Solmar Selec Reviews 

Absolutely disappointing. After paying in full for a holiday we never received, Solmar Villas left us with a worthless voucher, endless restrictions, zero flexibility and eventually no solution at all. We tried every possible compromise, but they kept our money and offered nothing in return. If you value reliability and fairness, book your holiday elsewhere.

I inquired about a villa i was interested for my family in but didnt want a villa only connected by a external staircase so i rang up and inquired , i was told that the external staircase was only to get up to the roof and she could see the floor plan in front of her that it had an internal staircase , on arrival it was clear i had been blatantly lied to (just to get a sale) this villa was not what i wanted and unfit for us , I put in a complaint but was told that the agent would not knowingly mislead a customer (rubbish) PLEASE dont book with solmar villas YOU WILL REGRET IT, I have booked villa holidays every year for quite a long time now and never ever before had to complain PLEASE PLEASE BEWARE

One star because I couldn't give zero. I've rented all over the work. First time in spain. When I rented from Sol mar in Alicante I thought this was the norm. Bad customer service. Waiting forever from airport pick up. Strong armed into insurance. When I didn't take it having been charged £70 for cleaning on return after they could find nothing wrong. The mirror under the car was excessive. The customer service peoole were soooo rude. I was burned.

The following year I hired from another car hire company inside the airport which was actually cheaper. The customer service was the exact opposite. All the way thru. They even smiled.

Sol mar closed down in teluda in the year that I was away. I would hope they're in their last legs with this customer service.

Please do not use this company,rented a car from them in Santiago didnt take out insurance with them as i had my own.On returning the car i was charged 100 euro for a scratch on an alloy wheel.Thieves ,i am reporting them to the Galican tourist board.

DO NOT BOOK WITH SOLMAR!!!!!Just returned from Santiago de Compostella and booked our car hire through DoYouSpain. Unfortunately they use Solmar, a company who are scam artists and really unpleasant. On arrival even after showing them our rental voucher they insisted we had to take the full to empty fuel option even though our agreement said we had the full to full option( which I had paid extra for). After a lot of arguing they agreed to honour that. Then came the hard sell for the insurance. After refusing it, we were told that if we didn't take it they would inspect the car with a magnifying glass. We said no problem because we are frequent travellers and careful drivers and had never had any accidents or problems. When we tried taking photos of the car to make sure we had proof of its state before driving off we were told we couldn't take photos and the guy was very aggressive towards us. He then went on to say that Solmar didn't accept photos in disputes anyway?? He then continued to tell my husband that he didn't like English people because they think they are superior and never want to take insurance!!! Finally, when we returned the car this morning they charged us €134 for a tiny scratch on the hub cap which was already there (but had not been noted on the contract). So they managed to recoup the money for the insurance we declined anyway. BEWARE OF SOLMAR they are racist, rude, aggressive and complete con artists. If I could post this without any stars I would.

I took out Supersaver insurance and was told everything was covered. No parcel tray in the car which we did not notice until a trip to the supermarket, however, no issue because we are fully covered! Wrong! On return to depot was told it was in place when we left, they never remove them even though there were two trays actually on show in the office (not for my car though). They could not contact anyone at the time but in the time it took to fly back to the UK there was a large charge posted to my credit card. Having had cover I never gave a deposit on my car so this was an unauthorised charge. Basically feel like i have been robbed. Never use this company.

Solmar.es Barcelona is the worst place to rent a car. Cheap car rental became more expensive than rental with one of the larger companies.
At first they force you to buy an full insurance or a tank of gas to the nice price of 124euro, if you didn't buy one of the two choices you could not rent the car. The 124euro is a very good price for 35L gas😡😡.
We took the gas solution, now the rental is higher than with Avis or Hertz.
The car we got had damage all over "small and large damage" not every damage was documented in the renting document so we got a man out to check the car with os "this check was at 23.15 at night in the dark"
We had a nice week I Barcelona, until the return of the car at Solmar, at first they didn't check the car when we came, we waited 30min until they had time to check in the car, the check in of the car took 15-20 min because of all the damage there have been there before, he was walking around the car several times and with a mirror on a stick to see the underside of the car, he found the turning signal at the left mirror was misplaced, no damage no scratches just misplaced turn signal. It would take 5min to put the turn signal in its rightful place, I work at a car dealer and no for fact, but he would change me 200euro for the misplaced turn signal, then I got a little mad on him because nothing was broken and I could fix it for him in 5 min, but I should not touch the car and now the price became 400euro for being mad, so he charged me 484euro including tax, for something I didn't do, and not was a damage, just a misplaced turn signal. DO NOT RENT A CAR WITH SOLMAR😡😡😡😡

