Grace period

[Lovesholidays]

Hi there

Have always got our car back in the time we said we would, was just wondering though if you went over a little on the time, say an hour would you get charged for another day or is there a 'grace period' ?
We always book via Alamo brits by the way...

[mickchick]

There is no hard and fast rule applied, all the rental companies reserve the right to charge extra if a car is returned late. Some on here will tell you they've not had to pay extra, others will have stories of being charged anything from an hour to a day, depending on how late they rolled up.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

As above. The best bet is to ensure you are checked back in before the time you originally got checked out.
I know Virgin give a 2 hour grace period.

[Guest]

29 minutes is the standard grace period, although if you book Alamo through Virgin its 2 hours so I'm led to believe.

[Lovesholidays]

Thanks everyone

[toonarmani]

Why not slightly overbook and return a little earlier than they were expecting so you are covered just in case you are delayed?

As I think as long as you're not running over into another 24hr period (24hrs from when you originally collected), the cost won't/shouldn't change?

[BevS97]

It doesn't matter what you book it's the time you collect the car , they charge in 24 hour blocks from collection

[7SeasSailor]

BevS97 has got it.

[Cosworth]

With Alamo, the hire agreement lists the hourly charge for late return. In our case it was $14 (for an intermediate car) and as we got stuck in traffic on the I4 (major incident) we were almost 2 hours late returning so we were charged $28. Not unreasonable. For a 7-seater minivan, the hourly rate was $25.

[tspill]

Originally Posted by Cosworth

With Alamo, the hire agreement lists the hourly charge for late return. In our case it was $14 (for an intermediate car) and as we got stuck in traffic on the I4 (major incident) we were almost 2 hours late returning so we were charged $28. Not unreasonable. For a 7-seater minivan, the hourly rate was $25.

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Unless you book through Virgin where you get two hours.

Virgin (with alamo) also have some other advantages as I found out recently on the west coast with no one way fees between Arizona, California and Nevada.