RentalCars.com reviews

When booking with Rental Cars on line there is no mention of an airport charge. The quotation actually said, "This is what you will pay US$154.00" (for 12 days)

At Hertz check-in in Barcelona I was informed that there would be a 40 Euro airport charge in addition to my rental charge. she pointed out that in my rental voucher it does say, in very small print, that there may be an airport charge. At this point the booking is already confirmed and no one would guess there would be any change from the advertized price. The agent said that she had worked all over the world and there was always an airport charge. Furthermore, the agent was very rude: "you have rented the smallest car possible, she said, are you sure?" Then, she didn't just ask me for my credit card and passport. She said, "no credit card, no car." I don't know if this was her sense of humor. Finally, I gave the car back a week earlier but there was no refund possible from RentalCars. Never had this experience with renting cars. I booked directly with Avis for a larger car in Bilbao. Got a price similar to Rentalcar's price on their smaller car. No airport charge. Great service. What is the point of going through a broker for no price advantage, being stuck in a contract, and having to pay unexpected extra charges?

hought I paid for the car by selecting 3rd Party Liability. But...I get there only to be told the 3rd party liab was for $250,000 and the require $2,500,000. So I was supposed to pay 150% more! Scammed!!

Rentalcar.com is an internet brocker, thez actually own no cars, they charge some fees and then when you go to the real rental compagny you will have to do a crédit card print for garantee. after that this compagny charges you for whatever fees they want and you don't now about. And that they dont discuss with you when you pick up the car ! Rental car respond all the time the same answers : "you accepted these fees by signing the contract at the compagny". Never sign a contrat at the compagny. beware they are working togheter actually ! I paid 160$ to rental car and the 200 $ to europcar 2 weeks later

Read this review, because it shows how they try hard to spoil your holiday even when everything else goes smooth. We're speaking of an 11-day rental from Madrid Barajas Airport, August 2015. Reserved through rentalcars.com first a Volvo 40 (Avis, 397,00), then a Ford Focus (Firefly, 194,00), then a Peugeot 3008 (Thrifty, 427,00). Got my money back or balanced quickly (in two to three days). I also bought so-called excess insurance coverage for the Peugeot (100,00). Notice that I ended up with Thrifty because of the Peugeot car they were posting, a small crossover, and of Thrifty's 8.1/10 customer approval rate instead of Firefly's 6.6/10. A common mistake. Customer approval forms on rentalcars.com and elsewhere are built around relatively minor comforts, like how brisk is the process or how smiling the clerk, but they skip the big problems, and all the hidden cheating doesn't show there.
All the same, the 8.1/10 approval rate notwithstanding, when I finally applied at the Thrifty desk I was extensively annoyed by the clerk (by the name of Beatriz) who kept questioning my insurance choice, insisting that I buy her coverage (so forfeiting the previous one) and finally downgrading my Peugeot 3008 to a Ford Focus Trend SW, a station wagon that usually sells at half the Peugeot's price. I tried hard to be given my Peugeot, but she was adamant, no way to get it. She (and her boss) said the booking was for a "Peugeot 3008 (or similar)", and the Ford Focus, in their opinion, was absolutely similar. Facing such a neat refusal, I had to give up and sign for the Ford. My wife and daughter were waiting for me to reach the hotel and start our tour.
Minutes later, at the parking lot across the street I found my 46,000km-old Ford, all with its eight scratches, stationed just in front of a brand-new Peugeot 3008 (picture on request). Now, there's no doubt that if that car was available, they should have given it to me, while if it was booked by someone else before I booked it, then it shouldn't have been posted on the rentalcars.com site at the time I chose it for my trip. Of course there was nothing to do at that point, having already signed for the Ford deal.
A quick look on the internet explained what was going on. The much-coveted 3008 was still there, ready for rent at the outrageous rate of 630,00. What they do is to keep idling any attractive new model as long as they can, so as to increase the online price indefinitely. All in all, I was cheated into paying over 200,00 euro more in order to get the same car I has previously booked for 194,00. By the way, not only the Thrifty and Hertz agents were exactly the same people behind one desk, but I suspect that, at least in some venues, all the car rental market is deftly monopolized. The big money is made in two ways: a) additional insurance coverage which is highly profitable and b) allocating the oldest and less valuable cars in the pool through bare downgrading, based on a very loose understanding of the "or similar" clause and coupled with a kind of artful deception of the online customer.
This explains why I gave rentalcars.com a two star instead of one, because they do not seem to be more guilty than other agents on the scene. Compared to what it used to be decades ago, now this market is rotten. The car you need is only a bait for them to fool you around and drain as much money as they can. This being the outline, such being the people, the question is, What is advisable do to, especially by the occasional customer, who doesn't show up at the desk as a golden' or preferred' client?
It seems obvious to me that 1) It'd be better to avoid multiple and mutually conflicting service providers (like rentalcars.com and Thrifty in my case). 2) Let's book everything directly with the rental company itself. 3) Contact them beforehand in order to make sure that you'll get the car you want. 4) Insist for them to revoke the "or similar" clause. 5) In case they don't do that, don't fantasize about booking a fancy car, because they routinely downgrade your booking and give you the oldest and the least desirable of the "similar" ones under their carport. Book instead the less expensive car you can afford to travel with, something they cannot really downgrade. If you care to, bargain your upgrading at the desk.