Solmar were once a reliable, honest courteous company when they operated out of a van at the back of the public parking, but that was a long time ago. The assistant was so rude she ruined our whole day.
As we didn't take extra insurance, ( having cover already) she took us to a car covered in scratches. The sheet she gave us had no damage marked so we had to start from zero. We asked her what size scratch would be included and she smirked at us, saying we could tell her what we thought was a scratch and she would write it down. We protested that all other companies we had dealt with gave clear guidance and had a record of previous damage marked. She replied that she worked an eight hour day and that she could happily spend two hours with us if necessary. In the end we gave up after almost an hour and said we would trust her for the tiny scratches which were too numerous to include. That was a mistake. While we had asked her to mark all scratches on the car she never drew our attention to the hubcaps. When we returned the car the girl who was free refused to take us trying to pass us on to the original incredibly rude employee. She refused to deal with us and passed us along to the manager who in less than a minute was able to point out scratches on two hubcaps on opposite sides of the car - We protested that the assistant hadn't in any way drawn our attention to hubcaps. She lied into our faces, making more insulting remarks in Spanish to her colleagues which she presumed we didn't understand. In the end scratches on two hubcaps which we certainly didn't cause was deducted from our Visa - 121€ for two hubcaps. Scam, Dishonest and incredibly rude and discourteous team. We tried Record after that and they were lovely, well-organised. It was such a contrast.

This company are thieves..... firstly, they picked me up 1.5 hours late then conned me into paying more money. NOW, 6 months after renting the car, they've taken further money out of my account without my permission. THIEVES. THIEVES. THIEVES. THIEVES.

these people are complete con artists. they tried to get me to take out their top price full insurance cover 148 Euro for a car only costing 20 Euro rental. when i said i had AA excess cover they then told me in that case i had to pay 91 Euro for my tank of fuel on a mini class car only holding 36 Euros of fuel.
I contacted the broker i booked through and they told me i would get a refund against the 91 euro if i brought it back with fuel in it.
the solmar person denied i would get this refund, but i got it by using the broker to speak to solmar directly. Horrible people, very rude, very aggressive and down right con artists. AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS

Got charged a lot of extras when I turned the car back in - all because I refused to pay for their extra insuranxe upon pickup.

They don't include this in the price they quote online.
When you get to the country and collect the car they include it without asking whether you want it or not.
If you query it they assure you it covers you for EVERYTHING.
Looking in the small writing at the back of the document they say it excludes negligence, namely three points:
1. You cannot use the car for competitive, dangerous sports.
2. You mustn't exceed the weight for which the car has been designed (number of passengers, luggage, etc).
3. You mustn't drive it off road.
I had the misfortune of having the car scratched at a car park in Valencia. They charged me with €822 and refused to refund the money. When their customer service department finally responded they are claiming I had incurred negligence.
The matter is now with my solicitor and possibly going to go to court with it (I'll take advice from solicitor and barrister friend of hers).
My suspicion is that they don't even contract insurance with any reputable company. Basically you pay for it but are in fact driving under-insured. Then they take your money and refuse to refund it.
This is fraud. They're layers and fraudsters.
Don't contract their insurance. In fact: do better than that and don't hire your car from this company. Stay well clear of them.

Renting a car from EconomyCarRentals sent me into the arms of SOLMAR, Barcelona. They charged me an extra EUR 109 for the car and even told me to go somewhere else if I would not agree. This when i had a voucher clearly stating the price to pay at the front desk. Standing there with wife and 2 children left me with no choice. Afterwards EconomyCarRentals proved very poor in theis customer support, as they did not even bother to read ny complaint.
Never again EcoonyCarRentals and definitely never again SOLMAR.
Bonus Info: We waited 1½ hours for the shuttle to take us to SOLMAR.
(obviously the review given with 5 stars is from a SOLMAR clown - but the number of angry customers speaks for itself)

Oktober 16

I never got a car :-( I was asked to leave the car rental SolMar shop.
A senor Robert) a totally cracy person to put in front of customers.. He said that the terms&Conditions that I brought in printed version..(from the good company EconomyCarRentals, their businesspartner) were wrong! and that I had to come back with the car empty of gasoline, although my printed papers said that I should come back with a full tank of gasoline, he also said that I were not covered with the insurance that my papers showed .. and that I had to sign up in the solmar-shop for more insurance.. and when I presented my printed Terms&Conditions.. he Totally lost his temper.. and asked me to Leave! immidiatedly ..

Now.. I am a very polite business woman.. never in discussions with my world.. so I were shocked..
... suddenly I remembered this same person named Robert from another time.. back in 2014 (where he worked for another car company firefly) ..there .. he, in the middle of the night, yelled at a Norwegian customer to leave the car rental shop.. for no reason.. Scary that you might meet a 'crazy' person with the power to leave you far from home at night ..with no car.. no options but 'begging' him to serve you.

This person Robert at solmar is way out of line in speaking to people (he speaks perfectly English.. so no excuse for him).
Next time .. I prefer to be able NOT to get a car from solmar.. I would like to be able to see the name of the carcompany before I pay the reservation fee online?

.. I am still I shock over this.. front desk customer service person named Robert.

