Star RV Motorhome HireReviews 

The 2.5 star reviews seem to prove my point with our recent rental through Juicy / Star RV. What a shame, this company is absolutely disgraceful, and how it's still in operations is beyond me.

This is our 3rd year hiring a vehicle through Star RV/Juicy, and all prior years have had issues with the vehicles. Their depot managers offer no sort of remedy, apologies or even a partial refund for the inconveniences caused... What a disgusting company - there definitely needs to be some sort of ACCC investigation into Star RV and Juicy.

To make a long story short, there was a huge list of issues with our recent hire through them. We picked up our vehicle on Wednesday 5th March, and was suppose to be dropped off on the 12th of March. We started our travels on the 6th of March.

Firstly, we requested an Iveco campervan after the issues we had last year, as advised by their depot staff - which we ensured to confirm via email weeks prior to pickup. When we went to pickup the vehicle, of course they hadn't reserved our Iveco, and gave us, yet again, a Mercedes 6 Berth Campervan.

We had booked our rental MONTHS in advance, at least 6 months prior. They had plenty of time to ensure the vehicle was ready for our collection, and to our surprise, they didn't have a CLEAN vehicle ready for us... How is that possible?

After waiting at the depot for nearly an hour, I had to push them and informed them that I had a Drs appointment scheduled which I urgently needed to attend. After a lot of fluffing around, they finally offered me a vehicle, though advised the exterior was dirty - I happily accepted this offer as I presumed that it was only the exterior that was dirty, as clarified with their depot staff. They did offer me a small refund of $190 (ish), out of our $2200+ rental, and called it a "Dirty Getaway".

To further crunch the crux of the issues: 1. Buckled floors throughout the entire campervan. 2. Toilet cassette broken, the puck that separates the toilet and the interior was broken, meaning the entire campervan smelt of human feces. 3. Gas was leaking, smelt throughout the campervan. 4. Smoke alarm kept going off by itself for no reason, had to uninstall and remove battery. 5. Mold on the pull down window shade adjacent to the sink/above the front bed. 6. No toilet chemicals were provided, even though I clarified this and told them we had issues last year with not being provided toilet chemicals. 7. Fridge stinks like mildew, as if it has never been cleaned out. Even if they just chuck an ozone generator in it for a few hours, that would've fixed it. 8. Called their CS on Saturday at 9am, was told I'd receive a call back, never did. Had to call again today, Monday, demanding a refund.

They are refusing a refund, and keep putting the blame on the customer. I am now at a point where I have to send them a legal notice of intent to proceed with a court hearing through VCAT. It is disgusting it has to get to this point, though again, their low rating proves that this company continues to operate outside of the Australian Consumer Law.

Horrible customer service. Dirty vehicles. Paid for premiums which were not delivered. Many things broken. Insufficient amount of cooking utensils including no frying pan, no spatula, no bowls, etc. Supposed to be less than 1 year old - was well over 1 year old for the first one and who knows for the second we had to get because ALL of the batteries in the first one died second night out. Polaris 6 awning??? HAHA! Yeah, you get it but they tell you not to use it because if you break it you have to pay for it. Promised a half day credit for the 2-1/2 hour wait to get delivery. Never received. Never again.

UPDATE: Reached out per their response and was ignored. Just as I expected.

If I could give negative stars I would. We had issue after issue with this company. I have been through circles with customer service.

Our RV broke down and needed a tow. The road side assistance gave the mechanic and tow truck driver the wrong directions and sent them 40km in the wrong direction. We were stranded on the side of the road for 4 hours. I had to hitch hike twice in service to call and ask about the information, which they had no idea what was going on. After explaining several times I did not have service so no one could call me, they informed me that the mechanic “gave up because I wasn’t answering and didn’t see us on the side of the road (due to given the wrong address.) Luckily I had direct contact with the tow driver when in service to explain where we were. They told us they would take us where ever we wanted and give us a hotel to stay for the night. We were taken to a town (not by our choice) with no hotel availability and had to sleep on top of the tow truck in the salvage yard and use a fork lift as a step to climb up. There was engine oil all over the tow truck and ground and we were lucky not to slip, some of our clothes got ruined from the climb up. They also charged me $730 NZD for not cleaning the toilet that was towed (even though the contract says they can’t charge more then $500 and we shouldn’t have been charged anyway due to the car breaking down and unable to empty it.) They also didn’t supply us for a power cord and made us buy one ourselves, which I have not been reimbursed for. I have talked to 10 people about this and they all refer me to talk to someone else and are terrified by our experience. I sent an email as directed and still not been responded to in 3 weeks. I haven’t been reimbursed for any of these issues which comes to a total of $1625NZD. We had several other issues with this company such as having to wait 1-2 hours for each new RV due to it not being ready, given no explanation on how the RV works and sent a 15 minute video on how to work it, not having an RV for 24 hours, our groceries going bad due to the RV break down, giving us a new RV with a bad battery and broken brake light, missing general supplies). Terrible customer service. Would not recommend this company. The people in Queenstown location were very nice though.

