[Closed] 7 seat car hire in Rome - tips please

Can't help with Rome specifically, but I always take plenty of pictures and video when collecting/returning the car, and I use insurance4carhire.com as a better way of getting excess cover on car hires abroad. Not had to claim, but the cover is far better and cheaper than that from the hire car itself.

Also be careful with specifying 7 seater cars - we have had pretty small cars (eg Quashqai with 2 tiny jump seats in the boot, which when in use gave zero luggage space). We found the best option is to specify 9 seater, which means you do tend to get something comfortable for adults - usually a van of some sort.This is of course much larger to drive and park, so it's up to you.

Stick with the international companies as you will have a head office to deal with in the event of any problems.

3rd Party excess cover will work but you can be charged the excess amount then have to claim that from your insurance rather than the 2 companies working together - something the EU should probably be working on.

General rules look over the car, check anything off against the hire form - you get a copy anyway. Photo's if you want.

On return do the check over with somebody and sign it off then or take pics if you can't do the hand back with somebody.

I used additional insurance - much cheaper -  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

I also made the mistake of not realising who I was booking through. Big. Mistake. It has taken weeks from holiday and my Credit Card being blocked, multiple chargebacks and more to sort things out.

DO NOT use Global Rent A Car globalrentacar.com or Rentalcars.com - use a big name instead.

DO Please take pictures on phone, with date and geolocation activated, both at start and end, of every last panel and mark on the car. Having done this, it saved our few hundred quid and made the credit card company automatically side with us.

DO also get the person at the start and end to check over the car with you, and you HAVE at the start to point out everything to them and make sure it is marked.

Matt I've used rentalcars.com loads, nothing wrong with them at all you just need to look at who you are actually booking with, had some good prices on Hertz/Thrifty/Europcar with them. As in my previous post avoid the local independents - I believe that is who you ended up with in the end?

As with any of the booking agents you can get a discount through them but check the direct price for the main ones.

I generally do  video walkround with my phone.

I try always to start with a shot of the rental guy and narrate as I go round

"It''s Monday 27th August and I'm checking this Mondeo with Pedro from Dodgy rent a car.com.... Say hi, Pedro....Oh, look at that big scratch on the front  bumper....."

@mike - rentalcars.com refused to investigate initially, then sent over fake/incorrect T&C's document to me and refused to discuss that they had any responsibility, and have now started but not completed an investigation into globalrentacar.com. At no point did rentalcars contact me to resolve or show evidence of contacting globalrentacar.com on our behalf.

We have direct evidence of globalrentacar.com trying to defraud us - as in we have been contacted by someone else who used the same car we had three weeks before, and it had the same damage on. Same three days after our return they had a claim, using same images.

Mastercard/M&S bank are so unimpressed that their fraud team who did the chargeback have globalrentacar.com on their fraud flagging system as it is so common to have problems.

im in italy at the moment (lucca) and was advised to use one of the big boys so went with europcar (through rentalcars, who are also recommended on tripadvisor).  2 families, booked a car each months in advance.  got there last week to be told 'there is a problem'. only one car and its not here yet.  you can drive to pisa to fetch it if you like.....

joke of a company.  when i waved the contract at him saying theres no excuse for not having a car here youve had months to sort it, he just shrugged his shoulders and said what can i do, theres no car here.

we'll get in touch with them when we get home to express our disgust but im sure itll fall on deaf ears with a half-hearted apology.

joke of a company.  when i waved the contract at him saying theres no excuse for not having a car here youve had months to sort it, he just shrugged his shoulders and said what can i do, theres no car here.

How did they resolve it in the end?

Not defending all of them but it's a bit of a shit happens scenario when somebody prangs a couple of cars or asks for a couple of extra days - I've swapped destination on hire cars mid trip before which must screw them around.

Had it happen twice to me and got an upgrade for one, and a box of chocs as I was fine to wait a couple of hours for pic up.

Do you have a car now?

they didnt resolve it, didnt even try.  we had to come back in the afternoon for the one car we have between 8 of us now, so its been a bit of a p1ss about with 2 trips everywhere near and having to get a taxi for 8 for the longer journeys.

I've used holiday cars for the first time, usually go with rental cars but feel like I got shafted on unexplained charges (invoice in Portuguese) after last holiday.

Hired a 7 seater from Thrifty and got a 9 seater, was told there was no damage, it was pissing it down when we picked it up, had Mrs, sis and 5 kids with me so didn't do the walk around for the first time and have since found ding in the tailgate, not caused by me. Will see how hot they are on the return.

Paying £390 for a weeks hire in school hols in Italy, £70 of that is for full cover insurance through holiday cars. Seemed reasonable for a big wagon.

To the OP, I'd be tempted to hire 2 smaller cars if practicable.

3rd party excess waver obvs.

Same happened to me as sadexpunk - Milan in April (Centauro) no car big enough. We had to stay a night in Milan and collect the car the next day. Not a happy bunny.

I'm seriously considering using Sixt from now on. The prices are higher, but they seem to be no nonsense.

I’m seriously considering using Sixt from now on. The prices are higher, but they seem to be no nonsense.

Having used most of the big ones the random screw ups are just that, random and can happen to any of them especially in peak season, UK wise Sixt/Europcar have been very good for me, enterprise have some strange rules around vans. Hertz are pricing out of the market where as in Oz they were top of the pile.

Thanks for all the pointers guys, will stick with the big names and have a look for some 3rd party insurance.

I've been looking at vehicle classes with galaxy/caravelle type things as already thinking the risk of going for a grand picasso and getting something even smaller wouldn't work.

