BABY SEATS FROM CAR HIRE COMPANY'S

Hi All,

Has anybody hired a baby seat when hiring a car in Spain? My daughter is coming to Spain  with her baby in September, he will only be 4 months old. We are concerned that the hire company seats are not upto standard.

I would be grateful for info if you've had experience of hiring one.

Thanks

Some car hire companies state the brand that they hire and they are the same brands as available in UK.  They should all be up to EU standards anyway.   We took our own seat with us when our son was 9 months but when he was 2 we hired one - a maxi cosy - our complaint however is that it was the filthiest seat I've ever seen and cringed at the thought of my wee angel sitting in it!!   We're due out next week and have bought a booster seat to bring with us!!

At 4 months I'd be very tempted just to take my own (assuming she has one of the rear facing baby carriers) as they are quite light and portable and can obvioulsy be used for more than just the car.

Our problem with the hire company's baby seats is the fitting of them! The hire car people will not fit them for you but they don't seem anything like the UK seats for fitting. Each time we have gone with our daughters and their children it always ends up in a row between them and their partners while they struggle to fit them! Never a good start to the holiday! One of my daughters says that on her next visit she will use one of the companies that hire out to you named seats and meet you at the airport with the seats when you arrive. As we havent done this yet obviously can't say how good they are, but cant be any worse than the struggle and stress of their last visit!

Thank you for your replies.

I'm thinking that perhaps she should bring her own if at all possible. I have afeeling that it will be too big though!

I've never heard of the sort of companies that Saffronbilli mentioned who are they? Maybe we can look at that option.

Thanks again.

Ours are thankfully past the need for baby seats but whenever we hired baby seats from a car hire company they were always filthy and never seemed to be very good.  Some of them didn't even appear to fit very well and they weren't as sturdy as they should have been.

I would always recommend you take your own if you can.

Justin

The car seats can be put on the hold of the plane in the same way as prams.  Some airlines will charge extra I dare say but the better ones don't.....it will all depend on if you have enough hands to carry everything!!   Failing that if it's a trip they are going to make often it can be benefiical just to buy your own out there to use a few times....a couple of weeks hire would buy you a seat!

Thank goodness for a heavy 3 year old......our booster has cost £10 and is light so can be transported in our case, or even golf bag!!

When coming back from Murcia recently, one of the hire companies (no names mentioned) had a car in the car park filled to the rafter with child seats and there were others lying around on the ground outside. Not sure I would want to trust my child in a seat that had been treated like that!

Mark

Two websites my daughter has kept for future reference are: www.all4kidshire.com and www.mothergoosehire.com

As we haven't used either yet I can't say how good they are but they do sound Ok! The first one will drop off and pick up from the airport and has pictures of the car seat you would be hiring which is good! Both of them seem to hire other things too, such as highchairs, stairgates, pushchairs and even food! So maybe have a look and make your own mind up - if you do use them please let me know how it went!

THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR REPLIES,

WHAT A GANG!!!!

I'll let you know how we get on 

We have had two bad experiences when trying to hire car seats, last October I booked for a 2 year old and 3 month old baby, when we arrived tat Alicante the one for the baby was far too big, did not recline and was totally unsuitable for a 3 month old baby, the other was broken, the padding had come away from the frame,we got no help at all and had to go to another Compnay which then cost twice as much as the original booking, then last week we arrived again having booked two baby seats a couple of months ago, when we went to the hire company they said they only had booster seats (we had a 10 month old and a 2 and a half year old) again totally unsuitable, they shrugged and said they could not supply us, so again off to another company and again because we had not booked it cost double again, apart from the expense this was all very time consuming and very hard work with two young children.  Lessons learnt, will not be booking baby seats through any of these companies.

Diane

Hi Diane,

Thats pretty much what I would have expected I suppose, so many people have also commented on how dirty these seats were!

I think i will either have to buy a seat in Spain or get my daughter to bring her own if she can. After all we've got to look after my 1st grandchild!!!  panic panic!!!!

I would have thought that for those based in Spain with young children visiting it might make better sense to purchase one-surely these can be picked up on ebay etc for a song as once one has had x amount of xchildren and they are of a certain age the seat becomes relatively useless?