Stay away at all cost. Rip off and fraudulent.

We rented the Polaris 6, their premium model.
Upon pickup we noticed it to be in terrible condition, outdated with broken parts. Throughout the drive more issues popped up. Door kept opening mid-drive on the highway, aircon failed in 40 degrees heat, constant alarm sounds.
The team repeatedly told us they would work on a solution and get back to us. They deliberately ignored us, once even hung up on us when we wanted a solution to our problem. They were rude on the phone when we tried again, accusatory, disrespectful.

This can only be intentional shake-off tactics.
Worst customer experience I’ve experienced with any service ever. Stay away at all costs. Go to competitors.

Registration number 1VD9ZJ. We are still waiting for a call-back.

Absolutely disgraceful…..
……as perfectly described by Emma Q. I don’t want to copy her opinion word by word. However exactly the same scenario has happened to us in January 2025. The list of faults including unsafe interior elements is quite long. Keep it short our holiday in Australia turned into a nightmare.
I believe this “cowboy” Australian Company could not care less about problems experienced by their Clients as well as negative online feedback. They took the payment upfront and this is it. In my opinion majority of customers do not read the reviews prior signing the Rental Agreement. Also, the Customer Protection rights via ACCC is somewhat wishing in Australia. As Emma Q said as they showered a lack of empathy towards a customer as well as lack of real business professionalism. I'd give them 0 star if available.

The motor home is old and dirty. All the soft furnishings are stained so badly I don’t like to sit on them.
The fridge is cracked and the freezer door doesn’t stay closed.
Furnished padding is falling off walls, all the table edges and window frames are broken.
Very, very disappointed

Absolutely Disgraceful – Avoid This Company at All Costs!

If I could give zero stars, I would. Our experience with this company was an absolute nightmare from start to finish, and their treatment of my family has been nothing short of appalling.

We rented a camper from their Cairns branch in early January, expecting a smooth and enjoyable trip. Instead, we were handed a faulty, unsafe vehicle that was completely unfit for purpose. The bed was broken, the toilet was unusable, and critical fittings were missing or incorrectly installed. We had no choice but to sleep on the couch for multiple nights, despite my aunt being a recovering cancer patient. The stress and discomfort this caused her were completely unacceptable.

When the bed first broke, we were forced to wait hours for a mechanic, missing an entire day of our holiday. The so-called “repair” lasted less than 48 hours before the bed broke again, leaving us stranded and forced to divert all the way to Brisbane—a destination that was never in our itinerary—to exchange the camper. Despite this massive inconvenience, we were still charged for tolls and fuel for the journey that was only necessary due to their faulty vehicle!

Their customer service was disgraceful—rude, dismissive, and unwilling to help. It took hours on the phone just to get basic assistance, and every step of the way, they refused to take responsibility. When we finally returned the camper early because the replacement was of lower quality and completely unsuitable, the Sydney branch supervisor was shocked at how we had been treated.

Now, after weeks of back-and-forth emails, the company is refusing to pay us the compensation we are legally entitled to. Instead, they have told us to take them to court if we want to recover our costs. This company ruined a once-in-a-lifetime trip for my family, and their refusal to provide any real remedy under Australian Consumer Law is disgusting.

Do yourself a favor—DO NOT book with this company. Their vehicles are unsafe, their service is atrocious, and they will leave you stranded and out of pocket rather than take responsibility for their failures. Spend your money elsewhere and avoid this scam of a business!

I would like to begin but stating that the driving cab and the mechanics of our vehicle lived up to the expectations of a less than 2 year old vehicle, however need to let you know about the overall experience in the Nova camper that we hired from you from December 27th 2024 to Jan 17th 2025.

Despite following all pre booking prompts and supplying driver licences and booking details, as well as checking in just prior to travel what awaited us on the end of a long international flight from Perth via Auckland was not the best start.
To wait 5 hours to pick up the vehicle following a long flight is either negligent or very poor management of vehicles. What was the point of pre registering and was there actually a vehicle allocated to us?

After 5 hours wait we were finally handed a vehicle with no induction other than, there she is it’s all self explanatory … Following a request for a better handover it was discovered that the vehicle we had been given to drive away in had no grey water hose, no table and only one chair (for 4 people), there was no pole to extend the awning with the explanation that it gets too windy on the South Island to use. In our travels we found this to be wrong, many sites we stayed at in the bright sun with no wind and no shade. The cover for the power input was broken and continued to fall off during use.

On the first night the grey water tank in the shower overflowed a discussing organic mess of fluid, indicating that this was not emptied or checked prior to handing to us. The drainage from the sink remained an issue throughout our stay, taking ages to drain and ending up bubbling into the shower even when the waste sump was dry, clearly a blockage.

The sink on the main tap was so loose it was virtually unusable and was probably the cause of the leak of water that continually flooded the floor of the camper.

In the first rain we had overnight there was a leak in the rear window and the bedding was soaked. There was also a constant leak under the cabinets causing some of our gear and medical supplies to get soaked.

