Neil Cunningham Hertz General Manager, UK comments on travel disruption in the UK caused by volcanic activity:
“Hertz has received an influx in enquiries and reservations as a direct response to the UK airspace closure. We received 60% more calls than usual at the start of the delays, as travellers looked for alternative ways to get to their destinations and we’ve been able to respond quickly to meet their needs. Yesterday, between 2pm and 4pm, 70% of all our reservations were for one way rentals with cars, for example, moving from the UK to continental Europe, (including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bruges, Paris, Antwerp and Geneva). Hertz’s Dover rental location received a week’s worth of bookings overnight.
We’re doing all we can to get people on the move and bring cars back to their rental locations, and to assist our airline and travel industry partners as well as our branch managers. As a goodwill gesture, Hertz is offering free one way rentals to people who can drive Hertz cars back to the car’s country of registration in response to the fact that the surge in one way rentals means that we cannot currently take any more one way rental bookings out of the UK. For more information on this repatriation service, people can visit http://www.hertz-transfer.de/ – the only car rental operator website that can provide real-time availability by country of foreign cars.
Finally, for customers who have prepaid direct with Hertz, and are not able to get to their car pick-up destination, we are offering a full refund if they make a cancellation at any point up to the pick-up date. Pre-paid direct customers who are ‘no shows’ will get a slightly reduced refund if they apply for it.”