rentalcarhire Reviews 

Absolutely terrible experience with ECH Car Hire at Pisa Airport. When collecting the car, the initial inspection was rushed and superficial — several scuffs and scratches were missed by the staff member. On return, however, a different representative conducted an overly thorough inspection and suddenly “discovered” multiple scuffs and marks that had not been recorded at pick-up, including tiny ones on the underside and lower edges of the vehicle that were clearly old and irrelevant to normal use.

Fortunately, I had taken comprehensive video and photo evidence of the car at the start of the hire, which proved these marks were already there. Without that, I have no doubt they would have attempted to charge me for pre-existing damage.

After looking online, it’s clear my experience is far from unique — there are many similar complaints describing unfair charges, poor customer service, and questionable inspection practices. This company cannot be trusted and should not be given business.

For transparency, I booked through Zest Car Hire, a company I’ve used for years and generally trusted. I’ve provided detailed feedback to Zest urging them to remove ECH as a supplier — they are damaging Zest’s otherwise excellent reputation.

In short: dishonest damage claims, and a company you should absolutely avoid.

Unfortunately can not pick for zero stars for this company. Due to weather we had to rent at ECH in Pisa instead of our usual car rental company, but at returning the car, ECH tried very hard to claim damage from underneath the car to us! Never seen this in my live and I have been renting cars all over the world!

Avoid ECH Car Hire at Pisa Airport – A Frustrating and Costly Experience

I had an incredibly disappointing experience with ECH Car Hire at Pisa (Galileo Galilei) Airport, and I feel compelled to warn others.

Upon arrival, I was forced to purchase an overpriced insurance package—costing more than the actual car hire—because ECH refused to accept my Visa debit card for the lower-cost insurance option. Strangely, they were perfectly happy to accept the same card for the more expensive coverage. This felt like a deliberate upsell tactic, not a legitimate policy.

The pickup process was equally frustrating. The car hire location is a considerable walk from the terminal, and airport trolleys aren’t allowed in that area, making it a struggle to transport luggage.

Returning the car was no better. An attendant initially claimed there was damage, but thanks to a video I had taken at pickup, I was able to dispute it successfully. Before that, he had vaguely reassured me that the insurance would cover it, yet couldn’t explain what that meant for my deposit. He then told me it would take 21 days to return my deposit, and when I asked for clarification, he shrugged it off, saying it wasn’t his job and that a colleague in Sicily would handle the paperwork.

To make matters worse, this booking was made through AutoEurope, whose customer support has been completely absent throughout the ordeal.

In short: I strongly advise against hiring a car with ECH. The lack of transparency, poor service, and questionable practices made this one of the worst car rental experiences I’ve ever had.

Wish I’d read these reviews. Rude staff. From the pick up it was clear that they were going to try and make money from the ‘damage’ on the car on return. Would not have been surprised to see them use a magnifying glass.
As others have said, on collecting, car was dirty inside and out, no washer fluid and tyre pressure low.
Sure enough when we dropped off there was a small scratch - €300 . Will actively avoid in future

Huge scam, please do yourself a favour and don't rent with them. As soon as you arrive at the desk the employee tried to pressure me into purchasing an additional insurance policy, which I refused. She mentioned that any minor damage would cost a lot of money — a veiled threat that I wish to denounce as an unfair practice.

When I returned the car, no additional damage was found but they charged me 443 euros for a made-up scratch...freaking thieves!!!

I had a good experience with Ech Car Rental at Pisa Airport. The price was much lower than other companies I checked, and both pick-up and return went smoothly. They didn’t try to push extra insurance, which I really appreciated.

⸻

Very good experience from the pick up which was very fast, to the delivery of the car.

