I know this is being addressed re the US in another thread - and there are old threads on the topic, which are probably now out-of-date - but my partner and I have a sit booked in the UK over the Christmas/New Year period. It’s for two and a half weeks. We’ll need to hire a car (it’s in a rural area) but we’ve been quite frightened by the cost (£600 - £800, for the tiniest vehicle available) on quick looks at the main rental companies.
I’m even wondering about plucking up courage and asking the HO if we can use their car, but a) I don’t want to p!ss them off and b) Presumably, if that were an option, they’d have said so already. I’m angry with myself for not thinking to check car hire costs before I applied for the sit.. I’m even wondering if we should cancel, although we’ve never done this and I really don’t want to.
Great topic @DieFledermaus - I hope you don’t mind but I added an image so that I can add the topic to our “featured topics” on the Forum homepage. That should hopefully help encourage answers!
I think this question could help other people in future so hopefully those in the know will have some advice.
Car rental is expensive. We’re uk based & I was shocked at the cost of hire for a trip to Ireland a few years back. Are there no public transport or taxi options once you get to your sit? If you are going to withdraw better do it sooner than later & all you can do is apologise that you’d underestimated the cost when confirming the sit.
I’d definitely ask the hosts offering to pay any insurance costs incurred. Adding people, especially non UK residents to insurance temporarily isn’t as easy to do in the UK as it is in other countries but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
If you have to end up hiring stick to one of the well known companies, Sixt/Hertz/Europcar/enterprise/avis etc
Yes car rentals, especially in places like the UK can be super expensive. We have only rented a car for one sit we did in Panama back in 2021–not a lot of international sits during Covid and we wanted to get out of the US for awhile We found a pretty good deal so we splurged a bit.
But generally speaking, most sits I see that require a car aren’t so special or unique in some way that I find the cost of a car rental worth it.
It can’t hurt to ask about using theirs, but I imagine that if they were willing to do this, they would have made this known, and I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that.
For my husband and I, we aren’t big on doing a lot of tourist activities–the main thing we like to do is just take long daily walks exploring the area. Our main need for transportation in such an area would be to get food. So if deliveries were possible, there was some sort of bus service that allowed us to at least get to the store, or if the store was within an hour or so walking distance, we would be fine without a car. That we had to stay close to the local area and wouldn’t be able to explore further afield wouldn’t be a problem. So maybe it would be possible to still do the sit without the car?
But if you don’t think it would be possible and the cost of the rental is not within your budget, better to cancel as soon as possible. Christmas is far off so plenty of time to find a sitter.
This is one of those things that we learn along the way and know better for the next time!
I’ll be sitting with my partner and he does like to get out-and-about ; he’d be bored (and impossible to live with!) just confined to the immediate area. We were also hoping to take the dogs with us when we went exploring.
Good point, about withdrawing in plenty of time. I hate to do it, but I really think I’ve plonkerishly put us in an unworkable situation.. But as you (kindly!) say, it’s part of The Learning Curve..
Yes I get that…it is understandable to want to get out and explore. My husband and I are pretty lazy ‘tourists’ ! If we are in a rural area with lots of places to walk and explore, that is really all we tend to do!
I am sure they will understand and again, with so much time left to find another sitter, it really isn’t putting them in the same kind of bind as when people cancel super last minute.
Have you tried easycar and kayak yet @DieFledermaus? @Lokstar put us onto these two sites & have used them the last four UK work trips. Have just booked one for a week in October and it was only £75 for a Fiat 500 which is a steal! #lokstarluck
I have two thoughts: First, it sounds like you are from outside the UK. Are you 100% sure you are comfortable driving on the other side of the road? That would be my primary concern if I were the homeowner - it is more risk than letting a UK-based person borrow the car.
