Last week I had a very frustrating situation upon arrival in Lanzarote Spain and heading to the Hertz counter to pick up my rental. The Hertz agent said he couldn't/wouldn't honor my reservation because according to him "there is some new requirement for Americans and Canadians to have an international driving license". Of course I argued for a brief time, but he was steadfast and so I gave up and went to tell my traveling companions (my father and my girlfriend). At this, my girlfriend pulled out a reservation at Avis that she had made for me as a backup and told me to go try that. Avis honored my reservation immediately and we were driving away to our hotel in 15 minutes.

A quick google search seems to indicate that perhaps the Hertz agent was right, but I'm not sure. I see discussions from 5 and 10 years ago with people having similar issues being told they need an international license to rent in Spain. But there is no recent mention of any "new requirement for Americans and Canadians to have an international license".

The last time I had an international driver's license was at least 20 years ago - I stopped getting them when I was told they aren't required anymore. I'm a frequent Hertz renter and have rented from Hertz in Spain once or twice per year over the past decade and never had any problems, nor ever seen any mention of needing an international license. I recently got Hertz Presidents Circle status, and if it wasn't for the brilliance of my girlfriend, Hertz was content to leave me stranded there with her and my 81 year old blind father and no way to get around the island.

So as you might imagine, I'm pretty unhappy with Hertz right now, but before deciding to never rent from them again, does anyone know if the Hertz agent was at all correct, and if so, what is this "new rule" and why isn't it made clear when booking a reservation?