Have you rented auto from Gemut?
 

Has anyone rented an automobile from Gemut by booking online? We are looking for some feedback on this company before renting from them. Service? Was the price what was promised? Were the locations open and running? Any review would be helpful. Thank you.

We just got back from a trip to Germany and rented a car through Gemut for use while there. They are a reseller so our reservation was actually through Auto Europe. I had checked out different car rentals and decided to go with them for two reasons, because they would guarantee a GPS system at no charge and also because they came up with the best price for us. We paid up front and had a voucher fully paid when we arrived. With the declining value of the dollar, that turned out to be a good thing for us, but there was also an option to pay part and the balance at another time. I don't remember the details of that.

Andy from Gemut was really easy to work with, always returned calls and addressed any questions I had promptly. When we arrived at the car rental agency, we showed them the voucher and everything went smoothly. In fact, Andy had told us there would be a 7E charge for an extra driver. While we showed drivers licenses and gave information for both drivers, we were never charged for the extra driver. I had no problems at all and would use them again.

I believe others on this forum also have been satisfied with their services. I'm sure you'll get more feedback.

Cindy

Yes. We used Gemut for our trip to Germany and Benelux last year. Everything worked out great.

Yes, we used Gemut last year for a month's rental in Germany. They gave everything that they promised. The price never changed and we were very happy with the car.

We had opted for a VW Passat and then received an Opal station wagon and we didn't believe we were pleased about that. Well, we were very pleased, the car was great, had power on the Autobahn and was extremely comfortable to drive.

Locations were open and running and we had no difficulties at all.

Yes, we'll definitely use them again.

Yes, and ditto all the above. I requested a diesel both times and that's what I got. Fear not!!

We rented from Gemut last September in Tuscany and were very satisfied with the service. We were charged more than quoted by Andy at Avis and on our return I called Andy and he looked into it and a few days later the extra fee was deducted.

Hi C,

Gemut is very reputable, and very good.

We used them last year.

For our upcoming trip, they got me a car for $150 less than the AE US site rate.

((I))

I was very satisfied with Gemut - they were promptly responsive to my questions and got me a better deal than I found elsewhere, and the arrangements were all as advertised.

We've used Gemut several times for car rental in Europe, the last time being for 3 weeks this past May. They are very easy to work with and will continue using them.

Another satisfied customer here.

We used Gemut this past June for a rental in Germany. They offered to match or beat any price I could find on the internet, and they did.

We ended up with an unexpected upgrade upon arrival.

Gemut. is excellent. I have used them the last 4 trips. In fact I just returned and a 4 week rental 776 us. I have always got a free upgrade and a diesel. I pick the car up in Kelsterbach and save the 19% tax. Very good company with great service. sister

I too recommend Gemut.com. Andy is fantastic and a great help. However, for my past three European trips when I've needed a van (because the wife insists on inviting every freakin' relative she knows!) I have found better deals elsewhere. This might only be true when it comes to 9 psgr van rentals, but my experience is that Auto Europe and Avis were more than $300 cheaper than Gemut for a two week rental. And even though Gemut promises to beat any competitor, they insist on payment at time of booking. With so many traveling with us my plans have to remain fluid and I would rather not lock myself into a firm booking with payment up front.

We (extended family of 6) rented two vehicles through Gemut last May/June. Our rental ended up being through the EuropCar office in Wurzburg. We had a lot of problems... the office was closed when we arrived and we spent $23 on phone calls to the US to AutoEurope and Gemut to get someone to at least tell us where to pick up the keys, the additional drivers that were supposed to be already on each rental agreement were not there, they gave us one really small car (smaller than we reserved) but there was no discount, and finally... once we arrived home we ended up being billed over 300€ more than the voucher rate. It took over 2 months to get it resolved and we still ended up being overcharged somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 - $40 but I was too sick of the ordeal to mess with getting that back.

My advice would be that if you do use Gemut (which goes through AutoEurope almost all of the time), be sure that you don't end up with EuropCar. There are several other complaint threads on Fodors that tell stories of other folks having a lot of problems with EuropCar as well.

Forgot to add that a piece of the unresolved overcharge I mentioned related to exchange rate issues. In €, we ended up only being overcharged (after all the refunds) about 10€. However, somehow with the exchange rate differences from when we booked the cars (late 2006) and some other random fees, it was a lot higher in US $ (still not that much compared to the original overcharge of 300+ €!)

Zeus, even though you make your payment up front, you can cancel your reservation with Gemut at ANY time and get a refund without any penalty.

Every time I have reserved with Gemut, it is usually several months in advance so I always continue to check to see if the rate goes down prior to our departure. It never has, but if it did, I know I could cancel my existing reservation and rebook at the lower rate.

Thank you for the feedback. I did find a similar post on this site with the same question I had.

Both offers we have from Gemut are through Europcar! While the rates are lower than I have found elsewhere, I am hesitant to take it because of the negative reports on this site for Europcar. Although it sounds like Andy has "fixed" some of the problems after return to US - I'd rather not deal with that.

I read the post earlier this year regarding car rentals in Europe - it has almost exactly the same title as mine.

Yikes - do we even want to rent a car in Europe? So many people who are getting charged more - one guy charged 99 euros for gas when he had filled up the tank before dropping off! When you can't read the paperwork because it's not your language and they have your credit card - it's a little frightening!!!!

What to do?

Hi Cindywho,

I just wanted to let you know that Andy (Gemut) actually didn't help resolve our massive overcharge problem. I emailed and called him for a week before finally getting a response from someone else at the company telling me they forwarded my complaint to AutoEurope and I would need to deal with them directly. So the only assistance I got from Gemut was them forwarding on my complaint.

Cindywho, when we rented thru Gemut, we picked up our car in Kelsterbach near Frankfurt Airport from Avis. We did get a copy of the rental agreement in English and the lady who works there also spoke very good English.

I have never dealt with Europcar, so I can't offer you any assurances about that.

TexasAggie-

I read your posts on the earlier thread - it sounded like a nightmare. If you are like us, we have everything budgeted close because we don't have loads and loads of money. That's too bad. Andy is who I am dealing with via email, however, if I go forward I will speak by phone with him.

BettyK - If you rented from gemut, they are a broker - who was the actual car agency?

Also, are there extra fees applied afterward for dropping off at an airport or train station?

Also, am I too early booking for June? Should I wait?

Thanks for your help.

I always top off my car rentals using my credit card. Then if there is a dispute as to whether I returned it with a full tank, I can provide a copy of the charge. Or just get a cash receipt.

Hi Cindywho,

We would rent through Gemut again, but would avoid EuropCar and request they reserve us with another company like Avis or Hertz even if the charge was a bit higher. I really do feel like all our our problems stemmed from EuropCar, not from Gemut or AutoEurope. That said, I was disappointed to discover that Gemut doesn't provide any sort of service when problems arise on rentals they book... it took AutoEurope a couple months to sort everything out and we couldn't even get a status update during that time period.

Cindywho, the voucher was issued by AutoEurope and the car was picked up at the AVIS location in Kelsterbach.

There are no extra fees for dropping off at an airport or train station, only for the pick up.

Yes, it's too early for June. They probably won't even have prices until after the first of the year.

Cindywho,

I rented through Gemut for our trip to Munich last month. Dealing with Gemut was a breeze, they got me the best deal through National downtown. My payment was made directly to National last June.

The way it worked is I contracted with Gemut, Gemut contracted with Auto Europe and Auto Europe contracted with National Car Rental to get me a car.

I read on this board in August that National was closing offices in Munich so I e-mailed Andy at Gemut. Within a couple of days he sent me a new voucher from Auto Europe with a new location to pick-up my car.

When it came time to pick-up the car I went to the new location that was also closed and had moved 3 blocks away they didn't have a car for me. After a few phone calls we were sent back to the address of the first closed National office that is now a Budget office to pay again. After an hour's worth of calls to Auto Europe they decided to send me to the airport (about an hour away via train) to finally pick-up my car. So four hours after we arrived at the first office for pick-up we were finally in our car and on the road.

When we got back home and I finally sent all of my information (vouchers, receipts, call logs) and a very long letter detailing everything to Auto Europe they basically said that it was all the fault of National and none of the responsibility was on them. I think that they will be reimbursing me for my extra costs that day but basically because we had to miss some of the things that we wanted to do because we lost four hours means nothing to them.

I did double check two days before we left that the address for our pick-up hadn't changed and according to them it didn't.

So the moral of my long story is check and double check especially if your rental goes through Auto Europe. Next time I will go so far as to call the rental agency as well, I will never trust Auto Europe again.

To TexasAggie,
It's not in Gemut's power to refund money as they don't collect it. However, they have certainly helped me when I have been overcharged. Two years ago Avis nailed me for insurance to the tune of more than $800. I had unknowingly signed for it (contract in German, I didn't ask for copy in English). Had I been dealing directly with Avis I doubt I would have been refunded as they had my signature. I believe that Gemut used its “juice” with Autoe Europe who in turn used their leverage with Avis to convince them that I didn't intend to buy the optional insurance. Andy told me I was lucky to get the refund. I have had several problems over the 15 years I have been dealing with Gemut and they have always carried the ball for me and never referred me to Auto Europe.
Kurt

One more thing: No matter who you book through, Gemut, Auto Europe, or direct with the rental company, overcharges and other problems can happen. It's the service you get when you have those problems. If you book directly with Avis (or Hertz or Europcar) and have a problem at pickup time, what do you do other than ask for an Avis supervisor? With Gemut you get the 24/7 toll free number which will then deal from a position of strength with the rental company (they send them a lot of business).
Kurt

To kurt1938:

Nowhere have I suggested that Gemut was responsible for either the overcharge or the refund due me. All I have done is express my disappointment that Gemut:

1. Sat on my phone messages and emails for some time before even sending me a simple response, and

2. Sent me straight to AutoEurope and wouldn't even check on the status of the request for me

While I am happy that Gemut has personally handled problems you had in the past, they did not do so for me. I would certainly use them again (not allowing them to book EuropCar of course), but I would do so with the caveat that I should expect zero service from them after they book the reservation. If they happened to provide any, it would be a nice surprise.

Wow--what an unfortunate experience, TxAg. I'd be more than upset had that happened to us.

Luckily, our experience this Sept with Gemut went perfectly. They booked a midsized car through Europcar; We were given a bigger, nicer car at our Freilassing pickup location, and we had no problems with the return. I sometimes think it's the luck of the draw with Euro car rentals.

Hi JN,

Isn't that a nice surprise when you get the free upgrade? We had that happen to us in Greece a couple years ago (Avis) and since it was for a two week rental, it was just wonderful!

I quess I have two problems with Gemut. 1. a big part of the savings they show is from using your credit card for CDW. This is not the same as having full insurance. If you insist on doing this, at least make sure you get similar quotes from other companies.

2. it involves renting a car. Needing a car is an American paradigm. In Germany, to be sure, as well as other parts of Europe, public transfortation is so good you don't need a car.

I just spent a week traversing the Romantic Road using public transportation. Everyone says you have to have a car, but I spent only $126 for train and bus tickets. Gemut quoted $270 for car rental; fuel would have been another $75, so I saved about $220. Make sure you thoroughly check out public transportation before renting a car.

Tx Ag
Yes, we were pleasantly surprised and grateful for the upgrade to a more spacious auto. Freilassing is a small Europcar outlet, and I had wondered if that might happen. Glad it did.

LorenzoINtheRockies (I'm "Euro-styling your name)--I'd never rented a car in Europe before, preferring to use public transportation. As others have posted when this has been debated, I think it depends on the time you have available and where you want to go. Sometimes, a car makes most sense. Depending on the number of people in your party, a car also can be as cheap if not cheaper--particularly if you're comparing it to taking trains with more amenities than the RE/RB/D types.

That having been said, I'll probably return to public transportation next time. Having tried driving once, I now have satisfied my urge to see what it was like.

Comparing the two, I prefer the trains: they don't require me to focus as much, I can enjoy having a good german bier while viewing the scenery and I can visit with other travelers. Plus, they just feel right--a sense of old world Europe.

Larryincolorado,

The main reason we are going to rent a car is to save time, not money. We are going from Munich to Garmish via Fussen area (stay only 2 night), then to Rothenburg (stay 1 night), then to Bacharach (stay 2 nights). Need to be in Frankfurt 11 am for flight home.

Does the car make sense to you-I know you are very experienced traveling in Germany. I would rather take the trains, but fear we are losing too much time when a direct car route will get us there quicker.

BTW, we have NO experience traveling in Europe.

Hi Cindy,

>I am hesitant to take it because of the negative reports on this site for Europcar.

Everyone can have an off day. We have gotten cars from them and everything worked perfectly.

>BTW, we have NO experience traveling in Europe.

What's your entire itinerary?

((I))

Driving in most of Germany (outside of the big cities) is usually pretty easy. Good roads, well marked. Considerate, knowledgeable drivers for the most part. If you are just going to big cities, trains are definitely the way to go. If heading to more out of the way places or if you like to make spur of the moment stops here and there, then a car is wonderful. We often end up doing part of our trip by train and part by car.