Holidayautos - Fraudolent and untrustworthy

Avoid Holidayautos, their vouchers are not accepted by rentacar suppliers.

Avoid Holidayautos

Avoid this misleading, unprofessional and semifraudolent company!
Their Vouchers OFTEN are NOT accepted by their rentacar suppliers!

Misled me when selling the total excess waiver ** Avoid ***

On first impressions HolidayAutos seems to offer value for money, but it is in the details you find their true 'cost' , I bought the total damage excess waiver to avoid the massive unjustified excess, their partners charge, but when I came to collect the car at the Belfast airport I'm told that I haven't bought the excessive waiver and I still need to supply a £1000 deposit or buy the excessive waiver from them. It turns out that this is a scam HolidayAutos and their partners pull on unsuspecting punters, I had in fact bought the excess waiver, but buying it from HolidayAutos direct meant I would still need to pay their partners excessive waiver or pay a massive deposit and if anything happen(a scratch would do) the partner would take the money from the deposit and I would need to claim it back from HolidayAutos. Neither HolidayAutos or Budget made this clear in the hope they could fleece me. Please do not make the same mistake as me, go to Kayak, avoid high excess charges, NEVER use HolidayAutos.

Regards

Norman.

Do not use especially at Gatwick Airport

Holiday Autos do not give you the name of the rental company until you have booked. At Gatwick they use Easirent who are not even based at the Airport. We waited for over 1h20 minutes whilst Easirent kept saying that their driver was just about to arrive. The driver was then supposed to take us to the car.

In the end we gave up and hired directly with Hertz which cost us loads because we were last minute. Holiday Autos have just refunded the original rental cost and paid for my 10 wasted phone calls to Easirent. I am out of pocket for about £250 because of this.

I would never use Holiday Autos again.

They take unauthorised extra money from your credit card

We booked a holiday with KPX Travel to Lake Como Region.

This was meant to include Car Hire, Hotel and Flights however we had to pay an extra £130 to the car hire company (Holiday Autos) which included extra insurance which they say we needed and snow chains. They then took an extra 351,91 EUR plus VAT from our credit card for so called damage to the vehicle

Here is a link to the deal on Groupon dea

http://getaways.groupon.co.uk/d-17548652-Lake-Como-Region The Hotel was really nice

Obviously Ryan Air had their extra charges

We tried to resolve this through KPX Travel but they don’t want to know

Avoid using KPX Travel and Holiday Autos

Don't even think about booking with these crooks

I booked a car to pick up in Funchal just before we left on holiday and received an email back which said - 'We've received your booking for car hire, but we need to check that the car you have selected is available. We aim to get back to you within the next 2 working days to confirm the status of your booking' - Needless to say reading the other posts here I never heard anything more from them but they still charged my credit card as if they'd supplied a car - AVOID AVOID AVOID!!

Max Pop found this review useful

Appalling

Took my money and gave me a confirmation number, I arrived at the airport and the hire centre had no record of a transaction. They called holiday autos and they told me they had cancelled it due to lack of availability of cars and emailed me, which they hadn't (I looked in my spam folder). I was left high and dry. They refunded me about 2 weeks later and it was £15 less than I paid. Idiots and charlatans.