Not sure if this was connected but there was a constant drip from the bottom of the vehicle (near the rear side step), this may be linked to the fact that the potable water tank would empty without use over a few days.

There was a constant leak from somewhere that caused a flood in the cab most nights and worse in the rain.

The fitting in the rear of the cab for the blinds was replaced by two screws (loose) that was the only way to tie off the blind (really, in a less than 2 year old vehicle)?

Yes we were offered (and accepted) a refund of a days rental on return but I seriously would like you to consider the issues that I have mentioned above to see if it fits with your quality expectations for the Nova vehicles that you rent to people. You offer competitive rates for a premium rental but this experience would indicate on a n=1 basis that you provided a low budget vehicle for that price.

I would like to refer this to you and the customer team on a first basis to allow you to respond, before I publish my critique. To put it simply, I do not consider the vehicle we were issued (after a 5 hour wait) to be of the quality that we paid for. I would be reconciled with an additional discount that would be in line with the level of rental that reflects the under equiped and issue ridden vehicle that we drove for nearly 4 weeks.

We chose StarRV because you get a guarantee for new vehicles. Since we toured from Sydney to Brisbane, I can rate both stations. In both cases, the handover and return were pleasant and uncomplicated. The vehicles were, as promised, in almost new condition. Unfortunately, there were minor technical problems, but these affected both vehicles and were therefore more due to the design and therefore less the responsibility of StarRV. StarRV was very accommodating here and made a very fair offer, as it should be. Problems can never be 100% avoided, which makes it all the more important to find sensible solutions for them. Everything was fine for us, so I will definitely book here again and can of course recommend StarRV to others.

We received in Auckland hours after our appointment an old camper with many problems and lost a lot of time before Katrine A and the manager of Christchurch could resolve the problem.
Fine people that helped us but why did we wait so many hours for a terrible camper? Not enough people to work was said but I don't believe that.
The fridge was not working and completely broken, advise of Wellington repair centre and we lost some smal items of the bodywork of the camper.

Extremely Disappointing Experience – Avoid at All Costs

Short Summary:
Our experience with this motorhome rental company was absolutely terrible. The motorhome did not match the description, communication with the reservations team was horrendous, and the overall value for money was shockingly poor. Save yourself the trouble—rent a normal car and stay at quality hotels instead.

Full Review:
We rented a motorhome for over five weeks, expecting a high-quality experience based on the company’s claims. Unfortunately, the reality was far from the promises.

1. Motorhome Not as Advertised
The motorhome we received was nothing like the “comfortable and stylish” design advertised. Instead, it was outdated, worn down, and riddled with issues:
• The interior was in poor condition, with sagging cushions and mattresses that made sleeping nearly impossible.
• The vehicle was so noisy during the drive that I had to wear earplugs to endure the rattling.
• Basic cooking essentials were missing, such as scissors, a whisk, and an extra pot, which made meal prep unnecessarily difficult.

2. Unacceptable Customer Service
The level of service from the reservations team was appalling:
• At pick-up, the motorhome was not ready because the previous renter returned it late. While I was refunded for the day, this delay forced me to rush to my destination on New Year’s Eve—a stress I shouldn’t have had to bear.
• When I reported the issues and requested a swap, I was told I could only get an upgraded motorhome if I paid extra. This is unacceptable; I should not have been charged for an issue caused by the company’s negligence.
• Communication was abysmal. I had to repeatedly call the reservations team, only to be ignored or given vague promises of callbacks that never happened.

3. A Ruined Start to Our Trip
We eventually decided to stop relying on the company and fix the problems ourselves to salvage our holiday. We bought duct tape and tension straps to reduce the rattling, an extra mattress for comfort, and additional kitchen essentials. These out-of-pocket expenses should never have been necessary.

Conclusion:
This company’s lack of professionalism, poor customer service, and misrepresentation of their product made for a deeply disappointing experience. While New Zealand is a stunning country that ultimately saved our trip, the rental process was a disgrace. Save yourself the frustration and avoid this company at all costs.

Great rental and great staff. Motorhome was clean, new and well-stocked with everything you needed for travel to an off-grid place. Restocking of laundry was also fast and efficient. Will be renting again when I come back to NZ.

my husband i hired a two-birth van it was very clean and tidy staff were wonderful nothing was any trouble to them. I would highly recommend them to family and friends.

Old and dated rv: 218,000km done, charging ports were USB and not USB c. Noisy engine.

Poorly maintained: internal table was damaged, 1 air con vent was damaged, both side mirrors couldn't be adjusted electronically.

Confidence and very nice experience. Amazing people at office

A very poor service from customer feedback, after several emails and comments on this page an offer of compensation was made, unfortunately they haven't yet made the payment and are again ignoring my emails.
I always judge a company on how they put things right if they do unfortunately go wrong, in this case upto now extremely poor.
Beware folks....

pick up location in Cairns is a little hidden but as soon as you find them, the giys are super friendly and helpful

Freddie the worker was very helpful in showing us how to use all the amenities of the camper. It was very clean and had everything we needed. It was a wonderful experience.

Staff was very welcoming, helpful and accommodating!