Holiday car rentals, who to avoid?

Looking at renting a car on our next trip abroad, to Ibiza. Something small and we’ll likely take the full insurance package out with.

I have memories that there some firms to avoid if possible, can someone remind me who they are?

A quick search suggests providers on the island are Goldcar, Centauro and Wiber, along with the normal big players.

Also, am I better off booking through one of the brokers or direct with the firm?

Thanks all.

We hire overseas quite a bit and I always use holiday autos and just avoid the companies I’ve never heard of. Seems to work and be cheaper than going directly to the hire company website.

Used goldcar key and go service (full cover so no charge on the credit card) in Portugal earlier this month. No problems at all, walk into reception, scan qr code at the machine and out drops the key, job done. On return make sure the tanks full, give the key to a member of staff and that was it, couldn’t be easier really.

I always try to use one of the big players and the only poor experiences I have had are with smaller ones.  Enterprise is my go to as they are more tolerant of minor blemishes.  Get your own excess cover insurance – its a lot cheaper

When you’re picking up from the airport I think it entirely depends on. 1. how delayed the incoming flights have been, which impacts on 2, the surliness of the counter staff and how likely they are to 3. hide from you the less than obvious scratches on the 4. Take it or leave it upgrade [becasue obviously we don’t have the car you ordered] for which they have you over a barrel because your wife’s getting pissed off at you because she wants to be at the poolside drinking a G&T and child two is coming out in hives because of the particular climate on the island…so 5. You’re going to get stung for the upgrade cost and the surprise additional damage that they’ll bill you for a couple of weeks after you get home.

Get the additional excess cover…

One car company found a nick on the inside of a tyre on a car I picked up at midnight. There’s only so much you can photograph/ video. Now I’ve permanently got an excess policy and tend to use him holiday autos.

Last time Europcar tried the “we’ve found some damage, here’s the bill” email to me I responded with asking them how many people had rented the car between when I gave it back and when they wrote to me asking for money (there was a couple of weeks of delay), despite the fact that they had tried to claim the damage was found the day after by the car cleaning firm.

I got a nice email essentially telling me the whole thing had been a terrible mistake and would I like 15% off my next car hire?

But always take photos anyway.

I go with a big player every time. Last rental was from Enterprise; a Jaguar F-pace. They asked if I minded the large bumper scratches from the last renter who ground it along the multi-story car park exit. I didn’t. They were very chilled despite my video and really didn’t care much, given how it came back last time! Big companies make money on the insurance. I’m happy to pay for that. Small companies may try other means.

When I flew to Oslo for work earlier this year they had cameras on the entrance to the parking that did it all automatically for you

I use Zest (broker) and

avoid the companies I’ve never heard of

Zest’s additional insurance is very reasonable and comprehensive, rather than the local company’s.

I had a tiresome experience with Goldcar at Faro Airport, stung for existing damage before we’d touched down in the UK. Took loads of photos at pick up and drop off detailing the damage and they still tried to claim it was my fault. Utterly ridiculous!

They took money without resolving the claim and ended up refunding it after pointing this out. Such an unecessary waste of time. But, I reckon you’d be fine if you took out their insurance excess rather than the broker’s.

Avis. They’ll try to fiddle you on the fuel on every occasion regardless of the branch by claiming that it’s not completely full, or pretending that you opted for their “short distance” policy. You get the money back – I wait until I’ve had the email receipt before leaving – but it’s still a needless waste of time and their customer service on the phone is awful.

For example, yesterday they charged me for three gallons of fuel. On an EV.

I’ve never had a bad experience with Thrifty or others in the same group. Enterprise is slow when it comes to getting the car but also OK. Make sure they see you taking a video walk around of the car when picking it up and returning it, avoids a lot of hassle later on.

Take out your own excess, I use Insurance 4 Care hire

Pay for the car using credit card

Take lots and lots of photos and videos at both beginning and end of car hire. I just walk around the car firing off hundreds of pictures. Only takes a few minutes and I then delete after a month or so of getting home.

Interesting that people are saying to take out your own excess insurance.

I’d planned on taking the hire car companies cover, accepting that I might pay a bit more for it, but meaning if there is an issue it’s all in one place rather than having to claim with a different company.

KlassWagen in Portugal are not a company I would ever use again – despite having private excess insurance they gave me the hard sell and when I said firmly I didn’t want to pay their excess they stuck the brakes on then made us go round the car in excruciating detail.

accepting that I might pay a bit more for it

Fag packet, but full protection cover can be more than £25 per day from the big companies versus £40 for an annual policy from one of the excess cover providers.

So yeah, the companies won’t try it on if they cover the ‘loss’, but then you’ve paid a packet for the privilege.

