Simba Car Hire Reviews 

Good car and ready to go. Picked up and dropped off to airport. Much cheaper than car hire companies at the airport. They send plenty of photos of cars condition before taking it. Would use again.

What made my experience 5 stars with Simba Car Hire in Cairns was the outstanding customer service and how smoothly everything was handled from start to finish. I was pleasantly surprised with a complimentary upgrade to a premium vehicle on arrival, which made the trip even better.

There was a small issue on return with a crack in the windscreen, but thankfully I had taken photos and video at pickup that clearly showed the damage was already there. The team handled this professionally and acknowledged that their original photos weren’t clear, which I appreciated.

Overall, Simba does a great job with customer care, transparency, and making the process easy and stress-free. A really positive experience.

Very efficient service no delays and friendly staff

The price was by far the best, condition of the car was immaculate and customer service was friendly and efficient. I will definitely be using Simba Car Rentals again.

Super easy process
Car was clean and ran well
No hidden costs (except I felt the $500 bond was quite high compared to a lot of other companies)
Great service :)
Will use again in future!

I found it really easy to rent a car from Cairns and cheap. Everything was super quick. The service from the lady was great and all information was delivered nicely.

AVOID. I’m a frequent international traveller and I’ve never experienced anything like this. Refund of the excess took one month, and only after I chased them.
Then a tiny bumper scratch (see photo) somehow became a 2,500 AUD “repair”, plus 600 AUD for 8 days of immobilisation. These immobilisation fees are only disclosed at pickup, when cancelling the contract would incur penalties. They provided no dated proof of repair, no transparency, and nothing that justifies such extreme charges for such a minor damage. The whole process feels completely disproportionate — almost a SCAM.
Customer service is poor, opaque, and consistently acting in bad faith. And judging by other negative reviews, this seems to be a recurring practice.
N.B.
Their response offers generic, insincere apologies that come across as hollow and unconvincing. It avoids addressing the actual issue and instead relies on vague, pre-written phrases about “improving procedures” and “reviewing the case.” The customer service appears ineffective and unhelpful—rigidly sticking to scripted replies while failing to provide any concrete evidence or meaningful resolution. Overall, the tone suggests bad faith rather than a genuine attempt to solve the problem.

Excellent service , have been using it from long time, definitely recommended

Very dodgy insurance. If you damage the vehicle even a small mark, they take $5,500 and when they get around to getting a quote you may get some money back. It is up to them if and when.
You are not covered in some suburbs, at night if there is insufficient lighting???
We hired from this company several times before and they were good to deal with them. They are dodgy now.

Scam - unauthorised $5500 charge
This company is a complete joke.
I hired a car with them for 6 months, what a mistake. The car itself was fine, however, the service was beyond shocking. Not only did they have the worst communication I’ve ever experienced with a company they were all completely incompetent and unhelpful.

You would of thought the amount I paid them would be enough throughout my long hire, however, to top it all off on they contacted me 5 weeks after return of the car and charged me for a dent that they had just decided to blame on me, with no proof. They also managed to charge this money without any quote at all and when asked a number of times couldn’t even provide a copy, even after having the car back for such a long period. They knew I had no way of arguing as all they gave us was a verbal ok on return, they don’t give out any paperwork so watch your back! I think this was a plan they had all along to get extra money and I would be suprised if they’ve charged other people for the same thing.

Do not use this company you will regret it.

I hired a car for just over 3 weeks to get to work. They have nice new cars, they are reasonably priced, and offer a great service.

Waiting for an hour waiting to be picked up at Brisbane Airport domestic. Sent 15 messages so far and I get a message telling me they will dispatch the shuttle in 3 to 5 minutes. A complete joke. Never will hire from this company again!!
Alpha, Eastcoast and all the other shuttles have come through 7 times since I have been here!!

Disastrous from start to finish Waited an hour in their office before finally got to talk to someone (I think the manager) who turned out to rude, unhelpful and struggled with the English language. Wanted to drop the car off early so rang them about where to leave the keys, no answer, no message bank, finally drove round around to their depot, knocked on the door, no answer, finally saw someone who went to get the manager, turns out he was in there and knew I was at the door. Eventually he showed me a letterbox hidden behind vegetation to drop the keys.
Worst thing, they stole my bond over a scratch on the bottom of the mudguard.
NEVER AGAIN

I hired a car from them in Sydney and returned it with a small dent in the rear bumper. For this they tried to make me pay AU$6,480, saying I’d be refunded the difference between this and the cost of repairs. I refused to pay that huge amount but offered AU$500, which should have been more than enough to cover the damage, but they refused and then tried to take AU$6,480 of my account (and fortunately failed to do so). Use this car hire firm at your own risk.

Done reservation last december 2025 for 7/2/2026 well in advance.
One day before i did ask for an earlier check-in and the answer was: yes but you have to pay $55 aud. And i said : don't like it but go ahead. I went the day after around 1pm as agreed and the car was not ready, despite I've reserved well in advance.
The guy at the front desk, told me that's if i would buy the full insurance to reduce excess, most probably the manager was ready to find a quick solution. Ok let's move on because i would drive for 7h to reach the place where we booked the hotel.
Surprisingly enough in half an our the car was ready and with the full insurance which had to cover all we felt safe and ready to go.
When we return the car Surprise was not over.
Infact after the final checkout the person in charge of this control said you have two accidents while the insurance (paied $250 on top of car rental cost) would cover the more expensive. At the end they charged additional $240 for a scretched plastic hubcap of one wheel.
I've tried to have a reasonable discussion with the manager on duty and she explained that was the contract rules and she was going to applying. Besides I asked the price and she said it is not direct competence and only the technical dept.
As a final conclusion I've to say, don't trust people what they day but read carefully the rental contract next time.
I would express my deep concerned about company like Simba car hire because they are playing of customer 's knowledge about contract rules and their main goal is to up sell any kind of services on top, before you sign it.
My advise is not use such small company such as Simba car hire, but go for more larger companies because at the end you'll pay a similar price considering my experience.

Car was good. Process to collect and return was ok.
I did gave an issue re a toll charge, which I believe was never incurred. If found the staff very unhelpful in this case as they just wanted to fob the issue off to the toll company. Despite numerous emails the matter was never resolved .

Dishonest, refuses to follow through on contact and absolves all responsibility when raising an issue. Beware and avoid this company!

Very positive experience with Simba - excellent vehicles, prices, and customer service. Highly recommended.