An independent study which combined more than 3700 reviews of car hire companies with a survey of 570 recent car hire customers uncovers widespread dissatisfaction with the car hire industry.
The study, conducted by ReduceMyExcess, revealed 54% of recent car hire customers expressed they had an overall negative experience with their chosen car hire company. 43% of those admitted to having bad experiences on more than one occasion. However, when asked, only 24% of customers said they would be deterred from hiring again due to their negative experiences.
Car hire companies on average saw 34% of all customer reviews express a negative experience (those leaving star ratings less than three out of five). The worst offending firms saw their share of negative reviews reaching 73% of all reviews left.
The lowest scoring car hire companies were:
- Goldcar (1.9 average star rating, 73% negative reviews)
- InterRent (2.1 average star rating, 67% negative reviews)
- Easirent (2.1 average star rating, 66% negative reviews)
- Delpaso (2.5 average star rating, 63% negative reviews)
- Sicily By Car (2.6 average star rating 58% negative reviews)
Jon Rebuck, CEO of ReduceMyExcess, a specialist insurer for car hire excess, said: "We are unsurprised by these results.
“We know that a majority of car hire customers feel they are treated badly by hire companies. At collection, customers feel they are subjected to high pressure selling tactics with hidden costs not properly explained.
“At the point of returning the hire vehicle, customers feel they're often charged for damage they didn't cause and automatically have the excess taken from their credit card.
"Customers feel they have little choice but to go along with what hire companies want to do," Jon added. "There are a limited number of hire companies, all operationally similar. Therefore, customers often feel they must pick between equally bad options."