Has anyone had experience renting from Hertz in Sicily ? I was able to secure a great rate from a Hertz location very close to our hotel in Palermo as well as a location near our hotel in Taormina where we are planning to drop off the vehicle. I rented from AutoEurope in the past without any problems. However the pick up and drop off locations would require public transportation on both ends. I just wanted to avoid this if possible. HI Zoe!
Thank you,
Lorieann
Hi, Lorieann!
Wish I could help with this, but when I have a rental car it is because the couple that I travel with for two weeks a year rents it before I see them and drops it off after we split up. They rent at airports because they use the car for the entire trip.
Last year or the year before there were several complaints on this Forum from people who had problems with Hertz in Italy. When they called Hertz USA to get the problems resolved, they were told they were separate companies and to call Italy.
Auto Europe is a middleman consolidator that negotiates prices with the companies and then rents out the cars. If you have an issue, you deal with Auto Europe, who then deals with the agency.
Have you looked at Kemwel? They are another broker consolidator like AutoEurope, and apparently are now under the same ownership, but are different companies.
When my friend and I went to Sicily, they had by far the best rate for what we needed, and our car was from the downtown Hertz office. He went again the next year and rented again from Kemwel; this time, he got Europcar, from their downtown office at the train station. In both cases, the car was returned to Catania airport, so I don't know if they have a return at Taormina.
EDITED to reflect Chani's correction.
AutoEurope is a consolidator. I used them in Sicily and ended up with Hertz from Palermo to Catania. Hertz gave me a free upgrade, to a very comfortable Fiat with almost no mileage on it. They offered an even higher class, but it would have been a large car (hard to park, use more gas) so I refused. They were extremely friendly and helpful. The drop-off at the airport in Catania took about 6 minutes. If you mean Europcar, I've used them in Spain but not in Italy.
To be honest, I would reserve directly through Hertz. We've used AutoEurope 3 times now and had problems once in Italy 2 out of the 3 times (which were AutoEurope's fault, not Hertz!). For our next trip, I will reserve directly through the car rental agency itself and not through AutoEurope!
AutoEurope while acknowledging they owed us money we are still waiting.
