Simba Car Hire Reviews 

Easy process. Online booking all good. Easy to pick up from offsite though shuttle service was very convenient.

⚠️ WARNING – THINK TWICE BEFORE RENTING FROM SIMBA CAR HIRE

This was one of the worst car rental experiences I’ve had.

I rented a car for 4 days but returned it after only 3 days. I drove only a short distance around Adelaide city. When I returned the vehicle, I was suddenly told there was a puncture in one of the tyres.

The company kept my security bond for a week and then deducted $148 without what I consider to be a reasonable explanation for the amount charged.

The breakdown was:

• Tyre puncture repair – $50.00
• Claims management fee – $35.00
• Immobilisation fee (loss of rental income for 1 day) – $50.00
• Total deducted: $148.00

In my opinion, these charges are excessive for a single tyre puncture. I also believe the tyres fitted to the vehicle appeared old and of poor quality cheap tyre brands.

The experience changed completely once it was time to return the car. Everything was friendly when I picked up the vehicle, but the attitude and process at return were very different. It felt like the focus shifted to finding a reason to charge me additional fees.

This was my personal experience, and I will never rent from Simba Car Hire again. I strongly encourage anyone considering this company to read the rental agreement carefully, inspect and photograph every tyre before leaving, and be prepared for the possibility of additional charges when returning the vehicle.

I do not recommend Simba Car Hire based on my experience.

Great service. Easy process

A very easy experience

Great price, clean car, efficient lovely staff

Great experience with pickup and drop off at airport.

The company heavily markets its "Price Beat Guarantee." When presented with a legitimate, direct, lower quote from an institutional competitor, Red Spot, the frontline customer service team defaulted to a rigid, scripted refusal based on "base rental" rather than the commercial reality of "all-in".

When pressed on the logic of the refusal and the clear text of their own marketing, the frontline staff simply stalled. The branch manager on duty to whom the desk staff referred remained behind closed doors, refusing to emerge and engage. An administrative escalation sent directly to the corporate level, including Chief Commercial Officer Behzad Alavi, and copied to central Customer Support, was met with total silence. Poor customer care is clearly a top-down corporate culture of this company.

Compounding this poor customer service is a highly questionable financial practice by Simba: Unlike mainstream rental operators who merely place a passive pre-authorisation hold on a customer’s credit card for an agreed security bond, Simba executes a hard, immediate cash deduction. By extracting significant consumer funds and holding them for the duration of the rental plus an additional 10 days post-return, the company effectively forces their clientele to provide them with interest-free working capital, entirely outside of a protective trust account structure.

This is a company totally lacking in professional finesse. There are superior cost-comparable alternatives and I certainly will not be returning.

I still can’t believe how good our car was. We got upgraded to a Mazda cx 5
Car was excellent
It was super cheap and the best value we have ever had in a car rental
The staff very very friendly
Definitely our best car rental experience and easily will be our choice for the future

Quick and easy booking process. Staff helpful and efficient during pick up and drop off. We hired a hybrid Hyundai i30 which was clean and had large enough boot space for all our luggage. Great value and cheaper compared to some other companies we got quotes from.

The car was so much cheaper than anywhere else and the quality was exceptional.
We got a small SUV for the price of a mini everywhere else
They were ready as soon as we emptied the car to drive us the the airport

Had to paid $1000k deposit 17th June, returned car 23rd June to receive an email 1st July saying 2x tolls of $9.74 will be deducted and balance from $1000 will be credited in 3-10 business days. Unfortunately due to this experience will never use this car hire company again.
Customer service on par with the industry.
Was not impressed by time delay in picking up car as its better just using a car hire at the airport.

I am truly shocked by this experience. I strongly do not recommend this company – avoid it at all costs!

I am being charged $435.60 for a two-centimetre scratch on a wheel rim, which is completely excessive and disproportionate. I feel like I have been scammed, especially as it is hard to believe that such a repair will actually be carried out.

I can’t even imagine what would happen if you caused even the slightest scratch to the bodywork of the car.

Please be very careful before renting a vehicle from this company.

First time using simba car hire and it won’t be the last.friendly courteous helpful staff on arrival and again for departure.
The whole experience with simba was so comforting and satisfying.

Okay. Obscene excess forces you to take out extra protection policy.
Had to wait a long time to be served when collecting. Drop off to was just as chaotic. The car was not cleaned at all.
I doubt I’d hire with them again. With the extra costs I could have just hired at the airport instead of waiting for a shuttle that didn’t have room for us. Overall, poor service with some very dodgy ‘extras’.

Very friendly and efficient staff at office in Cairns. The car was very clean and comfortable. Overall a great experience. Price was good for our 6 day hire.

Been renting cars over 40 years . Used just about all of them . I found Simba their pricing was better good selection of cars , paper work , photos of car condition. Excellent . Courtesy bus on time clean and effective. Well done

Toyota Corolla was a beautiful little car to drive. The staff at Cairns Simba were friendly and competent with their service. Deposit was returned promptly. Thank you. Will highly recommend. 😀

Things didn’t start well when in their instructions on arrival at the airport they ask you to hit a link to tell them you are there to be picked up. They also have a feature to track the pick up van. We watched a van arrive at the airport to drop off customers only to leave without picking us up. After waiting some time another couple eventually rang them and told them we were all waiting to be picked up.

Check in was great, friendly staff and very informative. We also got the car for a great price booking and paying in advance.

When dropping the vehicle off, the shuttle driver said he would fix the car up so we didn’t have to go into the office, he told us to put our suitcases in the back of the van. When at the airport he told us we had arrived, got out, opened the back of the van up and made us get our own suitcases out. We entered the terminal to discover it was the domestic terminal so we had to walk a good 10 mins outside in the heat to the international terminal. It would have been nice to be asked which terminal we were using.

Perth Office and airport shuttle service support is non existent needing to rely on the online platform doesn't improve the experience. Was informed this as a common problem affecting it's Customers.

Used Simba in other States without this problem.

Relatively quick transfer and good service at car pickup had us on our way about 1 hour after exiting the plane.
Drop off was seamless and transfer was quick.
Returned the car before the time specified so could save one day charge. However the low daily price made this unimportant. No problems with the car as it had < 12000km on odometer.