To ask the capable women of Mumsnet for holiday disaster advice

[CreteTragedy]

On holiday in Crete and it’s all been a bit of a nightmare so far. Less than 20 minutes after leaving the airport, I had an accident in the car hire vehicle swerving to avoid an oncoming scooter. It ended up in the vehicle needing to be recovered and a €140 taxi journey to our accommodation 90 minutes away. We arrived at 4am and were scrabbling around on the mountain in the dark trying to find the right villa. We almost let ourselves into another villa until we noticed the drying swimsuits outside.

I’m on day 3 of the 10 day holiday, and it’s apparent we won’t be able to stay here without a car. It’s a 40 minute walk up the mountain away from the town. We did a taxi trip on the first morning for groceries, but the taxi had no seatbelts. I felt awful for allowing my 12 year old son to ride without a seatbelt but felt I had little other options at the time.

The car hire company aren’t being very responsive. I’ve got a police accident and other paperwork, ready to start their accident process but so far, have not had the promised call back from the ‘manager’. I’d need to give them another €1500 damage deposit and travel back to their offices 90 minutes away to collect a replacement vehicle. I’m reluctant to authorise any more charges to my card until I know the extent of the original liability. I took out indemnity insurance separately but I’ll need to pay any cost up front. I emailed my insurer yesterday to start the paper trail.

The accommodation hosts haven’t been very helpful and just sent links to car hire companies. I haven’t seen them or heard from the at all in person. AirBnB have been better and are offering to cancel and refund unused nights. I’m checking if they can book a property that has availability now.

As it’s just me and my 12 year old, I’m struggling to keep it together. I feel isolated in the mountains without a car and I’m worried about the liability from the accident.

What a nightmare. To be honest, it sounds like you sort of have it already fully under control.

You’re going to move somewhere less remote, you’re in contact with the car hire company and the insurers.
It sounds like you are on top of this.

Personally I think I'd be looking for hotels for roughly the same price as theyl refund so you are more central. Alot of villas in most places are more in the sticks to be honest unless you can find a central apartment that has a shared pool. You still have a week, it's saveable! If you do self catering you can jump in a taxi and take your shopping with you. Where abouts in Crete are you? Drop the guilt about your 12 year old, it's done now and he's safe.

I would also try and move to a hotel or apartment wouldn’t you don’t need a car and then a transfer/taxi back to the airport.

Why not hire a different car from a different company? Why the huge deposit? Was this some local hire company and not a major name?

For future reference I’d not be taking flights landing at night and then driving to somewhere remote where you have no idea where you are going. It’s clearly a budget holiday but there’s too much that could go wrong. I’d try and get a hotel and hire a car from elsewhere. The hire company will contact you. I assume you were fully insured so they will get money from your insurance. I’d pack up and cut your losses.

I’m in Plakias and we flew into Chania airport. The late flights were simply due to flight availability from Bristol airport. I paid £2,500 approx for the villa and over £500 for the car hire, so definitely wasn’t trying to do anything on the cheap.

I’m hoping that AirBnB can move us to a property in Chania town. The location is gorgeous here with ocean views, but it’s just too remote without a car.

The car hire company aren’t much use at all. I just called them again to start the accident claim process, and was just told to come into the office before I fly home. When I started asking for confirmation of next steps in writing, by email, they said they couldn’t hear me and rang off. I’ve followed up by email for the paper trail.

Sounds awful, huge sympathies. I agree that if you can move into Chania town you’ll be great - it’s gorgeous and easy to get around. Fingers crossed you find something. And perhaps you can get a taxi out to the car hire place before the end of the holiday to talk to them in person?

You can get to London airports from Bristol with better flight times. What insurance did you have on the car? Why not get another one from another company? It’s also an issue that you don’t have Abta. It’s not a package holiday so you are on your own. What’s the advantage of Airbnb over a standard package? Other than choice? I’d just do things differently in future.

That sort of excess is completely normal with a foreign hire car company! I rent cars a lot abroad from all different providers and they generally freeze well over €1000 on my card for possible damages. I would do what other people have suggested and liaise with Airbnb and get moved to the town. You can rely on public transport and sort the car out on the last day. You are very lucky Airbnb are offering to help you change accommodation, try and enjoy the rest of your holiday.

The issue with hiring a car from another company now is that I still don’t know my liability on the first car. I took out a separate indemnity policy to cover the excess of the basis cover provided with the hire, plus that also covers items like recovery and exclusions like tyres, windscreens etc. Costs will need to be paid upfront and then reclaimed, so while the hire company are still holding their deposit and I don’t yet know total cost of damage, I don’t want to tie up another €1500 on a deposit for a replacement vehicle.

