Goldcar Rental Reviews 

Today (July 2022) I arrived at the desk of the rental company to pick up my car (the booking was for 10am and we arrived at 9pm the same day because we hadn't even planned our flight when I got the car, so I got the car from the morning to be sure it would be available). The person at the Goldcar desk was very curt saying that since we had been late to pick up the car was gone, and that we were marked as no shows (I didn't know you had to arrive at the exact time, I thought we had the whole day to pick the car up). She then continues by saying that my only option was to talk to Rentalcars people, but that even if they reinstated the rental, it would take 2h to be updated on her system, so I was better off buying another rental directly from them.
I then tried calling Rentalcars and was greeted by someone who did not speak English and could not communicate effectively in this language or Spanish, the country I was in. They told me that my best option was to cancel and pay a cancellation fee, then go to a desk at the airport and rent a car myself. Considering there were many cars of the exact category available online at the time I think this treatment of me as a customer is completely appalling, especially as there was no notification to me that the booking was or would be cancelled unless I showed up by a certain time.

At this point my 3 kids were very tired form a day travelling so we decided to take a taxi to our holiday home.

We still need to rent a car so I will have to go back tomorrow to the airport and get another car directly from one of the rental companies (not Goldcar), but I am expected to pay a cancellation fee for the first car which I did not cancel I still want it if they will give it to me!

I would also urge you to have a better relationship with rental companies and present a more united front that tries to help customers instead of leaving them stranded based on technicalities!

Also, being 2h late in an airport is very common and you should at least communicate that you are cancelling, because my rental still appears confirmed online! This is especially offensive since Goldcar had cars available of the same category being sold online while I was being told to rebook an existing reservation to pick up a car.

Please be careful.
If you ask for a second driver they will try to sell you extra insurance.
If you say "No thanks - I had insurance on the original booking," they will add it anyway and charge you for it. No luck when trying to resolve issue via original booking provider. :-(

This company are bandits. I was forced to purchase £225.67 of insurance cover as she insisted I had none. I payed as I couldn't take a chance. Its hard enough inspecting these vehicles in a darkened car park as it is.
I have waited to return the car and have it signed off before complaining because I know I would be victimized by such unscrupulous people. Never again would I think of using this company and will tell Easy Jet all about it as I purchased through them. I will be travelling regularly now and all my money will go to another company. You Loose.

Goldcar forced us to take their insurance even if I already had one included with my credit card because an employee of Goldcar told us « If you have an accident, we won’t give you an invoice of the dammage. So you won’t be able to send it to your insurance ».
On top of that, when I called the customer service, they hang up 3 times, after few minutes of conversations.

Goldcar will cheat you. One way or the other. That is how they earn money, and the way they run their business. You may be able to prevent it by outsmarting them, but know that this is their goal, and they are good at it. One of the best cheats is denying all your credit cards for collatoral, thereby forcing you to buy an insurance because you cannot present a card they will accept for collatoral. But they have many up their sleeve.

Goldcar Croatia (Split)have SCAMMED me and kept my entire deposit in which they had NO RIGHT to !
In total, its 1500 EURO they have stolen from me.
I have done NO damages to their car, seen NO damage report and I , my self have documented the cars condition before rental by video and photo.
Of course they dont answer your emails, pick up the phone. Dont ever use this company.

They are a scam!!!! Do not use them, they will charge you extra for damage that isn’t even there. Ruined a really good holiday

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY _ THEY WILL TRY TO KEEP YOUR DEPOSIT. This company is so bad that earlier this year a Maltese court ruled that their terms and conditions were illegal and also they are apparently being investigated for fraud. Basically, you hire a car online and agree to the T&C's, then when you go to pick it up, they demand that you sign an additional three pages of T&C's before you can take the car. These additional T&C's are designed to allow them to keep the £1200 deposit they hold on your credit card. If the car breaks down - you have to pay. If someone drives in to you, they keep the entire deposit as an admin fee. They present you with a list of charges you have to sign, the cheapest being £100 for a minor scuff to a £15 wheel trim. The court case (Maltese tribunal) was when they held someone's deposit because they claimed the catalytic converter was broken when the car broke down - they presented no evidence that they had fixed the catalytic converter and claimed that the customer had accepted their T&C's and therefore the charge was allowed - the judge was serioulsy unimpressed and ordered them to repay the deposit and costs. Others have reported huge "admin fees" for handling parking tickets that they never received. They send you photographs of damage several days after picking up the car, but ours had areas of damage that weren't marked - but with my electronic signature from collecting the vehicle allegedly confirming the damage report was accurate! Luckily I'd taken my own photos. Seriously, don't use this company there are warnings all over the internet - if you do use them, you will likely spend your whole holiday worrying about the hire car. Spend an extra few quid and go with a company who don't have rip offs as a main source of profit.

