Infant car seat not provided by holiday firm for whole trip

[oyster86]

We’ve just returned from a villa package holiday to Greece using a well respected firm who we’ve previously used. However, this was our first time using them as parents, taking our one-year old with us. As part of the package, they informed us that an infant car seat would be provided, to save us having to bring our own, and indeed this was the case in our hire car at our end destination.

However, in order to reach the end destination, the company also provided private car taxi transfers to and from the Greek airport, and as we discovered upon their arrival (on both legs) did not contain infant seats. Given the relatively short journey length and having little other choice in that split second, we risked it, but surely this is quite a serious dereliction of duty by the holiday firm, and indeed illegal on the part of the taxi drivers involved?

Where do I stand on this from a consumer / legal perspective, and what would you deem to be reasonable recourse? I will most certainly be making a complaint to the firm in question.

There’s no legal requirement for taxis to provide child car seats in the U.K. so I’d imagine the same is true in Greece.

Children younger than three can travel in a taxi without a child seat or seat belt, but the child must be seated only on the back seat. A quick Google told me that. You had a car seat in your rented car if I'm reading this correctly so I don't think you've a leg to stand on really.

Next time bring your own car seat, far safer and no risk of this happening.

This

Removing the legal position, it still seems a reasonable expectation of the holiday firm, in my opinion. They actively discouraged us from bringing a car seat on the presumption we would not require one for the trip. This feels a very grey area.

I guess if their literature says you do not need a car seat because one will be provided at all times then yes you could write and complain but I suspect it does not so the legal position (which you did ask about) is that it is fine. You were fine enough at the time to go without one so I don’t think there is any point in complaining now. I’d just reflect on what was presumably a good holiday and if you don’t want to be in a taxi without one next time then take one or check in advance.

It’s like that in Greece and many other countries. They always look at us like we’re bonkers, installing our car seat before we get in a taxi! One time our (UK company) hotel in Greece organised a taxi for us, a family of 5, and sent a saloon with 4 seats. So they wanted us to have a child on our laps. We just said nah and asked them to get a bigger one for us. We should have hired a car tbh! Had similar in Italy.

The EU legislation exempts taxis from having to provide car seats, which doesn't seem unreasonable. There are 5 approved sizes of seats, so to have the correct one for any given set of twins the taxi would have to carry 10, which is not practical.

Countries are allowed to make their own laws stricter, though. In Spain, taxis have to provide child seats, but only if the journey takes them outside a built-up area. So if you call one, or when you turn up at the taxi rank in a town to go to the next town, you are meant to describe the ages of all the children in the party, and the taxi then drives to its depot (without the meter running) to pick up the seats. I think it's safe to say that this doesn't always happen. (Sometimes at a big airport there will be a pool of child seats by the taxi stand.)

I think it's also worth remembering that with modern car safety, having an infant sitting in a car for 20km while not in a seat is not a huge risk. I hate the "We all hung out of the windows in my day and it didn't do us any harm" argument, but it's true that the chances of you being in exactly the kind of accident where an infant seat makes a difference to the outcome on the way from the airport to the hotel are very small indeed, compared to all the other statistical risks to a child's safety that are involved in going on holiday in the first place (unfamiliar room layouts, balconies, swimming pools, etc).

Honestly, I'm not surprised you're annoyed, but just let it go. A poorly fitted careset in a taxi wouldn't be effective anyway so if you really were that worried you should've brought your own (I say this as someone who had a similar experience, random carseats aren't fitted correctly anyway so they're actually not very effective in a crash)

Actually thinking about it, we had the same in Florida too. Awful, barely protective car seat for 11 month old with a rental car. Always take your own! (Obviously not taken my own advice as we’ve had rubbish car seats in 3 countries! But where possible, it’s worth it)