No Pets in Hire Cars Please

Since when did car hire firms change their rules about pets in vehicles? I’ve just returned a hire car that my colleagues and I had used to get home from Heathrow, filthy with dog hair and smell.

Don’t misunderstand me. I really love animals but I don’t like having their fur all over my business suits. My family has a number of pets including a cat, dog, several fish and even a wild hedgehog that loves cat food. My family and I love animals. But when I tried to book a hire car for my family, dog and cat I was told that only certain vehicles were suitable and these weren’t available.

On further investigation I ultimately found a car hire firm that did accept pets but only in certain vehicles (estates) and the animals had to be secured behind the back seat. This was perfectly acceptable to us and made a lot of sense.

You can therefore imagine how I was surprised by the car provided by a well known international car hire firm at Heathrow airport. My workmates and I had booked our hire car in advance before departing from Frankfurt on an evening flight back to Heathrow. We collected the details and keys from the desk and headed for the parking lot. When we opened the car door it was clear, from the pungent doggy aroma, that it had been occupied by a smelly dog. Not nice.

I wanted to return to the desk and get another car but one of our party was really keen to get home so we piled into the car and off we went. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized my suit was covered in what appeared to be white dog hairs.

Whoever had used the car before us had clearly let a dog roam about all over the upholstery. When I got in touch with the car hire firm they apologised and told me that they don’t allow dogs or cats in their normal saloon cars so someone had broken their rules. But someone had broken their rules and they hadn’t managed to valet the car before we drove it away. The result was an expensive bill for having four business suits professionally cleaned.

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In future we’ll be driving to the airport and using airport parking services rather than rely on smelly hire cars. Top tip: Always make certain that you have adequate travel insurance before you go anywhere.