CarTrawler Reviews

DO NOT USE CARTRAWLER! They are a third party booking company and they are evil! Why companies like Norse Atlantic airlines partner with them I’ll never know! We booked a car for our time in the UK and we paid $554. When we got the car rental we had to pay $993 ADDITIONAL for insurance EVEN THOUGH OUR AMERICAN CREDIT CARD COMPANY COVERS US FOR INSURANCE! It also states in the policy of I didn’t show up I would be charged a sum of 3 days rental or $115 whichever is greater plus a possible $350 admin fee. And yet when I tried to cancel the booking I was informed I would not get any of the $554 back! So they basically had me by the gonads! I either sucked up the $554 and made a new booking or pay their extortion insurance. NEVER EVER USE THIS COMPANY! They do NOT follow their own policies! I should have gotten a refund and did not even though their policy clearly states I would!

Warning!!!! Stay away... Warning - stay away from CarTrawler and Goldcar. After waiting in line at the pick up station for 2 hours, we had 15 minutes till close and still 30 people in front of us. We chose to rent from another company and submitted a claim to refund our rental that was unavailable to pick for us. No help from cartrawler, no refund and extremely slow responses.

I strongly recommend avoiding this company and booking directly through a reputable car rental company’s website instead. I was planning one last family trip before my two oldest children left—one for college and the other for the Marines. We booked an Airbnb, and during the booking process there was an option to “rent a car for your trip,” which redirected us to CarTrawler.

CarTrawler has bought KOALA, a travel insurance company. Now Expedia has bought CarTrawler. Koala handles Rail Protection insurance for RAIL EUROPE. You can not call them by phone. Beware of any company that has no customer service by phone. I paid for Rail Protection insurance, and trying to get your refund is impossible. The website is impossible to operate. My refund due is over $1,000. I have tried for weeks to get it. My view is they make the website attempt so difficult, you will give up. I paid Rail Europe by Credit Card. Then they do not tell you they will not refund a credit card. Deliberate deception. Easy claims, top-notch customer service, fast refund, all lies.

My experience with this company was extremely disappointing, and I would strongly caution others before booking with them. Before my trip, I contacted customer service to make a change to my reservation. During that conversation, I clearly explained that I would be picking up the vehicle in Utah, driving to Missouri, and then returning to Utah. The customer service representative was fully aware of my travel plans and made the requested changes without mentioning any restrictions. On the day of pickup, after spending approximately $80 on an Uber to reach the rental location, the employee at the counter asked where I would be taking the vehicle. When I explained the exact same itinerary I had already discussed with customer service, I was immediately told that I could not take the vehicle out of Utah because the company does not allow that with certain rentals. I was given only two options: keep the vehicle in Utah or cancel the reservation.

Terrible renting experience. The car I rented online with CarTrawler was not the car Fox rental would give me. They fought with me and made me pay an additional $86 (with no add ons, no extra insurance, nothing, no upgrades). They would not give me the agreed upon car that I rented online and told me I must upgrade. My online receipt says Nissan Sentra - they refused anything other than a Versa unless I paid more. And the whole time they were doing this while I was with my young daughter. When I returned the car, the manager on-site agreed and said he’d refund - never did. Worst company ever! And customer service is not helpful.

Be aware that this is a very bad organization where scamming is on highest level letting you pay a lot of extra money on pickup. One way or the other.

I tried to use frequent flyer miles to rent a car, and the airline sent me to CarTrawler. What a rip-off! My flight was delayed by four hours, and by the time it got in, the rental car desk was closed. I had to take taxi, so I canceled my car rental; but CarTrawler refuses to give me a refund. They say if my flight is delayed, I'm out of luck. When I look at other reviews, this seems to be a pattern.

They are slamming. I paid for my car rental and insurance inline but when I went to collect the car from desk they didn’t release the car and they said I have to pay again directly to rent company not through the site. They ruined my holiday. After 5 times calling the customer service each time they said they will contact me in 48 hours but when they no call I call again and surprisedly they said, "Oh you have wait another 48 hours because you called us again." I spent a lot on transportation on my holiday and no car and every day calling rental company for solution but nothing. As soon as my holiday finished they sent me an email and say, "Oh because you have no cancelled the contract during the rental time so you don’t get cancellation." They are disgusting.

I booked a car with this company "CarTrawler". I paid for the rental and purchased their insurance plan. Then when I arrived to pick up the car they told me they did NOT accept the online booking or insurance and tried to extract another 600 euros from me for a deposit on the car plus another 200 euros in insurance, plus they wanted to secure 2000 euros on my credit card so I refused the rental and canceled my booking and they still kept the 800 dollars I had paid and did not refund 1 penny of the money. They are scammers and the most fraudulent company I have ever dealt with. Do NOT rent anything from this company because they will scam you and keep your money. They should be in jail!

Scammers scammers be warned, foreigners and absolute scammers.

I booked my car thru WestJet (CarTrawler). Having confirmed the booking and receiving a quote I thought I was set. Until I reached the actual rental counter for Alamo where I was charged about 40% more for the car than was quoted. With no other options at the time, I paid. When I reached out to CarTrawler their response was basically, "You're on your own here. Take it up with the rental company." As far as I'm concerned they are operating a bait and switch operation and I will never deal with them again.

I rented a car through Car Trawler, and bought their insurance, which they claimed would be all I needed for my trip to Costa Rica. When I got to car rental office, it was clear based on posted signs that that wasn’t correct, and that I would have to buy additional insurance. I contacted Car Trawler (which was a fairly slow, painful process), but was told that they couldn’t cancel the useless policy. I would recommend avoiding this company.

Terrible service! When I booked my flight and car rental at the same time, I didn't know I was using cartrawler until I received confirmation for the booking. I had a last minute flight change and when I contacted CarTrawler customer service to reschedule the car rental dates, the online agent suddenly "ran out of time" to confirm the rebooking and had to send my query to their case management office. Ultimately, Cartrawler denied my refund because I hadn't cancelled within 48 hours as stated in the contract. The flight change was out of my control and I made every attempt to reschedule the car rental. It's a total scam.

Booked a XXL van to dxb airport. It says 10 bags during booking but once I received confirmation it says 5 bags and 5 small handbags. This won't work for me. I cancelled immediately. Contacted support, they said no refund because it was cancelled within 24 hours of booking. Asked to speak to supervisor, they wouldn't let me speak to one. I have no choice but to dispute the charge with my credit card.

Recently I rented a car in Milan. Initially, I was charged 116.36 USD for renting the car. When I picked up the car (which was EXTREMELY dirty) they charged me an extra $150 USD for not having an international license despite my US license allowing me to drive in Europe for up to 6 months. Additionally, they tried to sell me insurance for $50 USD a DAY which I did not pay. Moreover, they only take VISA cards due to what I believe is VISA's habit of not checking for fraud and scams.

WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!! Never book with CarTrawler Vienna through Austrian Airlines!!! In November 2025, I booked a flight to Vienna for January 2026 as a Senator. At the same time, I accepted an offer from Austrian Airlines and booked a rental car through them. When I landed in Vienna on January 17, 2026, I immediately received a message from the rental car company, CarTrawler, that they had no cars available. Ordered three months ago – this morning they discover they have no vehicle. What a sad, disreputable company! Money taken – service not provided. Fraud?? An uneducated, non-German-speaking CarTrawler employee refused any assistance.

While the company may technically be operating within its terms and conditions, I was disappointed by the complete lack of flexibility or goodwill when my circumstances changed. No alternative dates were offered, no credit, and no partial solution — just a flat refusal. Customers should be aware that once a booking is made, there appears to be zero room for discretion, regardless of situation. Based on this experience, I would not choose to book with CarTrawler again or recommend them to others.

Evil company. A partner of American Advantage that has taken over a month to investigate a botched reservation at JFK via Dollar. I booked via American Advantage and would've never done so if I had know how each company would blame the other and leave us stranded at the airport. Even worse, they never apologized and have both my money and airline miles.

I had a fully paid reservation through CarTrawler for a 7-seater car from Sixt in Porto. When I arrived at the Sixt desk at the airport, I was told that my car simply did not exist. No assistance, no responsibility, no alternative. Because the booking was specifically for seven people, replacing the vehicle was impossible, and it completely ruined my trip.

Followed the link from American when I booked my flight to these guys and rented a car. Looked like Avis, Budget etc but it's not! When I landed in Savannah GA the Budget desk could not find the reservation. The address on the voucher did not exist and both the Budget rep and I call the CarTrawler desk phone number 5 times and no one picked up. SO I rented directly from Budget. I finally tracked down the Customer Service number for CarTrawler and called. Spoke to Ahmed who would not saw where he was based - apparently company policy. He was not helpful. In future I'll just go directly to Avis, Hertz, Budget etc and cut out the incompetent middle men (wherever in the world they are). Be carefully of the airline links - the fine print states what's going on if you have time to read it.

I had a very disappointing experience with CarTrawler. While traveling, TAP Airlines made an error at the airport involving my mother’s mobility scooter, which caused us to miss our flight. TAP acknowledged the mistake — they had pre-approved the scooter by email — and rebooked us on the next flight. Because of that delay, we couldn’t pick up our rental car on time. I explained the entire situation to CarTrawler, including proof that the issue was beyond our control, but they refused to refund my money or honor the original week-long reservation.

CarTrawler are the big time scammer. Don’t do anything with them. They are thieves. They double charge me and at the end I paid my rental car double and never return my money back. I had to open a case with a lawyer. Stay away from them.

I rented a car through this company. When I got to the desk, the rental company attempted to overcharge me for insurance with an exorbitant rate of $42 per day, which was more than half the cost the rental itself. I refused the car and informed CARNGO about the situation. The manager agreed that that was a rip off price, but claimed there is nothing they can do and threw the terms and conditions nonsense at me. The company refused to help me, even though they knew I was being ripped off. I lost $1500. I will never use a company that refuses to stand up to immoral behavior from their suppliers.

I would give negative stars if I could. I had to change my pick up time to the following day after not making my flight which was overbooked. I immediately contacted them explaining my situation and informed them that I would be picking up my rental a day later. When I arrived the next day, the local car company said I had to contact CarTrawler directly to "modify" the reservation. A representative from CarTrawler said I had to make this change with the local vendor. After going back and forth, Cartrawler said to place a claim which I did. They denied my claim saying that I didn't contact them even though I did. Because of their incompetent customer service, I had to rent a car from another company which was twice as much. I would advise all people to avoid this company at all costs!

I would give zero stars but I can’t. The rental booking was fine but that’s where it ended. I arrived at the car rental company to find out they cancelled the rental. Then they wanted to charge me 4x for a new car. I tried every method possible to contact the cartrawler but everything is AI. From email to WhatsApp to website chat. You can’t call anyone or speak to a real person. The kicker was when I got home and they sent me an email asking me to give a review on my car rental. Yikes. Oh, they charged me for the rental I never took. Stay away from this disastrous place. 518 1 star reviews says it all!

I wish I never had heard of them. Ripped me off for $200. No customer support, only attitude and called multiple times to only be disconnected after listening to music for 10 minutes. Just PASS on this company. They are not professional and do not deserve your money or time.

Trying for over a week, multiple attempts, on multiple browsers to make a car reservation (using American Airlines miles) and always stalls at last, confirmation step - trying to resolve, via chat (all that's offered), on several sessions totaling well over an hour, given follow up phone numbers that don't work and latest, given chat message that "there's problem with the website, try again in 48 hrs". Geez .... ultimately it's American's responsibility, 'cause they're using Car Trawler as their representative - I'm just trying to use an advertised benefit ... Pathetic!

I booked this car rental and somehow the system assigned my son who is only 15 years old as the designated driver. Obviously he cannot drive yet, I used my credit card under MY name to pay for car rental fee. The system did not take my name as the main driver but instead my son which it doesn’t make any sense. I tried to change the name to be myself and they told me I needed to pay 100 dollars to make this change or rebook another reservation. They were not able to help me at all and I ended up loosing my money and time, I don’t recommend this company to anyone as you will get scam if you do.

After more than a month with back and forth emails, requesting my credit card info (yeah right) with details, and pictures (unbelievable! Of course I never send the details!) I had to file a scam complaint thru my company in order to get my money back! They were "investigating" for more than a month for a car that I never received! They are scammers! STAY AWAY! The sad part is that they got in the ESM app which provides service to all first responders. But I also send them a message so they know what they signed up for!

Totally scammed me. Thought I was buying from Thrifty. Thrifty said that they would refund my bookings but unfortunately I booked through a third party called CarTrawler. Didn't Even rent the cars, Thrifty was not open when I got to the airport due to a big storm in the area. Thrifty was refunding me but this third party would not. Called customer service and they just kind of gave me the runaround. Total scammers.

Beware of using your Aadvantage miles with American Airlines to book a rental car, as Cartrawler is the company that handles those rentals. I recently booked a car rental with my miles. I was flying into Flint, MI on American and was going to pick up the rental at the Flint airport. Due to bad weather my flight was cancelled, and there were no other flights into Flint that day. The airline flew me into Detroit instead. I immediately went to the Aadvantage cars website to get to my reservation and attempted to modify pickup to Detroit. Website did not allow this, even after doing chat with agent. I had to cancel the reservation. Cartrawler has built into their contract that if you cancel your car less than 48 hours prior to pickup you will be charged $130. I contacted customer service but they refuse to refund the money.

Absolute disaster of a company! I got totally ripped off. Their customer service is all AI generated and they refused to give me refund. I paid for a car in full visa debit with insurance. On pick up they added another payment, which I was happy to pay with the same card also offered cash. They refused and kept both!

I would never do business with this company again. They do not have a customer service team, there is no way to contact them. I had to spend hours trying to get help and somehow was able to create a case online. It said my case would be resolved by June 19th giving themselves a month to fix it or at least give me a response, it’s past that date and they haven’t even contacted me. I am pretty sure they will just continue to ignore me because there is no way for me to contact them. Horrible!

I booked my rent a car through Car Trawler on a standby travel site for employees of airlines. This was a bad idea because this cannot be cancelled if you miss your flight or have any issues whatsoever. It is more like a bait and switch company. When I was disputing my charge, they asked for sensitive information like cc that they would share with the car rental company etc. In the end they could not and would not refund me because they automatically give part of the money to the car rental company. They are also based in Scotland and not the USA where most of not all are renting from. It is best to rent directly with the company you want to rent from if you want the best deal. It is also safer, especially if you don't make your trip for some unforeseen reason. I would not have written this review of they had treated me fairly even a little bit. I lost money, but I think I saved on the long run because I will never use this company again.

I used CarTrawler to pre-pay for an online booking so I had everything organized for a vacation car rental. Purchased additional liability insurance via their site as well. Had a complete runaround at time of pick-up of the rental car, with unreasonable charges added on if I wanted to take the car. Cancelled the rental and informed CarTrawler right away to ask for a refund. After over 8 weeks of providing EVERYTHING they asked for (multiply different requests for various documentation) they said, "NO. SORRY we will not give you your refund". They kept my money that was never passed on to the car rental company for the booking. They have conditions embedded into their terms and agreements that give them loopholes to get away with keeping your money even if there is an issue or cancellation. WILL NEVER USE THIS BOOKING COMPANY AGAIN.

I booked a rental car in Italy through CarTrawler with Europcar as the local provider. During the booking process, there was no clear mention of needing an International Driving Permit (IDP). Upon arrival, Europcar refused to release the car solely due to the lack of an IDP, despite my valid national driving license. I was denied service and lost the full amount paid. I contacted CarTrawler for a refund and have sent several emails with no reply to date. This is unacceptable and completely unprofessional. As a frequent traveler and business owner, I strongly warn others: stay away from these companies unless you want to lose time, money, and patience.

The site had misleading copy, incomplete terms and conditions and reservation copy that was entirely misleading - when contacted customer service, they did not resolve the problem and, in effect, told me it was my problem and then dropped the conversation

I booked the car from Cartrawler in Dec 2024 and paid the renal online upfront at the time of booking. When I reached the car pickup counter the system was not showing the booking. Cartrwaler used partner Europcar to book for me. The system at Europcar pickup counter was not showing any booking. However their Online system (when contacted Europcar customer care) was showing it. They asked to get it cancelled through Cartrwaler. Its been now 21 days since I raised the ticket. There is no further development from their side. **** To make it worse they are using Expedia Logo in their Car Hire Voucher ****

I booked a Car in July through a third party company, and they used CarTrawler for their needs. I arrived there and I had enough funds available, they weren’t able to provide me a vehicle I booked. 6 months later I am still battling this same issue.