Warning: make sure you read the fine print on rentalcars.com. They give you a great deal, but when you check out at the car rental place (Payless Car Rental) the price doubles. The response from rentalcars.com is you have to pay for local fees. So when browsing the web make sure you don't come across sites like rentalcars.com or Payless Car Rental that you have to read the fine print and you don't get the deal you expect.

Think about it, why are they charging your card at the time of reservation? Their rules are designed to steal. I wasn't thinking a month ago and lost 300 euro. Thank God I opted for a smaller car in Italy, could have been much worse.

The first time I used it, it worked. After that, I got no car but was charged anyway.
It was bad enough that my reservation was not honored and I had to pay a MUCH higher fee to rent a car at the counter, but then rentalcars charged my credit card anyway.
By the way, I used this in the US. I am a US citizen with a US license, but the rental counter staff said I had to have an international drivers license to get the car. In other words, NO American can use this service!! You will be charged, but you will not get the car you reserved.

They good when there is no problems, i had a problem the other day August 26.2015 for the first time and here we go , i had to hand over my car 4days in advance to dollars rent a car , they told me to contact rental cars.com since this was pre paid, after i did they told me this is a pre paid and we can't refund you , you shouldn't had returned your car. i decided never ever go through them any more , i advise you to go direct . this problem cost me $ 1920, if rental cars.com reads my review feel free to get in touch with me at yalghabra@icloud.com

I paid $490 for a rental car I had for TWO DAYS in Sicily through this agency. It was originally rented for 11 days, and I had to turn it in after two days because of an unavoidable change in plans. No appealing to customer service resulted in any refund whatsoever. Part of that rental was the so-called EXCESS insurance charge. Besides not getting any refund from the original reservation, I was actually FINED when I came to turn the car in. BEWARE of this company! They have no compunction in defrauding customers. Also know that they are AFFILIATED with PRICELINE, but when I tried to bring this matter up with them, they washed their hands of the matter.

Hello
I entered your site to print the voucher I paid for and immediately after that I entered again and it says THE RESERVATION WAS CANCELLED?!?!
We are a respectable company and our lawyers are very efficient in international matter as well as on national ones, so I DO hope you don't force us t go down that road!
I read a lo of bad reviews about you (unfortunately only after the purchase) and I don't want to do business with you any longer. I will rent elsewhere and meanwhile I want my money back ASAP!

