Do you agree with Thrifty Car Rental's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 72 customers have already said.
Thrifty Car Rental is an online company. Based on 50 reviews on TrustPlane, it has an average rating of 1.3 out of 5 stars. Last reviewed March 1, 2026.
said that they did not have my booking with expedia even though I had all the paperwork. Girl at the counted was not helpfull at all.charged me for a whole new booking. Cost me another 450.00 US. 10 PM soI didn't have much of a choice. Used them all the time. Not anymore!!!
This company uses Economy Bookings for car rentals, in the clear knowledge they provide inaccurate rental quotes. I received a contract voucher for a rental at Alicante airport in the amount of 144.75 eur. When I came to pay the amount was 433.99 eur. Thrifty said items listed on the Economy Bookings voucher as included in 144.75 eur were not included. The Thrifty desk agent said it was something that happens a lot with this agent. What does that sound like? To me, BUYER BEWARE with these two.
Appalling customer service from drop off agent at Gran Canaria. Rude, aggressive, deliberately uncooperative and confrontational. Repeatedly refused to look properly at the photographic evidence of the damage recorded by the company on pick up and compare it to the condition of the car on drop off. Wasted much time. His colleague in the drop off office was equally unhelpful and sat watching the debacle ignoring our requests for help. We have hired cars multiple times in many countries and never been treated like this. Never again.
If I could give 0 stars I would. This company include HIDDEN FEES, once you provide your credit card at the desk this is deemed "accepting terms and conditions" even though they do not provide their T&C's to you directly. Expect to pay almost as much as you pay for the rental again in hidden fees.
One star gives a VERY faulse impression!Minus 10 would just about sum them up!We knew we were in for a bad experience when we got to the desk. The two people if front were complaining that they did not have a car and the one they did have was too small for their needs!So, for us :What went wrong:1. No car to pick up, so had to pay $100 for taxi to Villa!2. Car was dirty & smelly!3. 2 very young, tired & upset children to cope with!4. 2 adults in party of 8 with Type 1 diabetes!5. Complaining since August!6. Phone rings 3 times WHEN they did ring - once!!7. Sick of trying to get a response from them via e-mail! AND STILL NO COMMUNICATION FROM THEM!! So yeah pretty useless company overall. Avoid at ALL COSTS!!!
Literally the worst car rental experience I’ve ever had. I’ll never go anywhere near this company again.
Please do not use Thrifty or Hertz Car rental. (Hertz own Thrifty) We rented a car through Thrifty for our trip to Los Angeles. Unfortunately we had our hotel room broken into and all of our belongings stolen including the rental car key. We contacted Thrifty using the number on our paperwork in the car who said they would send a locksmith with a new key. We were advised that the insurance we had taken out would not cover the cost of the new key and would be $400. Not ideal but fair enough.The locksmith came out and said it would be a bit more than $400 as he needed to download software from the manufacturer. We asked how much more and he said he didn't know until he had downloaded the software. As we needed the car we had no choice but to agree. When the locksmith finished the job he said it would be $3750! We argued and said that was ridiculous and had we known it would be that much we would never have agreed to the job. Long story short the locksmith said if we paid $1000 he would give us the key. We needed the car so had no choice and a friend paid the locksmith for us as all our belongings had been stolen at the hotel. When we returned the car to LAX we spoke with the desk agent who advised that the maximum charge for a lost or stolen key was $400 and that we shouldn't have paid the locksmith as the procedure is that Thrifty pay the locksmith and then charge us when we return the car. I was given email addresses to email in to with our details and was promised an investigation. I had the ladys name I spoke to and a case reference number.Following their investigation Thrifty said as we paid the locksmith directly then there is nothing they can do. My issue is that we followed instructions given to us by Jennifer at Thrifty, she arranged the locksmith and told us we had to pay him but now Thrifty won't help us and are saying as we paid the locksmith they won't help us. I contacted Hertz as the parent company of Thrifty and they do not want to know. I also emailed various CEO's of Thrifty and Hertz, again they do not want to know. Please do not use these companies for car rental. They have no interest in customer service or helping anyone.
When picking up car in BCN airport, Thrifty refused to honor prepaid insurance, and forced us to buy a much more expensive insurance from them - if we wanted to make use of our reservation.
