The silly hidden extras that car rental companies love to spring on you are the talk of the town again this summer. Everyone who rents a car usually has a very long and very boring example involving lots of initials (such as CDW - collision damage waiver) and the world's most boring subject (to anyone apart from the story's protagonist): insurance.
But the latest offering from Easy car has to win top prize for cheek. They are now charging customers extra for returning a dirty car. It's a bit like a hotel trying to charge extra for you not making the bed or leaving scum around the bath.
This is how it works. Now, if you return the car in the condition you picked it up in, you are charged £2. Return it dirty and you'll be charged £10. Makes a bit of a joke of the advertisements saying Easycar vehicles from £9 a day.
According to the company's web site, for a car to be deemed clean 'it must be apparent that the exterior was washed prior to return (no mud splashes, bird lime or excessive grime)' and the interior of the 'car - including boot - cleared of litter; ashtray empty and clean; floors, doors and upholstery clean (no mud stains, no sand, no hair or stains)'.
It's all designed to make the car hiring experience as annoying and stressful as possible. If you're staying in a hotel, where are you sup posed to get a bucket, sponge and soap from? And secondly, if you're staying in an Andalucian villa and you have access to a bucket, what kind of state will the car be in by the time you reach the airport?
A man on the Easycar reservations line says this is not a problem: most people do clean the car before returning it. 'There's a little queue of people outside the Tesco's car wash round the corner,' he chirps. Great, if you're in London, but what about Barcelona or Malaga where you're just about coping with the right-hand driving let alone negotiating a foreign car wash?
These are my other pet-hate charges: baby seats (average £2.55 per day) windscreen cover (£2 per day) or air conditioning (£2) per day. Surely if you rent a family car on holiday you'd expect those things to come as standard? And many companies have an annoying habit of charging a daily add-on for an extra driver.
Next thing, Easycar's mother company EasyJet will make customers clean the aircraft before leaving the tarmac to keep fares low.
All comes back to the theme of our front cover. It looks as if low-cost airlines are infecting other parts of the travel industry with their hidden extras.
