Rentalcars.comReviews 1,139

We were charged more than double what we expected we would need to pay.

We booked the option to have a second driver through rentalcars.com and therefore thought it was included in the price but we got charged for it again by Europcar.

Also we did not get the small car we wanted (Toyota Aygo) but an "upgrade" which was just a car that needed to be in the country we ended our holidays. A car that needs to be brought back to its home country is totally fine, but not the huge model (Toyota Avensis) we got instead of what we booked.

They told us to not hand in the car with full fuel because the fee for fuel there would be cheaper than what we would pay for it (because they have a deal with gas stations which made sense for us at the time). That was definitely not true, since we had to pay about 50 EUR for 20 liters of standard gas.

Also there were additional 30 EUR for taxes from Europcar on top of what was stated that the fees for gas, one-way and additional driver would be costing.

When we complained when we brought the car back the guy just told us "I can not do anything about it, that is how it works".

We looked at everything very closely and read the contracts at the counter but because of the explanations we got there and the additional deposit it is very unclear what you actually need to pay in the end.

I booked a car with them to travel in Italy. During my booking I paid for full insurance cover. However, when I got to the rental company called InterRent in Rome I was told that my insurance is not recognised by them. I will have to leave a deposit of 800 euro and if there is an accident or theft they will charge up to 3000 euros. As a result I had to take an expensive insurance cover with InterRent rather than with Rentalcar.com which cost me 120euros for 4 days.

Had I known this I would have gone with a different rental car company.

The information on their website about the cost for the car and insurance is not correct.

I wouldn't use them again.

Here is my story about RentalCars.com and ruined vacation.

We booked a car with automatic transmission a month in advance.
An automatic transmission is really, really important for us.

The booking was confirmed and money was taken.
We got a voucher with the booking.

Now, six days before the start of the rent they sending new booking info and the transmission is manual now.

I called RentalCars.com, they confirm that there was an error on their side, but they can not (or doesn't want) to do anything.
They can not find a new car with automatic transmission in the region.
And giving that only six days left I also can not find any alternative even for a double price.

THANK you RentalCars.com, for a perfect vacations!

I would advise anybody against using RentalCars.com services, yes everybody makes a mistake, but good company can fix their mistake for the customers satisfaction and apparently RentalCars.com can not do it.

So, my claim against RentalCars.com is not about their mix-up with transmission, I'm angry because they left me alone with this, and now their mix up is my problem.

Very, very nice:(

Cheers,
Alex Kovalev

Rentalcars.com are making promises that they don't keep. They offered a free second driver. Thrifty Lamezia did not know anything about this offer and demanded more than 10 Euros per day. When contacted, rentalcars.com wrote (after four days!) that they were only the brokers and could not do anything about it. They said I should contact Thrifty (in the meantimes 500 km away), pay the second driver and then claim a refund by using their claim forms. Instead of doing their job they expected me to make phone calls in Italian, contact the rental company and fill in forms. There was no support whatsoever! Rentalcars.com let their customers down!

Paid £149 for 4 days car hire in Naples with Budget only to be charged another £350 on collection of the car.

There was no indication, whatsoever, of additional charges on collection that would amount to over £350.

Very shameful practice.

Abysmal response from Rentalcars.com saying there is nothing I can do about it!

Cancelled a future booking for Lisbon and going to a better organisation.

Also, their replies take forever! Forget the 24 hour guideline they give themselves. More like a week!

I booked a car 1,5 months before I needed it. Then (15 days before pick-up date), I decided to change the pick-up location. First of all, I contacted their support to find out if I have enought time to change the pick-up location then print voucher etc. they told me that it should take up to 48 hours. They also asked me if I'd like to change the drop-off location and I agreed. I asked if they require anything from my side to proceeed with my request before I left the chat, they wrote that nothing else is required and they will contact me by email. After 3 days I decided to check how the things are going. Guess what? I was told that they even didn't send my request cause they need my to confirm the drop-off location by the phone! I asked them just to change the pick-up location in this case (cause I didn't have time for a call etc.) and they told me that the request was sent to the rental company. Then I got in touch with them every 2 days and checking the progress (cause the time was passing) and at the end I asked to cancel my request cause I didn't have enough time to wait till I pick up the car. During the entire hire process and pick-up change, nobody got in touch with me. Moreover they didn't nothing with my request. I suggest to not use this service! Just use any other instead of this one

