LocautoRent
Reviews and Complaints

Booked car online for 4 days to pickup car at Bari airport paid 41€, went to Bari airport Italy and had a news that I have to have 900€ for deposit which was never said that I should have it. The guy in the locauto rental said to pay additional 73€ for insurance to be able to pickup the car. Bad service, hidden fees, never use again Locauto services.

We had booked a rental car at the Florence airport through our broker for Saturday April 29th and prepaid.. Estimated time of arrival was noon. We arrived at 3PM and were told we were late and they gave our car away. I asked if they had other cars and she said yes but would would have to pay for it again. It was a small booth with no manager and the woman refused to sign anything acknowledging her refusal to honor our booking. We were stunned . We ended up booking through Hertz and paid a bit more but had a great experience.
We are now trying to work through our broker for reimbursement.

Stay away from Locauto!

08/04/2017 - I hired a car an Audi A3 (FF931PP) from Locauto in Florence airport. reference no 1317 at 10.30 am. 6 pieces of previous damaged was identified including an identifed damage of a scratch to the rim of the passenger side bacxk tyre. There was a slight dent to the tyre but tyre was not damaged in any significant manner. I was assured that this is OK to drive as I had 2 children (1 year and 7 year old) and wife travelling with me.
15/04/2017 I returned the car to Pisa airport where the damage to the Tyre under the rim was pointed out and suggested that it was caused by me. It was accepted by the attendant Mr Salvadore that the spot of damage was consistent with the rim damage which was already outlined and placed. I informed him that this is is the same piece of damage but her refused to accept it.
I have video evidence of both at the time of collecting the car and returning to match. My concern is that Mr Salvadore was suggesting that the tyre needs to be replaced. If so how could Locauto have allowed us to drive away on faulty tyres?
In addition the manner and behaviour with which we were treated was abysmal. We had 2 agitated kids and a flight to catch. I was not even given a receipt in-spite of my repeated request to confirm there were no other problems. The whole experience was unpleasant and discomforting.

Rented a car in April 2017
Car check in in Pisa
Car returned in Venice/Treviso

They took 440€ from my mastercard for a so called "lost key" although I had returned it at the desk at the airport (they signed the return document)
They also charged me 100€ for insurances that I had waived and one extra day rental because we returned the 30 minutes later than foreseen (30 minutes we had to queue at the desk)

These are real bandits, we sincerly regret that we didn't check better internet, full of similar storie... I don't understand Mastercard and orther credit cards are still doing business with them, statistics should speak for themselves.

I had an touristic visit to Bologna between 13-15th October in 2017 and rented a car from locauto company via rentalcars. After two months I recieved a message from my bank about the additional charging (3 x 48.8= 146, 4 euros) from locauto and this transaction was done without my authorization. They send me fake fine papers which are not signed and there is no picture or officer name. I said fake because I had evidences about the places where I am at that times indicated in the fines, they are totally wrong. Now I could not reach LOCAUTO again, also rentalcars did not help.
I really could not understand how these companies are still alive by cheating customers?

Related complain number: Rentalcars.com - ref:[protected] [7771531-[protected]]

On November 28, 2016, we arrived in Catania Fontanarossa to pick up our rental car from Locauto. The rental was fully prepaid via broker rentalcars.com. We were 3h late, and they told us that they only hold a reserved car for a maximum of 59min, and therefore they would not give us the car (or any other car). Staff was extremely unfriendly (yelled at us, refused to show us the terms and conditions etc.), knowing exactly that there is nothing we could do. Since we didn't rent with locauto directly, but through broker rentalcars.com, we had to rely on rentalcars.com to negotiate, and they didn't care. Rentalcars.com refused to give us a refund (not even a partial refund), but at least removed the insurance from the charge. They offered us another car rental at 3x the price and offered to apply our balance to that (we declined).

The policies are set up that if anything goes wrong, the customer is screwed and has no recourse. In the end we had no car and lost our prepayment.

The unfair part is that any complaint has to go through rentalcars.com, who just politely claims that there's nothing they can do since it's the other companies terms of service that apply. I also believe Locauto's 59min rule is unusual (at least for a prepaid rental) and does not appear in rentalcars.com's terms of service.