Cristina Bettencourt
cristbet@gmail.com
CEO an Manager of CRISTBET, Lda
www.cristbet.com

I booked a rental for our vacation in Alberta. I arrived at the rental agency a the time and date that was on my booking, and confirmation. The location was closed!! In fact, they are not open any Sundays!! I travelled over 3,400 km's only to find I had no rental!! I was forced to find a rental on my own. I paid more money, for a smaller car, and rentalcars.com basically washed their hands of the whole incident. They booked a vehicle that I could not pick up!! Don't ever use this company, and tell everyone you know!!! There is nothing more frustrating than being lied to.

I have booked many times with you, but this is the last one. I am still waiting for a solution for my claim that was more than 28 days ago, answer that you easily give to every customer without taking care. The easy way in the world is being an easy going company until the moment the customer finish the booking process. After that yes you are welcome to come back but don´t mess much around with previous bookings. I am still waiting for a serious response from my booking 329864504 that never comes. And every time I called the answer is we will get back to you in less than 24 hours. This every day since July 21st that was my first call and after more than 28 days waiting for an answer and only receiving non sense emails once and again. Unacceptable. I am not longer recommending you anymore and I will talk bad every time I have the opportunity to.Thanks for anything!

Do not use rentalcars.com. I did last week. They charge additional money for the returning a car in different, than pick up location ( about $50) , but when came to collect the car in Finland from Europcar ( all deal was fully prepaid) In local office of Europcar insisted to charge another 148 euro
Do not use rentalcars.com So rentalscar simply still those money - Do not use rentalcars.com

They pictured a Toyata Rav4, and I ended up with a Hyundai sedan, which was least of the problems! My husband and I were traveling in Toronto. It was a 2 hour wait to pick up the car after a very arduous trip to their venue (train ride from the airport to the address outside the airport, where you had to call for the shuttle, which transported us via a complicated route to the rental place)! I had to pay additional and much higher insurance rates, because they wouldn't accept an email letter from my own insurance company, as they had stated they would prior to purchase. Had to go through the same hellish trip to and fro, and sustain another long wait when returning the car! Paid $200 more than the amount I had agreed to pay online with insurance! Plus the GPS System did not work!!!
Will NEVER do business with them again!!

We booked a car to be picked up in Veracruz Mexico. When we go to Mexico the Thrift car one of their partners wanted to over charge us 3 times the price we paid online to book the car to get a collision Damage insurance. We decided to cancel our reservation we call back home (to the USA) to cancelled it and also cancelled it abroad. 3 months later we were told by our credit card that they were not able to dispute the charge because RentalCars.com had not received any cancellation request. Ahahahah!!!! This has been such a night mare.

I RENT A CAR from Brazil to pick in France At 10a.m, I arrived 13p.m because the train station of part dieu was evacuated for security resons. After 3 hours the supplier said they had my reservation cancelled for no-show, condition I have never heard before and it was not signed in any email ir term and condition, but just because they had no cars available.
I spent an hour with the vendor on the phone abroad and they decided to charge me full booking, for no-show even knowing I was calling from the supplier desk, because I did not accept to change my booking and pay 3x more for the same car.
If you don't wanna DAMAGE your holidays I advice you to not use this website, neither Alamo rent car SERVICE.

First of all, Dollar didn't accept my CA state driving license to let me pickup the car. Luckily enough, I had my International driver's license with me. Then, I wanted to cancel the reservation after they made me aware of the additional $45/day charges as I was only 24 years old, which definitely made me feel that I was being ripped off as I wasn't made aware of these charges while booking the reservation in the first place in spite of mentioning my age (Later I realized I had been tricked to a pay a higher premium eventually, by attracting the me and all the other younger drivers with the lower initial rates). Wish it was all more straight forward. Then I was told that they can't cancel my reservation and I need to call the parent company i.e. rentalcars.com, which wasn't easy at all.

