Do I Need to Pay for US Car Hire If I Don’t Show Up?
Posted on December 02, 2009 by Fiona Hilliard
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In any other sector of the US travel industry the answer would be a big fat ‘YES’. This is not strictly the case when it comes to US car hire. For years car rental agencies have put up with the inconvenience of no-shows and now they’ve decided that they’ve had enough.
Up until now, if you booked car hire directly through a US supplier and failed to pick it up, you would walk away free of charge. This is set to change however.
Right as you read this, Avis and Budget are finalising plans to introduce new charges for customers who book rental cars and don’t pick them up.
At the moment, the majority of car rental companies in the US offer customers the chance to rent a car without having to provide their credit card number. If the customer doesn’t show up, there is no real way for the rental agent to trace or charge the customer.
We’re not talking just the odd one or two who don’t show up.
Latest figures suggest that up to 30% of customers who book car hire never collect their car at the confirmed pick-up time. You have to agree, that’s a tidy sum to be losing out on.
Avis Budget Group Inc has started to implement technology required to collect credit card information for car rental reservations, which signals a change in the cancellation policy. The technology is due to be rolled out across the board later this month. Just in time for Christmas…
About the Author: Fiona likes to travel – especially to cities. Her favourites include: New York, London, Copenhagen, Madrid and Lisbon.
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