Worst hire company in Malta. Avoid at all cost.
Vehicle i ordered wasnt there.
Was told id have to wait hr and half for vehicle after an hr wait just to be served.
Had to suggest a lesser grade vehicle just to get somthing to start holiday. Offered my a 41000km battered hyunda i20. Not a straight panel on vehicle. Refused car at collection point. Had to go back to desk and finally offered a citroen c3. Originaly ordered a mini van.
Now in middle of dispute with them. They dont care and will tell you anything to accept a vehicle if the type ordered isnt avaliable.
Poor company. Suck you in with cheap quotes then vehicle isnt there. Not allocated per surname. 1st come 1st serve. How does that even work. Why not allocate vehciles. They ask for flight details, vehcile type and collection time. Waste of time

easy to book online and pay for, picking up car is quick and easy but drop off at Luqa airport always seems a bit of an effort and the staff at times seemed lazy as though they were being burdened. paperwork has taken longer than anticipated, especially when concerned about missing a flight due to the time taken to drop off the car. overall however would recommend as the most efficient hire car co for malta.

Horrible in every way. Scam.

We rented a car, with luckily full insurance, and already when driving out of the airport, a weird rattling sound occurred. Day 2, we were driving on Gozo and at several occasions the steering locked up, stereo turned off and all electricity seemed to be gone for a second. We stopped for a while to eat and when we got back to the car it would not stop. This kept happening and it was obvious that something was wrong. We called the roadside assistance and goldcar office which told us that they would arrive in 1.5h. 5 hours later, they had still not arrived. After 6 hours, when it was getting dark, a guy showed up in a new rentalcar from Goldcar. He did not speak english but his boss was on the phone telling us that the battery was flat and this was the only thing not covered by the insurance. The boss told us that they could charge the battery and give us the new car if we paid €450, otherwise they would not do anything. We told them that there was something else wrong with the car and refused to pay. The boss then started to scream and said that they would leave us at the side of the road if we did not pay. Keep in mind, that why would they give us a new car if it was only that the battery was dead, clearly they knew that it was something else.

Since we refused to pay, the guy abruptly got in his car and left us there. Luckily, the nearby hotel had a battery charger and a mechanic at hand which helped us charge the battery and also told us that the generator, which charges the battery while you drive, was completely broken.

We managed to get back home, where the car broke down again, and ended up driving to the goldcar office the following day and returning the car several days early in order to not be bothered anymore.

AVOID GOLDCAR AND THEIR CLANDESTINE SUBSIDIARIES AND THE FEEDER SITE GOTRENTALCARS.COM OR PAY THE PRICE!

This company and its subsidiary Zing Rental (and there are probably others) are geared to rip you off. Be warned. This is based on my experience in March 2018. Booked car through GotRentalCars.com. Wanted to avoid Goldcar at all costs due to their reputation. Booked with Zing Rental but it turns out they are just a front for Goldcar! No meet and greet as promised. No Zing rental desk. After several phone calls was referred to the Goldcar desk. Aaagh! After queuing for two hours at the desk (I kid you not) we arrived at the pick up point just outside the airport. Took photos and a video of the bashed-up car as a precaution. Alas on returning the car at the end of our holiday the Goldcar guy made an immediate bee-line for some damage under the front bumper which unfortunately I had missed as it was hidden just under the car. We had not caused this (or any) damage to the car. Got charged 400 euros - total rip-off.

We had purchased fully comprehensive insurance provided by Goldcar which months later eventually paid out some of our outlay after a tortuous claims process (Mondial Insurance - avoid them too!) but we were still left substantially out of pocket.

These people are lurking sharks and they exist to rip you off. Malta government needs to regulate car hire. We will not be returning to Malta.

Do not rent at Goldcar, run away!
Very bad experience in Malta
When booking no problem, the Martercard Gold card is (of course) accepted ... and then, Goldcar is waiting for you at his airport office to charge you € 160 extra MANDATORY insurance because your Mastercard Gold is not not a credit card.
Obviously there is no warning or warning message at the time of booking via internet!
This is pure scam and a way to force the billing of insurance ... one of their favorite tour.
Moreover the team on the spot does not put at all in confidence and is unpleasant.
I will never rent Goldcar here or anywhere else.

Terrible service. Like other users I was given a car with multiple marks, scratches and a broken bumper. The very helpful guy at check out tried to get me a new one but the office didn’t respond. It took us half an hour to write up all the marks on the check out form. On return a different employee found two more scratches. I have been charged an extra £380 - no explanation, no document - nothing. Never again - I booked a inter rent car not realising that it was now owned by gold car with which I had already had a bad experience. They want you to take out the extra insurance and if you don’t they find something wrong with the car on return.

Never ever again!!!
Why should I give 1 star? They don't deserve any!!!!

