Terms & Conditions

In effect from 22 October 2026.

These are the terms on which we take your booking. When you collect the car you will sign a separate Rental Agreement, which covers the vehicle itself — its condition, what you may be charged for, and the checks we are required to make. Nothing in that agreement contradicts this page.

The things most likely to cost you money

We would rather you read these six lines now than find out later. The full detail is further down, but nothing below contradicts anything here.

Damage liability: The car is insured, but insurance does not mean you can never be charged. If the car is damaged, the most you can be asked to pay is €1,000, however bad the damage is. Often it is less: before we claim, we get a quote from our own repair garage, and if that comes to under €1,000 you pay the quote instead. Never more than €1,000. Some things are not covered at all — see Insurance and your liability.
After an accident: Report it to the police within 24 hours and get the report reference, and call us before arranging anything. Without a police report our insurer may refuse the claim — and if that happens the cap above does not apply and you are liable for the full cost. This is the single most expensive thing to get wrong.
Who may drive: Only drivers we have named on the agreement, who are at least 21, have held a licence for 3 years, and have shown us that licence in person. Letting anyone else drive is not covered by the insurance.
Mahé only: The car must stay on Mahé. Taking it to another island by ferry or any other vessel is a serious breach and is not covered.
Cancelling: Free, up to 48 hours before your start time, and still free after that — but please tell us. We hold the car for 90 minutes past your booked time, then release it.
Fines: Traffic and parking fines from your rental period are yours, plus €25 for each one we have to deal with. You will sign a statement to this effect — Seychelles law otherwise treats us as the driver.
Fuel and lateness: Bring it back with the fuel it left with. You have 60 minutes past the agreed time before a further day is charged.

1. Who we are

Ocean Car Hire, of Beau Belle, Bel Ombre, Mahé, Seychelles, is a licensed self-drive hire operator. You can reach us by email, or by WhatsApp on (+248) 2 664 760.

Our 24-hour line, for breakdowns and anything urgent during your rental, is (+248) 2 525 077. WhatsApp on (+248) 2 664 760 reaches us too.

Use either at any hour rather than waiting for the office to open. A car that will not start at six in the morning is exactly what that number is for.

2. Booking

A booking is a request until we confirm it. Our confirmation email is what forms the contract.
The minimum rental is 3 days.
We hold the specific vehicle you choose. If it becomes genuinely unavailable — an accident, a breakdown, a previous renter not returning it — we will offer you an equivalent or better vehicle at the same price, or a full refund of anything you have paid. We will not quietly substitute something smaller.
If anything in your booking is wrong, tell us before you travel. Names and dates are easy to fix in advance and awkward to fix at the roadside.

3. Prices

Prices are in euro and include all taxes. The rate you see when booking is the rate you pay. Nothing is added at the counter that was not shown to you when you booked.

Optional extras are priced separately and only charged if you take them. The charges that can arise after your rental — damage, fuel, fines, late return — are set out below and in the Rental Agreement, with the amounts stated, before you sign anything.

4. Paying

Nothing is taken when you book. No deposit, and no hold or pre-authorisation on your card.
You pay when the car is delivered or collected — cash or card. We do not add a card surcharge, which most operators here do.
Charges that can only be known after you return the car — fuel, damage, a fine that arrives weeks later — are handled as set out in the Rental Agreement. We will always send you the evidence before charging anything.

5. Who may drive

Every driver must be named on the Rental Agreement, must present their own licence to us in person, and must sign. This is not paperwork for its own sake: an unnamed driver is not covered by the insurance, and we are required by Seychelles self-drive hire regulations to check each driver's licence before handing over a vehicle.

Minimum age 21, with a licence held for at least 3 years. This is our own condition rather than a legal one, and it is set by what our insurance requires.
Both conditions have to be met, so please check the licence date as well as the age before booking — a driver who turned 21 last month but passed their test two years ago does not qualify. We would far rather tell you now than at the kerbside with your luggage out.
Additional drivers are free on qualifying bookings, but must meet the same conditions and be present at handover with their licence.

Visitors driving on a foreign licence — the three-month rule. You may drive in Seychelles on your own national licence, and an International Driving Permit is not required. But that only lasts three months from the date you last entered Seychelles. If your rental would run past that date you need a Seychelles licence, so we check your entry date against your return date at handover. It takes a few seconds and it is the one check almost everyone forgets.

If your licence is not in English or French, please bring a translation. That is our own requirement, so we can read what we are legally obliged to check.

6. What we need from you

A valid driving licence for every driver, and a passport or identity document. We ask for these at booking so the paperwork is ready before you arrive rather than being done on the kerb.

How we store and how long we keep those documents is set out in our Privacy Policy. In short: they are held outside the public part of this website, only the people who run the rental can see them, and they are deleted after a set period.

7. Delivery and collection

We deliver and collect anywhere on Mahé. Delivery is €15, and free on rentals of 4 days or more.
Tell us your flight number if you are landing. If a flight is delayed we wait — we would rather know than guess.
Please be at the agreed place at the agreed time. If we are kept waiting a long time without hearing from you, we may have to leave and rebook the handover.