First of all, it was really cumbersome to find the contact number itself. Then after great difficulty, I found a couple of number somewhere on the web and was put up on hold for 20 -30 mins on an international phone call to the UK which was ridiculous. I was then told that I can neither cancel, transfer or change my reservation, as it was within the 2 day period and I would be losing more money if I tried to change, transfer or re book it. Eventually left with no options and feeling tricked, I could do nothing but go back to the Dollar store to pickup the car, which was another uncomfortable experience and a waste of time.

First of all, they were understaffed. 'Advantage' had a smaller desk next to their office, fewer customers and yet had more staff who were friendlier. There were only two people initially at the Dollar desk, both of them extremely rude and lazy. I stood in line for 45 mins to speak to the agent I earlier spoke to. When it was my turn, the agent went for a restroom break and came back only after 45 mins. Whilst this happened, the other agent refused to even lsiten to my case ,forget about processing it. She even told me that she wasn't trying to give me a hard time, indirectly inferring that she was and ordered me to sit down in the waiting area, without even trying to listen. I was too frustrated by the end of this and wished I could just get the hell out of there.

After all this drama, the other agent returned slowly strolling her way back and took another 10 mins to settle-in while the other agent was left-alone to deal individually with the rest of the customers. I finally managed to get a hold of her and told her that I would be taking the car as I had no other choice but to lose all my money. Without even asking, she opted for a pre-fueled option for me, didnt even offer me the insurance options and told me that it was too late to change that choice when I told her that I didn't want that option. Finally, she told me to walk all the way to the end of the alley to pick up my van, where I was greeted by another rude agent,who started giving me weird looks when asked which car I was supposed to take!

All in all, it was a forgetful and frustrating experience with rentalcars as well as Dollar. Wish didn't make that reservation in the first place!

avoid this company like the plague. They are arrogant, nonresponsive,they do not care about the service to their customers. Do not do business with this company. You cannot even unsubscribe from emails.

Very bad!!!!! I always book a car with this portal but this te was really unfair for us!! I ll never book with them again! Bare in mind to read term & conditions, if you miss out 1 words they ll not refund any money back to you!! Unfair!!! How you can do such a business like this? Never think of customer!

NO QUESTIONS... JUST WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT RENTALCARS.COM SUCKS...BAD COMPANY...DON'T USE THEM

Hired a car through Rentalcars. They took my money, gave misleading information - I did not use the car or leave the car hire place with it and now they refuse to give my money back. i have been robbed and paid for a service I didn't receive. Spent over an hour on the phone to their customer service where the 'Manager' told me that because they were not registered there was nothing I could do. This is the same manager 'Ben Goddard' who laughed at my situation, told me to understand his frustration when I was left with no car or money, he insinuated I must be poor if I needed the refund and was completely unhelpful and disrespectful. Appalling service, stay well away and if you do happen to use them.. Make sure that you read the FAQs not the terms and conditions as they have hidden information in there and misleading information during the booking process.

Very Angry, out of pocket customer!!

Those guys didn't have an office at the airport. No one was waiting for me to hand over the car for some reason. The number they gave didn't pick up. Instead of reimbursing me and apologizing why the driver didn't show up, they will reply in the most unprofessional way and tell you you should have called them again and again. It is a ripp-off.

I purchased the services of rentalcars.com and the precharged my credit card. When i went to pick up the car at the kiosk, the attendant informed me that there would be a mandatory insurance fee of $100 (62% mark up on the original price). The attendant was apologetic and says that this frequently happens with rentalcars.com. Given the new price, i declined the service and immediately contacted rentalcars.com to cancel the service. The company sent me an email one day later saying they allowed me to cancel the service but would issue no refund. I have called several times to the company, but I could not speak with anybody with decision making power. All correspondence was very bureaucratic. There whole business model is to offer something cheap by hiding (high) fees. I would not recommend this service to anybody. It was not that much cheaper to begin with. The offer a product that has a true price very different that advertised. In the end, I was out $150 with no car rental.