The Dreaded Car Hire Queue – Spain

When you are travelling to Spain many people opt to hire a car, and in most Spanish locations there is one car hire company that is significantly cheaper than the rest, it also happens to be the supplier that we have to book through in order to get you debit card car hire. This is all well and good, a cheap supplier that accepts debit cards! When you look deeper into it however there is one major issue which we always make you aware of before you book.

The location we commonly get complaints for is Alicante airport and it’s all the same complaint, the queue can take hours, and we are well aware of this so we alert our customers beforehand. The last thing people want is to come off of a long stressful flight and wait in what seems like a never ending line for their rental vehicle, and unfortunately we can’t do anything about this but we can make you aware of all your options.

The line is almost inevitable so we have alternate options that you can use to work around having to be inconvenienced.

Queue Jump
It’s sneaky by the supplier but they know their queues are long and they can’t do anything about that as it’s because their rates are usually very good. What they have organised is much like the fast lane in Disney world, you can pay an extra price of 45 euros which we know is a lot just to jump a queue but let’s work out if it’s worth it. Let’s do a miniature case study:

I started a search for Alicante airport as an example on the dates 01/03/2014 to 08/03/2014
And found that an economy car from the supplying company in question was £89.59 whereas the larger more reputable company was £152.63.

Which you can see here….
The Dreaded Car Hire Queue – Spain

However don’t just rush for the cheapest price because although it may look appealing at first view there is more to it. The cheaper supply have a few “extra” costs you have to pay, one of the major policies as you will see in the picture is a pick up full and return empty policy, what this means is that when you pick up the rental and pay the full tank of fuel you are given which is often above the price of the pumps.

The Math…Yawn
The average cost of a full tank of fuel is 80 euros whereas at the pump this would be around 60 euros so there is a 20 euro loss here. If we add this loss to the cost of the rental the total figure comes to £109.59, still cheaper than the reputable company in question but let’s not forget how hard it is to give them the tank when its fully empty and you will more than likely have to leave some fuel in the tank to be able to get to the airport to drop it off without a breakdown (as this will cost!), so let’s say you leave 5 euros “emergency” reserves left in the tank bringing the total to £114.59.

The more expensive company don’t have lines anywhere near the size of the cheaper base price rental service, so if you do opt for a queue jump on the cheaper price this bring the total to £159.59 which is more expensive than the “expensive” quote. In essence it may be worth you going to hire with the more reputable company but you must note that if you have a Debit card this is unavoidable as you only have one choice and you either wait a while in the queue or you pay to skip it as these will be the only options for debit card holders.

When we give you a quote here at Indigo we take all of this into account and try get the best price possible for you but always try and make you aware that queuing may be an issue and methods of avoiding this even if the other options cost slightly more.

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.