Why Greece is Broke

June 23 2010
Rhodes is a major tourist destination and I am staying in a large (>1000 rooms) hotel with a conference center. Therefore, you would think it wouldn’t be too difficult to rent a car, right? Knowing that I wanted to visit Lindos on Wednesday, the only day that I would have time in my schedule, I started inquiring at the reception desk on Monday. They told me to contact “Mr. Fotios,” who would be at the rental car desk at noon. He was not. The next day I asked for him again, and I was told to go to the hotel across the street. There I found him smoking and chatting with his friends (but not at the rental car desk!) I told him I wanted to rent a car on Wednesday afternoon and asked if that would be a problem. He said no, “Just come to my desk at your hotel at 8:30 in the morning.” Which I did. He was not there again. After checking every half hour I finally found him and told him I wanted to rent a car. He looked at me and with a big sigh he said he had no cars, he would have to call for one. I said fine, we were still in the Congress and wouldn’t be ready to leave until the afternoon. He told me he would leave the keys at the reception desk for me. Paperwork? Minimal (see photo of entire rental agreement). He never asked to see my driver’s license and didn’t want my credit card! He took 45 euros, which reportedly included insurance, and told me to return the car with the exact same amount of gas to the hotel, and to leave the keys with reception. Of course, when I asked for the keys at the reception desk they claimed they were not there but offered to call “Mr. Fotios.” He said he had delivered them to “Irene” at the front desk. I finally found Irene, who gave me the keys and told me the car was right outside the front door. Not surprisingly, it was not. We had to search the license plate of each car in the parking lot to find our Fiat. If it is this complicated to rent a car in a major tourist town one can only imagine how major transactions are handled! No wonder why Greece is broke! (The man riding a motorcycle with a donkey on a leash was taken later in the day but it is kind of silly and seems to go with this posting).