[Nansen]

I recently had to cut short my hire from 8 days to 5 and return home early but was given no reduction and charged the full amount. Is this normal practice in the industry?

[Santa]

A quick and dirty trawl around t'internet says that some do and some don't.

• Hertz charges the full amount
• Enterprise only charges for the days used
• No refund from Alamo

[Nansen]

Thank you . . . . I booked through Dollar but Hertz represented them at the airport so doesn't look favourable. They did however only charge me 5 days for the enhanced insurance cover I took out?

[Drivingforfun]

It sounds fair to me, because they’d be unlikely to find someone at such short notice to rent the car to for those 3 days

Kind of like a doctor or dentist or a hotel charging you for cancelling an appointment/room when they don’t have time to find someone else to fill the slot

The unused insurance wouldn’t cost them anything so they can pass that refund on

Just my take on it

[Rolebama]

I once rented a car from a local branch of a major hire company. When I turned up to collect the car, they didn't have it. They took me to Heathrow, where I was asked to pay a 100% surcharge for one of 'their' cars. I cancelled the whole deal and rented from a small local place for around 75% of original cost.