Max Pop found this review useful

Incompetent and untrustworthy

Fortunately I have narrowly avoided using this company for car hire in Spain. I had booked a car for two weeks at a very competitive rate through the CSMA discount scheme which (if booked before 7th April included a free upgrade to total excess waiver on the insurance). I booked received a confirmation but couldn't acces the bill to see what they actually charged me for 24 hours. When I checked I found that they had charged me for the upgrade on insurance. Some mistake or innocent error or IT cock up I thought. I called HA customer service (on the Saturday on the day following my booking) and got through to a (I assume) Indian lady who had difficulty undertanding what my problem was and kept trying to terminate the call at the slightest indication thta I had said 'yes' to anything. I have to say I have a great deal of sympathy for call centre staff who are incredibly badly paid given next to no training and given impossible targets. That said it took me over 20 minutes to get her to eventually put me through to a supervisor. It transpired that customer services had no knowledg of the free upgrade offer and I had to take the supervisor to their own adverty on the CSMA web-site before they agreed that I was indeed entitled to the free upgrade but unfortuantely their technical staff weren't in until Monday (after the offer closed) and they could only suggest sending in an email query or phoning back on Monday. To be fair the supervisor did eventually call me back and said the reason for the charge was that the total damage waiver box on the booking form was ticked (I should point out that the form has this box ticked as a default setting, you have to deliberately 'untick' the box) and therefore HA had charged me. Apparently if the box had not been ticked, indicating standard insurance waiver they woul have upgraded me. When I pointed out that what he was saying was that HA would have upgraded me if I hadn't asked for what I was entitled to but charged me when I actually asked for something to which (he agreed) I was entitled he said that he couldn't do anything about it. This is the point that I decided to cancel and avoid anything more to do with such a confused and incompetent organisation. I should also state that they had the cheek to try and charge me a £15 cancellation fee which I had to point out was not legally enforceable. Saying that as I still have to wait another 24 hgours for the credit invoice to become available I am not entirely certain that they have waived the fee?
The point is that if this company cannot even communicate their own offers to their own customer service staff let alone operate their own booking system and then still try to rip you off at the last minute what on earth could have happened if I had actually gone through with this booking and had a problem in Spain. I have no faith in this company and despite looking competitive frankly I would rather spend a few more pounds for abetter service. I have passed this information onto the CSMA who will hopefully choose another preferred partner company to do business with.

Max Pop found this review useful

Always reliable

Have booked with Holiday Autos many times over the last few years - as long as you read the T&Cs they always turn out well.

Very poor!!!

We were booking a car in Palermo.

At the time of booking, the provider had not advised that the car rental place is miles from the airport.
The instruction given after the booking were non existent and we went to a “car rental” building. Apparently “our” car rental place wasn’t there. We had to search and were lucky to find a van that was picking us up (which we didn’t know about).
Then a trip for 20min to a different village.

During booking, the car’s papers were already filled in and we made a mistake not checking them.
We paid for this dearly on the return of the car. They told us, that there is a new scratch and charged us £90, without even getting our approval. The scratch must have been there before, as it was going across 2 doors and they had problem with only one, the other was marked on the paper.

On the return to the UK, we contacted holiday autos, but they haven’t even bothered to reply.

Horrible experience – NEVET again!

delighted

very good business.
I got the car from Alamo and have used their service twice and was delighted both times. excellent service. they gave me a bigger car because they dint have the small one i booked.

