Øystein Barstad from Reinsvoll on Toten was going to Alicante on a nine-day holiday at the end of April. He would like to rent a car for the entire stay and found a good offer via a website for arranging rental cars.

– I looked for what I thought was a good offer, a Citroën C3 for just under NOK 2,200 for the rental period. In addition, there was a deposit of 1,200 euros (14,100 NOK) for any damages.

– However, I got not with me the small detail that the rental agreement applied from 10.00 on the day of arrival. The plane landed on schedule, but six hours after the rental car agreement started. And when I got to the rental car counter, the message was clear: My car had already been rented because I arrived too late, he says with frustration.

Under the thousand mark

Losing thousands of dollars

Barstad says that he was given a phone number to call, but he never got an answer.

– I therefore had to rent a car from another company, but unfortunately at a higher price. Here I paid 430 euros (5,077 kroner) for the rental period. I tried to get a refund of what I had paid, but initially to no avail.

Later he tried to contact the mediation agent who arranged for a refund of NOK 1,300 of the rental amount.

– But I’m still NOK 5,000 short. I can afford it, but it might be an idea to warn others about this, says Barstad.

– I feel stupid

– I hadn’t realized that you have to show up by the time the lease starts. I thought I had rented and paid for the whole 24 hours when the agreement starts. Now the landlord can rent to others and get paid twice.

– Do you feel cheated?

– I really just feel stupid for not knowing this before I rented the car.

Here they will track the tourists

The Consumer Council’s advice

Expert in consumer law at the Consumer Council, Thomas Iversen, has the following advice for those who are renting a car on holiday.

– If you see that you are being delayed, my tip is to notify the rental car company. In many cases, you will be able to collect the car as agreed. In the rental car companies’ terms and conditions, it is often specified that they cannot guarantee that you will get the car if you are more than an hour late.

And Iversen adds:

– You may have to settle for a different type of car than the one you ordered. By adding your flight number to the order, the company will also know if you will be delayed.

Important to read the agreement

Car hire is an area that is not yet subject to concrete consumer protection, which means that the agreement between you and the car hire company is much more important than otherwise.

– Agreements that give the company the right to rent the car to others if you don’t arrive on time are a good solution for the rental car company, but a bad solution for the consumer.

– Can you use travel insurance if you are delayed?

– If you are delayed and have to hire a more expensive car elsewhere, you can check whether your insurance covers any of the loss. Depending on the cause and length of the delay, this is also a loss that can in some cases be covered by the airline, concludes Iversen.