To think car hire companies charge too much for car seats and booster seats

[thebird]

We are going on holiday next week and have hired a car. The hire company want to charge £90 to hire 2 booster seats. The airline will allow children under 3 to take a car seat and buggy for free but will charge us to check in a booster seat!? Given that it is a legal requirement for all DCs to have a booster seat and the fact that you can buy a booster seat for less than the hire cost I am at a loss as to why they charge so much!

I would understand a nominal amount to cover loss or damage but the money they charge seems to discriminate against parents as they have no choice but to have a car seat- rant over!

Every passenger can carry a piece of hand luggage - our kids carry a flat booster as theirs and their bag of crayons etc goes in our rucksacks.

It is annoying - £30 to hire and they cost around £8 to buy!

It's because they hope you won't notice, and it's a nice little earner.

If you quote a booster (just the base type one, in this case for a 9 year old) at £2 per day -it doesn't sound too bad. But for a fortnight's use, that comes out at about twice the cost of a new one.

We noticed. We don't hire seats with the cars any more.

Check out Trunki Boostapak - will be free to take on plane. Which airline is it?

It would be better value to buy a Boostapak. Then you've got it for future holidays too and days out in friends' cars etc.

Some airlines don't charge to take car seats. It is always worth taking your own as hand luggage otherwise.

Where are you going on holiday? Is it a legal requirement for a bigger child to have a booster seat there?

YABU because they are clearly not charging too much if they are charging that and still happily in business. They are charging what the market will bear just like anyone else. They are not there to make your life easy or to make it so you have a nice holiday or to keep your children safe, they are there to make a profit. Sorry.

Consider getting some of the inflatable ones if space is at a premium. Amazon have the bubblebum ones for around £22.

www.amazon.co.uk/Bubblebum-Inflatable-Car-Booster-Seat/dp/B003GQ0LQ8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312964763&sr=8-1

I like the look of the easy car seat ones, but they are more expensive at £50

www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_824817_langId_-1_categoryId_165554

We've got a couple of booster seats which we just put in our suitcases so they are part of our luggage allowance (the booster seats don't weigh much - not like the huge things you have to have for under 4s). Handy to have in the car for giving friends a lift as well :)

I wouldn't rely on a car hire company car seat even if it were free - you don't know what condition it might be in.

The other thing I've heard that people do if they know the airport is near a (e.g.) large supermarket is buy cheap boosters when they are on holiday and just leave them behind. Though obviously this still gives you the problem of how to get the children to the shop without a car seat - this might not be illegal depending on country you're in, but still unsafe.

YANBU. It was going to cost us £60 to hire a car seat for 2yo DD when we went on holiday in May (or £30 if we rented a more expensive car ). We took one as checked luggage (flew with Ryanair so was the only checked luggage we had as took clothes etc as hand luggage) which cost £20 (2 x £10) so worked out cheaper, though we were told when we checked in that we could actually have taken it for free as we weren't taking a buggy (website wasn't clear about that).

I bought Bubblebum ones this year, DS2 (just 3) was a bit slippery on it but they did the job. Sold them to a friend via Facebook within days of our return for £15 each - making our carseat costs just £7 each! Have also decided we'll be sticking to UK holidays for the next few years, plenty to see and do here and there's still no guarantee of good weather anywhere else.