Drivalia Car Rental - www.drivalia.com Review

Drivalia Car Rental - www.drivalia.com
★★★★★
4.6
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nabr's review of Drivalia Car Rental - www.drivalia.com

“On return, Drivalia staff were examining every car for...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by nabr on 29/05/2016

On return, Drivalia staff were examining every car for even the slightest marks. When returning my car, I admitted to a under bumper scuff that I expected to be excused but was charged 300 Euro. All cars were being similarly examined and another customer was similarly charged for a bumper mark that I could not see until the driver pointed it out. In his case (but not mine!), he was charged a paralysation charge (additional rental day whilst car in repair). Drivalia staff also exhibited unnecessary aggression, used intimidating language and personalised the situation ("YOU have damaged MY car") with me and other customers despite acceptance. My car had incurred previous damage before collection so minor damage repair is charged but not carried-out, generating extra profit. This may comply with the rental terms but the business ethics are questionable. Reviews show that Mallorca car hire operators have a notorious reputation. Drivalia were supposed to be better - I don't think so!

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Drivalia_Car_Rental's Response to nabr's Review

Written on: 03/06/2016

Thank you for taking the time to write a review. It is important that the situation with damages is very clear. Like most car hire companies we offer various packages. The standard and most popular package chosen by our clients is our Ultimate package where there are never any charges for damages.

We do also offer low cost packages where the insurance is subject to an excess and so any damages must be paid for if the client does not choose to take full waiver with us.

With our lowest cost packages the rental prices are very low and for those reason we simply cannot afford to absorb the cost of damages. We pride ourselves on our fleet and replace our cars on average every six months, something that is far more regular than many companies. Furthermore we have probably the highest staff to client ratio meaning we can offer the very best service.

In order to offer all this it is important to understand that every damage on the car, even blemishes affect us because either when we sell the car each damage reduces the value or we have to pay for all damages to be repaired to factory standard prior to selling the car.

If damages are severe or affect the cosmetics of the car a lot then they will be repaired immediately. If however they are small we may repair them at a later date, either when the car is not booked out or when the car is about to be sold. Either way, when cars go for repairs they cannot be rented out so whether this will happen immediately or later we have to take this into account when we charge for damages.

We do make our scale of charges very clear on our website where we publish all damage charges.

It is unfortunate if we have to make a charge for a damage and we really don´t like doing it but in the low cost packages we simply cannot afford to stand the cost of damages. It is important to understand however that we do not make money from damages, simply cover our costs.

We inspect all cars extremely carefully but mostly to ensure that our damage logs are up to date. This way, by adopting a strict checking system we are always sure when new damages occur.

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Nabr's reply to Drivalia_Car_Rental's Comment

Written on: 03/06/2016

I accept your comments and that I caused damage which I do not (and did not) dispute. However:
1. You were systamtically checking all cars and I withessed a totally unreasonable damage claim against another customer which leads me to suspect that you are applying unwarranted cost unscrupulously.
2. The hostile attitude of your staff when I was not disputing damage is entirely unacceptable.
Other customers should be made aware of Drivalia's approach which is far more extreme than I have withessed elsewhere.

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