Booked to go to Spain took out CDW with Atlas before arriving. They used a firm called SolMar. Long story short choices were either deposit euros 1000 with Solmar or take their supercover 200 euros which covered any eventuality re insurance. Now when Solmar gave me a mirror to look under the car I knew they would charge you for any damage that was caused during the rental like a stone chip(60 euros) or what you did not spot when you took the car away. So opted for supercover insurance as over a barrel on this. This included CDW which I already had through Atlas.. asked for a refund from Atlas on return and they refused claiming I had been given all the charges. Needles to say this was not true. So Atlas sort it out and stop using Solmar as they are absolute cowboys! My advise use Europcar or Hertz!

Hartmuth Sager, 22.9.2016

The rental car company Solmar (Girona), partner of/cooperating with Rentalcars, operates highly nonserious if not deceitfully, especially when you refuse to effect further insurance when picking up the car.
So please be careful when you rent a car there, make sure to photograph every single bit of it or better choose a different company right from the beginning.
While the protocol of existing damage (a confusing sketch oft the car with a few crosses here and there, pointing out existing damage to the paintwork) when taking over the car was rather a negligibility, we found a complete different situation when we brought the car back.
The car was inspected with a magnifying glass and a flash light and two little scratches in the melange of earlier damages were pointed out. We then have been told in Spanish, although we do not speak any, that the scratches are new and have not been there when we got the car.
It was only then that I realized, that the damage protocol is just a fake in order to appear very trustworthy, because the crosses on the sketch are not accurate enough to point out the exact damage location in its whole dimension.
This situation lead to the presentation of a bill, without any discussion, looking as follows:
150 € for every scratch plus cancellation expenses (whatever for) of 12,27 € = Total 312,27 € netto plus 21 % VAT = Total 377,84 € ADDITIONAL PAYMENT
Once more the company took advantage of our situation (flight will not wait for us!) and we had to pay the spuriously levied VAT (in conformity with the general terms and conditions, all costs are brutto), plus cancellation expenses.
Unfortunately and obviously, I am not the only person affected ( see internet ratings e.g. cardelmar) and I suggest that rentalcars.com should end the partnership with Solmar, after all rentalscars advertises with very high quality standards.
Furthermore rentalcars should abye its customers.


Hartmuth Sager

There are more than plenty detailed stories here about Solmar. That's why I won't waste our time with my story. Just want to say:

AVOID SOLMAR (we were cheated by Alicante airport office)!!

ANY OTHER CHEAP COMPANY SUCH AS PULSAR OR RECORDGO IS PERFECTLY FINE (TRIED BOTH) ... BUT SOLMAR WILL END UP COSTING YOU MUCH MORE MONEY AND TROUBLE. THAT SIMPLE. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.

AVOID SOLMAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Late for pick-up. Extra fees, and stresses personell.

We booked solmar directly on their website, found it competative. We opted for "Supercover" and paid for it prior to travel on web. When we arrived at Alicante Airport we went downstairs to Bus stop 27-29. Solmar free courtesy minibus collected us, no problem. On arrival at Solmar, it took us 10mins to get our superb opel corsa, staff friendly & helpful. If you have Supercover, you get full-full fuel (no need to pay for petrol),they take copy of your creditcard, they dont take anything off it. Basically if you don't take supercover expect to pay for petrol possibly a block on your card. Lots of customers moaning "thought we had cover when we booked "your a bunch of cowboys" if people just spent a little time researching before travel they would have a hassle free car rental like my wife and I.

I never write reviews, but felt compelled to let other travellers know about the worst car rental experience ever from solmar.es. Please please do not use SOL MAR rent a car.

On arrival at Alicante airport we waited 1 hour for a minibus to the location which is far from the terminal. There was only one SOL MAR rent a car minibus operating and travellers were close to fighting for 1 of the 11 seats in the bus.

Having arrived at their rental shack we spent 2 hours queuing outside in the heat. What a terrible start to the holiday, for us and all the other families suffering from this horrible experience.

On reaching the 1 of 3 service desk they were not happy (at all) that we did not take their expensive SOL MAR rent a car "super cover" insurance. Although they did force me to pay 80euro for fuel, insisting I bring it back empty. A normal fill up cost 40euros.

Finally, after hours of waiting we received a car that was in very average condition

On returning the SOL MAR rent a car at 7am we found the depot shut. We were told very aggressively that they do not open until 8am...at an airport...

We were also told, again very aggressively, that when they did open we would be at the "back of the queue" because we did not take the SOL MAR rent a car "super cover" insurance.

The aggressive person then checked our car and insisted we pay 180euro for damage. Damage that was on the car when it was rented. It was clear from the outset this would happen, but after queueing for 2 hours with children you cannot spend hours checking the car. This is clearly a scam.

solmar.es is the worst experience we've ever had with a car rental company and we wish that we'd read the terrible reviews before booking. Please don't ruin the start of your holiday or worry about missing your flight home.

I recommend that you avoid using SOL MAR rent a car solmar.es at all costs. I hope this review helps somebody make the right choice and stay away from SOL MAR rent a car.