Booked a medium size car and pick up at the airport paid deposit, then paid in full, then they changed the size of the car to a small one and changed pick up location via shuttle bus they didnt tell me they had changed it, still charged me same price for medium size car to small car phoned up told them not happy on phone for ages arguing with them, cancelled and they kept £30 deposit not told that they keep deposit, finally got a refund it should have been £161.04 looked on my card statement and they kept another £30 challenged them and they said it was the banks fault they had proof that they refunded me in full but clearly in black & white on my card statement online it says they only paid me £131.04, I paid £191.04 in total so should have got back £161.04 so still owe me £30 threatened them with court if they dont refund the rest. What a really awful company and there customer service is zero... i will defo not be booking with them again

Arrived at the airport to pick up the car I paid for weeks in advance. Used the same card that I'd used weeks before to pay the deposit, the card was rejected because it was a debit card (it wasn't). Instead they told me they had one last car that I could rent for a 'small mark-up' because the time was short. Much to my surprise the small mark-up was from 200E to over 3,000 euros (yes, 15x). They told me none of the other companies would be able to rent me a car at that busy time. I went to the first company I could find (literally 2 window shops away) and got a car for a bit over 200E. They refunded me with less than 100e for the 'trouble', so you could say it was a good day's work for rentalcars.com! I'm not one for giving advice to what people should do, I'm just going to say I would never consider them as a car rental option in the future.

I made a reservation with Rentalcars, 60 days prior reservation we decide to cancel it. When i made the reservation i saw, free cancellation, but no... not true... you have to click on the little information to see that they refund except the deopsit.
Since it's 60 days before we take the car... I try to talk to them to explain the situation and be refund for the the deposit but no... no one want to talk to me... no one respond to my e-mail... they are hiding... just like kids when they know they've done wrong and they hide hoping you will forget...
I wonder what they do when thing go wrong, a damage, the car is not there, problem with the cart rental dealer... I would be scared now... don't you?

Do NOT use this company unless you want to overpay for car rental.
I rented a car in the UK through Europcar rented via rental cars.com. I had worldwide car insurance through my American credit card and have managed to utilize this in the last 15 years of traveling to the UK.
On arrival in the UK after 2 long flights I was told that Europcar would not accept any 3rd party insurance. As I had to have a car and had a meeting to get to I had no alternative but to accept the Europcar insurance but I told them I would dispute it once home and that I was very unhappy.
The cost of the insurance was almost double the original cost of the car rental.
I feel misled by both companies and rentalcars.com customer service has been less than helpful.
Btw when I was collecting my car in the UK there was another person from the USA having exactly the same issue.

Most went wrong on this car hire from Munich airport, where we had to wait 90 minutes from we got to the Budget/Avis desk till we got the car.

- Fuel Up Front Option: I was explained that there was now downside for me to leave the car with a partly filled tank. I would just pay for what Budget/Avis filled up. I still was charged EUR 96,-, which was abt. 4 times what I expected.

- Additional Products: This was a roof rack, which turned out to be far too small for our purpose (and I had assured upfront that I needed something to take a lot of skies). So we had to skip the rack, and asked if they could skip that particular cost of 40 EUR. Oh yes, that could be possible, but had to be done by email request via Budget, after the hiring period. So we did, but no money back.

- Location surcharge: I have no idea on what this is, and why to pay it. It was something like 90 EUR. We actually got these money back after complaining.

Of course they did not have the car type that we ordered. We were therefore offered a smaller car, but to a higher price! Of course we did not accept that, and after some while got a large 9-seat van, where we had to put all the ski stuff inside and on top of the seats, unsecured.

- Price: Agreed price was 80EUR. Got a bill of 230EUR, but my card was actually charged 280EUR!
Got 90 EUR back, but still this is still fraud.

I rented a car in Miami, rental was prepaid, and when I got to the Hertz office to get the car I found there was no one there, but a phone cabin to get in touch with a hertz employee who could hardly find my reservation. In the reservation I clearly indicated my son's name cause he was the driver, but the payment was made with my credit card... and they accepted that and the charge was made. However, we were told that name of the driver and card bearer should match each other, so there was no wsy for us to get the car. I went back to the hotel, called rentalcars to London, just to be told that they would cancel the redervation but charging cancellation fees... when it was their fault for wrongly accepting the payment as it had been made and confirming the reservation. Now they've stolen me Us$ 252... and I 've lost one vacation day with all tbis stuff!

I was charged more for the car than my reservation stated and have gotten nothing but the run around Dollar rental cars states I have to go to Rentalcars.com, Rentalcars.com says go to Priceline.com, Priceline.com can not find anything and sends me back to Rentalcars.com. I have gotten nowhere. Even with the printed reservation Dollar rental cars will not stand behind it, do not fall for the bait and switch price the rental car companys will no stand behind it.