CarRental8 Reviews 16,201

I would strongly advise avoiding CarRental8. We arrived to collect the car we had booked and paid for, only to find the location closed. The closing time was not made clear at the time of booking, and as a result we were left stranded and had to rent a vehicle from an alternative supplier at additional cost.

We requested a full refund since we did not use their service at all and the lack of clarity was entirely on their part. However, they refused, showing zero understanding or willingness to resolve the situation. This was a deeply frustrating and disappointing experience, and I will not be using them again.

I booked a car through CarRental8 at Thrifty cars for July 15th. I was unable to get the rental due to car availabilty. I immediately notified CarRental8 on 7/15 after leaving Thrifty( with no vehicle) and requested a refund. I have been calling almost everyday and they keep telling me it is still processing, or they are waiting for the vendor response. I keep getting put on hold, and when the operator comes back they tell me my case is going to be "escalated", at this point it has been "escalated" about 10 times, and next week will make a month that this occured, and there is still no sign of my refund. This is the first time I decided to use a 3rd party to rental a car, I will never use them again,

Signed up for a Ford Focus in Lisbon, got a Peugeot 308 that smelled faintly of dog food. Clerk shrugged, “same class.” Price stayed low, pickup line moved fast, return took half an hour because the printer jammed. It’s fine if your bar is thrift-store efficiency—just bring patience and an air freshener.

Money taken from account for 3 day car hire. When I check the booking online it says it was "cancelled by me" ... Sent emails that have been ignored and now I have to go to another Company to get a car AND report the CarRental8 to my credit card company for fraudulently taking money and not providing the service.

Title: Still no refund after 6 weeks – Claim unresolved

Text:

> I submitted a claim under the No Risk Warranty for Booking #703960856 on June 23, after being charged €650.31 by Europcar France for a disputed scratch. I provided all required documents, and CarRental8 confirmed escalation to accounting. Since then, I have received only vague updates asking me to wait another 7–10 business days — twice.

As of today (August 5), I still haven't received any refund. My bank cannot currently receive EUR or USD directly, so I provided valid KZT account details with full SWIFT/IBAN for an international wire transfer. They confirmed this was acceptable, yet no funds have been received after 6 weeks.

I regret the lack of urgency and follow-up. I now consider filing a complaint with the BBB and pursuing chargeback options.

I would prefer to resolve this amicably, but delays like this are unacceptable — especially after promising a 7–10 business day turnaround.

Roman Leontev

Update (August 2025): I have now received the full refund. Thank you to Vicki from CarRental8 for following up and ensuring the transfer was completed. While the resolution took much longer than initially promised, I appreciate that the case was eventually settled.

Booked a car through car rental 8 (for Budget car hire). My booking was not booked instantly, it was on request for two days. They cancelled the booking the morning of my car hire. Therefore I ended up paying double the price as I had to book directly on the day. There was no communication from them during this time.

AVOID AND BOOK DIRECT!!!

Extremely poor experience, would not recommend anyone.

Reserved a car through CarRental8.com to rent a car through Drivalia UK. When I arrived at their Canary Wharf office, I was given a downgrade without any compensation, and was forced to pay extra £120 at the pick-up to purchase a a Full Protection Coverage. This was despite having purchased an Inclusive Package with CarRental8 already - without it they would not rent me the car!!!

When I tried to contactCarRental8 customer support via email, nobody responded. The customer phoneline was hard to find and only has a US number, which incurred extra phone costs. When I finally got through, the line always disconnected suddenly and no support or advice was given.

The car was of poor quality, no compensation offered, so currently considering legal steps. Definitely not worth the hassle.

Please note that all the 5 star reviews for this company are for their US services. They are practically all 1 star for the UK, which I didn't realise at first. At around 4pm today, I used this company to book a hire car from the local airport which is nearby as my own car is in the garage being repaired and won't be ready until Thursday. I've never booked a hire car before and everything seemed quite simple and painless. However, when I printed out the 'voucher', I discovered that I should expect to pay a deposit of £1,505 for the car - which was for the cheapest car available. I am on minimum wage and cannot afford such a huge deposit. Panicking, I then looked up the company that they had arranged I would be picking the car up from. They were called Green Motion. I then looked at reviews for them here on Trustpilot and also on Reddit and TripAdvisor and also read an article about them being the worst possible car hire company. Lots of reviews say that once you get to the Green Motion desk, they insist you pay more money for extra insurance - sometimes double what you have already paid to Carrental8, despite the 'voucher' showing you have fully paid. I tried cancelling as I can't afford to fork out a deposit of £1,505 to this Green Motion company and then risk them keeping it. I also don't want to be forced into paying double what I have already paid. I was so worried about it that I cancelled the booking. But Carrental 8 has taken the whole of my booking money (£166) as a cancellation fee! Please be very wary of using this company, and also certainly Green Motion. I am £166 worse off in the space of four hours. How can they justify taking all my money when I changed my mind in a short space of time? Its outrageous.