Sarka Spackova, dispute number 66009
The worst experience ever! You reserve online and you pay a deposit. Then you come to their office at Milano Malpensa Airport and a lady at the front desk tells you that your card Mastercard is not valid! (Just for your information, I used this very same card for the reservation and they charged me 88, 20 € - really strange. How come that if my card is invalid, they still manage to charge me? I use this card every day and I prebooked all the hotels online with this card before my arrival to Italy) So what it means? First of all, you cannot rent a car. When you ask them to reimburse you your deposit, they tell you that you have to contact the customer service - they cannot do anything for you on the spot. So you contact the customer service and they tell you that they can see in my file, that I reserved the car with an invalid card. So as I was still without a car, I went to "Sicily by car" and guess what - no problem! They could use my card with any difficulties and I could leave with a nice Opel Corsa.

Locauto has charged old and existing damage on a car I rented during my holiday. The car had 8 or 9 damages during pickup including this damage, all vaguely (not specificly) noted on the damage form, when returning the car they charged existing damage stating this 10th damage was not on the form. Simply an act of fraude, NEVER HIRE A CAR AT LOCAUTO

Charged for the damage, that was already on the car. I showed this damage to the representative, and he marked it on his iPad (since he does not have a paper version), or at least he said he marked the damage. I was given to sign the acceptance of the car on his iPad, where only the place for signature is shown, but not the damage that he marked, so I was unable to verify. Name of the representative is Francesco.

Now, when I returned the car, I was charged for that particular damage, the he failed to mark, and I was shown an agreement, where my signature is on the old version of the damage report (without the additional one that I showed him and he said he marked "on the system").

So one of the two things happened, he failed to mark this new damage, but I was unable to confirm, since they did not have a paper version of the report, and only showed me a place to sign on iPad, or he deleted the markings, since I signed not on paper form. In any case, this is a fraud.

We rented a car from Locauto at Naples airport and upon returning did as agreed upon delivered the car 4 am and put the keys in the designated key box. Then we went and caught our plane at 6 am and after a couple of days suddenly we had to pay a fine for damages (There where NO damages! and I have photos to prove it) and supposedly late return of the car it was registered returned at 8.30 (when there office opens - I can not strongly enough say DON T use this Company its car rental at its worst! - and you cannot trust what they promise and agree with you upon.

N.

I rent a car from the company named Locauto from Milan Airport. After 2 weeks from my arrival to my country they retrieve from my credit card 48 Euro twice (96 Euros). I sent many e-mails to know the reason without any answer. I knew later that they made the same to many customers. THEY ARE THIEVES.

We booked via Car trawler and chose Locauto to hire from Venice Airport. First issue: 1.5 hours to get through to the desk and sign the paper work, which is exceptionally slow and laborious. Only two staff present albeit they were as helpful as they could be given the process Locauto seem to adopt.
Main issue: we broke down (a front tire blew out) but thankfully close to our hotel. No spare tyre. We limped to the hotel and called the breakdown / vehicle assist number. Locauto promise assistance within 1 hour. After three hours of repeated calls to the number provided plus the Locauto main office no one had returned our call despite advising that "our case was being dealt with". They even hung up the phone and we eventually gave up and through the hotel arranged for a recovery vehicle and subsequent garage to replace the tyre at our cost. This makes a mockery not only of so called customer service to say nothing of being abandoned but also of their CDW policy at 300 euros which would have been a total waste of money had we taken this out. My advice to anyone travelling in Italy with Locauto if firstly not to, but if you must then arrange for your own breakdown cover (e.g. Through the AA) to be extended to cover your trip. Otherwise in our opinion you risk being abandoned as we were if you breakdown.

