car seats from car hire companies????

[stump]

Hi,
We're planning a trip to Italy in May and will be travelling on the overnight train from Paris to florence with our 4 year old and 18 month old.....are we crazy????
When we arrive we will need to hire a car for a week and we won't be able to carry our own car seats on the train (we'll have enough luggage as it is!!)
I've heard mixed reports about the standard of car seat you get with hire companies....anyone got any recommendations or companies to avoid at all costs???
TIA

bump

just bumping this to see if anyone can recommend a company??? Are Avis any good???

had a mix of success with this - your own car seat is difficult enough to fit so a hired one is a nightmare! And the companies are reluctant to help as they dont want to get it wrong either. I've hired from AVIS before and kit has been good but fitting instructions lost!!

Hi Stump,
We hired a car in Italy last year including a seat, we did have to belt it in ourselves, stage 2 seat I think it was, so it was fine.
One word of advice though, I searched through a comparison website and went for a company called CarDelMar, hired for two weeks and about two months ago we received two parking ticket notifications through the post from the parent company based in Palermo Sicily, they had taken two lots of £60 from our account for parking violations in Pisa on the same day but two locations, no tickets on car and definitely parked legally as I speak some Italian and checked very carefully at the time.
We contacted them and no response, the bank have now taken this up for us and we have cancelled cards etc.
Basically what I am saying is always use a really reputable car hire company such as Hertz, Avis etc as the saving in our case was not worth it at all
hth

blimey fizzy that sounds like a nightmare. Will definitely take your advice.

kinso hopefully i'll be able to figure the fitting out then - things like that tend to fall to me!!!

We have got car hire seats lots of times. The experience has been mixed. They never guarantee the seats but have never let us down, except the first time when they gave us a really terrible seat (teh straps were tied in).

Avis seems marginally better, but frankly, they are all rubbish. Our strategy is calling the local office directly (not the freephone number) 2 days before to make sure exactly what you want is there. Establish a rapport. Chat them up. Take their name. Then make sure you are near the front of the queue.

You will have to fit it yourself.

Hi there! I had a similar experience to Fizzy, had huge add on from car hire company for their admin charges for a minor traffic offence!! Always triple check where you park - don't assume because the locals park anywhere the same applies to one and all!! You can hire baby equipment from specific hire companies based in Italy, they might do car seats too? Good luck!