Car hire

Unless otherwise stated, the hire car included in your holiday arrangements will be an economy-size, 2-door car with manual transmission and air conditioning, supplied by Avis or another reputable local provider.

As it is impossible to predict each party’s requirements, we only include one hire car regardless of the size of your party. For additional comfort and luggage space, or if there are more than two people in your party, we recommend upgrading to a larger car, or hiring a second vehicle – please contact us for prices.

Each holiday price panel states how many days’ hire is included in the price.

Rentals are charged per 24-hour period, so if your flight arrangements mean that you have the car for longer than the period included in the normal holiday arrangements, there will be an extra day’s hire to pay. We will state this when we confirm your booking.

If you are adding extra nights to your holiday, we usually (unless stated otherwise) include the cost of an extra day's hire in the extra night price if a hire car is included in the basic price of the holiday. If, however, a hire car is not normally included, it will be necessary to pay an extra day's hire in addition to the extra night price. Please contact us for prices (these vary greatly between destinations, and depend on the size of the car and the length of your stay).

Rental terms vary markedly from country to country. We send you a country-specific information leaflet with your Booking Confirmation and Invoice which details the included elements of your car hire and the additional or optional charges that apply at your destination. Please read the leaflet carefully before you collect your car so that you are aware of the up-to-date rental terms and any local charges that apply. In summary:

Included in the rental agreement:
• unlimited mileage
• local taxes (eg VAT)
• airport service charges
• third party liability
• one driver (named at the time of booking) §
• Vehicle Damage Cover (insurance against accidental damage to the vehicle - see below)
• Theft Waiver (TW - vehicle theft insurance - see below)
• road fund and vehicle registration fees

Not included in the rental agreement:
• excess charges for Vehicle Damage Cover and TW (see below for how these can be avoided)
• fuel
• refuelling charges if you return your car without a full tank
• personal insurance
• additional driver fees §
• charges for special equipment such as GPS units and child seats (seats must, however, be requested at the time of booking)
• one-way drop-off charges where applicable, unless stated otherwise
• Roadside Safety Net Service (RSN, an optional extra offering roadside assistance for non-mechanical breakdown such as fuel shortage, discharged batteries, and lost keys)
• administration charges resulting from damage, theft or road traffic violations
• compulsory charges which can only be paid locally (if any apply, they will be detailed in the information leaflet sent to you)

§ An additional driver can be added and paid for when you collect your car. The charge for this varies from country to country but is usually around €10-13 per day. There is no charge for a second driver on the Canary Islands if your car is booked through Cicar.

On collection of the vehicle, you will be asked to provide details of a major credit card as a means of deposit so that extra payments and optional charges such as for fuel, an additional driver and special equipment (eg GPS) can be billed to you. You will not be able to take the car without a credit card. Debit cards are not accepted. The credit card must be in the name of the lead driver.

Rental conditions also require that drivers should normally be aged over 25 and have held a full driving licence for at least one year (two years in Croatia). A surcharge may apply to drivers aged 21-25.

While our car hire arrangements include some level of insurance against accidents, damage and theft, you will nevertheless be liable for excess charges in the event of an accident, damage or theft (except in the Canary Islands if the car is booked with Cicar, which does not levy such charges). You can easily pick up dents and scratches and even minor damage such as this can result in excess repair charges to you of several hundred euros.

We very strongly advise that you either:

a) on collection of your hire car, pay a top-up charge so that no excesses or a reduced excess are payable in the event of an accident, damage or theft; at the time of writing (March 2022) this top-up charge varied from approximately €10 per day in Greece to approximately €25 per day in Cyprus for an economy-size car (charges are higher for higher-category vehicles), or

b) before your holiday, arrange insurance which will reimburse any excess paid. You may like to consider the policies offered by Campbell Irvine on their lowerHIRE website, which will reimburse the excess paid by you in the event of damage to or theft of the rental vehicle hired by you through Inntravel in any of the European countries featured on our website (except the UK). You will find further details on the Campbell Irvine website – look for the lowerHIRE link at the bottom of the page.

Please note that if your car is with Cicar on the Canary Islands excess charges do not apply and so it is not necessary to make arrangement to cover these. If Cicar is unavailable we will book your car with Avis or Holiday Autos and the excess will apply.

If you are planning to extend your Inntravel holiday privately, we are able to offer a good-value car-hire package from principal towns and cities in each country. Hire arrangements are for a minimum of three days.