Thrifty Reviews 3,699

I’ll never rent from thrifty again. Wait time was extremely long. Waited in line for over an hour. Only 4 people were working. Never rent a car from this company.

I was caught out on insurance and airport fees, ending up with a £143 charge I wasn’t expecting. When I signed the contract they never even mentioned they’d added full insurance cover when I had my own excess insurance. Also wasn’t aware there was an airport fee. I did sign without paying attention so it was my fault, I just don’t want anyone else to be caught out! They should have asked me whether I wanted cover and they did not!

Rented a car in Calgary. Everything fine (although pressed hard to take winter tyres that in a Canadian Winter should be fitted as standard).

On return there was a small chip in the windshield. It was very small (less than 5mm diameter including the cracks) but they insisted that this required a full windscreen replacement which would be $579. I complained but was told that this was their policy.

This chip could be easily repaired, but they chose not to because they could charge me over $500.

Disgusting service from these! Had a rental delivered to me, because issues with my new Ford, only used few times, dropped it back to car dealership to pick my Ford up, then they now accuse me of cracking the screen and damage and scuffs to bodywork! Which absolute lies… they are charging £500 excess dirty bastards when I have not done any damage at all.

Thrifty Alicante Airport
So after reading all the bad reviews I was prepared. At least I thought so.

I booked Thrifty through another company online with full insurrance.
At pickup I was asked if I wanted extra insurance, I declined as I already had full insurrance. That was not a problem and the Thrifty guy made no further attempts. He did point me at then €1000,- CC deposit, which was OK, as already mentoinend in the online agreement.
I booked a Ford Focus, but got a blue Seat Arona (licenseplate 0144NDC). Which was ok for me.
On paper there was no damage on the car. But as expected I checked the car and found some scratches. The Arona was also a little dirty, so not easy to spot things.
Scratch on the hood, scratch on the mirror, scratches on the roofbars, multiple marks on the rear bumper.
I drove it for a week, the Arona is a comfy car which does the job.
At return a Thrifty lady inspected the Arona. She started at the front, she missed the hood scratch. Then went to the front passager door en had high interest for the door handle (like she knew something was there). Then she found a big scratch directly below the door handle and asked me if I have that. I checked my inspection recording from pickup. I missed it. But I am confinced that it was not caused during my possession. Suddenly the Thrifty lady was not interested in the other damages she missed, even when I pointed the out to her. We had a short discussion where I did not except responsibilty for the door handle scratch. She marked it on the papers, but did not let me sign as I did not agree. However she did say that she would return my deposit and I would hear from Thrifty later. My deposit was released immediately, so that was good.
So for now I was preppared, they made a small attempt to extra charge me but did not make a big situation about it. If nothing further happens, this will be my 3 star review.
1 star deduction for not marking present damages on the pickup form.
1 star deduction for trying to pinpoint a scratch on me.

If they will contact me about the soor handle scratch, I will update the review.

BWI car rental took 30 minutes because the computer system went down. It took another 30 mins to get out of the lot because only one person and one line out.

Very poor experience. Lots of hidden cost that is not communicated. Do not sign everything they ask you to do. You won’t get back your full deposit. Not any chance.
This is a fraudulent business.

Malaga Airport. Staff didn’t appear to speak much English, were unfriendly and hardly spoke, they filled out the form which I was asked to sign without any explanation, I assumed the detailed charges were for the security deposit, as I had pre-booked and had full insurance. As we were short on time I signed. On getting my credit card bill found out I’d been miss sold £180 of additional unnecessary insurance! Don’t trust this company. Will not use them again.

I reserved a rental car through American Express.for February 6 to February 8. When I went to pick up the car at Orlando International airport, Maria was at the desk. She was very rude and charge me another $20 a day plus tax to get a gas vehicle. She said I reserved an electric car, which is not true. She even tell me she will call police for me. And the company over charge also for toll. Worst experience ever.
Luckson F

We booked a rental car online several days in advance. Once we got to the rental car company, we waited over an hour with no update on the status of an available vehicle. The gentleman working the counter named Greg was not giving us any updates on the situation. One of the customers in front of us had to give us an update on the status of the vehicle availability since he was with Greg at the desk. The lady behind us tried to ask a question on the status and she got a snarky answer, she tried to ask if she was going to get a car tonight, he didn’t even answer her and just smirked. My partner and I stood up for the lady and told Greg that they are being very unprofessional and should be giving updates, granted we’ve waited an hour for a rental car. Apparently the supervisor, named “Miranda” tried to take over the situation. My partner is Hispanic, this man literally started calling my partner racist slurs in Spanish as he’s walking away. Absolutely disgusting and horrid. This gentleman should not be acting like this as a supervisor. We canceled our rental and we will never EVER use Thrify again.

Really poorly managed. Had reservations and had to wait for 90 mins to get car. Employees sitting around doing nothing, eating in breakroom while we wait! We will never use this company again. We have traveled and rented many times with other car rental places and never had to wait for a reserved car!

I very rarely leave a review but thought i must to hopefully avoid anyone elsr making the same mistake .
Thrifty car hire seville paid for car and took insurence in the uk .
Got to spain was told i needed super insurence at €159 and fuel deposit at €150 they took £325 out my bank and have hand no feedback or deposit retirn to date , shocing service and fraud as well .

I rented a car with Thrifty in Innsbruck for 602€ and ended up paying 1476€. They charged me 6 different fees (2 types of insurance, airport fee, registration fee, winter tire fees, border crossing fee).
Scandal !!!!

NEVER OR NEVER rent a car or the like through Hertz, Thrifty or Dollar.

We rented a car through thrifty in Miami Florida. We got a decent price for renting a car through Thrifty with loss damage waiver & liability insurance supplement included. This was included in the pick-up and we had to pay for it anyway. As a result, the final price was doubled. After some calls with their costume service, they couldn't change anything about it and they were going to pay us back after bringing in the car. We brought the car. After some email traffic, I was told that this was not possible. This is theft!

I mention Hertz and Dollar because Hertz is the parent company. Thrifty and Dollar subsidiaries.

NEVER OR NEVER rent through these companies!

IThirfty car rentals suck. A bunch of scamming over charging thieves. I put a down payment for a car which never got applied when I went to pick up the car. The car was dirty it smelled it was a pile of shit. I reserved a compact car they were out so of course I had to upgrade. I was quoted 203 for 3 days. I ended up paying 363 plus they won't refund the 100 dollars they took out to reserve the car. They said the 100 covered the taxes and fees so I actually ended up paying 463 for the piece of shit dirty smelly car. DONT RENT from thirfty spend the extra at enterprise because you will end up paying more with thirfty. I did file a complaint with the bbb

Hired the car at Malaga Airport through rental cars dot com picking a middle of the road car for about £95 for 5 days with full insurance separate. Picking the car up and dropping off as usual was really easy. You just have to make sure that they understand you don’t require any further insurance and are happy to put €1000 deposit on you credit card. Oh and always take photos of any damage to the car before you leave 🤟

unfortunately there are a slew of things that went wrong at the new orleans airport location. The unprofessionalism wait time and attitude was unimaginable.truly Thrify ( New Orleans Airport) deserved zero stars!

The agent was so rude. I do not have an accent and he asked me to repeat my info at least 5 times saying he could not hear me when I was yelling. He refused to give me a name and threw the rental agreement at me!!

Avoid at all costs, these are scammers!

I picked up a hire car on the 24/01/2026 until 01/02/206.

I told the girl i had insurance and didn’t need their insurance and she said that’s fine. I signed the vehicle condition report only twice and she wrote a load of figures down on a piece of paper about charges if I don’t fill it with a full tank etc. They would take a holding payment for that from my credit card. She handed me the keys and on the paper for the insurance which I didn’t take she wrote the bay number to find the car.

I’ve now been charged for this insurance on my credit card. The same thing which is happening to other people.

The chances of getting this money back are slim to none. I will be taking this up with my credit card company.

You have been warned, avoid and use another company. If you have to use thrifty take a video before and after collecting the car like I did.

bad service, bad experience, no cancellation possible, trying to sell a insurance 4x more than price of the booking - do NOT RECOMMEND