Why is the rental car voucher so important?

Important facts described briefly below:

You always need a rental car voucher to pick up a vehicle from a rental car supplier. Without this collection voucher, you will not be given the car keys to the rental car. Read the following text to find out when the car rental voucher will arrive at your place, what kind of information this voucher contains, and what you need it for.

********************

What does a car rental voucher mean, and what do you need it for?

The provider will send you a rental car voucher, which you can use to pick up your rental car at the respective rental car company. You will need a printout of this collection voucher.

Attention: Digital rental car vouchers on tablets or smartphones are less frequently accepted.

The voucher proves that you have made an advanced payment for the rental car with the provider. It also gives you all the necessary information about the car rental services you have booked. The data on the voucher is often given in abbreviations. You should check whether the data matches the services you have booked. There are tables to help you understand the meaning of the voucher abbreviations.

Note: For some suppliers, a reservation confirmation is sufficient. So before you worry that you will not receive a rental car voucher, first check with your provider to see if you can pick up your rental car with a written confirmation.

How much time elapses between booking a rental car and receiving the voucher?

Usually, one to three days pass, after booking the rental car, until you receive the corresponding rental car voucher via e-mail. HAPPYCAR first sends information to the provider. From there, the booking is passed on to the rental company. The supplier then confirms the receipt of the booking for the provider. The provider then charges the corresponding amount from your credit card.

These few steps may take some time. Unfortunately, sometimes there are also delays.

Why are there occasional delays in sending the rental car voucher?

There can be several reasons for the delay in the sending of the car rental voucher. In the following, we will explain the most common reasons for delays, and what you should do:

• The availability of the rental car must be checked

The car rental company must first confirm that the rental vehicle you have chosen is available. Some rental companies or providers mark the availability directly on the online booking form. If you want to rent a vehicle as quickly as possible, you should pay attention to the marking, "immediately available" when booking. In this case, the forwarding of the voucher works automatically. Rental cars that are not marked with "immediately available" can also be booked. In these cases, it may take only a little while longer until an employee has checked the availability.

• The rental car must be paid

Before the rental car voucher can be sent to you, your credit card must be charged with the price of the rental. The providers usually take care of such matters once a day or at night. Some providers also collect the rental fee only three to four weeks before the pickup date of the vehicle. You should then receive the rental car voucher shortly afterward.

If anything goes wrong with the payment, you will be notified via e-mail. In this case, check all your credit card details and other information you provided when you made your booking. There should be no errors in your data. If an incorrect e-mail address was inadvertently provided, contact customer service. They can quickly correct the error. Otherwise, you may have exceeded your credit card limit, or a foreign ban may prevent payment if the provider is based abroad. Check these criteria before you decide to rent a car.

• The rental company needs your flight details

If you want to pick up your rental car directly at an airport, the rental company will most likely need your flight details. If you did not provide them when booking, you will be informed via e-mail. The sending of the rental car voucher will be delayed if you have to enter this data, and they have to be processed again.

• You book one or more additional services

If you book additional services, such as hotel deliveries, child car seats, a navigation system, and other extras, the supplier must also check availability. Checking for these extras also takes additional time.

• The demand is very high

In particular, during the high vacation season, providers and/or suppliers must work on many rental inquiries. This is especially true for popular tourist destinations. Therefore, it is always worthwhile to book a rental car as early as possible.

What to do if you can't find the rental car voucher?

First of all, take some time to look around your desktop to see if you can find the corresponding file. Occasionally a lost file can be found in the recycle bin of your computer or has moved to another folder.

Tip: Use search functions and enter the name of the file to be sure it cannot be found. If you have not deleted the original e-mail from HAPPYCAR with the voucher in the attachment, you can download the file again.

However, online car rental portals often offer services where you only have to fill out an online form and download a new rental car voucher. If the provider has sent you the document via mail, you should call the appropriate customer service office to request a replacement. Even if you have lost the voucher just before your vacation, there is certainly a solution: The provider can send you or the rental company this important document - for example via fax.

Note: In your booking confirmation, which you received via e-mail immediately after booking, you can log on to the Online Self-Service. There you can download your rental car voucher again.

Why is a rental car voucher so important?

On the car rental voucher, all the important data concerning your rental package and the additional services booked are included as abbreviations. After receiving the voucher, please check once again to make sure that this data is correct and that all booked services are available.

This document is also required by the rental company so that the rental car key, and of course, the vehicle can be handed over. The voucher is usually sent to you after a few days, but sometimes there are delays for various reasons. You can always contact customer service to make sure that nothing went wrong and that you did not make any mistakes when entering your data. Even if you lose your car rental voucher, you can still request a replacement from customer service with relative ease.