Thrifty Car Hire Ireland Reviews 

I feel like I was scammed. Arrived on-time for my pick-up. I waited in line for almost 1 hour to be told that my car would not be ready for another hour. The only option I was given was to upgrade to a larger car at my own cost or wait another hour, making it 2 hours! I upgraded as I was in a rush but would not go with this company again.

I do not trust this company. When the car was picked up for return the man went around the car to inspect and went straight to the front passenger wheel and pointed out 2 small scratches almost invisible and similar to one pointed out when I first got the car. I am convinced I did not cause these scratches but I was charged £125. Outrageous since they will not need anyrepair. A rip off.

Avoid Thrifty if you are travelling to Ireland and especially Shannon ! Just been charged €685 for scratch which we did not cause and have photos to prove.However because car was returned out of hours before 6am we are apparently responsible for any damage to car up to the time Thrifty can do a post rental inspection, in our case 10.10am despite the fact they open at 6 am.Alleged scratch looks too straight to be accidental !! Avoid Thrifty/Hertz

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COST!!
(read others' reviews online and you will agree with me)

I am a gold member at Hertz in the US & Canada and I had no problem renting or returning before, Dublin Airport Hertz/Thrifty however, is a complete ripoff (scam, if i may)

Rented a car at Dublin Airport for 7 days (Aug 2021), kindly declined all insurance as my credit card provides full coverage. At time of rental, the staff told me the amount on the agreement would be the full amount I paid and whatever I paid before was just holding.

Received a bill of extra EUR 151 on my credit card today for insurance that I did not agree on (EUR 19 x 7 x 13.5% tax). Called their customer services and the manager said he couldn't help because that's what I signed.

If you google "Thrifty Dublin Review", you can easily find similar experiences. I am deeply disappointed by such dishonest act. I hope this review could be helpful if you're planning a road trip in Ireland.

Terrible experience, can only use credit card as a method for deposit when collecting car which needs to be in the drivers name (not everyone has a credit card with visa debit accepted everywhere else these days) but will happily accept debit card payment for everything else under anyone’s name. Counter pickup staff were very dismissive at the Dublin airport branch & had a “take it or leave it” attitude throughout.

AVOID, use anyone or anything else. Also if booking through Auto Europe especially (like we did), beware of the above. The only plus they had were the guys we dropped off the car to after who were very obliging & friendly.

As this was the first time for me to rent a car I was a little nervous, I had seen some bad reviews so I expected bad things.
My experience with Thrifty car hire in Dublin airport was fantastic from first contact up to returning the car.
Value for money is very good, ease of process very good, staff are so polite and professional and helpful, I would highly recommend this service to anyone looking for a rental car at Dublin airport..

PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THRIFTY CAR RENTAL BELFAST BOUCHER RD BRANCH..
I Was involved in a car accident a number of weeks ago and was advised to pick up a hire car from this company.

After driving the car for a week, I Washed and hoovered car then returned back to Boucher office, The guy that cleans the cars checked around the car to find x2 Very small stone chips, he took photos of this, when I asked why, he replied it’s ONLY WARE & TEAR, then after x2 wks gets a call from the rental company telling me I damaged the car, NO maybe the damage was already there and yous are trying to pass it on to another customer, I asked the Manager why does your Employees advise the car only has WARE & TEAR then gets you to sign his iPad, then x2 weeks later get a damaged report sent. that’s breaking the Law ie Intrapment with out knowing.

Stay away from THRIFTY HIRE or you will end up signing your Bank account away !!!

Find another company, they are not accepting debet cards or cash and force you a very expensive insurance, so it become very expensive. Double as we were told at ordering the rent through autoeurope.

Don't rent a car here! The car that we got gave up within 50 miles and before we got a replacement car, we had to wait more than 5 hours. No apologies or compensation. Nothing! Very disappointing and certainly not a nice start of our holiday.

DO NOT USE. The Irish press have been all over this. The company charge a massive amount for even the tiniest scratch. Please do not become victim to them as my friend did last week - literally highway robbery.

Deeply disappointed with Thrifty. I booked with them through Auto Europe. Their website states to check with local offices to see if they accept Debit Cards as guarantee. When I tried to contact their offices at Knock on multiple occasions nobody answered. I then spoke to Thrifty's head office who assured me Debit Cards can be used for guarantee in Ireland and Britain. When I arrived at Knock I was informed they would be charging me 19 euros a day for insurance as I did not have a credit card. I had no choice but to do this as I required the car immediately.

I complained to the company four days ago and provided evidence and have still not heard a word. Stay clear of this company. I will be passing my complaint on to the relevant ombudsman and pursuing my complaint through them.

I can't speak more highly of the guys at Thrifty, Derry. Shawn in particular. I was immediately upgraded to a brand new BMW right off the bat with only delivery miles on the clock. It was fantastic and really made touring Ireland a breeze.
My only gripe is I now want one for myself!!
Thank you guys. I have no hesitation in recommending you.

When I returned the car the guy which did the control walked around the car right to the front bottom fender and pointed out a 5cm long scratch which was painted. It looked like he knew or had a notice on his Ipad. I didn´t even noticed it. I told him that was not from me but he pulled out the pictures they took before I took over the car. I mentioned to him, that no picture were taken in my present when I took over the car. He didn´t care about anything except that scratch. He didn´t check the rest of the car!!
When I received the car, the car was totally wet and they didn´t had the decency to clean and dry it. Now I know why!! May be in better conditions I would see the scratch too. I learned my lesson.
About 3 weeks later your visa get charge for $1100.00 for a max. scratch of 5cm. This is the max. they could charge!!
WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT AND NEVER EXPECTED THIS IN IRELAND!!

