Hertz - U.K. airport location charges

As if U.K. rentals aren't ridiculously expensive to start with what is with the 22GBP charge for LHR and MAN rentals. Maybe on a weeks rental it evens out but I'll be damned if I'm paying $50 CDN for an airport recovery fee for a one day rental. I've stopped renting cars because of this the last few times in the U.K. and just use public transit or taxis. :mad:

As if U.K. rentals aren't ridiculously expensive to start with what is with the 22GBP charge for LHR and MAN rentals. Maybe on a weeks rental it evens out but I'll be damned if I'm paying $50 CDN for an airport recovery fee for a one day rental. I've stopped renting cars because of this the last few times in the U.K. and just use public transit or taxis. :mad:

In the UK, unless you're going cross country it's easier to get public transport, and in some cases fly.

If nothing else, sometimes it'll be almost cheaper to do a MR from LHR-DUB-LGW than to hire a car and have to deal with crapping UK traffic.

An MR from LHR-DUB-LGW can be done for around $100EUR, and considering a small car is around $120EUR including taxes, you'd have to consider it....

As if U.K. rentals aren't ridiculously expensive to start with what is with the 22GBP charge for LHR and MAN rentals. Maybe on a weeks rental it evens out but I'll be damned if I'm paying $50 CDN for an airport recovery fee for a one day rental. I've stopped renting cars because of this the last few times in the U.K. and just use public transit or taxis. :mad:


I asked about this airport charge in the UK and it's a fee imposed by the airport authorities for the convienience of pick up on airport, and as far as I know other rental companies do not show it as a seperate fee and just build it into the cost. And yes I do know that all car rental companies on airport in the UK are charged this fee by the airport authorities, hence this reflects in the hire charge.

I agree that the airport charges for rentals in the UK are nothing short of ludicrous and I'm not so sure this is really a fee imposed by the airport authority.

I had a complaint with my last rental at LHR and the service manager quickly compensated me by removing the location charge.

I would have thought he wouldn't be able to do if this was a charge imposed on Hertz.

I agree that the airport charges for rentals in the UK are nothing short of ludicrous and I'm not so sure this is really a fee imposed by the airport authority.

I had a complaint with my last rental at LHR and the service manager quickly compensated me by removing the location charge.

I would have thought he wouldn't be able to do if this was a charge imposed on Hertz.

All retail outlets on airport property pay a premium rate for rent so this has to be reflected in the price you pay as in Hertz case a location surcharge, yes managers have the power to remove any charge from your bill,the manager in question may have felt it be more appropriate to refund this charge as compensation.

This isn't specific to Hertz, but can anyone tell me whether 3rd party liability insurance provided by the rental company is mandatory in the U.K.? The last time I rented a car there, it wasn't until I got to the counter that I discovered I would be charged for this, and there was no way to decline.

This isn't specific to Hertz, but can anyone tell me whether 3rd party liability insurance provided by the rental company is mandatory in the U.K.? The last time I rented a car there, it wasn't until I got to the counter that I discovered I would be charged for this, and there was no way to decline.


3rd party liability insurance in the UK is mandatory and all rental cars have this built into the base rate of the hire. there is no way of not paying for this insurance as it is already built into the price. I'm afraid it's the law in the UK and not the car rental companies fault.

Thanks for the info. It wasn't that I minded paying for it, I objected to the fact that it wasn't quoted in my original reservation, and thus WASN'T included in the base rate, or in fact, mentioned anywhere until I picked up the car. VAT: yes; airport charge: yes; even road tax but not this. With hindsight, I think I should have made a bigger stink after the fact, since in this case, I think the rental company WAS at fault. I should note this was Dollar, not Hertz.

Thanks for the info. It wasn't that I minded paying for it, I objected to the fact that it wasn't quoted in my original reservation, and thus WASN'T included in the base rate, or in fact, mentioned anywhere until I picked up the car. VAT: yes; airport charge: yes; even road tax but not this. With hindsight, I think I should have made a bigger stink after the fact, since in this case, I think the rental company WAS at fault. I should note this was Dollar, not Hertz.

I have just checked the Local Policy for LHR (http://www.dollar.com/custom_travel/local_policy.asp?lc=LHR) for Dollar, and you're right - it doesn't mention this policy. The Car Rental Page of LHR's airport is useless and just has phone numbers (http://www.london-lhr.com/car_rental.html) for the major rental companies.

I went through Dollar's website and requested car info and got the following charges :


Base Rate £10.99

Taxes, Surcharges And Fees
LIABILITY LAW/UK £5.50
LOCATION SURCHARGE £12.77
VEHICLE LICENSE FEE £0.95
VAT TAX £5.29

Total Estimated Charges £35.50


VAT: yes; airport charge: yes; even road tax but not this. With hindsight, I think I should have made a bigger stink after the fact, since in this case, I think the rental company WAS at fault. I should note this was Dollar, not Hertz.

The above shows 4 taxes, and you said you only were happy with 3, and weren't even shown the fourth. Guess what ? It appears you were.....

Sorry, I could have saved you some unnecessary work by making myself clearer in the first place. Although they are now listing the charges as per your example, in May, when this happened they were not. To clarify, "Total estimated charges" was approx 100 pounds less than I ended up paying. I suspect I was not the only person to complain about this, particularly as, at that time, (although not now, I believe) their rental facility was off-airport (LGW), and thus it would have been a hassle to have "walked" to another rental agency. Their excuse, at the time, was that the merger with Thrifty had meant that their website "had problems"! My interest in establishing that this charge is not "optional" is for future rentals: if it's not quoted or mentioned explicitly, I will make sure that it is in fact included. For example, Enterprise makes no mention of this anywhere, but on e-mailing them, they assure me that it is, in fact, included in the base rate. There is a level of expectation that when you're comparing different rates you should be informed what the "bottom line" actually contains, be it VAT, CDW or anything else.

edited for clarity