I booked a 12-passenger van with insurance through Economic Bookings months in advance. At pickup, the rental company refused to honor the prepaid insurance and forced us to purchase a new policy that cost more than the vehicle rental itself. Neither the rental company nor Economic Bookings offered any real solution—only “pay or walk away.” No refund, no adjustment, nothing.A customer service representative even admitted this is a known issue, saying other customers have complained but the company “needs to get a certain amount of customers,” so they won’t change their process. That is unacceptable.To make matters worse, they gave us a 15-passenger van (not the 12 we reserved), from a different brand, which I was uncomfortable driving and which increased the insurance price even more. No alternative options or assistance were offered.Our trip ended up costing far more than planned because of these deceptive practices. This company clearly prioritizes squeezing money out of customers over honoring reservations or providing basic customer service. Never again.
Total crooks! About a week before I was due to pick up the car I called and asked that my pick up / return time gets changed from 12pm/12pm to 2pm / 5pm because I wasn't sure I'll be back in time to return the car. That was all good. Got to the counter with minutes to spare before 2pm. Line moving VERY slowly. Finally my turn came. "Sorry, your car is not here yet". Some time later, I am asked whether I would take a sedan, Nissan Altima, instead of the SUV I bought... but for the price I paid. Really needed the car, so I took it. By the time I got out of there, 1/3 extra hours I paid for was already passed. They still charged me the full 3 hours "extension". Total BS. I'll stay away from these crooks next time!!!
I reserved a vehicle through Thrifty with a written confirmation that my car would be held for up to 8 hours after my flight’s arrival, even in the case of delays. I added my flight information and completed online check-in five days in advance. Everything appeared in order—until I arrived at the Portland Airport rental counter shortly after midnight.Despite Thrifty’s clear commitment, I was told by their employee that there were no cars available—not even in a different category. No help was offered, no alternatives were provided, and she simply told me to “try Dollar,” which is owned by the same parent company.The only vehicle left at Dollar cost more than twice what I had originally reserved—$1,560.29 vs. $760.91. I had no choice but to accept it or be stranded overnight and miss the wedding I flew to Oregon to attend. The counter was minutes from closing and there was no time to escalate or troubleshoot.What’s worse is that Thrifty never disclosed that a “confirmed” reservation could be canceled due to availability. Their policy specifically implies the opposite. If I hadn’t followed their instructions and checked in early, or if I hadn’t had the means to cover an unexpected $800+ increase, I would have been left in a truly awful situation.This wasn’t a simple inconvenience—it was a serious failure to honor written commitments and borderline monopolistic given that they are owned by the same parent company. If Thrifty cannot guarantee reservations or support customers in urgent moments, they should not be in business.
Rented a car from Thrifty, arranged through Discovery Cars .com when visiting Budapest. Price was very reasonable, and the staff at the downtown office were very good - spoke perfect English, no hard 'up-sell' on insurance (was appropriately raised, but I had already purchased elsewhere), and very easy collection. Drop off was just as easy. No issues with the car and handover took no more than 10 minutes. Quick, efficient and polite car rental service, excellent.
Paid up front for vehicle hire at LAX, when picking up the operative bullied us into signing for a provisional sum for fuel, even though we also paid a $500 deposit for them to hold! We returned the vehicle with a full tank and they have still then charged us $87!! They can’t provide evidence that the vehicle was refuelled as they wouldn’t have needed to do it, we have a receipt showing the fuel we put in and showed them when we returned the vehicle. They also took money for roadside assistance, even though we weren’t told about this! They are just after your money and will push you to sign and say it’s just for the deposit, completely missold! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
I had a very disappointing encounter with thrifty Rent-A-Car at Phoenix Airport last month. The cheapest offering they had online through Expedia was a Hyundai EV for about $25 a day. Thrifty kept sending me messages before the rental to hurry up and "check in" so I wouldn't have to go to the counter. I could just go to the lot, get the keys and drive off. So before I arrived in Phoenix I did the check-in and the website said it was successful. But down below in the small print it said I should go to the counter to check in. When I got to the counter it was so crowded I decided to go to the lot and see if I could get the car. The main reason, when I pulled up the "check in data"it said this car had no air conditioning. It was 109° outside and I couldn't believe that in the summer anybody would rent a car without air-conditioning. At the lot the lady told me there was a "glitch" which caused the data to show there was no air conditioning and she assured me all their cars had air-conditioning but I would have to go to the counter to check out the car.So I went back up to the counter, waited in line and a sign indicated, with a QR code which we could scan, that we could skip the counter and go right down to the lot to get the car. So I scanned the QR code, went through the "check in process" and a page came up that said I could pay $29 to go down to the lot instead of standing in line. I decided to wait in line. I wasn't going to pay $29 to go through another "check in system".When I got to the counter the lady said that indeed the car did not have air conditioning and she also said that I needed to at least buy a third-party insurance which was going to cost an additional $25 a day even though my credit card covered the collision damage Part of insurance. She also said that she could give me a "similar car" to the Hyundai. I asked her what the total for five days would be and she said $500 which is $100 a day. She said that was the best she could do. I called it out for what it was, the whole process was a total scam. I left the counter, went to enterprise Rent-A-Car which I used many times in the past. They told me to sit down, book online because it was cheaper than booking at the counter, then come up to the counter and in three minutes they had me in a lot with a car. The car was $60 a day which was much more than what was originally planned but I really didn't have many choices since going to other counters were going to cost $100 a day.Later on I checked the Hyundai website and found that even that model car was never sold without air-conditioning. The thrifty people told me the reason Hyundai did not have air-conditioning in their EV's is that it consumed too much power. I don't know if Hyundai was leasing EV's without air conditioning to rental companies but I highly doubt it.
