Uncategorized|September 18, 2009 9:46 am

Avis, Budget Ban Smoking in Rental Cars



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rentalcarkeys 300x199 Avis, Budget Ban Smoking in Rental CarsSmoking has long been banned on airplanes, then trains and buses –  and in many restaurants and bars across the country — and now in rental cars too.

As of October 1st, two of the biggest car rental agencies, Avis and Budget, will ban smoking in their North American cars and to impose a fee of $250 on customers who smoke in the cars.

Secondhand smoke is significantly more concentrated in cars than it is in public places, according to a study released last month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“The No. 1 request we get is for a smoke-free car,” says John Barrows, spokesman of the Avis Budget Group, which operates both Avis and Budget.

Anti-smoking groups applaud the ban. “[These companies are] protecting the rights of all of its customers to breathe clean air,” says Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

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Author: Lolita Carrico is the founder of the Gloss Network for Women. Lolita has been featured as an expert on hundreds of media outlets like Redbook, Parents, The Washington Post, ABC News and FOX News, discussing topics such as parenting, relationships, career and balancing it all. Follow her on Twitter @lolita
  • Kathy

    My recent experience with AVIS (& previous experience with Budget) suggests this is just another way for them to get more money from their customers. I’m not a smoker and, to be perfectly honest, don’t like the smell of smoke, but if you read their proposal, it looks like their employees can access the new $250 charge if they “suspect” that someone has smoked in the car. I’m uncomfortable with that because the smell of smoke lingers long after the smoker has departed, so who’s to say that it isn’t from previous smoking when it was “allowed”? Both of these companies have added additional fees onto rentals at the end, when I dropped off the car – fees that were NOT told to me at the time of the rental. I’m not talking about one-way dropoff charges, necessary taxes or even gasoline costs, because I expect to pay those. No, they charged me for things like “concession recovery,” “energy recovery” and “customer facility” fees – stuff that they cannot even explain!

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