I booked a car through Locauto in September 2014 in Rome. I was apprehensive as I had read 2 reviews that suggested the hirers were duped when the car was returned and forced to pay for repairs for damage that was there to start with. I was in a rush and thought I would continue as I am experienced and have perhaps hired a dozen cars in Italy over the years and many more in Australia. On pick up we were in the office and asked to sign the car condition report sheet that showed the existing damage and provide our credit card per approval for accidental damage should any happen. I declined the additional insurance cover as my business insurance extends to hire car insurance cover. I was offered a "special of the month" pay 75€ and return the car empty. I declined as I always prefer to have plenty of fuel in the tank just in case and fill it up 5 minutes from Locauto depot at Fiumacino. Anyways we sign the form and went looking for the car. We finally find it and I take it out of its car space so I could inspect it. I noticed that the right side mirror had a blemish on it made by a slight contact with a black car. And the left side sill panel was damaged quite badly. (In a previous life I was a collision repairer so I know where to look). These items were not listed on the condition report sheet. So I went back to the office and low and behold everyone was gone. I went looking around and it was getting too late. So I suspected that the right side mirror was so minor it didn't warrant being on the report and the left side sill panel damage was difficult to detect and none of the staff saw it on the previous inspection. So 28 days later I wash the car and vacuum the interior and give it a general tidy up quite proud of myself having driven 6000kms in Italy and have nothing I repeat nothing happen to us or the car. I return the car to Locauto and the staff in the office grabbed her iPad and proceeded to inspect the car. Would have been good if they did this when I picked it up. She opened the rear door and noticed the seat had a blemish like when we put a damp beach towel on the seat. It was there and it was minor. I was surprised when I was told that I would have to pay to have the rear centre seat cushioned professionally cleaned. I asked ok so how much does this cost? 120€. I was flabbergasted. She continued her inspection and prey tell she noticed the right side mirror. She said the mirror is damaged and I said first of all its minor and can be polished off as its black paint and secondly it was there when we picked it up, but she said the right side mirror cowling has a crack in the indicator lens. I was curious I said how much? Amazingly her iPad was pressed a couple of times and she said 260€. I said to her that Locauto must think that they're customers are stupid and that this was a trick that lenders use to extrapolate a larger yield. I told her good luck getting my money. She asked me to sign the iPad I told her to sign it herself. I offered her 20€ to clean the interior and if she didn't accept then that was Locauto's bad luck and walked off. On return to Australia I contacted my credit card company and blocked Locauto form accessing funds and warned them of potential fraud from this merchant. I called my credit card company 2 or so days later to check if I made it in time and I was told that Locauto had tried to charge my card 380€ on 6 occasions over the last couple of days. These guys are crooks. I would not be surprised if they are owned by the Russian mafia. I have never ever felt more deceived in my life. Funny thing is the left sill panel which had approximately 1500€ worth of damage remained unnoticed. I feel for the next hirer of this car. A silver Citroen C4 Picasso.

At the end of Nov this year we hired a 9 seater car from Argus Hire from Milan Malpensa Airport. The car rental company was Locauto. On presenting the hire voucher to Locauto Rent at their desk I was told that the desk had trouble with computers and my credit card was swiped manually on the rental agreement. I was asked if I wanted to take out extra excess cover insurance with Locauto Rent - I declined.
Our party of six was then escorted by a Locauto employee to the garage area to collect the car. The employee appeared to be very rushed and during the car inspection was very poor in recording existing damage to the exterior of the vehicle. Both I and another member of our party pointed out areas of damage that he missed and asked him to note these on the vehicle report. The hand over procedure lasted approx 5 mins. Specifically to note -at no stage did the employee inspect with us the interior of the vehicle except to record the car mileage. It was pointed out we needed to return the vehicle with a full tank of fuel.
No paperwork was presented to me at that point as the employee had no copying facility.
We found a fault with the electronic fuel gauge here by despite ensuring that the tank was full, the gauge did not reset and continued to show approx the tank 3/4 full. On our return to the airport we were met by a different employee from Locauto who started to check the car. It was noticeable that the inspection was far more thorough than the initial pre-hire one. The employee spoke reasonable English so I explained situation with the fuel gauge. I needed to be insistent that the tank was full. He did pass the comment that this did occasionally happen, he would need to disconnect the battery and this would reset the gauge. Despite our obvious concern that we would be charged for fuel none has been made to my account to date.
At this point the employee then opened a rear door and immediately pointed to a burn mark on one of the rear bench seats. Several of our party specifically commented later that the way he identified this damage gave a strong indication that he knew it was there.
I immediately denied that we had caused the damage, none of our party were smokers but my strongest argument was that no inspection of the vehicle interior was taken by the Locauto employee when the vehicle was handed over.
A vigorous argument ensued and I refused to sign any paperwork. I did however comment on a vehicle inspection sheet regarding the fuel and burn mark. Locauto were unable to give a copy of this - however we have photographed it.
Unfortunately I was unable to proceed with the argument as there were no senior Locauto managers available and we needed to transfer to another terminal for our flight back to the UK.
Subsequently we have been invoiced for over Euro 430 for damages to the seat, Locauto have failed to reply to any email or phone message. Argus Hire have refused to resolve the issue despite my persistence that they have a responsibility to me by being the company with whom I made the booking. Any request by Argus Hire to Locauto to contact me has also failed. I have now put the credit card charge into dispute with my bank and await their decision.
I would be interested to hear of any similiar cases with Locauto.