I’ve managed to get out for some lunch in the town while waiting for AirBnB to confirm the requested accommodation.

What a rotten start to the holiday. It sounds super stressful.

I think moving into town and avoiding hiring another car is sensible. I certainly wouldn't do both.

Do you have sufficient headroom on your credit card to hire another car and have a second "hold" for the excess? The alternative is obviously that despite your existing insurance, you hire a car and suck up the cost of having zero excess. That way you can stay in your current location but it's sounding like town might be more where your head is at right now.

It might be worth giving a call to your bank to say you are concerned they are going to levy a charge without discussion and that they are avoiding you. Your bank may place a block on the payment going through if the car company try it on. I would be honest and not do something like report the card stolen. They could potentially still put through the payment anyway.

In the meantime, you can show willing by asking the hire company for the evidence of cost so that you can approach your 3rd party insurer.

What sort of holiday did you want? I assume you’re into hiking or something to have booked somewhere up a mountain and far from anything fun for kids, so would you really be happy being in a more touristy area?

I don’t understand why you have such a huge excess.

Good for you taking out the excess indemnity insurance, you must be very glad of that at least. And no-one was injured, try to keep that at the front of your mind.

I'd give up on hiring another car and move to a hotel where a car isn't needed. You'll find it hard to relax otherwise.

You don’t know what the OP’s DC finds fun.

That’s why I asked if they’re into hiking 🙄

Sorry to hear about this, but yes you do seem to be handling it well. Would you consider a good all inclusive, much cheaper than paying for everything bit by bit.

Oh I thought you said the OP had gone somewhere where there was nothing fun for DC to do.

I’m still waiting on AirBnB to confirm they’ve cancelled the rest of the accommodation here so I didn’t make it over to Chania today. I got a taxi into Plakias and found a nice taverna, had some lunch and spent an hour on the beach before picking up some groceries and getting collected by the taxi again.

The vision for this holiday was nipping around to some fantastic beaches, and taking a few boat trips with a relaxing base at the villa with a pool. It worked really well in Rhodes last year as our host was fantastic; drove us into town the first morning for groceries and pastries, arranged car hire and trips etc - nothing was too much trouble. The hosts here have outsourced to a travel company and haven’t even called to see how we’re getting on.

I’m not keen on All Inclusive as they tend to be very family oriented, and as a lone parent family they tend to ignore you. A hotel with someone taking care of everything does seem very appealing right now though!

@CreteTragedy You were spoilt on Rhodes! Of course most owners don’t do that and loads of places on Airbnb are managed bycompanies! You sound like an innocent abroad.

I’m not sure you really understand holidays contracts and protection either if you think a packaged holiday is just AI. That’s a very strange view to have.

Packaged means the holiday company sells you the flight and the accommodation and possibly arranges the car hire if needed, or airport transfers. The contract is with them. In this scenario, if your flight doesn’t happen, you get compensation for the holiday. Not just the flight because it’s a package contract. Booking separately means you would still have to pay for the accommodation, even if you didn’t show up. It’s up to you to get there. You should also get some help when something goes wrong. You don’t have any help.

In future why not look at villa package holidays? It would give you peace of mind.

It sounds like an awful start for you, very stressful.

You do know that the owner of your villa now won't get paid and is unlikely to re fill the dates at such short notice?

In Greece, local travel agents can arrange car hire and will often bring the car to the villa for you. Have a Google and find an agent. Or the travel agent who is looking after the villa shoukd be able to help you with car hire.

Crete is a nightmare for driving. We almost ended up down a mountainside getting to our villa at night. Two quite deep scratches on the hire car ( 2 separate incidents) but think it was less than 200 euros, the hire car was in with our villa price.

Because pretty much every hire car company in Europe has an excess of over €1000. It doesnt matter which company you use or what country you are in, they are all the same. The hire car will sell you additional insurance to remove the excess, but it tends to be around €30 per day. You can get much cheaper cover from other companies. I have an annual policy for €35 with AIG. Some credit cards or loyalty programmes will even cover you for free. But with these you have to pay out first and then claim it back, which is the situation the OP is in.

@KrisAkabusi We never have that size of excess and do pay to get rid of it! That’s one less thing to worry about and op was driving this car at night from the airport. A bit extra to zero the excess is just normal for us. We don’t normally pay extra for breakdown towing or sat nav.

Do you have 'collision damage waiver'? Called CDW on the paperwork, this is the important thing to have on car hire in Greece.

It sounds really stressful OP. Package holidays and a resort can have great benefits over arranging everything yourself. Especially as a single parent actually as you have everything on site. Is your DC not really bored and lonely without any other DC around? Some resorts are lovely and have amazing facilities.