Thrifty Car and Van Rental Gatwick

Choosing a rental car company at Gatwick posed to be a stressful exercise for us, as as everyone online seemed to have terrible reviews and horror stories. To throw a spanner into the works, a few companies were offering a temping 30 pounds for a weeks rental, but the voice inside my head kept insisting "there's a reason they're so cheap- you get what you pay for". In terms of hiring a car for a week including zero excess and full cover for piece of mind (a 1000 pound excess would be the result if anything did happen otherwise), Thrifty gave us the most competitive price from the big rental companies, and I'm really glad we went with them.

Picking up the car was easy if a little slow as they were a bit busy, and although they are located in the Marriott Hotel, it was an easy 15 min walk to get there. The car was a near-new Citron C3 in immaculate condition and served us really well for the week. The team were very helpful, even when we rang up to extend our booking for a few days they were more than happy to accommodate.

Upon returning the car, the team were helpful and the 250 pound deposit was refunded within a couple of days to my credit card. Overall, if you are looking or a reliable and (as far as I can tell) trustworthy company to hire a car from Gatwick, I'd recommend Thrifty.

Charlotte was so helpful!

I was stopping in the Marriot hotel when I had huge issues with another car hire company I’d used. They canceled my booking last minute and it was very stressful. I noticed thrifty in the hotel lobby and thought I’d speak to them about how to hire a car from them.

Charlotte was on the desk and could not be more helpful. She sympathised with us a great deal and took the time to explain how to hire a car with Thrifty. She even spoke to use about what cars we prefer driving and which kind of transmission would work best for us. Within minutes, we was outside being handed the keys to our car. Charlotte even checked with us several times If we was happy with the car as it would be no trouble changing it! We was delighted with the car Charlotte offered us and away we went.

Return was simple too, we simply handed the reception the keys and our deposit was returned within hours!

It was such a relief compared to the nightmare we’ve been through with other company’s.... highly recommend, even if they’re slightly more expensive!

Please do not trust these people. I hired a car from them on 31st of March 2018 through Zest rental website and I was supposed to pay 107 pounds for this. I have just noticed that these people have deducted 124 pounds instead of 107 and a further 107 has been deducted without my knowledge after 2 weeks of the rental with no reason whatsoever!
I'm going to talk to them and my bank. How can you provide the credit card details to these people? They keep on cutting hundreds of pounds whenever they want!

BEWARE! I would be so careful if renting from them! And I do not recommend doing so!! When I returned my car, the attendant at the lot looked over my car and said everything was ok. The woman at the counter also said everything was ok and handed me back my completed contract. A week later there was a £200 charge on my car for supposed damage on the wheel.

I definitely did not damage the car. The customer service attendants were of course obtuse and not helpful. They did not answer any questions and said I had to pay. Sadly another car rental company scam!!!!!

Read everything and ask to sign your completed contract then and there upon return!

My partner and I hired a car with unlimited miles through Thrifty Gatwick with the plan to car trip through Europe on our holiday over from Australia. On arriving to pick up the car we discovered a fee to take the vehicle to the mainland. This cost around as much as the initial hire.

We paid that and confirmed that we had unlimited miles to play with. We were told yes. On reaching the mainland we discovered that unlimited miles is actually capped at 2000. This is not stated anywhere on their website or online terms and conditions and is only hidden in the fine print of the contract.

Part way through our holiday the car broke down and we were forced to get roadside assistance. During this time we were constantly on the phone to Thrifty Gatwick. They never updated our file to reflect any of the issues with the breakdown and constantly seemed surprised to find out that it had happened every time we called them to inform them of anything new.

The car was transported to the Kia garage and we continued on our journey with the blessing of both Thrifty Gatwick and AA roadside assist. The Kia garage was unable to fault find the car until the day we were supposed to return it. We contacted Thrifty Gatwick to inform them and were told that this wasn't an issue and it would be passed on to their maintenance team to deal with from now on who would deal directly with AA. We were informed that everything was good and we were good to go from there.

Three days later after the original return date we were contacted by Thrifty Gatwick asking why the car was three days late to be returned. Apparently either nobody had yet passed the car file over to the maintenance crew or nobody had put a note on our file after it had been passed on.

We have since returned to Australia and still don't have a resolution to this issue. They are absolutely useless at replying to emails and we have no way to contact them from overseas.

I recommend not hiring through Thrifty Gatwick. They turned what was supposed to be a fun European holiday into a stressful and costly debacle that still hasn't been resolved even after we have returned home.

P.S. Charlotte was very helpful however. She seemed to be the only person who genuinely wanted to help us. Everyone else just seemed to be waiting for us to finish speaking so they could hang up the phone. Her help is the only part of our experience I can consider a positive.

My name is Stephen Colias and I rented a car from the Gatwick airport (Thrifty Gatwick) branch on the 4th of May. I had the car for 3 hours in total as I just picked up my wide and took her to the airport. Upon returning the car I stopped at a petrol station (twice) to try and refill the car before returning it but the petrol cap would not open. In fear of losing my flight I returned the car without refuelling and advised the representative of the problem. A few days later 500£ more were taken from my credit card apart from the deposit and an email saying this was done because of the petrol cap damage and that they would take the car to the mechanics to see what the problem was. As I didnt get a reply for a few weeks and after numerous calls I contacted Holiday Autos, the company i used on the internet to rent the car. They have been having trouble getting information from your company regarding this issue and it has now been nearly 2 months and my credit company has been charging me interest rates.

I have searched online about this car and there is a known issue with the fuel flap not opening on the i10. There are many posts on this problem.

This company ruined my holiday, it caused me a lot of stress,.
if this maters is not resolved I'll start legal procedures.

Short version: Pay more and use a reputable car rental service other than Gatwick Thrifty Dollar car rental. I reserved a 7 seater and they gave me a 5 seater and make me pay again for the 7 seater minivan without refunding the first. And now unable to speak to a real person with authority. Then waited hours to get the 7 seater minivan. Paid extra in case of an accident wit the minivan , drove very carefully, looked after the minivan, then they charged me more than $80 to clean the minivan because of “chalk marks in the back”. Then dodgy, evasive, rude customer service when I tried to speak to someone, and then the “manager” Gemma. Was told to call back to speak to her, I did, then told she had just left 5 mins ago. This is after no officials at the North terminal at Gatwick knew where Thrifty dollar car rental was, it was hidden in the Gatwick Marriott bonvoy. Got better service in “third world countries”. Overpriced and lousy service. Would give a zero if I could. Avoid and use Hertz, Avis or Europcar attached to the main Gatwick North terminal.

Bit of a trek from the terminal; the desk is in the Marriott hotel and not well signposted either from the terminal or from the road dropping off. Car was a bit battered and chap in front's car had a flat tire. Wouldn't use with my own money...