Rentalcars.com Reviews 

As an intermediary, they avoid responsibility for rentals provided by large rental companies like Budget, etc. I received a lower-class car, and they didn't provide airport pickup. They admitted that I received a lower-class car and didn't provide airport pickup. Despite this, they refused to compensate me because "the rental company didn't agree to it." I strongly advise against using this company.

Unfortunately missed to update my reservation, and got punished by their 0 tolerance policy despite asking for help via chat or phone. Oh wow, nice way to take care of your customers, congrats!

Terrible experience, they charged £1200 excess that the end company and didn't make us aware of it. Only accept credit card for this (which we didn't have because we were not aware of it). Check all the Terms and conditions and trust nothing. Stuck in Tenerife on a Sunday night with no car and a toddler. Total nightmare. Company offered half a refund (not even the full price when I didn't get the car). Horrible company

They dont Control their affiliates. Many cars from very bad rent a car companies. In greece our car had no battery. After 1st stop car not working. I call rent a car and they answer me " sorry, its summer,no more cars". Well we had to rent another car from other company. Asking for refund they didnt want to do it. Just stop answering emails, thats it. Manage to be refunded through a consumers protection institution,4 months later

Made a mistake with booking, starting contract one day early. Upon arrival a day after no car and no refund. Will never book there again. Are not even able to send an automated reminder e-mail a day or two before arrival.
And booking.com will avoid too

I have been trying for over two weeks to obtain a legally compliant invoice for an insurance payment made under a recent booking. What followed was one of the most frustrating customer service experiences I have ever had.

To make matters worse, the insurance I purchased through Rentalcars turned out to be completely useless: the car rental company at the pickup location did not recognise it and required me to take out a separate insurance policy on the spot. I paid twice for insurance — once to Rentalcars, for nothing.

When I then tried to obtain a proper invoice for the Rentalcars insurance payment — a basic legal requirement for any business expense — I was met with a series of responses that were either legally incorrect or completely irrelevant:

1. First I was told the insurance certificate could not be altered — which I never asked for.
2. Then I was told that VAT-exempt services don’t require invoicing — which is legally wrong under both Portuguese and UK law.
3. A document was eventually sent with no document type, no sequential number, incorrect amounts, and no VAT exemption reference — legally useless.
4. When I pointed this out in detail, I received a written confirmation that Rentalcars is unable to issue any other document. This was immediately followed by a word-for-word copy of the same email, with a different agent’s name at the top.

This is a company that is either unable or unwilling to meet basic fiscal and legal obligations, and whose customer service responds with copy-pasted template emails rather than actually reading the customer’s messages.

AVIS RENTAL AGREEMENT NUMBER: 29474653DE4
WRONG AVIS AGREEMENT: E256529103
CHECK 24 BOOKING NUMBER: 22343949
AUTO EUROPE NR.: EU22343949-1
Case Summary:
• I booked a rental car from 2 -16 of June 2025 at AVIS at Faro Airport, Portugal.
• The car rental was fully prepaid through CHECK 24.
• Due to a medical issue ( I did not feel well), I was forced to return the vehicle two days earlier than planned to AVIS FARO AIRPORT.
• At the AVIS FARO AIRPORT RETURN COUNTER, I was unexpectedly presented with a new fake rental contract and they immediately charged €698.77 from my credit card. The AVIS lady in charge was very unpolite.
• I was not informed in advance that returning the vehicle early would cause the original prepaid price to be invalidated or replaced with a substantially higher rate.
• I did not consent to this re-pricing and I refused to sign any new fake rental agreement explicitly authorizing a €698.77 surcharge. The new fake rental agreement was a cheater issue.
• My attempts to resolve the matter with AVIS, AUTO EUROPE, and CHECK 24 were unsuccessful up to today. The 3 companie did not support me at all.
PLEASE TAKE CARE WITH AVIS FARO AIRPORT. THEY ARE CHEATERING CUSTOMERS

Ridiculous procedures - no customer service!

After being screwed over by a car rental company they work with in Italy (Greenmotion - notably a company that most insurers exclude from their cover because they are crooks), they promised to price match a new rental. Confirmed twice on the phone with them.

One months later I am still waiting for the rebate on the price match. And now they are trying to get out of it simply because Greenmotion told them a lie and said that they offered us other suitable cars (which they never did).

NEVER book with rentalcars.com
NEVER EVER use Greenmotion as a rental company, no matter how cheap they are! They are thiefs!

Terrible experience renting through them. I rented with Record Go in Malaga, Spain. I was not offered ‘fast track’ pickup leading to hours of wait time. It feels hard to choose using RentalCars.com again.

Very disappointing experience with Booking/Rentalcars and Europcar.

Hidden extra charges were added at the rental desk without clear explanation, including a paid upgrade I never knowingly requested. The contract was presented only in Portuguese, making it impossible for me to properly understand the additional costs before signing.

When I later disputed these charges, Booking/Rentalcars refused to provide meaningful assistance and simply relied on the signature, despite the clear language barrier and lack of transparency from their partner.

I feel completely unsupported as a customer and disappointed that they allow partners to use these practices without proper accountability.

