Rentalcars.com - Car hire App 4+

Great prices on the website / app and great range of cars.

Unfortunately you’ll never see or get what you pay for on the European rentals when you turn up to collect. Especially as everything is outsourced to non advertised suppliers or all the “brands” you thought you could trust are dispatching vehicles from one shares local operator with no interest in quality, customer service or what you paid for.

The car will be different, usually smaller, cheaper, less functionality, ... etc. Expect to be fobbed off with the “you booked x vehicle OR SIMILAR” emphasis on the OR SIMILAR!!! regrettably substitutes are rarely ever similar in size, function or quality.

Check anything extra you book in advance carefully, paid for security extras which were not in the car!

US experience was better. New car. Exact spec ordered. Option to change with no penalties. Regrettably EU rental is a bit of a rip off with a smile. And lots of blackmail at the desk, take it or leave it, but by then you’re on a tight deadline in the middle of nowhere with little options so they turn you inside out.

I used Rentalcars about 5 times in the past with generally OKish experience. What makes this time even worse is that the provider was suggested by Rentalcars, and that is the main reason I picked them.

In general, the cars advertised are never the ones you get. I understand that it can be difficult sometimes but on 5-6 occasions I never got the car that was advertised, always got a worse brand...

Company was not located in airport terminal as advertised, we had to walk 500m with all bags and baby. I paid premium for a company that is IN the terminal. When we walked to the rental location this company was not even there but had to walk further to get to them. Took us 30 minutes find the company as no one was able to help finding this TargetRent company.

The company did not have child seat ready as requested. They had to borrow it from the neighboring company, it was a lucky escape.

The woman at the counter was rude and upset customers in front of me as well.

Screen wash was empty in the car and tyre pressure indicator went off during the rental.

On top of this, because of the poor coverage Rentalcars offers, I had to fork out another £170 to give me full cover without being able to get a refund on my Rentalcars cover. (My fault for not giving a better read to the terms and conditions.)

All of this because of Rentalcars recommending this particular vendor. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to trust Rentalcars again in the future.

I am using this app frequently, also because there is no real alternative. However, the app has a overly annoying problem which at times breaks it usability. Sometimes car rentals appear closed and the app does not allow you to proceed, asking to adjust to opening times without telling you the actual opening times of the branch! Things get worse when you try to drop off your car on a Sunday as by default the branch at least appears to be closed, however in practice you can simply drop off your key in a letterbox or so. In such situations you‘ll have to resort to arranging your booking directly with the car rental though of course this entirely breaks the convinience and purpose of this app and is pretty frustrating. I am renting cars quite frequently and this problem more and more pushes me away from their service. However, fo occasional renters still best app on the market.