Europcar has announced that, with effect from September 1, no-shows and bookings that have not been cancelled from the GDS before the confirmed rental date and time, will be charged for.
All Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre users are affected by the change and these charges will apply to all rentals booked through GDSs with the vehicle check-out dates from September 1. All existing bookings from this date will be subject to the new rule.
Travel News spoke to Nelius Vermaak, National Sales Manager for Europcar, about the change.
He said the new charge was a deterrent. “Our reporting has found that more and more users are booking vehicles and not cancelling before the rental time. As a supplier, Europcar gets billed for each booking made on the GDS system. But we don’t get billed if the agent cancels the transaction on GDS. GDSs will bill Europcar for a transaction whether or not it materialises and right now Europcar is covering those costs, which have become significant.
“We have now taken the stance that if a GDS booked rental takes place, Europcar is happy to pay the GDS fee. If a rental is cancelled, we are not billed and have no reason to pass on the cost to the agent,” said Vermaak.
“If a reservation is made and not cancelled any time before collection time, we will pass on this charge of R200 to the IATA agency that generated the booking. We will generate a monthly report and those agencies that deviated will be charged R200 for each rental no-show or each booking not cancelled in time.
”Agents should be mindful that bookings generated on the GDS must be cancelled on the GDS, not by phone call or email. The booking must be cancelled so that the GDS does not report it as uncancelled in its system.”
Vermaak confirmed that GDS-generated car-rental booking sectors could be cancelled without penalty any time before the time of the rental, even if, for example, a rental is for 08h00 and the agent cancels the booking at 07h30.