Update: 7 Aug. Thankfully Carrental8 has now refunded all my money.

I booked a hire car from JKF and when i landed there was an email saying that My Booking 527868912 was cancelled

this caused me 2 hours worth of delays and huge expense to find another car at last minute which made me very late for where i needed to be

i called the call center and they said there had been a change of rate then the phone cut off

i will be asking my bank to retrieve the money back if the refund isnt sent

lesson learned to book direct with trusted hire car companies in future

Quite horrible experience. They do not honor the early check (even 15 min) in from the rental car company.

No customer service, no working contact number, and no response to emails. We landed at 22:30 and found the office completely shut — no car provided. Turns out the company closes in the evening and is not open on weekends. How does a holiday car rental company shut down when most people are arriving to holiday destinations and the flights are delayed.
We eventually got through to an agent, who simply said he couldn’t do anything because they were closed and promised a call the next day. What he didn’t mention was that they’re actually closed all weekend, so there was no help coming at all. Completely unprofessional.
Booking reference: 682202861.
Do yourself a favor and book elsewhere. This company is a total joke and feels like a scam.

Don't use then stay away i book a car and cancel it with in hour because I was read the terms a condition and the were miss leading and there was a lot of extra charges I will be facing that I could not pay so I cancel it try to contact then for a refund then I keep email them has taken then a week to reply to me saying no refund .just avoid scam

Scammers!!

They take deposit straight away for the car rent, and when i pop up to pick up they want charge me an extra £340 non refundable, they trying to tell me i need some special "premium" plan. But i dont need.

So basically i refuse to pay extra, now trying to get my money back over the bank. Open fraud case for this little scammers.

I rented a car and I emailed them to cancel my reservation and they don’t have a contact number or respond to any emails. My recommendation is not to use them as you will be disappointed

I have paid in full, in advance for 10 days rental. My flight was cancelled I have informed Car8 in advance. No answer received, I went to get the car the day after and none was given. The operator was very rude. Called Car 8, inconsistent feedback. I followed up by email, no responses received to my questions. Will never ever use them again. Rude.

Wow! I booked a car rental via this website with caution, never heard of it before but took the risk. This rental was in Halifax, we got Budget rentals in the airport for 6 days. We returned it at 8pm with NO extra day charge. We paid roughly $650, all other websites minimum was $1200 (hence the risk!). I was half expecting extra and hidden fees, no car available etc, but that did not happen. Beautiful new SUV, less than 10 min at the counter, and drop key return. Highly recommended

Had a great experience booking through Rental Car 8. Their price was well under other competitors. Their customer service was great too. They worked with me to sort out an issue. I would book with them again. If you’re wondering like I had been originally, they are a legit and honest company.

I arranged a 16 day car hire through CarRental8.com and when the booking came through, the car hire company was Avis. I arranged the "Quickpass" service online but when I arrived to collect the car Avis refused the hire for reasons they would not specify. I have no points on my license and have been driving for 30 years without incident. I went straight to the nearest alternative car hire company, EuropeCar, and was able to rent a car for the duration needed. I have contacted CarRental8.com many times to get my money back (£308) and after 5 days they replied and processed a refund. However, my advice is: go straight to the car hire companies to cut out the middle man.

Answered my call promptly and made chage for me efficiently and politely. Thank you.

Car Rental 8 offered at $50. No further payment required at pick up. Upon arrival, rental cost ~$200 due to the rental car company they suggested. Shortly after creating the rental, I read reviews on the company they suggested that I rented from. I inquired immediately asking that I change my reservation (not ask for a refund but change my reservation) as I wasn't comfortable with the company they provided. They got back to me 2 days into my rental. The company they suggested was terrible, Car Rental 8's customer service is terrible. DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE.