Carhiremarket Reviews 

I was given a quote on the website, paid the full amount and trusted it at face value. What a mistake!! I now have an additional pending direct debit of £211.85 despite the fact that the car was returned in pristine order and have been informed by the sales staff, whose first language was not English, that I can only complain via an email address which is incorrect so a very disappointing response. How can 'Thrifty' etc align themselves with this dodgy company who use such 'sharp practise'?? I am still fighting this in conjunction with my bank so if I receive a refund I will post details.

I can't see what the other reviewer were talking about. The booking and payment were without problems and the service at the station in Capetown was also totally fine. Maybe it's the old problem that people are only writing a review when something is wrong...

Dec 2013 Hired a car for a holiday in Australia. Had it all confirmed and then on the day that I was due to leave they inexplicably cancelled the booking! After a number of frantic phone calls to their 'Customer service' they blamed the cancellation on 'technical' issues. They then offered to re-book the car but at a greatly inflated price - I declined and made a booking elsewhere, but again at a much higher price. They offered me a£20 voucher for the inconvenience! Guess what - I shall be using the voucher next time I need to use a Public Convenience.
Dreadful customer care and lack of understanding. If your trip is important and you don't want to be let down then look elsewhere

I read some of the reviews here and understand that renting a car can be a tricky operation. Mostly because of the car renters themselves, they make it confusing so that the customer pays as much as possible for peace of mind. I know this because I work in the industry!!
In many cases that I read here, I can tell that the customer did not pay close attention and, unfortunately, we have to. Nature of the beast, I am afraid.

But when it comes to the website, I had no doubt which to use before landing in Gatwick. CHM is right now the best in the market, hands down. It has a clear user experience design, the purchase flow is easy, their offers are excellent, their ancillary products the best and my experience with customer service has been, so far, spotless.

That´s the reason why when friends ask me what to use, I send them here. Any of the other aggregator sites will make things way more complicated, I know this well.
CHM uses some of the best rental agencies in the world, but they have no control if they are still pushy, sometimes even shoddy in their dealings.
Don´t kill the messenger, type of thing.

I will continue using, for sure.

When I complained about 2 hidden extra charges (not mentioned on their website's Search Results page, but added later AFTER I'd booked and paid), this company sent me a doctored copy of my prepaid Reservation Voucher showing both charges and, in effect, rebuked me for not having read and checked the small print. They didn't realise that I'd kept a copy of the original that gets handed in at the rental desk (see my separate review of Sixt, Cyprus). Carhiremarket (based in Hamburg) didn't reply when I e-mailed them back the earlier copy, surprise, surprise!! They also took payment from my credit card over 6 months before the rental started, despite saying nothing would be debited until the reservation had been completed. Liars and deceivers - beware!

There are tonnes of car hire places about and comparing them is a bit of a minefield. I've tried some aggregators before but they're clunky to say the least. Carhiremarket did a better job than most and as a result this was the third time I've used it. Having said that, the price you get often includes a very high insurance excess, in this instance £600, which I paid an additional £47 on pick up to reduce to something less eyewatering.

I had never hired a car but had heard some horror stories of others experiences so was a little apprehensive. Carhiremarket was easy to use, we had a great deal and found the staff really helpful when I went to collect and drop off.
I wouldn't hesitate to use again, just remember to take both parts of your driving license - I didn't know and some branches charge to check for endorsements

We booked through their website and added additional driver, excess cover and received confirmation of a 6 seater car for 320€. On arriving at the airport, the true cost was 590€.

Two days later, I got an email from an external insurance company, advising my excess cover was in place and to refuse the car hire companies excess cover, cost £35 more!!!

Carhiremarket tell me it's my fault and nothing will be refunded, not to mention they gave my credit card details to a 3rd party which I didn't agree!!!

I will never use them again and will check and book direct in the future.

Used carhiremarket for a week's hire of a car in France. I came home and found that I had been double-charged for the hire; once by the actual hire company, Europcar, and again by carhiremarket.com. Contacted Customer support. After being on hold for 40 minutes I finally got through to Customer Support, who told me that others had complained about the same thing. They told me that a "claim" would be raised and all would be resolved within 30 days. It is now 60 days later and they still have my money. Every time I contact them I am told that no one is around to help right now and someone will call me back, but guess what - no-one ever does. I am now speaking to my bank and a Solicitor about recovery of the money.

I'm interested to see the mixed reviews already on here. My advice would be, don't bother booking through this website, but it might be a useful tool to find the best hire company to use. I tried to book a weekend's car hire from London, and selected a car that said "availability guaranteed" for £50 from Advantage... had to give credit card details to book, and then the confirmation email said the booking was "pending on request". A few hours later, and I had an email saying the offer was not available. They instead offered a similar car for £113, i.e. more than double what I had agreed to pay, or alternatively one for £60 but from the other side of London.

I cancelled the reservation, and then found and booked a car for £60 from Advantage directly!

So my advice is - use this website to search for a good hire company, but you're safer booking through the car hire company directly!

So my wife and i were traveling to Madrid, and wanted cheapest possible deal so we could spend more money on food! We checked multiple sites, and the best price by some margin was on carhiremarket. Booked it, and then picked up & dropped off car with no problems. All went very smoothly.

I was quoted 202 euros for a 14 day hire from National car hire at Pisa airport.. On arrival at the airport I included an extra driver for an additional 126 euros, so my total bill should have been 328 euros. On arrival back in the UK I found that my credit card had been debited 851 pounds sterling. I have emailed Carhiremarket three times and left two Ansafone messages asking for an explanation but they haven't bothered to reply.

We collected the car from avis and paid for at the airporton collection the car was returned without any problems or mention that there could be a problem. We got home to a letter from our bank stating that the company had taken a further (unauthorised) payment from our account well over £400. To date we have had no apology or acceptance that they are at fault and no obvious attempts at chasing this. We have made many many phone calls but about 8 weeks later just an email from car hire market stating we have spoken with customer service at avis and they refuse to speak with us over the phone. Why would a company they deal with so closely refuse to speak with them?? we have had many different excuses for this money being taken, one being that the car was only hired for 1 day despite all of our documentation and website clearly stating one week. Another excuse was that they could not find the car, which is a joke considering we handed the keys to a worker who checked the car over with us present. Avis have accepted that this money should not have been taken but still ensure it is carhiremarkets fault which I am inclined to believe as we have had no phone calls back when requested and the matter of returning our money seems irrelevant to them. We have been fobbed off and the only way we have got anywhere is through our bank. We have had contact with Avis ourselves and despite giving this info to carhiremarket contact names etc . they still can not find anybody to speak to on the phone.
Our bank have refunded the money as we reported this as unauthorised activity on our account and they are chasing this themselves now as we have not got anywhere with this company as they clearly do not take this type of thing seriously.

My Husband an I booked a hire car through carhiremarket.com, the whole process was so easy and we thought very well priced compared to other hire companies, booked online not even a deposit was needed, received voucher immediately and booked to confirm about a week before travel, on arrival at Murcia Airport no waiting at all quick form to sign and we were on our way, would use this company again brilliant service. Mrs McKinsley Oct 2010