Hire cars collected at Alicante airport end up parked all over Altea: the car parks behind the seafront, the roadside above the coves, the side streets people find when the town is full. Locking the keys inside one is a bad start to a week off, and it comes with a complication a private car does not have.
The car is not yours
That is the whole difference. Your rental agreement almost certainly says the vehicle may not be worked on, opened or modified without the company’s authorisation, and it almost certainly includes roadside assistance you have already paid for.
So the order matters.
The order of calls
1. The rental company. The number is on the agreement, on the key fob tag, or on a sticker inside the windscreen. Tell them the registration, where the car is, and that the keys are locked inside.
2. Ask them what they authorise. One of three answers usually comes back:
- They send their own assistance provider. Wait for them; it is covered.
- They authorise an independent locksmith to open the door. Ask for that in writing, even a WhatsApp message.
- They want to send a replacement key or a replacement car, which can mean a long wait.
3. Call a locksmith, if that is what they authorised. With the authorisation, an opening is straightforward.
The temptation, standing beside the car in the sun, is to reverse this order and sort the paperwork later. Resist it. A door opened without authorisation can be treated as unauthorised work on the vehicle, and that argument lands on your deposit.
What to tell the locksmith
- Make, model and approximate year.
- The registration, which is on your agreement.
- Exactly where it is: car park name, level, bay number, or the street and what it is parked outside.
- That it is a hire car, and that the rental company has authorised the work.
What happens at the car
Identification, and the rental agreement. Then the door is opened with an air wedge and a long-reach tool through the top corner of the door, with the paint and seal protected. On most vehicles it takes minutes and leaves no mark.
If the model is one that carries a real risk of damage, you should be told before anything starts, and you can go back to the rental company rather than accept the risk yourself.
If the key is lost rather than locked inside
Different problem, different trade. A locksmith opens doors; supplying and programming a car key is main dealer or auto key specialist work. For a hire car it is not your job at all: the rental company handles the replacement, and trying to arrange it yourself usually breaches the agreement.
Tell them plainly that the key is lost, not locked inside. The response is completely different, and describing it wrongly wastes an afternoon.
Keep the paperwork
Whatever happens, keep the authorisation message and the locksmith’s invoice. If the rental company later queries the state of the car, or your deposit, those two documents are the entire argument. The invoice should be itemised and legible; ours are, and any locksmith’s should be.