Economy Rent a Car Reviews 823

TrustScore 2 out of 5

2.1

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Review summary

Based on reviews, created with AI

Most reviewers were unhappy with their experience overall. Many customers were dissatisfied with the pricing, frequently citing unexpected additional charges and hidden fees that significantly increased the final cost beyond the initial quote. People also reported poor service, experiencing issues such as long wait times, unhelpful staff, and difficulties with reservations not being honored. Some people were dissatisfied with the booking process, finding it confusing and leading to discrepancies between quoted and actual prices. Reviewers also mentioned that the company's location was often inconvenient, being off-site from airports and requiring shuttle services. While some customers found the staff to be friendly, others encountered rude and dismissive employees who were unwilling to resolve issues.

What people talk about most

Price

Consumers consistently express strong dissatisfaction with pricing, citing numerous hidden fees and... See more

Service

Customers consistently note negative experiences with service. Many reviewers report issues such as long wait... See more

Location

People report ambiguous experiences with location. Many customers express frustration with off-site... See more

Booking process

Reviewers highlight ambiguous aspects of the booking process. Many customers experienced issues with... See more

Staff

Customers had ambiguous experiences with staff. Many reviewers reported rude and unhelpful staff, with... See more

Based on these reviews

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Having a toll charge issue, I cannot get a response from management. Called CALL CENTER twice, still waiting on response. Was misinformed by sales rep at Orlando rental site, said I COULD pay cash, (... See more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

1) I ordered a car through a Sixt Partner, i.e. Economy Car rentals, with a full insurance package, for USD 843.88. Upon pickup, Sixt did not honor this order (this insurance) but forced me to pay... See more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

I rented a car from Economy Rent a Car in San Jose, Costa Rica. While driving on the highway, the front driver-side windshield wiper suddenly broke off during a rainstorm. This was a serious safe... See more

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Here are the facts. The facility in Orlando was very clean. The daily rental rates are very affordable. However, be sure to read the renter's policies because there are additional fees that you need t... See more


Company details

  1. Car Rental Agency

Written by the company

Car rental agency with presence in over 100 locations in 30 countries all over the world.


Contact info


2.1

Poor

TrustScore 2 out of 5

823 reviews

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Hasn’t replied to negative reviews

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

ABSOLUTE NO NO NO

Please please please do NOT book with these scammers. I rented a car in Watertown, arrived on a Sunday, no one was there to give me the car. Someone called a night before saying you have to pay extra to pick up and another extra to drop the car. This company is a huge scam.

12 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Very shitty customer support

Very shitty customer support! I wrote about my very unpleasant experience, where in the end had no car and had to book additional flight, no reaction, no compensation… nothing. Do not recommend. Scammers!

21 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Sixt did not honor their insurance and demanded an additional $300

1) I ordered a car through a Sixt Partner, i.e. Economy Car rentals, with a full insurance package, for USD 843.88. Upon pickup, Sixt did not honor this order (this insurance) but forced me to pay an increased fee of USD 1,150 - i.e. increase the price by about USD 300, insisting that the order did not include their insurance, even though the Sixt logo was on the order voucher. I believe I was misled or deceived - if I had known that the price of USD 843.88 did not include Sixt insurance, I would not have taken advantage of this offer.

2) I ordered a compact SUV car, I was forced (arriving late in the evening and having to travel further at night) to pick up a large Mitsubishi Montero (pickup size) - I had no experience with such large cars and on the narrow roads of Costa Rica it was a difficulty and increased fuel costs.

11 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

deceptive pricing

Booked my first rental with Economy Car rental at MCO. Even though the daily bait rate was very attractive but at the time of pick up they add debit card charge of $18 per day because the normal authorization on the credit card is $1000 which is unheard of and then they do not let you use your own Sun Pass because all their vehicles are registered already and they don't allow that . that means another $15 per day and all that adds up to bring the daily rate to same if not higher than the other regular car rental companies.
in short all their price advantage gets wiped off by all these extra unnecessary add ons which they have made unavoidable and then why to go off site and spend the same amount of money on an off site more hassle rental..

6 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Economy Rent A Car is a SCAM.

On November 18, 2025, I rented a car for my February 2026 vacation, and I made the reservation through Expedia.

When the day came to pick up the car, I arrived at the Economy location at the Orlando airport around midnight, and after waiting for 2 hours (it was already 2:00 AM), they told me they had no more cars available. They also said that even if they had one, they wouldn’t be able to give it to me because I had arrived late.

The person at the front desk was extremely rude and treated everyone in line very poorly, especially after we had all been waiting for such a long time.

I decided not to argue with him after he told me I had to go back to the airport, because I did not want to waste my time with someone who was clearly not willing to listen and had absolutely no manners.

So I went back to the airport, and thankfully the people at Alamo helped me right away, and in less than 15 minutes I had a car.

After spending hours calling Economy, and after multiple emails with them, in which they admitted their mistake and agreed to issue me a refund... I AM STILL WAITING FOR THE REFUND.

I have contacted them more than three times now, and every single time they tell me:

“Your refund is our priority, but we are having technical issues with our system.”

Today is March 30, and they still have not refunded my money.

This company is a SCAM.

Just because it may be the cheapest option does not mean you should spend your money here. Save yourself the headache and go with a company that is not just trying to take your money, because Economy is a scam.

They do not guarantee anything, and their customer service is terrible.

30 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Avoid this rental company

Avoid this rental company. Rude and do not honor expedia contract. In their words...oh no that's expedia, our contract is different. Then they bill you for all kinds of extras. Beware!!

28 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Horrible customer service

Too many hidden fees. Late pick up, tolls, insurance. Quadrupling the price of the rental. Do yourself a favor and pick rental straight from the airport. Pick up visitors tolls pass from airport. Make sure you know your insurance coverage and don’t let them talk you into coverage you don’t need. Attendant didn’t accept my insurance coverages even though I know it covers rentals. Will never rent from economy again.

Gave me a car will sidewall damage on the tire originally so they didn’t do a good inspection

28 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Horrible customer service

Horrible customer service, only rude people work in this location ( 10209 S La Cienaga Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045 ) not to mention hiding fees!!!! This place it doesn’t worth one star!!!
I encourage Priceline to remove it from their website!!
$1,000.00 deposit
$30.00 to use their insurance per day!
Won’t take my business insurance
Please go somewhere else and save headaches!!!

14 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Horrible

Horrible. Charge a $1k deposit or you pay to waive it. Another scam. The car was purchased and paid for on Hotwire with additional insurance. You have to pay to waive the deposit.

12 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Wished we hadn't booked with Economy Rent a Car

Strongly recommend against using this company to rent a vehicle.
We booked a vehicle in Samara Costa Rica a full two months in advance and received from Economy a confirmation of our reservation for a mid size SUV. When we arrived at the designated time the manager informed me our vehicle had been given away to another customer and that he would do his best to secure a vehicle later that day. I didn’t get any communication from him and had to contact the central helpline for Economy. I subsequently was told the following day that no cars were available and there was no assurance they could get us a vehicle within the next few days. Essentially they washed their hands of us. I expressed my anger that our long standing reservation was not being honored and that obviously another customer took priority over us.
This caused us extreme stress about the impact this would have - that without a car we’d be immobile and be unable to visit the areas planned including for a couple of venues we'd already booked reservations. It would have effectively ruined our vacation. It is incredulous that a company the size of Economy was so under resourced they could not source a single replacement vehicle for us in a reasonable time.
We then contacted Alamo and explained our situation. The Alamo team in Samara was top drawer in assisting us. Unfortunately the vehicle they could provide was a smaller SUV and at a substantially higher price ($US244) on short notice, but at least we were mobile for our vacation.
I subsequently contacted Economy several time with my complaint, requesting an explanation, apology and reimbursement for additional costs. Predictably, their repeated commitments to get back to me within 1 to 3 business were as bad as their commitment to honor our reservation.

1 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 4 out of 5 stars

I made a second time a reservation with…

I made a second time a reservation with this company! I had my Florida Broward county insurance, full coverage , last time on April 2025 I haven't pay anything extra ,only what I paid on Expedia, this time on March 2026, they charged me $5.90 per day for extra insurance . And they said they hold 2K as deposit
.my amount was 84$ for 4 day , i came up at the end with $109 , which is acceptable. I always take all pic and video of the car ..upon my return i didn't have any problems. 2k were released the same day.
Very unpleasant when you have any unexpectedly extra charges ! But
I m telling about my experience..I didnt have any issues! .. on my way back , was a heavy rain ..,they walked me to the shuttle with umbrella ))which is very kind .

8 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Unsafe, Mistreated, and Falsely Denied

I hate writing reviews, but unfortunately people need to be warned about Economy Rent A Car as a corporation. Here is what happened to me: We rented a car and drove it quite a ways from the rental car center to our hotel area. When we got into the car again we discovered that the driver's seat belt receiver didn't work, and the check engine light was on. We were far from the rental car center and our itinerary did not permit us returning, so I called and asked for a replacement car to be delivered. Before I even had the opportunity to explain that it was a safety issue I was told that they were understaffed and could not deliver a new car. I asked for a discount on our rental to compensate for working around the issue, and the customer service representative berated me, told me that our problem was not a severe inconvenience, and lectured me about how a true severe inconvenience was people fighting for their lives in a third world country. He then hung up on me and continued to hang up each time I called back. (I'll be honest, I was super polite to him and did not provoke him at all.) After the trip I emailed the Economy Rent A Car corporation and submitted a complaint. Through the complaint process the local office lied and said that they had offered to deliver me a new car, and ultimately my complaint was ignored and I wasn't even allowed to submit the evidence I had. Eventually they simply stopped responding to my emails.

12 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Not economy at all.

They are not transparent about fees. They charged an extra $100 for using my own insurance, the reason to use your own insurance is to save money. I returned the car early because it was vibrating and it didn't feel safe to drive. Of course they refused to issue a partial refund. I STRONGLY ADVISE TO NOT RENT FROM THEM.

25 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This was by far the worse place I've…

This was by far the worse place I've ever attempted to get a car rental from..Kimberly was the representative and she had a bad attitude , not helpful at all and very disrespectful. I hope this place shuts down soon.Even with that lil witch seeing my declaration for car insurance she still was trying to make it mandatory for me to purchase their insurance when it wasnt necessary with a 1000 dollar deposit which is ridiculous. I went over to budget car rental and there was no issues at all.Economy is def the bottom of the barrel. I'd give them zero stars if i could..not recommended AT ALL. This was at the Lax location .

27 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

They are crooks

They are crooks, I have rented a car through Priceline and prepaid for the rental plus I bought full insurance when I came to rent they said the insurance I bought doesn’t cover because my license is from Canada, so they forced me to buy a waver for 20.00 a day for 7 days I decided not to keep the car since it had lots of dents and I was afraid that they will attribute it to me so I took it back 12 hours later, they would not credit me for the retal nor the insurance I wonder how come Priceline is selling their rental and showing good reviews they should be banned

25 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Economy rental......what a joke

Economy rental......what a joke. I had a reservation. My flight was delayed 2 times. I made sure to call economy and communicate that I was running late. They assured me that my car would be held for 6 hours from the pick up time. I get the shuttle from the airport in Orlando. 30 min to the rental place. I go in and expect it to go smoothly. Yeah right!.... there were no cars left!!! I was so frustrated. I had a reservation and was promised the car. I had my booked hotel 30 min away. I had to take a lyft to get there. Meanwhile the rep at economy made sure to tell me they don't reimburse for lyft or Uber rides. Unbelievable!!!
It is a SCAM OF A company. DO NOT GO THRU ECONOMY!!

13 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

DO NOT RENT from Economy Rent a Car…

DO NOT RENT from Economy Rent a Car aka: America Car Rental in Los Cabos!!!! Staff is super slow to check you out and they force you to buy an insurance policy even when you tell them you bought online on Expedia. They say that is only collision and does not cover comprehensive and theft, not true. I read over my policy, it did cover everything and I told the lady. She kept stating only covers collision and does not cover the other. Asked if I declined to buy this, she said I couldn’t rent the car so I was forced to buy it. Scammers!!! Also car was not what I expected and they made me put a $3000 deposit on a credit card which I did get back when I returned the car.

4 January 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Difficult experience with bookings

I find your website not user friendly.Struggling to make a booking at first because the amount that was originally quoted was not the same as the quote that you sent to my email later one , reminding me that I have not make a payment yet.I decided not to take the GPS any more and again another amount was sent to my phone for authentic approval on my banking app.According to you my booking would have been sent to my email address but as up till now I havent received anything ,except a request to make a payment for the firts quote with a GPS. Although the payment reflect on my banking app I am not sure if I have any proof of payment .The request number was given on the booking but it did not allow me to print it.Now I can not find the specific request number on your system .Instead it wants me to do a new booking.

7 February 2026
Unprompted review

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