Thrifty Car Hire Ireland Reviews 63

Have frequently rented from Thirfty / Hertz, South Loots Road, Dublin 4. I have only experienced excellent, friendly and professional service from Gabriel, Louise, Gary and their Team on every occasion. Very pleased as the location is a 15 minute walk from my home so really convenient.
Highly recommend.

I used this third party Service to book a car for the week while mine was in the garage. I got the car for half the price quoted by the Car company directly. It was the very same service - very same vehicle- but half the price.

Great service, seamless pick up and drop off. Our shuttle bus driver Paul was lovely - waited for us to be ready, good chat. Great experience overall - would use again!

⚠️⚠️THRIFTY CAR RENTAL DUBLIN⚠️⚠️picked up in Terminal.
I was told I had to get on a bus and go to the car compound after waiting nearly forty minutes the bus arrived and we got to the compound.

After we returned the car I explained there were no issues and that I had fueld the car up to full.
In the pouring rain I was handed a receipt for my hire which I put in my pocket.
Only whilst waiting over thirty minutes on the bus I checked the receipt which I noticed the extra charges.
10 euros for petrol
16:18 euros extra days hir
8:37 fuel service charge
Plus vat totaling 40:24.
All these charges are fraudulent and I am dealing with this through the credit card company.
I have proof I filled the car to full and also have proof that I was not late picking the vehicle up or dropping it off.
Also when I went back to complain he was saying the same thing to an American couple who also said that they had filled it up.
I believe this is a common practice by this company at dublin Airport.
My advice to anyone thinking of using this disgraceful company is don't!!!!!
But if you do keep proof of everything!!!!!
Also what they know is that we are in a time sensitive predicament my plane was leaving in less than two hours.
⚠️⚠️ ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED⚠️⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

Avoid thrifty at all costs. They will make you pay a deposit of €2000 on a credit card and if you dont have that there are loads of hidden charges. I got charged over 500€ for a week and a halfs rental. No receipt, breakdown or sadisfaction on the phone. Avoid

Don't use this company!
After being asked to pay insurance on top of insurance coverage that we had already paid prior to leaving Australia, we had a couple of pretty significant problems.
First, the passenger side window would not go up so we were asked to travel (out of our way) to Kerry Airport, where they then sent us to a mechanic in a local town.
A few days later we received a notification, on the dash board of a engine start alarm. I rang the Dublin office and was told "don't worry about it, it's just a service advice".
When returning to our vehicle, in Cobn, the car would not start. I contacted the Dublin office again to be told to contact their Cork office to arrange roadside assistance.
on both occasions I asked "why am I doing all the work here" at which on the second occasion was hung up on.
Honestly.......DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

a terrible experience with Thrifty Car Rental in Alicante, Spain. When I booked online, the rental price was clearly shown as less than €300, and I paid this amount in advance.

However, when I arrived to collect the car, they refused to give it to me without charging an extra €600 simply because I had a debit card instead of a credit card. This requirement was never clearly stated during the booking process. I felt completely trapped and forced to pay.

In the end, I paid over €900 for a rental that was supposed to cost under €300. This is outrageous, misleading, and feels like a scam.

I will never use Thrifty again, and I strongly warn others to stay away from this company. Their business practices are dishonest and predatory.

I made a booking which felt suspiciously inexpensive so phoned the Dublin airport office and confirmed with a female employee, she said that my booking didn’t include insurance, but I have cover with my credit card. She advised me to have a statement from my insurer stating my cover, which I did. I asked her to confirm there were no further charges and she stated all I would pay was the rental charge of €41. When I arrived to collect my car, the first had a broken charger so I had to go all the way back into the airport to change the car. I was given a much older car, with 62k k on the clock. I’m not sure why I was given a less desirable car due to an issue that wasn’t my fault, and the gent on the desk didn’t even answer my question.

Then apparently I have to pay an extra €7 per day for NOT taking their insurance. I then had another €30 cross border fee, which is fine as I didn’t mention this when I phoned to check the price.

I returned the car and received a receipt for €126 total costs. Which feels astonishing when my original rental fee was €41. I’ve also been charged a €22.91 ‘location service charge’. I can’t seem to find any way to contact them to find out what this is.
Please be careful with these hidden costs, my price has multiplied by 3!

We had a horrible experience renting from this company. They insist on charging additional "junk" fees that are not part of the agreed upon rental contract. We were forced to pay excessive additional costs even after raising to their management that these were not in the rental contract. They employ bait and switch tactics where they state the price in the contract and paid for and then charge hundreds more when picking up the car. Based on our experience with this agency, we would recommend avoiding them. We have rented cars all over the world and have not had a worse experience than this agency. Thrifty needs to re-evaluate their business practices as this is disgusting!!!

A guy called Damian at Cork airport Thrifty car rental was unbelievably helpful.
We didn’t end up using Thrifty, but he went to huge trouble to help us locate our booking.
No question we’ll use Thrifty next time. He’s a great advocate for the company.

we had an extra charge debited 4 days after our return from Malaga. car was checked for milage and fuel on return , everything was good, full tank and no damages, now extra charges on my card and cant get in contact with them

Made a booking through Thrifty for a medium sized vehicle to be picked up from Kerry Airport. When I arrived I could see a sign for Thrifty but when I entered the 'Thrifty' office there was only a sign for Hertz...the operative said "we are Hertz" pointing at the sign on the wall and then asked for my name and booking ref. I should have known this was going to be a disastrous experience...and it was.