2 cars really would be a last resort scenario, in laws won't be driving so having just my wife and I having to both drive all the time would just be a layer of stress too much!

Any recommends for a guide to Italian road rules (other than use the horn all the time obviously)? Will be my first foreign driving without a native next to me for guidance

There are only two rules to driving in Rome.

1. Brake only for nuns

2. You must stop every 4 minutes, get out of the car, slam your hand on the bonnet of an adjacent vehicle and recite the following phrase...” Bastardo, Bastardo, Mamma Mia, Bastardo”

When we got the Quashqai it was sold as a Galaxy/Scenic class vehicle....

hmm. So specifying 9 seater is the way forward then. A bit poor since a zafira is about 150 cheaper compared to a galaxy class...

I always book through holiday autos and choose an international firm located at the terminal. Never had a problem.

As long as you check over the car amd take photos of any damage before you drive away (and tell them if there is any they haven't noted on the paper work) then it will be fine.

If you intend to carry kuggael with 7 people you may need more than an smax by the way, could maybe fit 7 people and 2 cases in? I had the same situation last year so hired a Vito which had loads of room:)

Should add, i would recommend Sicily by car, dollar, hertz and gold car for Italy.  All been fine.

Any recommends for a guide to Italian road rules (other than use the horn all the time obviously)? Will be my first foreign driving without a native next to me for guidance

i found this to be helpful......

http://driventoit.blogspot.com/

"A bit poor since a zafira is about 150 cheaper compared to a galaxy class…"

If it's 7 adults then a zafira is not a 7seater

Our travel department booked us a "7 seat" zafira  for us to travel to the south of England. Before we even got to the lack of luggage space the smallest of our 7 adults still didn't fit in the rear jump seats , had we braked hard they probably would have suffered broken necks thanks to their heads being pressed against the roof.

It's 150 cheaper for a reason. Rear most seats suitable for kids (large enough not to be in child seats) only.

Ended up with a tourneo.

As much as it annoys Mrs tr barring one experience with a rentadent from a warehouse in downtown Auckland we have always hired from a big co. Normally start with avis due to a company discount occasionally end up with budget/europcar/enterprise(had a mate who worked there so always got upgraded .....hired a dispatch got a daily which was nice for going to races )

Barring the rentadent (20 year old mazda) we always useuthe big co's and  have never had an issue. But then when you pay 6 dollars a day for a car you expect issues.....thankfully I as said above had taken photos on my Digi cam and so they let it slide. I expect some people are not so tetchy about photos and marks on cars.

My advice about driving in Rome is .....don’t do it! Any sort of traffic law is optional. I ended driving in the city this summer on a Sunday evening and that was enough to put me off. It didn’t help that the side streets are extremely narrow made even narrower by all the illegally parked cars which made navigating through it all with our van quite a stressful experience.    Driving in Italy is fine though. If you use the Autostrada make sure you have cash or credit card as they don’t accept foreign debit cards ....at least ones from Germany even though they used to and they have become pretty expensive.

Last year we booked (Spain) through a DoYou Spain .... when we arrived (Ibiza) we had a nightmare waiting to pick up the car along with hundreds of others.  The year before the same "agency" was independent, last year has been bought out along with every other non-international

We ended up taking the car with what turned out to be a slow puncture that was due to a screw through the wheel... informed them once we got to the villa and they wanted to charge us.  Fixed with a bid anchovy... 😀 and lasted the week.

This year we got the price though Rentalcars (Mallorca) but a specifically chose an international (Hertz), possibly paid a bit more but got 3rd party insurance... RETROSPECTIVELY wished we hadn't... found a bump I'd not seen (was 90% certain it couldn't have been me) and spent the holiday worrying how it was going to work out.  It actually turned out fine but every time I saw the bump it detracted from the holiday...

The deal we got included "extra driver free" which seemed something I was going to have to argue over from the rentalcars.com paperwork but Hertz did just honour it.

Next time I'll probably just get the car hire co. CDW insurance.

A decade ago 5 of us hired a Zafira in Sicily and returned to Rome 4 weeks later. (Hertz)

Wouldn't have wanted more than 5 in the car.... but otherwise worry free.  (Finding due was probably the most stressful part)

Re the zafira 7 seats... I have one at home! The comment was in reference to someone above booking a galaxy and getting a grand picasso. Which seems a bit crap as the breakdown of booking categories the price difference from a zafira type jump seat 7 seater to a galaxy was £150; it's another £100 or so on top of that to get into 9 seat caravelles etc. I would be raging really at paying for a galaxy and getting a zafira, like paying for mondeo and getting a fiesta!

Not planning on driving in Rome itself where possible, apparently reasonable public transport from our accommodation into the city, more for going day trips elsewhere in the surrounding area. Frankly find the whole idea slightly terrifying but needs must 😂

www.sunnycars.com

It's a German company recommended to me by a Swiss man who regularly hires cars in the UK. I've booked with them on numerous occassions in the UK, Malta and Greece. It's a broker but it is cheap, has full cover and extra driver included in most packages. I might even have a 10% voucher if you pm me.

I've used carhireexcess.com for third party insurance, seems OK but I haven't had to claim, which is the test of any insurance. One thing that caught me out was that I'd booked a 7 seater, and when I picked it up they didn't have one and gave me a free upgrade to an 8 seater. Which was fine, but I'm glad I didn't have to claim on carhireexcess.com because I only realised later that the policy has an exclusion for vehicles with more than 7 seats.