Swings and roundabouts.

only time ive been stung was in italy with one of the main players (enterprise i think).  only ever had good service from local companies, both in spain, and lots of times on the greek islands.

theres a thread on the crete forum advising to stay well away from goldcar, some scary stories on there which would put me off using them anywhere else.

oh and yes, id always take out the annual £40 policy ^^^ rather than their own inflated prices.

Itscertainly a lot less hassle to have the hire company own insurance .  I had toclaim once.  I had to pay the excess to tbe hire co then claim on the insurance .  Took a few weeks to sort

I Use autoeurope (broker)  all the time.

Really good cover and you can cancel re-book right up to the date. Improving the rate of the exchange rate swings in your favour.

Interesting that people are saying to take out your own excess insurance.

I’d planned on taking the hire car companies cover, accepting that I might pay a bit more for it, but meaning if there is an issue it’s all in one place rather than having to claim with a different company.

That’s the way to go. I don’t see the value in penny pinching to that level.

Our recent trip was to Faro airport, landed 10:30pm walked into the Goldcar reception and walked out again with the key 2 minutes later, we also had the choice of three cars, picked a VW T Cross and thrashed it mercilessly all week :D. All paperwork had been done online when we ordered including driving licence and passport so no documentation to sort out on arrival. We’d also made sure we picked a hire company at the airport as some require a taxi/bus ride to the depot.

Cost us a whole 60 euros for full damage waiver and meant no faffing around with pictures/videos or a charge being put on the credit card for 1000 euros plus. It also means if you do bump it then you aren’t dealing with the hire company and a third party insurer, you just give them the keys back and walk off into the sunset.

Sometimes it’s worth paying that bit extra, do you really need the agro and delays at the beginning/end of your trip? I know I don’t

Had a bad experience with Goldcar, tried to say we’d done damage we had photos of when we picked it up. Didn’t get anywhere with them, ended up claiming money back thru credit card company. Would never use them again.

Avoid Click Rent in Spain.

Site at Palma airport is off the airport site.

Pick up shuttle drive is mad – too fast and crazy in the turns.

Car as covered in scratches and marks, looked like the  rear doors had been levered open ith a crow bar.

Then at return, picked up a minute scratch. Charged me for it, luckily we had taken out some car charge insurance through Ryanair. Got the money back.

Trust Pilot is full of bad reviews.

Gold Car gave us some nonsense in Portugal once. All the hire companies in Dublin are notorious for demanding you buy the super premium insurance and claiming your own cover is invalid (whatever it is).

A lot of the big chains are really franchises so a lot depends on how cutthroat the local franchisee is. Got screwed by picking up at night and being charged for minor scuff on rear bumper that was definitely there already. The guy stopped inspecting the car on return as soon as he found the scuff – pretty sure he was under instructions to find at least one problem with every punter…

I’ve always just booked with a small local firm when I get there, never at the airport or via a hotel

In 30 years of a week or two hire a year I’ve had one problem with some firm I forget trying to charge me for a new clutch on a quad.  They wouldn’t accept credit card to pay it, which is a big flag they are trying to rip you off.  In the end I gave them 50euros which is all I had cash and said take it or lets get the local police involved.  Was quite young then so now I’d probably tell them to jog on now.

Local firms are significantly cheaper, you won’t get a nice fancy f-pace though!

I think they all can be as bad as each other.

Just make sure you video the whole car when you pick it up and when you return it. Also helps if they see you filming it. Make sure you get every tiny scratch noted.

One of the best hires I ever had was a local company in Greece. It was a fairly battered Fiat Panda with dents in it all over. Paid cash and just handed the keys back after, and yes they were legitimate and recommended by the hotel.

I regularly hire cars for holidays and have never had any problems. Approach: use kayak.com to find the best deal for the car size I want. There are generally user reviews which generate an overall rating for the company so you can see if there are any really bad companies to avoid. Then separately buy car hire excess insurance (often use questor for this but Google will have options) so you’re fully covered in the event of any problems. Pay for everything on credit card, make sure you take your card with you and print your voucher at home to take with you or they may kick up a fuss/charge more a la ryanair. Hope that helps.

Last week I used Centauro from Malaga train station. No problem at all. I booked through Booking.com and added excess insurance. What wasn’t clear at the time was that it wasn’t Centauro’s insurance, it was Booking.com’s but nobody got upset.
There was a scratch that I photographed at pickup that wasn’t noted on the document but they checked date and time when I returned and were fine with it.
I’ve also used Firefly a couple of times and had no issues (except a long hot wait underground at Malaga Airport) even though reviews are poor.

Goldcar are a bunch of crooks. Did me for premium insurance when I collected the car in Bilbao even though I’d already told them I have my own cover. When they “took a copy of my credit card” they were in fact charging me but as I signed a piece of paper the CC refused to charge back. Good job I bottomed the car and gave the chassis a good clout when off road then as hopefully it cost them more to repair it. Avoid at all costs.