Dont use Holiday Autos, read about their rip offs in my letter to them below

Just when I thought I had seen every scam, sharp practice and rip off that Holiday Autoes could throw at me, you come up with an absolute beauty. You should be really proud of yourself because this must have made you millions of pounds whilst distressing thousands of your customers, not just me. Before I continue, I ask that in any response to me you don’t insult me by saving it is nothing to do with you and it’s your suppliers. Or tell me it’s on the terms and conditions. I run my own business and when a client deals with our company we are responsible for all parts of the supply chain. I would not expect to complain to a supermarket to be told to go and speak to the farmer. I know that you are aware, understand and agree to all charges, conditions and operating practices of the car hire companies. When I book a car through Holiday Autoes that is exactly what I do.
If you (like at my company) did not agree with the terms of a supplier then you can either get them to change the way they operate or you could drop them as a supplier, from this I conclude that you have sat down with them at formal meetings and agreed all charges and ways of working, you have therefore agreed to these scams. If not, your set up is amateurish.
The scam that has really got me angry this time is arriving to pick up my car, after paying for everything I wanted on line to be hit with additional costs of 196 euros (in case you think this is a typo, you are right one hundred and ninety six euros.)
We travelled on one of the busiest Fridays of the season Friday 27th July, to one of the busiest airports Alicante, at the busiest of times, after work on Friday. When I picked up my car, the airport was packed with families picking up cars and after waiting for an hour was charged an additional 35uros (thirty five euros) it appeared on the bill as “others” when I challenged this I was told it was because It was late. Now let me remind you of something, it was “peak time”, peak season and the airport was packed so why did you charge me 35 euros extra? I could understand if it was 4am at an airport that was closed but this was the main pick up period. This scam is a disgrace and you should be ashamed of yourself. Is it your policy to try and ruin hard working customers holidays before they have even begun? And before you try, in your usual way, of distancing yourself from all your responsibilities, I would also like to mention that friends on the same flight as us who booked their car through another company, not Holiday Autos, were not charged this 35 Euros.
I want this 35 Euros refunding to me.
The second part of your scam was the additional driver cover on the policy. You can’t go on a family holiday and not have additional insurance cover. If the main driver was not able to drive (sprained ankle for example) then you have to make sure you can legally drive. We were charged 44 euros for this. Now to put this into context, only one person can drive the car at a time and my wife driving is no more likely to have an accident than me so why were we charged a rate equivalent to 1,606 euros a year. This is over 4 times my fully comprehensible insurance cost at home to drive. And this is an extra don’t forget on top of the car hire cost which was inclusive of insurance. You can’t say it is an admin charge at this rate. Also, my wife put herself down as second driver on our friends car, the family who did not book through Holiday autoes and they were charged 20 Euros, so explain why the same person is charged twice as much through Holiday Autoes
I want 22 Euros refunded to me for this overcharge compared to other companies
The third part of your scam is the fuel charge. We were charged 117 Euros for fuel we did not want or need. As well as the rip off factor, I would also like to question your corporate responsibility.
According to my research, the fuel tank size of the Berlingo is 60 litres. The cost of fuel at the time of the trip was 1.40 per litre which equates to 84 Euros. You charged me 117 Euros, a difference of 33 Euros. What a rip off.
I want this 33 Euros refunding to me.
No one can dive a car and return it empty, this is impossible for obvious reasons, at the best there would be 5 litres left in the tank. How dare you charge for the full 60 litres when nobody can or would risk driving to empty?
I want 7 Euros refunding to me to cover the fuel that is always left in a tank
A full tank covers 1145 km, how many people do you know who drive this distance on a beach family holiday. We have been charged this amount before by Holiday Autoes for a 5 day holiday. This would equate to an annual mileage of 84,000 km. We did not want this fuel yet we were charged for it. In the past you have said that some customers prefer to do it this way, well firstly I have never spoken to anybody who has said that, and secondly, if that is true you should allow customers to choose. It would be a 2 minute job to add to the website the fuel policy choice to enable people to return the car full or empty, the fact that you don’t provide this choice proves to me you are part of this fuel rip off and profiting from it. My company creates websites so I know this to be a very simple job.
I want 30 Euros refunding for the ¼ tank of fuel I was unable to use.
What infuriates almost as much as your contempt for your customers and your clear determination to rip each and every one off as much as possible, is your contempt for the planet we live on. It is now proven the link between carbon emissions and global warming yet your fuel policies actively encourage people to use more fuel than they need, you will frequently hear the phrase “we might as well drive as we have paid for the fuel” How can you sleep at night knowing you are contributing to the death of the planet just so you can dishonestly make a few extra pounds, do you not have any corporate responsibility at all. Do you not care about the next generation who will inherit the planet from the rest of us?
I wonder if you have a mission statement to “ruin family holidays and destroy the planet”
Please contact me to arrange the refund of the 127 euros I have been unjustly charged and to explain what changes you are planning to make to the way you operate.

Do not use Holidayautos particularly when hiring cars in Spain and when they are using the car hire company RecordGo

We booked a car through Holidayautos, brokers for car hire firms, for a week in Spain in November 2012. When we arrived to pick up the vehicle at RecordGo we were informed on presentation of our annual insurance4carhire policy 'We've seen this before and it's no good'. We were pressurised to take out further insurance at additional cost. When we arrived home we realised we had been conned when we received an email from insurance4carhire stating RecordGo had used this ploy on others. We complained to Holidayautos who eventually said that they could do nothing after the event. When we questioned why the company we were booking with was not clearly shown on their website until after the booking had been COMPLETED they said:
Please kindly note that car hire company's name may be checked during the booking process under important information section headed 'picking up your car'. Important information section can be found on our website at the second page where the cars are presented. Under the picture of the car you will find car details, please click on it and then go to further information.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH. THE COMPANY USED SHOULD BE CLEARLY SHOWN ON THE BOOKING FORM PRIOR TO MAKING A BOOKING AND NOT HIDDEN IN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
We won't use Holidayautos again in Spain and would advise everyone to beware of RecordGo and the tactics they use.

