Reference
About Onestrada
Who Onestrada is, what we book, and why every brief reads back as one written contract before the booking is locked.
Reference
Insurance and deposits
The insurance on a luxury rental in Europe is supplier-specific. Cover concepts are consistent across the market; the operative numbers — deductible, deposit, daily cap — change with vehicle category, dates, and the supplier holding the keys. This page explains the concepts. The exact figures are confirmed per quote, every time.
The cover
What insurance includes
Every rental written through Onestrada includes the European standard of cover: third-party liability to the legal minimum of the country of pickup, collision damage waiver, and theft protection. Cover is not optional and not a bolt-on — it sits inside the supplier's contract.
What "waiver" means in practice is that the driver's financial exposure for accidental damage or theft is capped at the deductible (the excess) named on the contract. Liability above that figure passes to the supplier's insurer, provided the contract was honoured — the right driver, the permitted countries, no clause-breaking behaviour.
The deductible
What the excess actually is
The deductible is the maximum the driver pays out of pocket on a damage or theft claim. On a luxury vehicle in Europe, the figure scales with category — a grand tourer carries a lower deductible than a supercar, an open-top hypercar higher again. The exact figure is confirmed per quote with the vehicle category and the supplier's current schedule; we don't publish a range that would be misleading the moment a supplier moved it.
Excess-reduction products do exist on parts of the market. Where one is offered for the vehicle on your quote, it's named on the same page with its own cost and the residual excess it leaves; where one isn't, the contract excess is the operative number. Both routes are confirmed per quote.
The security deposit
What the hold on the card is for
The security deposit is a pre-authorisation on the lead driver's credit card — it isn't a payment. The supplier holds funds against the contract excess, fuel discrepancies, tolls, and any damage that surfaces during the return inspection. If the return is clean, the hold is released back to the same card.
Deposit size, currency, and release window are all confirmed per quote because they scale with vehicle category, the rental length, the cross-border permit if it applies, and the supplier's standard terms. Release timing is set by the card network — funds typically clear within five to ten business days after the inspection clears, and we say so on the confirmation rather than promising a date the supplier cannot control.
What sits outside the cover
Standard exclusions
Common exclusions across the European luxury rental market — written into every supplier contract — include damage from track use, off-road driving, unauthorised drivers, intoxication, wilful or grossly negligent conduct, and damage caused outside the countries the contract permits. Tyres, wheels, glass, and the underbody are sometimes carved out separately depending on the supplier; the carve-outs are named on the quote so they don't surface as a surprise after the return.
Personal effects, trip cancellation, and medical cover are not part of the rental policy — those sit on your own travel insurance. We don't sell either of them, and we don't include them in the quote.
Why exact figures live on the quote
One source of truth
A specific deductible or deposit on a public page is a hostage to fortune: suppliers revise figures, models age out of categories, and a number that's right in March is wrong by June. The quote that comes back against a brief is the single source of truth for the booking — it carries the vehicle, the deductible, the deposit, the inclusive mileage, the cross-border permit, and the cancellation terms together. Each figure is confirmed per quote, in writing, before the deposit clears.
For where these numbers sit in the booking sequence, read how bookings work. For when cancellations apply, see the cancellation terms. For the country list that controls where the cover stays valid, see cross-border rentals. About Onestrada frames who sits where in the chain, and Contact is where to send the questions a quote raises.
Keep reading
References
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- Reference
How bookings work
From enquiry to deposit release — the eight steps every Onestrada booking moves through, with the paperwork named at each stage.
- Reference
Cancellation terms
How cancellation windows, refunds, and rebooking work — written out so the operative numbers in your contract aren't a surprise.
- Reference
Cross-border rentals
Permitted countries, the cross-border permit, tolls, and the paperwork that has to be in the glovebox before the car leaves the country of pickup.
Concierge
Send the brief for a quote
The deductible, deposit, and cover summary that apply to your trip arrive on the quote — confirmed per quote, never inferred from a category page.