Since when did it become OK to carry pets in business hire cars? I’ve just returned a hire car that my colleagues and I had used to get home from Heathrow, filthy with dog hair and smell.

Don’t get me wrong. I really love animals but I don’t like having their fur all over my business suits. My family has a dog, a cat, several fish and a wandering hedgehog in the garden. We love animals. But when I tried to book a hire car for my family and pets I was told that there were no suitable vehicles.

On further investigation I ultimately found a car hire firm that did accept pets but only in certain vehicles (estates) and the animals had to be secured behind the back seat. We found this perfectly acceptable and understood the reasons.

You can therefore imagine how I was surprised by the car provided by a well known international car hire firm at Heathrow airport. My colleagues and I had pre-booked our hire car before departing from Frankfurt for our evening flight back to Heathrow. We went to the car hire desk before collecting the car from the parking lo. When we opened the car door it smelled like Crufts dog show on a warm day. Not nice.

We were about to go back to the desk but one of our party was impatient to get home so we hopped into the stinky car and off we went. It was when I got home that I reallised my suit was coated with fine white dog hairs.

Whoever had used that car immediately prior to us had clearly allowed a dog to roam freely on the seats and upholstery. When I contacted the car hire firm they assured me that they didn’t allow dogs in their regular saloon cars and only by prior arrangement in other cars specially adapted for animals. But someone had broken their rules and they hadn’t managed to valet the car before we drove it away. This finally resulted in a bill for having four business suits cleaned.

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In future we’ll be driving to the airport and using airport parking services rather than rely on smelly hire cars. Top tip: Always make certain that you have adequate travel insurance before you go anywhere.