jwinky
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2006
I wanted to share my experience when our rental car got damaged and hope it helps a future traveler. This is the first time it has happen to all years renting cars and I was a bit lost on how to handle things.
Incident:
We stayed at Aulani in March 2023 with a rental car. On our 4th night, we discovered a rather large scratch on one of our doors in the Aulani parking garage. The only thing we knew that the car that attempted to park poorly was white with the paint left on our car door. They did not leave a note and obviously moved their car somewhere else.
What Aulani did:
We tried to report this with security at Aulani and they claimed they had no cameras and called police to make a report. Aulani really did not offer any help beside calling the police. We stopped by guest services at least 3-4 times asking for a hotel report for my insurance claim. They first gave me a 800 number for guest claims to get the hotel report that was for Disneyland that went no where when I called. After our fourth visit at Aulani guest service, they eventually told us the police report would suffice. I'm surprise that they claim no cameras, so be careful leaving valuables in the car if it gets broken in.
What Car Rental company did:
I had rented the car at HNL. Since I was completely lost, I actually stopped by the Enterprise Rental Center at Aulani to ask my next steps. The representative told me that I need to drop off my car 15-20 minutes earlier on the schedule return time at HNL to file an incident report. It took the rental car damage department around 40 days to provide me the total cost of damages.
What Insurance company did:
I luckily booked my rental with Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) and started my claim with them. They are specific timeframes on when you can report and submit your documentation. I'm happy to report that they already issued the check to rental car damage department and it is closed out after 45 days. I had no out of pocket expenses.
The documents I submitted were: 1. Rental car confirmation 2. Police report index card that had the report ID (I actually did not have to get the actually police report). 3. Photos of the damages. 4. Rental car incident report with claim number. 5. Final bill from rental car damage department.
Some Observations:
Incident:
We stayed at Aulani in March 2023 with a rental car. On our 4th night, we discovered a rather large scratch on one of our doors in the Aulani parking garage. The only thing we knew that the car that attempted to park poorly was white with the paint left on our car door. They did not leave a note and obviously moved their car somewhere else.
What Aulani did:
We tried to report this with security at Aulani and they claimed they had no cameras and called police to make a report. Aulani really did not offer any help beside calling the police. We stopped by guest services at least 3-4 times asking for a hotel report for my insurance claim. They first gave me a 800 number for guest claims to get the hotel report that was for Disneyland that went no where when I called. After our fourth visit at Aulani guest service, they eventually told us the police report would suffice. I'm surprise that they claim no cameras, so be careful leaving valuables in the car if it gets broken in.
What Car Rental company did:
I had rented the car at HNL. Since I was completely lost, I actually stopped by the Enterprise Rental Center at Aulani to ask my next steps. The representative told me that I need to drop off my car 15-20 minutes earlier on the schedule return time at HNL to file an incident report. It took the rental car damage department around 40 days to provide me the total cost of damages.
What Insurance company did:
I luckily booked my rental with Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) and started my claim with them. They are specific timeframes on when you can report and submit your documentation. I'm happy to report that they already issued the check to rental car damage department and it is closed out after 45 days. I had no out of pocket expenses.
The documents I submitted were: 1. Rental car confirmation 2. Police report index card that had the report ID (I actually did not have to get the actually police report). 3. Photos of the damages. 4. Rental car incident report with claim number. 5. Final bill from rental car damage department.
Some Observations:
- If this happens to you, get a police report immediately. It will document that damage happened. If the hotel won't provide you any incident report, then at least the police report will suffice.
- Take 2-3 photos of the damages.
- The rental car representative when we first picked up the car told us to take photos of any damages you see so you don't get charged with the damages. That is good advise as the car did have some minor dents when we picked it up. The damages we reported did not include those dents.
- I will book rental cars with CSR card. Since I have CSR, the damage waiver (as primary insurance) is included in my credit card as a benefit. You can always claim through your own car insurance but might require a deductible. The rental car companies also provide damage waiver coverage, but it is an added cost which might be worth it.
- We suspected the car that damage us was also another rental car with damage waiver coverage. So since they had coverage, they don't care about the other vehicle they damaged. When talking to a DVC representative about our ordeal, he said he use to work at another hotel where hotel guests and employees shared the same parking garage. He said he had lots of dents on his car door and really didn't like it.
- Aulani parking garage is tight. That's everywhere in Oahu. We had a sedan and we had parked with ample space for our neighbor. I'm not sure if we would park differently. We just got unlucky this go around.
- Although this incident interfere with our dinner plans that evening, we were able to make the most of the situation. We still had a fabulous time in Oahu.