8. Changes, cancellations and no-shows

Cancelling is free up to 48 hours before your start time.
Inside 48 hours it is still free — but please tell us by email or WhatsApp. We hold a specific car for you, and on a six-car fleet an unannounced cancellation means a car sitting idle that somebody else wanted.
No-show: we hold the vehicle for 90 minutes past the booked time — longer if you have given us a flight number and the flight is delayed. After that the booking lapses. Nothing is charged.
To change dates, just ask. We will do it if the car is free.

9. Insurance and your liability

Comprehensive motor insurance is included in the rate. That does not mean you can never be charged for damage, and we would rather be straight about it than use the word "full" and argue later.

If the car is damaged, the most you can be asked to pay is €1,000 — the insurance excess — however badly it is damaged. That is a ceiling, not an estimate.

In practice it is often less, and here is how. Before we put a claim in, we get a written quote from the garage we use. If the repair comes to less than €1,000 — which for most scrapes, kerbed wheels and small dents it does — you pay the quoted amount and we do not claim at all. You see the quote before you pay anything.

If the quote comes to more than €1,000, we claim on the insurance and you pay the excess. Either way, the amount you pay never goes above €1,000. You are not asked to choose between two routes and gamble on which is cheaper — we take the cheaper one.

The cap depends on you reporting an accident to the police. Within 24 hours, with the report reference, and call us before arranging repairs or recovery. Our insurer can refuse a claim without a police report, and a refused claim is a loss we cannot absorb — so if that happens, the cap does not apply and you are liable for the full cost.

What that does not mean: it does not remove the insurance protecting anyone you injure. That cover is required by law and stands whatever happened. What is at stake is the limit on what you pay for damage to our vehicle.

Some things sit outside that cap entirely. If any of these applies, the insurance does not respond and you are liable for the full cost of the damage rather than the excess. These are the usual exclusions in this market, and they are listed here rather than buried:

driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
letting someone drive who is not named on the agreement;
taking the vehicle off Mahé;
putting the wrong fuel in;
salt water, sand ingress or immersion;
driving somewhere the agreement does not permit;
deliberate damage, or damage caused by gross negligence.

Full detail, including the damage schedule with the actual amounts, is in the Rental Agreement and on our Insurance & Excess page. Both are available before you book, not just at handover.

We will not charge you for damage we cannot show you in a photograph. We photograph the car at handover and again at return, from the same positions, and you get both sets. If you find damage we missed, tell us within 24 hours of collecting the car and it is recorded as pre-existing.

10. Using the car

Private use only. Not for hire or reward, deliveries, or carrying goods for payment.
Mahé only. Not to be taken off the island by ferry, barge or any vessel.
Sealed public roads. Not beaches, riverbeds, or tracks the vehicle is not built for.
No towing, pushing or teaching someone to drive.
No smoking in the vehicle.
Obey posted speed limits and the law generally.
Unlimited mileage, within the above.

11. Fuel

The car comes with a full tank and should come back with one. If it does not, we refuel it and charge the pump price on the receipt we give you, plus a refuelling fee. Wrong fuel is not covered at any level — draining, flushing and any resulting repair is charged in full, so it is worth a second look at the pump.

12. Traffic fines

Fines from your rental period are yours, plus €25 for each one we have to administer.

You will sign a short separate statement about this at handover, and it is worth knowing why. Under Seychelles law a fixed-penalty notice can be fixed to the vehicle without anyone telling the driver, and the owner is presumed to have been driving. The only way we can pass a fine to the person who actually incurred it is to produce the hire agreement and that signed statement. Without it, we pay it and so, ultimately, does every other customer.

13. Returning the car

You have 60 minutes past the agreed time. Beyond that, without having agreed it with us, a further day is charged at your daily rate.
If you are running late, tell us. We will almost always just move the time — the charge exists for cars that do not come back, not for traffic.
Please take your things out. We will hold anything left behind for a reasonable period and tell you we have it.

14. Breakdowns and accidents

Call our 24-hour line on (+248) 2 525 077, or WhatsApp (+248) 2 664 760, before arranging anything yourself. Repairs or recovery we have not agreed to are not reimbursed.
In an accident, make the vehicle safe, call us, and report it to the police. A police report is needed for an insurance claim — without one, cover may not apply and you could be liable for the full cost rather than the excess.
Do not admit liability at the scene. Give the facts to the police and to us.

15. If something goes wrong between us

Tell us first — most problems are quicker to fix directly, and we would rather hear it from you than read it in a review. If we cannot resolve it, the Seychelles consumer protection authorities can consider a complaint, and nothing on this page takes away rights you have under Seychelles consumer law. Any term here that turns out to be unfair under that law simply does not apply, and the rest stands.

16. Your personal information

Set out in our Privacy Policy, including what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it and your rights over it.

17. Law

These terms, and the Rental Agreement, are governed by the law of Seychelles, and the courts of Seychelles have jurisdiction.

Rental Agreement · Insurance & Excess · Cancellation Policy · Privacy Policy