The personal service was unbelievably poor. They took £ from my card without telling me how much. No receipt issued. For a 2-week rental I should have paid around 350 Euros but they managed to get well over 700 euros from my account. No customer service worth talking about ... I could go on. SCAMMERS... STAY (FAR) AWAY from Thrifty, CarJet and Hertz. So upsetting and stressful, not to mention costly.

( update, a letter of protest was written and a quick reply given that the amount would be reduced substantially, I will update the star rating when the resolution is finalized, I will note that this stress is unessary, The new estimate is on the high end of reasonable. I advise whomever has a unreasonable amount of money witheald for minor damage to write to the proper department with aproperate evidence of your claim. I would still argue a tiny scratch on the front end bottom air dam is normal wear and tare).

origional review: there was a aproximately a inch scratch on the plastic unpainted black trim piece on the front bumper upon return. I was aware of no damage caused by me. when they gave me the car there were scratches the entire passenger side of the car that was not recorded damage. i had them record the damage before driving off which they did do. upon return I had to initial I accept this estimate with no estimate written in the space or would not be able to go to the airport to catch my flight. they verbally said it's under 100 dollars and the estimate will come in 4 days, when I landed they wrote witholding just under 800 dollars from the deposit and that it is intermediate damage which means car is not safe to drive taken off the road but checked repaired on the same day. it was a thin narrow pop in trim piece maybe 16 inches long with a 1 inch thin scratch, The most expensive replacement part found was less then 100 dollars. there was no impact or collision it was a superficial minute scratch about 1 inch in the unpainted bottom air dam. I was a loyal thrifty customer renting numorous times a year. they are loosing me as a loyal customer over this. I believe ( unknown ) the man was Arabic and I have a Jewish last name and American. To me it would a very sick business practice if it has to do with racism. I wish I could upload a photo how Small this scratch is. there is no painting or body work, it's literally pop it out snap a new one in. SHAME THRIFTY, everything done feels slimy upon the return. The collection was fine.

Car rental by using Auto Europa booking went without problems. Quick service and the car was even better than I excpected (new hybridi SUV). No extra costs after return.

Service provided based on racial profiling.

I arrived at Dublin terminal 2 and proceeded to the thrifty/hertz car rental desk on the 2nd floor. This was at between 9:45 and 10am. I was wearing light blue jeans, a white T-shirt and navy blue gilet - with a rucksack.

I was called up to the middle counter by a Middle Aged white woman, who asked for my name. Without even checking the system she immediately told me as I had not booked with thrifty direct I would have to go downstairs and catch the bus to the car rental depot.

I then asked her politely to check the system as I had booked directly - to which she aggressively told me, “I know you went through rental cars.com, I then asked her to check the system again and she started waving her hand at me to go away as if I’m a dog. I must have asked her atleast 10 times to check her records.

What made her believe I booked from rental cars.com without even checking the system? Other then my colour I do not see why she wouldn’t to the basic requirements of her job and check the system and just assume I used a cheap alternative.

My white Irish wife then joined me at the counter and also asked the woman to check the, the woman was now all of a sudden more then happy to check and informed me “yes you did book with thrifty - but thrifty is a budget operator and we do not hand out cars to budget clients here”.

My wife and I then informed her over the past 10 months, minimum once a month as we have family in Ireland, we have been hiring a car with thrifty and always obtain a car from the t2 car park. Your worker refused to carry on and informed us she has actual customers to deal with and we need to go to the car rental depot 15mins away.

I then went to the car rental depot and informed the manager who once again informed me “thrifty is budget - you have been lucky we have been allowing you all these months to take the car from t2. That’s only for our hertz customers.

Over the past year either my wife, my cousin or I have been hiring cars from you sometimes twice a month. We have spent €€€€s. Rest assured now I understand you don’t like non-white customers we won’t be doing so anymore. You should really put that on your website, money is prioritised based on the colour of the person supplying it.

I wish I could give less stars. Terrible customer service from Thrifty Cork Airport when we went to pick the keys up. Did not have the charges explained to us, had to ask why I was being charged 200 euros rather than the agreed amount. Forced to buy insurance as we didn't have a credit card. Served by a lady who was rude and patronising. Do not rent from Thrifty Cork as you will end up spending more and having a lot of stress in the process.

Edit: do not expect a prompt response from customer services, it's been over two weeks since I contacted Thrifty via email and have only received confirmation of receipt.

Good value. Friendly and competent service. Clear instructions re charges, extras from Nelisha. Always happy with the cars provided.

The vendor refused to use a VISA Premier card to block the insurance deposit, claiming that it didn't work in Ireland. I had to pay an extra insurance to lower the deposit, and then the VISA Premier suddenly wasn't an issue for blocking the new amount.
This was obviously a scheme to make me take the insurance. Disgraceful.

I've been renting v regularly (20+ times a year) mostly from South Lotos office in Dublin (very nice team). I generally always had positive experiences renting from Thrifty. One small thing that changed in recent years is they used to have better equipped cars before, now the cars are quite basic, I guess after Covid companies needed to look for cost cuts and they buy cheapest car versions...

Booked Thrifty through 3rd party.
Part of Hertz and received a warm, friendly, professional welcome at Cork airport desk by Edgar and Natasha. Return experience with John seamless too.
Still had to give credit card details in case of damages. Explained card refund on return and car checks approved.
The damages are recorded electronically and damage check sheet received via email and can upload extra photos for any discrepancies.
Shame no one at drop off to sign off return and give confirmation full refund on held credit card. Just have to wait and trust vendor in good faith. Hence 4 stars but staff on pick up and return at Cork were faultless - 5 star desk team.