Booster seats for holiday hire cars WWYD?

[LostOrFound]

Planning trip abroad with 5 and 7yo DCs who have high backed booster car seats normally. I don’t want to risk our everyday ££ seats to the airport baggage handlers, so was looking to buy/acquire some booster seats for the holiday (renting them with the car hire is a ridiculous sum).

Will be taking public transport to/from airport etc so carting about two high backed boosters will be a bit challenging.

OR I could just buy booster seats without high backs.

OR just use the bubblebum inflatable cushions we already have for occasional emergency ferrying of extra kids in the car.

We’ll be doing quite a lot of driving so part of me wants the safety of a high back booster, but a bit of me thinks it’s going to be really hard work to carry them along with luggage etc.

What would you do, wise mumsnetters?

@LostOrFound what? We are hiring a car seat for my daughter (car seat not booster) and its £5 a day not £40. are you sure the 40 Eur isn't per week?

I mean i just looked up eurocar in rome and they charge £31.55 for the week? where are you getting £40 a day from?

Interesting - I’ll have another check. It was definitely 40EUR a day from one (otherwise cheap) provider I was looking at - I did a double take because it was so absurdly expensive!

Still, from what I can tell you’ll only get a booster seat/cushion from a car hire company, not a HBB.

So I guess the decision comes down to am I happy with a booster seat (be it a trunki or a hired) or is it worth us schlepping HBBs with us.

Seems most people just use booster seats/cushions for holidays, but I still feel a bit wary.

Yes €40 per day is ridiculous isn't it.

I've just advised this to someone in a local group, maybe it will work for you too (her DC are older, though)

Cost up buying a cheaper HBB and taking it with you vs hiring.

If it is cheaper to hire, request a high backed booster. If you get there and all they have is backless, ask for the car seat hire charge to be removed, refuse it and drive (without boosters) to the nearest supermarket, purchase 2x backless boosters for much cheaper than the hire rate, leave them in the hire car when you leave.

Or for second option, take the bubble bums as your backup option? I will look up cheap HBBs in Italy...

Worth checking if there are some local companies at the destination that will hire just the seat. We did this having seen the cost from the car hire company.

We were a little anxious but it worked perfectly, they met us at the car rental desk, fitted the seats for us, met us again at the end of the trip.. and cost a fraction of what the car hire company was charging.

These ones look OK, nothing brilliant, but something

www.amazon.it/Kk-Kinderkraft-KKFJUFIBLGR000-Junior-Seggiolino/dp/B07KY5RR5Q/

www.amazon.it/Britax-Romer-Seggiolino-avventura-color/dp/B01G5EWLPG/

Oh that is a good idea from Horizons. Search "baby equipment hire " and see what comes up.

We had 2 trunks and lived in Italy for part of the time so I know they are acceptable. In my experience if you “order” a non baby car seat you’ll get a booster pack regardless of what you’ve ordered…trunkis but do get a neck/seatbelt pillow and make sure you attach the seat belt strap properly so it makes them safe.

We've also used mifold in hire cars. They definitely don't have the security of a hbb but they're tiny (they bring the belt down to the child rather than lift the child up).

We always took usual high back seat, wrapped it in towels and then very securely wrapped in wrapping film. It survived several baggage carousels plus it meant we could take plenty of beach towels as ‘padding’ without putting them in luggage.

We found hire car seats to be absolutely dreadful quality as well as expensive.