Austria Travel Forum

Hi! I am planning to rent a car from National in Innsbruck for 2 days. My date of return is a Sunday and i have been told i can utilize the Key Box to drop off the car. I have never used such a system to drop off a rental car in the US and after a bit of research on the net found out that you obviously dont receive an invoice at the time of drop off and there is a nice surprise when you receive your credit card statements where damages are added on to the invoice.

I wanted to ask if it is advisable to pay the extra 30 odd euros for an out of office hours return to avoid the hassle of paying for inflated damages at a later stage. Are these key boxes electronic in nature that track return times? Do i have the opportunity to use the car for a few extra hours if i were to use the key box drop on the day of return?

I have used the Key Box Drop off system in Europe (France and Spain) and in the USA.
The one and only time we ever had any problem was in the US when we dropped off a rental car (that we had picked up in Vermont) at a Depot in New Jersey.
We had the car on a restricted mileage basis and were very careful not to exceed the limit, in fact remained 230 miles below it.

Our Credit Card Statement showed a large amount for an excess mileage of over 1000 miles.
We had kept detailed notes of our daily and return mileage readings and our Credit Card Company dealt with the whole matter for us. They even got a written apology for us from an executive of the hire company.

I have had to use the key drop on various occasions when returning a vehicle at an unsociable hour. I have never yet had any problem - but I always rent from the big companies.

not a problem
keep the receipt that you filled up the car
it also helps to rent from the big rental companies