Car hire
Olivia toured the Algarve in August for one week Checking out
Hiring a car can be an expensive and tricky business, especially during the peak season and if left to the last minute. Olivia Hemmings takes Your Car Hire’s services for a test drive in the Algarve
Availability
Reports on the lack of available car hire options in popular European beach destinations were rife this summer. So having booked a last-minute holiday in the Algarve for the first week in August I was dubious about my chances of renting four much-needed wheels. Your Car Hire advised me that, at such
80%
short notice, only two of their nine Algarve suppliers would have any chance of being able to help me – those being the most expensive ones. They later confirmed they had sourced a five-door Seat Ibiza with air conditioning “or similar”, and I was emailed a prepaid voucher detailing where to collect the car at Faro airport and outlining additional fees (of €34.60 per person) to include extra drivers. 9/10
Pick up
Despite clear instructions on the voucher stating that pick up was at the Guerin desk in the airport terminal, I was redirected outside and round the corner of the terminal to a separate building marked “Guerin”. There I queued behind two other couples for 20 minutes to be served.
I produced the voucher and my name but the agent wasn’t able to find my booking. After much sifting through paperwork and searching a database my book- ing was finally retrieved. We were asked to provide a credit card to cover a €1,000 deposit for “Insurance Excess” which would be put back on the card on the car’s safe
return. We were also asked to return it with half a tank of petrol.
No instructions were given about where to drop off the car (from past experience I know some companies have an office on the airport’s outskirts where you return the car and get a shuttle bus to the airport). 6/10
Car and facilities
The car was easily located at the front of the car park and turned out to be a new silver Ford Fiesta. It had five doors, air conditioning and was very spacious. It boasted a good sound system and an easy- to-use built-in CD player. Both the inside and outside were pristine, and there were only 3,000 miles on the clock. It even smelled new and was very easy to drive. There wasn’t quite half a tank of petrol but it wasn’t far off. The only difficulty was figuring out how to put petrol into the car as the cap wasn’t easy to remove. 9/10
Drop off
Compared to the collection, drop-off was simple. We took a punt and returned to the same depot we had collected from, and a friendly member of staff beckoned us into a parking spot. He took a quick look around the car and at our documents – surprisingly the petrol gauge was not checked – and our deposit was returned to us. The process took 10 minutes. 9/10
Value for money
While the net rate for hiring this car for seven days was £234, it was a peak season, last-minute booking. There was the option to purchase extras – the booking voucher said baby/child car seats could be hired for €7.50 per day (with a maximum charge of €80) while booster seats were available at €6.30 per day (maximum charge €60). Maps weren’t offered automatically but one was provided on request at the pick-up desk. 7/10
The model eventually provided was a spacious Ford Fiesta by Olivia Hemmings 26.11.2010 49
Guerin
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