Upon returning my hire car, a team member of Thrifty had great difficulty in pointing out to me a very small and smooth dent because it was barely the size of the head of a pencil.

My attempt to photograph the mark failed miserably as I was unable to get a shot of it from any angle. I genuinely believe the damage was there before I took the vehicle out as there were numerous faults with the bodywork that HAD been recorded prior to my hiring.

In my humble opinion I think Thrifty too had failed to pick this up earlier and as a result the car could have been hired out a number of occasions previously without anybody noticing this dent. My feeling about this is reinforced by the fact there were other (significant) ares of damage on the vehicle.

The car was involved in no bumps whilst in my care and was parked safely at all times.

I pleaded my innocence with Thrifty but they have demonstrated no consideration to my plea and I have learned that are charging me approximately £600 for it!

Technically there is no reason why other drivers of this car (victims of Thrifty) might not suffer the injustice that I believe am suffering.

B E W A R E !!!

rented compact car from cork airport for 4 days, this was pre booked, the first car was a skoda fabia which the vehicle condition report said the tyes were of good condition, this was not the case, it had a bald tyre, which luckily i saw before driving away.
they then gave my Hyundai I10, which was ok except the areal was missing so no radio.
all said and done the bald tyre issue could have been very dangerous

Rented a car from the Dublin airport location. Had booked a manual car, but asked at counter for an automatic. We also requested a SAT-NAV. We understood that this would be an increased cost which was fine. We started off on our nine day journey, only to discover one day in that the turn signal was not working. Then, we also discovered that the SAT NAV had not been updated recently, and so we were frequently unable to obtain direction to addresses we needed, not very helpful in a strange country. We tried throughout the journey to contact the company but to no avail. We do not have a cell phone, be we attempted contact by using Tourism Ireland offices and staff for help, but even they couldn't find a contact phone number, only booking sites that were generic. Upon return to Dublin, we informed the lot person of the issues we had encountered. He made note, and gave us a contact email. When we returned to our home in Canada, I started a series of emails outlining the problems we had, most importantly the safety issues presented by non working turn signals and lights and an out of date GPS. In reply the company has informed us that because we did not let them know of the issues during the rental period; we were also informed that the GPS was not charged for, (but the car we were told we had to rent to acquire a NON WORKING GPS) was charged for and no doubt at an inflated cost. This car was a safety hazard to life and limb, and the best they can do is blame me because they were contacted during the rental period! The arrogance is astounding! My last email to them advising that the matter had yet to be resolved has apparently gone on IGNORE for over seven weeks now. Terrible customer service, questionable vehicles and as other writers have indicated they are less than forthcoming with the need to know info for travellers until you are a captive customer at the counter with the majority of the transaction in place. Shameful, will certainly tell as many people and review travel sites as I can find about this shoddy practices company.

We were forced to take our comprehensive car insurance when picking up the car as we did not have a credit card on us for the excess. We have debit cards but they would not accept. Their credit card policy is not flagged up when booking and is clearly their way of doubling the cost of the rental as they know customers are not in a position to turn it down.

This may be how all the car rental firms work in Dublin, but beware!

I had my worst ever car experience using Thrifty/ Hertz. I picked up a car at Cork and checked the damage which they had noted against the car and all was fine after I checked around the car and it matched their notes. I drove the car off straight to the hotel 12 miles away left it overnight and then returned the car the next morning to the airport. (24 miles total)

On returning the car the attendant noticed a small crack in the tyre about 2 inches above the wheel rim.. This small crack was not on their damage notes and I whist I checked all the body work I never checked any of the actual tyres before I took the car (note: I will also check tyres from now on)

He then insisted I must have done this damage and charged me £180 against a car hire of £28. I was incensed as to damage the wheel at that particular point on the tyre must have meant I hit a curb. and hit the curb hard enough to damage the wheel would have meant I surely would have damaged the wheel hub. To add to that I was no where near a curb at any point as both car parks at the airport and hotel were open car parks with no curbs in sight! The damage clearly to me looked like wear and tear....

I didn't do the damage and what makes me angrier (apart from the fact they are basically calling me a liar) is that clearly they sent me out in a car with a damaged tyre which was dangerous..

I have emailed the branch manager twice called Paul and have received no email back in just under a week and they have taken the money from my account..

I have travel car insurance and so I will get this money back but I'm so angry at the customer service, being called liar and the injustice I'm writing my first ever trust pilot review.

*I have to admit since publishing this article the company did refund me the money so customer service did go up one star to 2!!

Just back from Northern Ireland there for a trip. Rented a car in Derry..service was excellent from start to finish. Phoned and spoke to Sean who negotiated a good deal for me for 3 days over holiday weekend at last minute . Booked a basic car but when I got there presently surprised to get a VW Golf..lovely and clean and great drive. Although Thrifty are not based in the airport the driver was waiting for me coming off my flight and again going back to the airport got me there in good time for my return flight even when I was running late. All staff were very pleasant and helpful. Would definitely recommend and will use them again in the future.

We rented a car from Thrifty/Dubiln airport for a one day tour in Ireland. At first we had to wait a huge queue to pick up our car which was unacceptable. Total amount of time waiting to pick up the car (shuttle bus from airport to the rental place and then queue at the counter) more than an hour.

Then, at the counter we discovered more hidden fees. We couldn't pay with our credit card so we were charged an x amount for insurance. In total, while we booked a car online for €49, we ended up being charged €200 at the point we picked up the car. Apart from that, they didn't give us the car we chose and booked online but a different car that they said it's in the same category.

After returning the car the final amount due was slightly more than the cost of insurance they told us at the counter. 3 days after they still haven't returned to us the amount of 200€ - the final due amount. Also, there is not a contact number in Ireland which we can use for customer service questions.

I will never trust Hertz/Thrifty again...