We used rentalcars.pl in Zakopane Poland. They were not there when we arrived at the pick up location and when we called they gave various excuses - driver was sick, car broke down - before they cancelled. No other solution was offered and we were abandoned.
I WILL NEVER USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN.

I will never again use rentalcars . I purchased a car rental 1 month in advance along with insurance for $152 , which $96 of this was the insuranceon its own ...great price (i thought) . I go to pick up the rental and was told I cant use the third party insurance that was sold to me by rentalcars . I was asked to buy america rental's in-house insurance which is $356 for the cheapest or $550 or so for insurance that covers scrathes and tire protection at 0 deductible (not a great deal anymore I'm thinking to myself) . Had i known this from the beginning I would not have rented a car . The guy at the counter says ok so if you use this insurance that I provided, you'll have to leave me a $15,000 depisit to cover any damages or possibly a total loss . I told him you know what let me call rentalcars and get this whole thing sorted out .... after 40 minutes of waiting on the phone with no response I decided to Uber to our hotel since we didn't agreed to the terms . Later that night I reached out to rentalcars to get a refund on my horrible experience and was told that I did not cancel 48 hours in advance I can only get a refund on the insurance amount of $96 . I mentioned that I was not the one that backed out of this deal . They did not offer the deal that was agreed . Sorry for the rant I just wouldn't want anyone else to experience what I went through and waste your precious time while your on vacation. I warned the representative that if they didn't make this right i would start here . With my honest experience.

Bought a car rental through Rentalcars.com with Thrifty. Payed everything up front, but when I arrived at the counter to pickup the car, Thrifty insisted that I added their insurance package on top (2,5x rental price). Obviously I did not want to accept these terms and had to go to an other rental car company. Since this was less than 48 hours before pickup time, I could not use the normal cancellation policy, but instead had to go through customer service. No luck and no refund - I was just given som BS about not being in time (48 hours) for cancelling, so money lost. Don't use them - book directly with the rental company. Then you at least know up front what kind of scam they are trying to pull.

I booked a vehicle and purchased insurance through RentalCars. However, upon arrival, the rental company claimed the insurance was invalid and insisted that I purchase a separate policy directly from them. Furthermore, they downgraded my vehicle despite the fact that I had paid a higher price for a premium booking. When I reported this to RentalCars, their only response was that policies vary by company. Essentially, I was charged a premium rate for a lower-value vehicle. This felt like a scam; I strongly advise others to avoid them.

Terrible rent. Policies are not clear. stay away.

Booked a car at 18.00 for 19:30
Arrived at 19:00.
Was told on arrival needs to be a credit card - £1500 deposit or pay £300 extra for a their insurance.

Didn't have one on us - our fault for not reading terms.

Employee at Drivalia - partner of rental cars, told us he would contact rentalcars.com.

We thought nothing of it.

Next day we called them as we had borrowed money to rent the car and wanted to make sure the return went smoothly.

Rentalcars says they've not heard anything from drivalia so won't be issuing any refund at all.

Spoke with drivalia who said they are happy to tell rentalcars they had to cancel us as no credit card.

Booked for a week so pretty appalling customer service to give no refund at all.

Oh and the address is luton airport for drivalia - when actually its 15+ minute drive from there.

Rentalcars.com failed to protect me as a customer. When the local provider (Budget/Avis) at Southampton Airport refused to honor my prepaid voucher because of a 3-hour delay, Rentalcars did nothing to help, even after a phone call on the spot.

The provider then rented me the EXACT SAME CAR for double the price under a new contract. Rentalcars still kept a "cancellation fee" of over 100 EUR. They allow their partners to engage in predatory upselling tactics and offer zero actual support when the provider refuses a valid voucher. Absolute lack of accountability.

I had a disappointing experience with a car rental at goldcar booked through Rentalcars (booking reference 768483246).

The car (contract number 29058182, license plate HJ834HQ) was returned at the airport with a full tank, as it had been refueled right before drop-off. Despite that, I was charged €9 for fuel plus a €50 refueling fee, which does not reflect the actual condition of the vehicle when it was returned.

It is also frustrating that a deposit of around 15,000 DKK is being held, while these extra charges were added without any clear reason.

I would expect the €59 to be refunded and no further charges to be applied.

Edit: after contacting customer service I was able to get a full refund of the €59. I had to document fueling of the car in close proximity of the rental car dropoff.

This is about a car rented through rentalcars.com at Goldcar in Marseille airport.

Formal Complaint and Demand for Refund – Contract 29058182

I am writing to formally dispute an unjustified charge applied to my rental.
The vehicle (license plate HJ834HQ, contract number 29058182, Rentalcars.com booking 768483246) was returned at the airport with a full tank, refueled immediately prior to drop-off. Despite this, I have been charged €9 for fuel along with an additional €50 refueling service fee.
These charges are incorrect and unsupported by the actual condition of the vehicle at return.
Given that a significant deposit (approximately 15,000 DKK) is being held, it is particularly concerning that such charges can be applied without proper justification or verification.
I hereby request:
• Immediate reimbursement of the €59 charged
• Written confirmation that no further charges will be applied
If this matter is not resolved within 7 days, I will proceed with:
• Formal chargeback via my card issuer
• Complaint to consumer protection authorities (EU consumer rights)

I expect your prompt response and resolution.