Max Pop found this review useful

Theft

Do not trust this company,

They sell you insurance that is not worth the paper it is written on, then when you are informed of this refuse to repay it.

Costomer service is V.Bad professional scam artists

PROFESSIONAL SCAMERS

Terrible Hire Company, did not provide a car, they took £400 and no refund was provided. TOTAL SCAMMERS!

Now in the process of taking this company to court.

If you try and call their customer service line you will end up paying premium line rates at almost £1.00 a minute so they can make more money of your complaint.

Do not hire from this company you have been warned.

A classic rip off. Charging 30€ for driving 30 k from petrol station

We asked where the nearest petrol station were and was told it was 15 k north of the airport. We entered from the south when returning and found no petrol station closer than 30 k south and figured it was the best possible for all parts. But we were charged 30€ for the missing 1,5 liters int the tank. And their return desk was crowded with people having the same sort of trouble. Stay away from this company!

Highly recommended

I have used these guys for the last ten years - never had a problem - great comms they fixed my booking with no charge when I cocked it up.
All I can say is thanks

Perfect!

Had absolutely no problems using Holiday Autos. Ordered a luxury car for 24 hours for a relative's wedding (so used a local pickup, UK based), car was ready, very clean and everything just as the website said.

I have used this company a few years ago for hire from Geneva airport and again, had no problems.

I will certainly use this company again.

Let me down at the 11th hour

I booked a 9-seater minibus through these jokers, only to get let down at the 11th hour (5pm the day before we were due to travel!).

Will never even consider using a cheap car hire firm again. The big companies may be more expensive, but at least you know you're going to get the vehicle you need when you land at the airport.

Charging extra for tyres - what next. Steering wheel.

I cant believe that this company is charging for winter tyres to be on the car when it it is mandatory that they are in Germany and Austria during the winter months. They are in affect hiring cars that are not road legal. The other car companys I tried dont charge. What next. Charging for tyres that have tread. Disgusting.

Not worth it at all

I'd been looking around for prices and thought I'd see what I could get if I booked via the Xtra site - the prices were MORE than if I'd booked using their usual deals....only service it's providing is for Holiday Autos giving them more money

Rubbish service

Tried to book through Aviva extras but the Holiday Autos site had a fault on it which made it impossible to book online. So I reported it via e-mail and 5 days later it was still not fixed. So rather than use their 40p a minute number, I used a UK number (01483 909697) supplied by their customer services department. When I said about the Aviva corporate discount, they said they did not have one and refused to honour the price via our Aviva site (the fault came after that) and to add insult to injury said if I found another company who could give that price they would match it.

No car - struggle to get refund.

Had a terrible experience with this company. Booked a rental car, only to arrive at the destination over the busy Easter weekend and their was no car! The rental company had no record of it! Called HolidayAutos and they said, yup, we couldn't book one for you. Didn't bother to tell me this in adnvance.

They also told me to find my own car and they would refund me the difference (so that I was not out of pocket). So I had to find a car while at the airport with thousands of other Easter weekend travellers, with a young baby.

Appaling serivce. When I got home it took me 9 emails and 3 phone calls to get my full refund. And even then they weren't going to offer any compensation. I eventually got £50 compensation, but considering they failed to book a car, failed to find me a car when I rang stranded abroad, and then I had to battle to get my refund... the £50 compensation was well deserved!

Giving them 2 stars instead of one as they are by far the cheapest. You get what you pay for though!

Oh - and you do only find out what rental company it is AFTER you book.

BEWARE - FULL DETAILS OF RENTAL ONLY AFTER PAYMENT MADE

I tried to arrange car hire at Fuerteventura airport and was committed to pay the full amount on my Egg card, before being told that the rental company, Orlando Car Rental, was not on site, and that I would need to be met and taken by bus to the rental office. As this was not suitable given the late arrival time of 2030 and that we were travelling with a 21 month old child, I was forced to cancel immediately and pay a £15 cancellation charge.
The lack of transparency till one has made a payment, and the policy of charging for cancellations when precise details are not made available till full payment has been made, constitutes poor customer service.

Max Pop and John Jan Popovic found this review useful