Holiday car hire. Are they all much the same?

Some are better than others but it's not necessarily big company versus unknown. Seems pretty random. They are all generally ok though. Just make sure you have appropriate insurance and take pictures or video of the car when you pick it up.

One thing I have experienced and read about since is that Italy is particularly bad and somewhat lawless when it comes to hire car companies. We had had spurious extra fees that we needed to get the credit card company to deal with.

Go with a big company and take their full cover out. 

There are much cheaper ways of doing it, like not taking the cover at all or not taking it and buying your own, but for lack of faff and the ability to hand the car back without worry, I think the extra cost is worth it. 

Best way to reduce extra costs and risk is by taking out care hire excess insurance. I use Insurance4CarHire. If you are going for more than a week it is sometimes cheaper to get annual policy.  It gives you the confidence to turn down all of the extra cover they will try to hard sell to you.

There are much cheaper ways of doing it, like not taking the cover at all or not taking it and buying your own, but for lack of faff and the ability to hand the car back without worry, I think the extra cost is worth it. 

This ^^^ I have hired cars many times on holidays in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the USA and more recently I have found that just taking the hire company's full cover insurance is the stress-free way to do it as, rather than trying to find any small bit of damage on return, they don't even look at the car at all. I have also found that they often give a free car upgrade.

I suspect there isn't much difference between all the big players, you will see complaints for them all having charged for damage or extras. If you take out full cover with the renter, it does seem you are less likely to be taken for extra damages etc. But it costs a lot more. You should also read the T&C very carefully for each extra - our recent trip to Napoli even the extra insurance wouldn't cover the excess for theft in Campagnia for example, so there was no point in buying that cover. 

If you go down the buying your own excess insurance route, again read the T&C for the amount that you are liable for and what the hold will be on your card - this will be different for each agency and each car type. You would have faff if there were an incident, in claiming the excess back, and need all the paperwork. But it's usually much cheaper than buying excess insurance with the rental agency. 

In all cases, do take photos and video all the way around the car. Ours was incredibly battered but had items of damage missing from their inventory, so took photos and video just in case. 

Oh and you don't need a telepass for the toll roads autostrada, you can pay by cash or card. Again check the T&C if they charge for its use then decline it. 

Don’t know if they operate in Italy, but avoid Goldcar if they do. Organised criminals. 

Posted by: stevenmenmuir

↑

Going to book a car for our Italian holiday in the next day or two

Ooof. Which airport? 

Rome airport, and Milan come to think of it, often have huuuuuge queues for car rental. Avoid Goldcar; but whichever company you use, I've found them a bit worse on the 'dodgy fees' front than in other countries. Costs aren't too out of whack with other countries - my personal preference is Budget/ Avis, but Europcar are fine if they're close on price - but just make sure you do the walk round with photos when you collect it, and probably the same when you return it; bring it back full of fuel, and don't sound American. If you do that you should be grand 

If hiring at an airport or major city I always use the big companies at least that way even if the local person is a corrupt scumbag you tend to have come back with Bead Office so long as you take videos / pictures when you pickup and drop off

ive also hired cars for peanut money locally. The cars have been visually battered and perhaps mechanically too but they have always been honest and good. These come from local recommendations though

As above not read anything good about Goldcar

Beware of Sicily by Car rental in Turin, this spring they tried the over charge caper with our hire of a transit 9 seater. No issues with the excess, insurance etc but there was a significant unexplained and unexpected charge on my card when we got home. Since refunded by the bank but requires a chunk of evidence to disprove.

Book via Zest

They are a broker but include excess protection. 

I'd find a few that are good on price then check each local office / location on Google Maps and read the reviews for that particular branch.

This is quite illuminating as even the best big brands have rogue branches and rogue employees who are looking to get commission for up-selling or whatever. Also, many offices are franchises so you can't rely on the sign that says Hertz or Avis.

Google reviews will give you a sense of what recent punters have experienced at that location, and you can soon spot trends like unwanted upgrades or fake 'new' damage.

Italy is tough. I've had mixed experiences from the same office, where I got treated like a King one time and ripped off another. Broadly, the "take all the insurances" route is low resistance BUT is shockingly expensive and at Avis in Milan Malpensa I've still had surcharges on the card when I get back to the UK - fuel once, even though I'd pre-paid, and damage another, (with no damage and the Avis insurance!) so it's no guarantee.

Not Italy, but in the US I had an issue where Sixt no longer have paper forms where you circle the extras you want adding. Instead there is just an electronic signature strip where you sign the virtual agreement, that you can't see / read... Anyway, on return it transpired that the dude at the desk had ''upgraded' my car and added the top whack insurance to my agreement, even though I'd not asked for or approved either. Apparently changing the 7 seater I'd booked to something smaller amounted to an upgrade.

In my complaint I cited Google reviews where several other customers had faced exactly the same scam. This, and threatening legal action based on their stupid electronic signature system got me the refund. I will now religiously check Google reviews in future and follow my own advice!

Whoever you hire from, take a good video all around the car on collection and again on return to give you some comeback on condition.