Repeating word for word Birgit wrote several days ago: "This is a scam business. They give you a car with hundreds of scratches and when you return it, they find a small old scratch and claim it's new". And they charge you by hundreds euro for this 10 milimetres old scratch (luckly we had the Icarhireinsurance)

We made the mistake of hiring a car through Goldcar at Malta International airport.

The car was given to us in a poor state with significant damage to the rear bumper and trim and not well valeted. On descending a steep hill in Gozo, the steering became erratic. I visited a garage and checked the tyre pressures to find that they were all significantly different and in the case of the offside front tyre – very low. Obviously, I rectified this immediately.

On returning the car on 29 October, I was asked if I was happy with it, to which I commented on the tyre pressures. The Goldcar staff member ignored my remark and went immediately and unerringly to a small mark on the offside front bumper / trim and stated that this damage had been caused by me. He did not go on to check the rest of the car or to even check that I had refilled the petrol tank (which I had). My wife showed him a picture that we had taken of the car when collecting it on 23 October that showed that the mark was already there when we were given the vehicle.

My wife and then were then subjected to intimidating, threatening and rude behaviour by 4 individuals. The individual who appeared to be the manager of the team even informed me that he would not assault my wife – he clearly thought that I may form this opinion on the basis of his actions and tone of voice!

At this point, I visited that Goldcar desk in the airport terminal in order to pursue the matter with the management team. I was informed by the individual on the desk that this was not possible as the office closed at 15:00 (the time was about 15:02 when I was at the desk). I was also informed that this was not a matter for the office anyway – they just handled the contracts and paperwork.

I also commented on the way we were being treated to a policeman outside the airport. He was very sympathetic and advised that if I wished to take matters further I needed to report the incident at the local police station. I decided not to do this as I did not wish to miss my flight.

On returning to the Goldcar carpark, we were informed that if we did not sign documents to the effect that we accepted that I had caused the damage and to pay for it we would lose our deposit of €1,100. Initially I signed a document accepting that the damage existed but that I had not caused it. I was not given a copy of this document, but Goldcar have two copies of it in their possession. Finally, in order to at least retrieve my deposit and make my flight, I signed the necessary document and allowed them to charge me €404 on my credit card.

I am insured for this damage. However, as a matter of principle, I did not cause it and the whole manner in which this affair was handled by the Goldcar staff was unacceptable

I am 55 years old and I travel frequently and I regularly hire cars. I have never had to write an email such as this one. This is because I have never been the victim of such terrible behaviour. My suspicion is that Goldcar just want to make extra money from insurance companies – even if this means ruining people’s holidays.

We also noticed at the time a number of other Goldcar customers who were not satisfied with their cars and the way in which they were treated

The aggressive and threatening behaviour and unprofessional and disinterested attitude of the staff at Goldcar Rentals at Malta International Airport reflects poorly on the people of Malta which is not fair on them.

We had a booking to rent a car from Goldcar at Malta airport when we witnessed a scene where returning customers where being charged hundreds of euros for a small scratch under front bumper, which was hardly visible. We got worried and immediately canceled our rental and went with a reputable local company.
Their business model seems based on extracting exhorbitant damage fees and trying not to identify existing damage at check-in. They provide the option of buying their insurance but then the price with insurance often exceed the total price proposed by known car hire companies !

If I could give them negative stars, I would. This is a scam business. They give you a car with hundreds of scratches and when you return it they find a small old scratch and claim it's new. The service is very poor, they are rude and has very low business ethics. We have used them twice and it has been the same experience both times. Will never use again.

As a consumer you enter a contract with a company, pay your money, and expect to get what you pay for - right?

Well - if your contract is with Goldcar- apparently not.

Goldcar supplied a faulty vehicle to us which broke down after 2 days and 2 short journeys. Despite this clearly being Goldcar’s fault, not ours, we were charged €150 for a replacement car which they will not refund. The most unbelievable part of our story is that such a huge number of customers have had a similar experience to ours. I don’t know how Goldcar can legitimately get away with scamming customers in this way.

Wish I had read reviews before booking with this shambles of a company. The bombardment of negative customer feedback on their Twitter feed says it all.

I have the same experience right now, what they do they give you a trap car with hidden damages. When you come back they are ready for you, within a second they pounce on you, claim you damaged the car and tot up the costs to arrive to the excess value. I will write with more details with the exact car registration and make of the trap car.

I am taking it up right now with my credit card company and consider legal and other options. This is a simple deliberate fraud to con people.
Lesson to learn:
Do not buy the cheapest, you may pay for it later.
Dont hire a car without checking their credential first
Dont hire a car from comparison web sites unless you can see which car rental company they give you and you can check them.
Photo and video any car you take, insist on good light, and look at the car from the side across the whole length of the car to see hidden curved in dents.
Take excess cover
Book direct from reputable car companies even if it slightly more expensive.

I hired cars for many years, for business and pleasure, this is the first time I was scammed.