Lay My Hat Forum

[Holiday Almeria]

Thought I may just mention this in here as it is being done to death on another forum I use. For those of us relying on guests collecting cars from the airport (or even for personal use), they are a bit scarce at the moment. There are stories of people arriving at Alicante and Murcia airports having previously booked, to be told on arrival no car is available, or that their booking had been cancelled. I was told about a resident on our complex who collected his car expecting it for 2 weeks, to be told he had to return it 4 days later! This resulted in hiring a car locally and relying on an airport transfer service to get back to the airport at the end of their stay (expensive option). Car hire companies are also "hoicking" up their prices due to the shortage with the average now nearly twice last year's prices. A forum member tried to book a 7 seater for 31 July- 14th August (or similar sort of dates) and was quoted €3400+ petrol and €1100 CDW!!!!!

Smugly, I will say I alway book the car hire at the same time as the flights and then check before flying out to see if the price has dropped, in which case I cancel and re- book. Of course, this wouldn't help in the arrival and no car scenario.

Don't want to scaremonger, but it may be worth checking with guests that they have ensured their booking is still valid.

Mark
_________________
Holiday in Almeria
Reciprocal link site for Almeria rental owners
Follow me on Twitter.

[roxytoo]

Yes BIG problem at the mo, we paid nearly double for car hire early June so it must have started end April?

I had heard that it was due to many cars being on loans being sent back as they didn't envisage many tourists this year anyway so half the fleets have been scrapped

Also worrying is the impact on rentals, I have had two enquiries probably not going to book now as they have been quoted £450 for 2 weeks car hire, also cannot get a reliable taxi transfer now organised for them due to people being stoppped at the side of the road as illegal and leaving guests stranded! So have to use spanish taxis outside the airport, many reports already of double the price, no booster/ baby seats, being dropped in the middle of an urb as they can't find the property from the address given

I am dreading August!

[James3214]

Similar problem in Mallorca. I have heard stories of airport car hire bookings being cancelled and those affected having even bigger problems trying to get a replacement.
I already suffered back in May. Upon arrival in Palma the car hire company claimed no knowledge of my booking. I found out that the company it was booked through (in Oct 2008) had gone out of business. I lost about 270 EUR which I am now trying to reclaim through the CC company. No cars available at the airport and I had to take a 10 year old car at an extortionate price!

[Big Sis..]

Thanks Mark.
I will contact the people who've booked cars and get them to doublecheck their booking

I just got back and the only problem was the estate car we booked from Alicante was a little tatty[hadnt happened before]
I did ask for another and they said there wasnt any of that size.....which I spose, this might explain it.
I booked as I usually do through Carjet and the car was through Europa.

[HelenB]

My skiers rely on car hire mainly, as the airport transfers and public transport options are not always convenient for their flights. Certainly one to keep an eye on. I will certainly contact the local transfer service and see what options he has available just in case.

[e-richard]

Thanks for the warnings Mark.

Is this specific to Spain ?
Is it specific to certain airports only ?

Has anyone seen any indications of it spreading more widely ?
_________________
** Richard
Everyone has a purpose in life, even if its only to serve as a bad example.
Holiday Rental Management is easy

[Mouse]

We're 4000 cars down this summer apparently...due to the doom and gloom stories car hire companies didn't expect demand to be high.

Not heard any stories of difficulty or hiked up prices yet, but thatwill probably start this weekend.

With our villa you don't have to be car reliant...so any difficulties in renting cars hopefully bodes well for me next year when people are considering the location

Mouse
x
_________________
One martini, two martini, three martini, FLOOR!

http://www.ibizavilla.blogspot.com/

[Holiday Almeria]

I don't know how many airports are affected, but from what I have read it is mainly one company (Auriga Crown) at Alicante and Murcia where the problems are, although there are some problems with others too. The broker we use for cars sent out an emailin March this year about the potential for problems, which I thought was just a PR stunt for them. I have heard two reasons for the shortage:

1. The good old credit crunch. Companies are unable to finance their new vehicles in the numbers required.

2. Expectations of visitors to Spain were lower this year as a raft of bad publicity came out. Therefore not so many cars were ordered.

The full (currently 3 pages) post is available here, with a few responses from one of the booking agents.

Mark
_________________
Holiday in Almeria
Reciprocal link site for Almeria rental owners
Follow me on Twitter.

[linda147]

Auriga Crown is a problem at Gibraltar as well.
We have had our car hire booked for months but when we saw some friends yesterday who are coming out the last week of July I was horrified that they haven't booked their car hire yet
Needless to say, Carjet are totally sold out for the last Saturday in July in Gibraltar. There are some alternatives actually in Gibraltar itself but they are likely to pay the same for one week as we are paying for 4!
_________________
Linda
Vejer de la Frontera Holiday Accommodation
Vejer tourist information
http://twitter.com/vejer

[Nightowl]

yes, we had a problem with Auriga Crown, at Gibraltar, who cancelled our car hire a week before we were due to arrive, citing a non delivery of 1000 expected cars...hmmm..... a teeny fib by the sound of it ..they'd obviously cancelled 1000 cars for this season....

We managed to get one through a car hire co at La Linea but it was twice the price of Crown.

So it seems Auriga have messed up across the whole of spain, we were toying with getting the bus to the Costa luz, but we couldn't get one at Novo Sancti Petri either.
_________________
Nightowl
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
http://www.homelidays.com/london/apartment-flat144480en1.htm
http://www.homelidays.com/london/apartment-flat190993en1.htm
http://www.homelidays.com/chiclana/house-villa70705en1.htm

[James3214]

[harcourtv57]

This is very worrying for our own holiday - recently booked 2 weeks in Mallorca as a 'bargain' - then found out the car hire prices which were double last year! there are 7 of us all family in a four bed villa but no 7 seater vehicles anywhere. We are in the middle of nowhere so relying on a vehicle to get to beach, supermarket etc. Have had two 'bookings' already cancelled due to lack of cars and currently waiting on another - we are flying out next Tuesday!!

[Partridge]

Ooh err thank the lord we fly in to Faro for our part of Spain
_________________
Don't waste energy on things you can't change.

Costa de la Luz apartment rental
www.ownersdirect.co.uk/spain/S5386.htm

[Mouse]

[Big Sis..]