Thrifty Dubai charged me for a traffic fine without showing any official proof—just their own internal bill. I checked with Dubai Police myself: no fine was listed. After I returned the car and paid Salik, they charged me again the next day without notice. Everything is done through internal bills, no transparency. Search online—many people had the same issue. Not recommended.
I had an incredibly disappointing experience with Thrifty (part of the Hertz group) at the LAX airport. I booked and prepaid for a rental in January 2025, for 1 day. When we arrived to pick up the vehicle, we spent 1.5 hours at the counter due to vague "issues" with our reservation—something you don’t expect after paying upfront. Eventually, we were offered a Ford Escape 2021 as an "upgrade" for the inconvenience. The agent repeatedly asked if I had coverage through my Visa—at least five times—which felt excessive and left me uneasy. Exhausted from the long wait, we skipped the vehicle walkaround (which, unfortunately, turned out to be a mistake), especially since the gated, heavily monitored parking lot gave me the impression the vehicles were secure and pre-inspected. Due to the LA wildfires during our trip, we barely used the car; it was parked in an underground garage most of the time. The next day, before heading for a cruise, we returned the car. That's when things got worse. I was told there was damage to the front fog light area—damage that looked old and in a place that made no sense based on how I parked (front-in). When I requested pre-rental photos or inspection reports, I was sent a damage report that showed mileage 5,000 miles lower than when I returned the car (66660 vs my actual 71590). When I asked for clarification about this huge discrepancy, I was completely ignored. To add insult to injury, they charged me over $6,100 USD, claiming repairs for the front bumper, grill, fender, lamps, radiator, cooling system, AC/heater, diagnostics, and miscellaneous fees. The actual damage they cited was minor and clearly unrelated to things like the radiator and AC system. Thankfully, my Visa insurance covered this, but the experience left a terrible impression. Needless to say, I won't be renting from Thrifty or Hertz again. Renters beware—do your own inspection no matter how tired or rushed you are, and be cautious of questionable damage claims.
In April we went to Toronto, at the airport with our car reservation, our minivan was ready no problem. But they won't accept our collision waiver, which is covered by our credit card. They have their own insurance packages which you have to accept because you'll have no choice at that point, the total of 1 wk. of rental costs about $1000. Their practice is close to scamming and is definitely deceptive, can let people know this before reservation, buyers beware.
Since using Thrifty Car Rental at Orlando Airport I’ve had constant charges to my credit card. Firstly although I’d prepaid for my rental they tried to charge me $590 for an “upgrade” which I disputed and they then reluctantly refunded. They have now charged me over $107 for tolls when I’d already been charged for a prepaid toll pass. They don’t reply to emails and obviously don’t care about their customers. Avoid at all costs
No where to park your car when you go to collect the van, so be prepared for a long walk in. They only rent if you have an in date passport. Not a great business concept as I am sure I am not the only one who has not been abroad since Covid. And don't think logically and take your last passport which was issued to you be the Government, if it's not in date they will not count it. They must be scared that you are going to pack up the van in your suitcase and fly off to Benidorm with it.
''I would put 0 stars for them,''Watch out for this car rental company in Budapest airport!! If you have to drop off a car out of office hours do NOT rent from them! They will find some damage on the returned car and they will charge you without you agreeing to it. For me they said I scratched the rear bumper(!!!) and they charged me $238. I never damaged anything, so please, all of you: Be careful, they are scammers ! Always make sure that you drop off your car to an attendant otherwise you will be charged some kind of damage.
According to TrustPlane, Thrifty Car Rental has a 1.3/5 rating based on 50 verified reviews as of April 2026. Source: trustplane.app/company/thriftycarrental-com
