AIBU to think car hire companies shouldn't charge so much for child seats?

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I'm going to visit my parents and will be hiring a car for 8 days. This is costing about £150. To hire a booster seat will be £11.60 a day - AIBU to think this is ridiculous when you can buy a seat for less than this. It's for my 4 year old so I don't know whether to take his proper seat on the plane which will be a pain as it is big and I will be on my own with him and 3mo DD or to take a small booster seat in our suitcase which won't be as safe. I don't understand how they can justify charging this amount. I could take a small booster seat and then buy a bigger ~£30 one in Halfords when I get there. My parents live 2 hours drive from the airport so I would have to potentially have to throw it away at the end of the trip to return to the airport safely (I won't do this as it would be too wasteful).

You can buy an inflatable booster seat which seems slightly odd to me - anyone know if they are safe. Any other tips? Is this worthy of a mumsnet campaign? Surely providing legal seats should be an obligation.

Have you considered buying a trunki backpack? They are a rucksack which are also a car seat. I have a couple of them and they work really well for travelling.

Cost isn't the biggest issue here, safety is.
We used to hire car seats abroad and they were all filthy and often unsafe.
We always take our own and it saves money because the airlines don't charge you - you get your own safe, clean seat with no charge!!
Much better option

Should have said you check it in with cases so don't have to lug it around the airport

I don't think that providing car seats should be an obligation, after all the seats in the car are legal for bigger passengers, and it is the driver's responsibility to ensure children are seated appropriately- but it does seem like a huge amount of money! I have hired cars abroad before, and got the car seat thrown in for free.

I think there should be a way of making sure you don't pay more to hire the car seat than to buy one. Either the cost per day should be a lot lower, capped at a maximum or perhaps a one-off charge that is the same no matter how long you hire the car for.

They look great! We have just bought DS a normal Trunki though (bit late but he does love it) - wish I had seen that first! Still annoyed at the car hire companies though...

Ah sorry I was too late. Perhaps you could get one off eBay?

hopping that depends on the airline- some only let you take one free item per baby, and children don't get anything, so checking the 4 year old's car seat would mean travelling without a pushchair or car seat for the baby.

And after seeing the mess that one baggage handling company made of our suitcase and pushchair, I don't think I'd entrust a car seat to their care.

We have a really big isofix carseat but I think easyjet would take it. I could probably just about manage if I don't take a buggy for DS.

I wouldn't mind paying something but £80 seems excessive. We have paid for car seat hire in the past before we knew you could take them on the plane and they were really grubby (though I'm not sure ours are much cleaner but at least it is our mess).

Chronically I do wonder if the bumps the car seat will get in baggage handling undermine the safety.

I second the recommendation of a trunki We bought one for India as the cars there didn't offer car seats. It was brilliant and now we use it for friends travelling in our car. It will work out cheaper for you to buy one than to hire a seat, and at least you can use it again.

I might buy one but I'd need to persuade DS not to use his new Gruffalo Trunki case . We can always use that when DD gets bigger so it won't go to waste. I guess I can buy a smaller one and put that in the hold rather than my suitcase - that would make things easier at least.

Buy an inflatable bubblebum booster seat - when deflated it squeezes down pretty small - takes up less than 10% of my handluggage bag. Does the job perfectly well.

we have a trunki for the older one (six), but we noticed this same strange pricing scheme of over the top charge for a seat. We were going to france and the hire company was charging more for the seat than the car. we found another one that charged something like 5/day. still high, but saves bringing your own seat.

but agree with the suggestion above. once old enough, try a trunki. you can store the kids carry on stuff in them too (we have the colouring books etc in them).

Thanks for the suggestion

The bubble bum seats are great. They can even take my weight, although they are a snug fit for my arse.

I wouldn't check in a car seat. Even if it looks to be in one piece the way they chuck them about can cause hidden damage.

Kiddicare currently have (in store) their own brand 0-4 Shuffle seat for £20. We've bought two for when we travel abroad with our DTs due to the cost of hire / poor quality of rental car seats and the risk of our expensive ones being damaged in transit. Yes, it'll be a faff to cart the seats to the airport etc but it seemed worth it to me. Think the seats are still £80 online; Kiddicare stores are closing on around September 8th.

We came across this problem an just decided to buy one in halfords instead, although my children are bigger and just need booster seats. Car company wanted £5 per day, you can buy them for not much more.