Palma De Mallorca Airport Car Hire - Any Recommendations?

[Faxo]

After having an absolute nightmare last year with OK Car Rental at Palma Airport, I'm now very wary!

I only need the car for 5 days, upto Pollenca, bit of pottering, then back down to Palma, so I need either a full to full fuel option, or something similar.

I was just about to book with Record Car Rental, as they reimburse whatever fuel is left, however they charge 25 on top for their 'easy return service', even if I fill it up myself, which is another sneaky way of getting more money out of us!

Has anyone got any recommendations?

For reference, the car is around 46 for 5 days hire

Thanks

[Jezzerh]

All I can say is don't use Centauro. fking abysmal service. One guy thought he'd ordered two cars, they only had him down for one. The agent sat smiling at him pretending not to understand while he tried to sort it out.

I think we used Avis last time, they were better organised.

[anonymous-user]

Went with Avis last month. Got some complicated sending spiel at pick up about fuel. Ignored it and said I'd bring it back full.

The only trick at Palma is that the petrol station is on the way put of the airport. You have to drive past the entrance to the rental return area, then out and it's within the first 800yards.

Car had a lot of dings, noted on the vehicle report. I put one more on it and heard nothing more.

[catfood12]

Record Rent a car. Used them several times in Palma and Malaga. Good cars, clear check back in, sign off etc. Never had a problem. Have already booked again for this year. Let me know if you're in Pollenca !

[schmalex]

Centaur, Record etc are awful. Mainly because the queues at their desks at PMI can be up to 2 hours.

I've just booked one from Interrent through Holiday Autos. It's a full to empty policy which is ambitmofmampain, but well have the car for a fortnight, so will use the fuel. However, importantly, being a new budget brand of Europcar, you collect from the Europcar desk so the queues should be a fair bit shorter.

Alternatively, try Sixt, they sometimes have reasonable deals for shorter hire periods

[Faxo]

Looking at online reviews of these places, I now realise why people book with Hertz and Avis, as although the price is high, they don't seem to have any hidden extras, which it seems most of the time pushes the budget companies past the Hertz etc prices in the end!

I'll never book with Holiday Autos again, esp after they said they couldn't guarantee I wouldn't get an OK Car Rental car, even though 99% of hirers complain about them!

[LayZ]

Used Hertz recently, the local ones had huge queues - what's that worth?!

Hertz have cars with plenty of dings too, usual rental car advice, spend 10 mins photographing everything, go over it super carefully. Even worth taking a torch as it'll be in a parking garage.

[EricE]

I only use Sixt down there. Tried cheaper ones and it always turned into a clusterf*** - either 2 hr waiting times with long queues to get the car, huge bills when returning a car that was damaged while it was parked in the city, etc. Terrible experience with Europcar, Alamo and Goldcar. Avis was neutral.
Sixt is always excellent and always expensive, but it only takes one tiny parking accident and it pays for itself... in money and nerves. Pickup is 5 minutes, drop off 1 minute with a signature on the electronic device, damaged car or not. Someone drove off my side view mirror last time... these type of accidents are very common down there. Police does not give a f*** and cheaper rental companies will gladly use the occasion to rip you off in my experience.

Edited by EricE on Thursday 22 May 21:28

[TangerinePool]

Used Alamo and got a very leggy feeling C5 which to be fair did the job (we stayed in a Villa in Pollenca and toured a little).

Queue was horrendous and took over an hour to get seen to as we seemed to have conincided with another three flights of varying nationalities landing at the same time

[dododo]

Avis have hidden extras there. They whack you with a fee of ~30 for picking it up at the airport!

[The Nur]

I've always had good experiences with Avis. Even got out of a scuffed bumper on an Eos once, though I did distract the bloke a bit when it got to that part of the handover.