Car Hire Timing

[Florida Joy]

We have booked our flights for Christmas[xmas2] this year and we arrive at Orlando Int. at 23.50 hours. So by the time we clear customs etc it will be after midnight when we get to pick up our rental car.
Question: How do the rental companies calculate the definition of a "day" and should be book our car from then expected arrival time at Orlando or our expected collection time?[?]

[blott]

Whenever you arrange the collection time from, remember that it also sets your return time as the rental is always in period blocks of 24 hours. So the 'day' starts from the time you pick up the car and will be printed on your car rental documentation.

Hope that helps you work it out!

[Magical Dreams]

Always check on the documents that they are correct.

Because if you book it from say 3am and don't collect until 4am, there is a chance that it will end at 3am when you return it!

This happened to us at Dollar a while ago. So we always make sure we double check.

Remember your Dollar express card too and cut the queue!

[roger]

As said above, the 'clock' starts ticking when you collect. This means if you book say for collection and drop off at 15:00, but actually collect at 14:00 then you only have until 14:00 to drop your car off.

If you collect late, at say 16:00 then the rental company should (but are not obliged to) change the drop time to 16:00. Certainly this is the case with smaller cars, but once you get to the larger cars (like 8, 12 and 15 seaters) or in very busy period, they may not put your drop time back as they often schedule a tight turn-around of the car ready for the next customer after you.

In terms of the time you book at car for, we suggest you book it from the time you actually expect to collect the car (not the flight arrival time). This is only ever assumed to be an estimate though as flights often arrive early or late, and timings can be from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours from leaving the plane to getting to the rental desk.