Infant/Child Safety Seats and Car Rental: What You Should Know

After a woman in California had a bad experience with the quality, function, and condition of the car seats offered by a California rental car company she blogged about it.  A TV station in San Diego then reported on her experience and as a result of all the attention the car hire company in question has completely overhauled their child seats, destroying the older ones of poor quality and ensuring that they only rent safe, clean car seats with their car hires.

Many rental car companies have followed suit, and today it is easy to find suitable infant and child seats for rent along with your car hire in any major city or airport.  However, you can never be too cautions and should make sure your child will be safe and protected with the proper restraints in your rental car before leaving the lot.  Consumeraffairs.com recommends the following when installing a child seat in a rental car:

• Inspect each seat thoroughly for any evidence of cracking, twisting, worn harness webbing or broken buckles
• Verify that seat belts are threaded through the proper channels
• Once you have latched the buckles, pull hard to make sure that they do not detach
• Find the "birth date" label on the side or back of the seat and don't use a seat more than 5 years old
• Ask for a copy of the car seat manual

Some car rental companies will have your infant car seat or child booster car seat installed for you, and keep an employee on staff who is trained to install seats.  Others may provide very nice child seats which you will need to install yourself.  Special equipment such as a child safety seat can be selected through our booking engine after you confirm your location, pick-up and and drop-off times and select a vehicle.  All special equipment must be paid for locally when you collect your vehicle and is is subject to availability. 

For more information about child car seats and safety visit childcarseats.org.uk

Below is a video by Expert Village about how to properly instal an infant car seat: