Please recommend an honest car rental service in Romania
 

I need to travel to Romania for 17 gays and am looking for a reliable and honest car rental service.

I am looking at :

autonom.ro
Emerald-Auto.ro
touringrentauto.ro

Does anybody have any experience with these ?

Any other recommendations ?

Thank you.

Hi Ian... Let me assume you are there for 17 days? (Vs. you need some type of bus?). Where do you arrive? We rented a car in Romania from a small company... I was nervous, but it worked perfectly. . But we arrived in an airport in Transylvania -so it might not be relevant.

we always use, and are very fond of, kemwel. have used them in many countries, including slovenia and croatia. they will match or beat any price you get-- and will not hide charges from you, like dropoff fees. (someone posted here recently about being slapped with a surprise dropoff fee form autoeurope, i think it was.) i always check the prices online, then call them. sometimes their web site shows a price that does not beat a price you can find.. but if you call them, they will match it. i have been surprised at how much time they have been willing to talk to me about where rental locations are located (relative to the train) etc. you can probably tell-- we really love them. also-- we always get their zero deductible policy (maybe that's all they offer??) and then use our credit card with protection as well. we feel less stress that way.

Haha, 17 DAYS not GAYS, sorry I don't take that bus, fat finger typing .... :-)

Anyway, i am looking at Autonom, Otopeni Touring Rent Auto Romania, and Emerald-auto. They all offer full insurance, and will cost me around 800 Euros for 17 days. Still, I have no information about these companies and I am a bit worried.

Anybody has any experience with these 3 ?

Eurocars is out, they don't offer full insurance and their deposit thing is definitely a scam.

The price is not an issue, i just don't want any hidden tricks, and I rather pay more for an honest service.

Thanks, your input appreciated.

again-- i would just call kemwel and compare. i would also ask them the same question... i have found them to be up front about this info-- even if it means you will rent from them instead. honest-- i don't work for them-- we have just had so many good experiences with them.

Kemwel or Autoeurope---they will match and are responsible.

OK here is the deal with kemwel:

Please bear with my paranoia .....

Quote from their web site:
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Kemwel does not provide insurance. Coverage is provided by the rental company as indicated. Additional coverage may be available for purchase from the rental company.Insurance does not provide coverage for damage to windows, wheels, tires, roof, underside or interior of the vehicle.

The local supplier will require a security deposit to be blocked on the primary drivers credit card for the duration of the rental. Contact Kemwel for exceptions. (Drivers license must be held for a minimum of 2 years (some exceptions may apply).

An International Drivers license is strongly recommended. Kemwel can help you obtain one.

-----------------

It looks like in Romania kemwel subcontracts SIXT.

The security deposit blocked on my CC sounds fishy. I want to buy full insurance and pay upfront in cash the whole thing, why would they block a deposit ?

What I know about Romania, is that there is no way to drive there and not get scratches or dents on your car. No way. That's why I want to pay full insurance so I am not charged for these.

I agree, you want full covergae with no deductible.
THta is available with both Kemwel and AE but you need to call them for your peace of mind. Start at:
1-888-223-5555--talk to a veteran.

Thank you for all your input.

I talked with Auto Europe, for full coverage I still have to deal with the actual rental company, AE is just the middleman.

It seems there is no way to avoid giving a Romanian rental company my credit card information.

All in all, it seems AE is the best choice, at least if anything goes wrong they will try to help.

Thank you again for the help.

not sure what 'block your credit card' means exactly-- but i'm thinking it means what everyone everywhere does-- make you sign a paper allowing charges if something goes wrong... like you get a ticket. good luck with your car-- and do try to use a credit card that gives you extra insurance coverage! i did get an international driver's license once-- it's easy at AAA -- though really seems like just one more money-making scheme!

Here's my understanding of the International Driving Licence: it is a translation of your driver licence in several languages. Since everybody in Eurpoe speaks English I don't see the point of translating my US driver licence. If I had a DL in Chinese, Greek or Russian I can see the point... Anyway, I will not do it, it's pointless.

Re: credit card, I wanted to avoid giving Romanian car rental companies access to my credit card because they are notorious for running scams, and they can practically charge anything they want once they have my credit card info. Yes, I can dispute it, but once I sign their contract I practically agree with that policy. Anyway.

Looks like there is no way around that and I will have to take the risk.

we almost always use economycarrentals.com and have never had any problems. They sound very reasonable for a rental in Bucharest with full coverage and no excess. We are currently thinking of travelling to romania in the fall. I have heard that driving can be challenging . Would it be a problem. My husband has driven all over the world with no problems but he is getting more cautious. Any comment would help
thanks

I've used http://www.economycarrentals.com/ with no problems in Turkey, Italy and Poland but returning the car to the original pick-up location; otherwise the rental cost increased considerably. However, this is a broker, and the local agency will still require a credit card as its insurance against damage. http://www.economycarrentals.com/ insurance system (they advertise <i>no excess</i>, i.e. no deductible) is that the renter pays and the broker will reimburse--similar to Visa CDW coverage. I have not had any damage on rentals cars obtained through this broker, so cannot comment on its trustworthiness in this regard.

We used Kemwel, and actually rented from Sixt when in Croatia - we had absolutely no issue. Yes, there was a deposit using the credit card, but we got it back without even asking.

When in Slovenia, we used Budget - they had the lowest price, and again, we were very happy. Good luck, and have a great trip.

Hello!

I know this topic is from 2013 but I'd really really like to inform everyone to never use http://www.imarentals.ro/ . I've just recently been to Romania and their services are just awful. The cars look good but they are very hard to get in touch with and didn't seem professional at all. And they also charged me extra with some hidden fees.

Shame on them!

Ana

I tried www.aliagrup.ro and they have a reliable service. Rented a minibus for our company guests, for 10 days (forth and back to the office/hotel and few short trips around Bucharest). They don't have the lowest prices, but is worth it, so I think is the right price.
For hotel we used www.guestus.com.
My two cents for Bucharest!

Hi guys,

As far as i know the differences are the following
http://Kemwel.com subcontracts via SIXT so the deposits are very big, like triple those of a local company

http://Autoeurope.com subcontracts through multinationals, safer but higher prices.

Economy has both bigger deposits and prices than the others. In some cases double.

You could give a look to the following local companies:
http://www.carpro.ro (my favorite) which is the low cost division of RCR, a big local group, so prices should be at least 30% lower (all cars being 2014 or so) and deposits are also very low like 150 euro compared to 600-800 with the others.

http://www.inchirieriautobucuresti.com these guys are owned by a tour operator, they can also rent with driver

http://www.avis.ro and http://www.autonom.ro (bigger companies)

There is also rentalcars but their prices seem not to include winter tyres and airport charges, so a 40 euro markup from the start + the 5-7 euro/day for the winter tyres.