It varies by country and location.  Goldcar in Pisa were wasting everyones time trying to sell insurance and nobody was able to get their car checked on return.  I’ve found them to be good in Portugal and Mallorca.

The worst experience was Firefly in Barcelona who wouldn’t hand the keys over as I was refusing all extras.  I asked if I could have a second driver to which they replied no problem and then added an additional unquoted cost which couldn’t be refunded.  At the time, I did think of booking a lot of cars for the future with free cancellation and cancelling them last minute.

We used budget in the US this Easter, we had to queue for about an hour to collect which has never happened before in LA, the car was tatty, and wasn’t cleaned before we picked it up, in fact the woman who had hired it last was still getting her cases out of the boot when we went to get in it.

Then when we got back to the airport after handing it back they billed us for some random cover that they’d not offered us or told us about, I raised a dispute with CC company which was upheld but they’ve tried to argue the toss again, luckily tesco bank have backed us up as there is no way of contacting Budget US without calling their call centre which was useless while we were over there, not interested in calling from over here.

Wouldn’t use them again or Avis by extension as they’re the same company.

Not been to Ibiza so not sure who you could use there Others we’ve used in the US have been Dollar and Alamo but from the name I’m guessing they’re US only, in Europe I think we used Enterprise once years ago which was fine otherwise  I’ve tended to use the one nearest the hotel.

Another vote for using Zest. Their additional coverage saved me a £500 bill from Goldcar for a non-existent scratch that they found 3 days after dropping the car off. I’ve used Centauro and RecordGo through Zest quite a few times at Alicante and Malaga and never had any issues with either of them.

Sometimes it’s worth paying that bit extra, do you really need the agro and delays at the beginning/end of your trip? I know I don’t

Did you also give up your dinner money to whoever demanded it at primary school?

I’ve never paid for an upgrade car.  If they don’t have the one I ordered it’s on them.  Buy separate insurance cover (cover4you have been good for me).   Take a full video when you pick it up and one when you drop it off.  I’ve always used the big companies, normally Enterprise or Hertz.  If you book through an agent (b.c or whatever) you normally get free cancellation. Keep checking prices elsewhere and when they drop cancel and rebook with the cheaper price for the same vehicle!

Don’t use Wisecars. They’ve just sent me through my voucher for Saturday and told me to check in with Hertz. Hertz systems say they’ve cancelled my reservation.

Wisecars were easy to get hold of on the phone but could only offer me a smaller car for the same price or pay double the initial booking for a bigger car. They were happy to cancel my booking though.

Hopefully sorted at a reasonable price due to the autoeurope suggestion above, so thanks @rone. Only cost me £30 more than the original booking when all the other options were at least £200 more.

Whoever you go with, look into taking out a stand alone CDW excess policy. I had a 12 month policy with Eversure that cost a tiny fraction of taking CDW with the hiring company.

Renting from a large international company doesn’t guarantee fair play. I arranged an urgent one day rental from Sixt at Luton Airport, was upgraded to a specific car at their suggestion and minimal extra cost. It had a fair bit of pre-existing damage, which was discussed / agreed with the rep but he didn’t write anything down. On returning that night, the crew went straight to that damage and I got an email the next day suggesting I was responsible. The rep didn’t know I’d photographed the damage to the ‘upgrade’ before driving off and they only backtracked when I emailed them the pics. ‘Genuine error’ my arse, they’d missed recording the damage from a previous hirer and upgraded me and my stand alone CDW to cover their losses. Chancers.

Fast forward to Sixt Adelaide a few months on. Rental of a people carrier, to be dropped at Melbourne four weeks later, so different depot with no prior knowledge of the vehicle. Took dozens of pictures of 40+ dings, scrapes and interior marks. Expressed concerns to the Adelaide rep that I’d be catching the rap, especially after 4 weeks. ‘No worries’, just keep your pics. Dropped car at Melbourne some 3000km later and wanted to show damage pics to staff. Waved away with a ‘no worries’ again and heard nothing more. Couldn’t have been nicer.

Same company, totally different behaviour. It’s a lottery.

Take lots of pics and if it’s making noises, take video as well.

only time ive been stung was in italy with one of the main players (enterprise i think).

I was just about to mention Italy – apparently Enterprise and Europcar are not independent outfits in Italy but just names for Locauto. If you Google you’ll see they have awful reviews. When I picked up the car they made it clear that the minutest scratch would be charged for. i spent the whole holiday driving like a nun and fretting about getting a ding. In fact it turned out OK, but I’d avoid them next time.

In contrast, we always use Enterprise in Greece and they have a much more relaxed attitude to minor damage.