I'll join the long, long list of terrible reviews for this abysmal company. I've rented cars all over the world and for many years without any issue whatsoever – until 'Easy Car Hire' at Pisa Airport.
We picked up a dirty car with loads of dents and scratches. The employee walked around the car to note damages (note: no one 'crouched down' to inspect) and I walked around the car to record a video as I always do.
Upon return, we encountered the MOST thorough inspection I've ever seen. He seemed determined to find something and almost lying under the car, 'found' scratches on the underside of the front right side bumper. We contested this saying we did not damage this car, and showed him the video but he rejected this and pressured us into signing by saying he would make us wait longer (endangering us making our flight).
I watched the video later and sure enough, you can see the tops of scratches in the same spot –
This is clearly their MO – to 'find' damage they claim wasn't there before and charge your credit card (in my case, over €300 for a 'scratch'). We are convinced this is some sort of insurance scam and found their business practice appalling. Save yourself the stress and rent from a reputable company, which we plan to do from now on.
ps this car didn't even have washer fluid in it which we discovered high up on a mountain road – we had to pull over and fill from water bottles.

Doesn’t even deserve one star! Con company renting out cars in awful conditions (no fluids, no cleaning, tyre pressure issues etc.) with tons of damage notes on file and a terrible check in and out process, aimed at ripping people off in every possible way. Representative very rude to top things off.

We had a really good experience with ECH in Sicily. Nice car, good customer service and no problems.

Contract No. RPM-42364

Everything was fine - from the pick up process from the airport (via phone call) till the Shuttle Service back to the airport.
The car was clean and in a good shape. Also the seats for the kids were in good condition. So overall - it was a good experience ☺️

AVOID AT ALL COST. All the reviews on this company are correct. Complete scammers. Do not book a car with them.

after reading so many poor reviews I thought I should leave a more positive one! I booked through VIP cars so knew the amount shown was only for the car hire and was expecting to have to pay for 2 car seats when I arrived at the desk - so a £53 rental for 4 days went to £125 - still very good. the guy at the desk explained the insurance - that I didn't have any insurance so he recommended I buy theirs. I informed him I had my own policy and he was quick to ask if it was through the broker. When I informed him it wasn't and id done it myself independently because I hire several cars a year, he was happy with it and didn't try the hard sell. so id recommend doing excess cover through a company separate to the car hire booking.
picking up the car was quick enough - they go round it with you and you both need to point out all the damages - our car was pretty beat up and I took around 30 pictures of every angle - which proved valuable on my return when they used the bit of paper in the office to show them the damages and one spot was not marked, they were obviously going to charge me for it but I showed the images and it was all ok.
so if you book through these, protect yourself - make sure you have a credit card in the same name as the main driver - they hold 1000 euros which was then released a day after returning the car.
make sure you take lots of pictures of the car before driving away and make sure you get a decent excess cover, purchased away from the car broker.

Easy car hire in Sicily. Picking up the car was quick and simple with helpful people at the desk. The return procedure was efficient also.

No fuss, no hassle car hire at the airport.

Straight forward
Helpful
No pressure selling
Friendly

I had a very unpleasant experience renting a car from this company. At the airport, I was charged €300 simply because I did not have a physical credit card, even though I provided all the necessary details and documents.

When I returned the car, they later sent me an invoice claiming a €30 charge for a “new damage” — a small mark on the tyre that could very easily have been there before my rental.
Overall, the experience felt unfair and poorly managed. I do not recommend ECH Rent a Car, and I will certainly never rent a car from them again.

Great and friendly service and the shuttle from the airport is very fast. We had a good experience. Thank you!

Hasslefree renting, handover and return of a rental car during our two week stay in Sicily.
Clean and reliable car.

Typical Italian extortion.
I've rented cars for years all over the place and never had a problem with my weird (yet totally valid!) Italian driving license.
This time, though, these so-called gentlemen forced me to upgrade to the premium insurance, more than tripling the rental from €150 to €442, alleging that my (totally valid!) driving license had expired and, therefore, was not valid.
I needed a car for my trip, and a last-minute change would have meant that I would have lost both the 150€ of my reservation, on top of whatever a new rental with another company would have cost me.
Absolutely criminal behaviour.

DO NOT TRUST and look elsewhere. They're cheap for a reason