Families hiring a car during overseas breaks in the school holidays are hit by massive mark-ups in charges, a consumer watchdog report has warned, citing peak-holiday charges at Faro airport as one of the worst examples in Europe.
Which? Travel research has revealed that car hire prices across the continent rise by as much as 176% between June and school holidays in August.
The findings follow a report that showed package holiday prices jumped by as much as 30% from the final weeks of school term time to the start of the holiday period.
The whole issue of how traditional family holiday months are viewed as occasions to bump up prices has been hotly debated since rules in UK mean that parents are now fined for taking children out of school for early-bird holidays.
The biggest price rises found by Which? Travel involved hiring a small car from Barcelona airport. The average starting price for a 50-year-old driver was £50 for a week in June. But in August this increased by 176% to £138. At Malaga airport, prices rose from £49 in June to £123 in August, an increase of 152%.
At Faro airport, the average starting price of hiring a small car for a week rose by 109%, from £64 in June to £134 in August. For a large car, the price rose by 89%, from £148 in June to £280 in August.
Contacted by the Resident, Armando Santana, president of the Association for Rent-a-Car Companies in the Algarve (ARA), questioned the credibility of the data and considered it “unfair” to compare prices in June to the sector’s peak in August.
“I do not really see what the surprise is, anyway. There have always been increases during the high season. Still, I question the credibility of the results included in that report.”
Which?’s research comes after another report that showed the extra cost of taking a break in school holiday time can actually be higher than the fines imposed for taking children on holiday during term time.
Under new UK rules, parents who take children on holiday without permission face fines of £60 per child per day of unauthorised absence.
Commenting on the Which? findings, the Daily Telegraph said that when the watchdog “took a snapshot of holiday prices in the weeks leading up to the 2014 summer holidays in England, it found 11 of the 12 holidays would be cheaper in term time even after paying the fines”.
Researchers looked at holidays from Thomas Cook and Thomson for a family of four and found that prices rose by as much as 30% from a holiday starting two weeks before the end of the summer term in England to one starting in the first weekend of the school holidays, said the newspaper.