Second: Might it be an option to contact the host and let them know what you’ve discovered, offering them an option to find another sitter while confirming that you will do the sit (along with your unfortunately bored partner) if they can’t find a sitter? It is only August and there is plenty of time. Perhaps something like the below:
Hello HO,
We’re really looking forward to caring for Fluffy over the holidays and want to reassure you that their wellbeing is always our top priority.
I need to mention something I hadn’t fully realized when I applied: the cost of car hire in your area over Christmas/New Year is extremely high. Since your home is rural, we assume we’d require a vehicle to get supplies, handle any emergencies, and keep Fluffy comfortable and safe.
Because of this, I want to be upfront and give you the choice: if you’d prefer, you are welcome to cancel our sit and repost your listing to try to find another sitter who is better positioned to manage the car hire costs. I won’t be offended at all — I’d much rather you feel completely confident and at ease while you’re away. I
If you aren’t able to find someone else, rest assured that we will still honor our commitment and will be there as agreed to make sure Fluffy is safe, loved, and well cared for. We would likely have to be without a car, though, and would like to discuss options for obtaining supplies when we arrive and transportation for vet care should that become necessary.
Thank you for understanding, and please know our concern is entirely for Fluffy’s happiness and security while you’re away.
Car hire companies often don’t allow dogs to be taken in the car. Due to people’s allergies, they have to deep clean afterwards so you need to check if you do hire if it’s possible. UK insurance can be quite tricky if you want to add an overseas driver.
Ouch. The cost to rent a vehicle over the Christmas/New Years period jumps by 50% plus 400%-500% deposit with a £2000 excess damage liability. If that’s beyond your financial comfort zone, I’d think the hosts would understand you pulling out of the sit. And there’s always a possibility they might offer a solution like picking up or splitting the cost to rent or making a vehicle available themselves.
This is a learning experience for both parties. Hosts should bring up the cost of a vehicle rental for any sitters being considered who would not arrive in their own vehicle. By address, I don’t necessarily mean fixing the issue but hosts should at least query about a sitter’s plan during the vetting process.
We have done 3 sits in the UK where we have hired a car. Apparently it is prohibitively expensive to add overseas drivers on the insurance. The last time we hired a car for 41 days, we were in Wales and Scotland and touristing between sits. We hired a fiat 500, but on collection my husband was talked into upgrading. Turned out for the best, it would have been too small. We used Europa car. We are Australian so same side of road driving for us but no matter as my husband drives every where. The savings on accommodation allows us the spending on the car and we had a fabulous time. The one thing we did to cut costs was not to take no excess cover. If we had damage we would be up for a bit, but logically that’s the type of cover we have at home. It would have nearly doubled the cost for us to have a no excess policy.
Just a thought, but have you checked out the exact location of the sit via google maps, or similar?
Even if a location is described as rural, unfortunately the speed limit on many UK country lanes is the national speed limit of 60mph, and plenty of people drive as though there couldn’t possibly be another car around that blind bend, let alone someone walking, cycling, or riding a horse. Check whether you’d be comfortable walking the dog (assuming there is one!) straight from the house. If not, and you need to drive to somewhere in order to safely walk the dog, then you’d be well within your rights to expect the home owner to offer use of a car, and cover insurance costs, in order to do so.
Of course, the flip-side of this is that the home owner may then decide that you’re not the best fit for their sit, and cancel on you. But it sounds as though that might get you off the hook in this case?
If you google the words ‘bing map’, and find the location of the sit, you can then view that location on the Ordnance Survey map layer (toggle between the different views that it offers to do this). If you zoom in, roads shown as pink are main roads and not safely walkable, orange roads are probably still pretty fast and not walkable, and yellow roads are minor routes and more likely to be safely walkable.
We’ve hired one for 2 weeks for a small automatic from Luton airport 24.5 euro a day from Budget through Discover Cars (one of our partners) in September. I thought that was pretty reasonable. Let me know if you want more details.
We always take out the extra (anywhere in the world) through rentalcover.com. it usually works out cheaper and better cover. Many of the rental companies use them too but add their own cut on top.