We made a mistake of hireing the car from Locauto in Milan. If you had a traffic violation in Italy, this company will charge you 48.40 Euros just for their writing of the report, apart from violation charges. They did charge us 48.40 Euros - 15 (fifteen) times ! on two different credit cards before we managed to close them down.

Avoid LOCAUTO car rental in Italy.
I picked up a car from LOCAUTO at Palermo Airport (booked through rentalcars.com) but, having driven 32 kms, I noticed the fuel gauge indicated that the car was only half full of petrol. I checked my contract. It gave the start mileage (2305 km) and the petrol level as 'Carb. 60/60'. I wasn't sure if that meant it was 60% full. As it was not convenient to return to the airport, I photographed the dial showing the petrol level and the mileage. On returning the car (three-quarters full), LOCAUTO charged me a refuelling charge of €80, 59.
Even though I sent their Customer Service the photo which proved that the car was only half-full after 32 kms, they refused a refund. The contract, they maintained, stated that the car was full (60/60) when picked up.
So be warned! Make sure to check the fuel gauge before setting off if you rent from LOCAUTO. In light of a further dispute with LOCAUTO (over supposed damage to the car), I think their 'refuelling charges' are a scam.

We hired a small vehicle for a couple of days to pick up and return Linate Airport Milan. This was through Car Hire 3000 as had used them before and not encountered problems. We were only there a few days as going to a local wedding so mileage was going to be low. asked to cocer 1500 euro excess which we declined as has excess cover with the company. I now understand that this does not cover tyres, windscreen or underneath the car. So when travelling add in the extra cost. The car was returned in the same condition as picked up. On return I received my credit card statement showing a charge of 280 Euros. I wrote immediately to the hire company to find out why. Told may take up to 28 days. No response chased now going to receive a refund but still a cost 100 euros to me but no reason or evidence. Just that this is an admin fee. It seems that if you do not take out cover their end you get charged. My partner took photos of the car on return as no one to see car return and when dropping off car told ok as I was concerned car being damaged in car park. I would not touch this company with a barge pole again and would warn other not to do so either. Your car hire will cost you exceptionaly more than you expected and this was not cheap for two days in the first place without the extra charge. I have spoken to someone at car hire 3000 who confirms that there are a number of companies or are not reputable and I think that these need to be excluded.

Last weekend I travelled with my family to Cagliari (Sardegna). We rented a car at the Airport with Locauto. First of all there were two people in the office when we arrived and after handing over our reservation they told us to wait and left. We thought it would be only a minute...Half an our! When one of the persons came back he was really rude answering our questions, apparently he had better things to do than completing our contract and resolving our doubts (?!). He ended up throwing us out (literally). By the way, he affirmed very proud he was the boss of the office. He got all cocky with us.
To make matters worse when we returned the car we had another confrontation because he told us to pay 62 euros for the baby seat and I asked him to show the list of prices to me (I had been asking other companies to have an idea and all of them told me it cost 35 euros per week), but he didn't have such a list (strange). Finally we asked for a complaints book and he told us to visit their website and also started saying in Italian something like "Spaniards go home!"

We hired a car from locauto in Catania (Sicily). It was full of damages. We had to sign the forms before seeing the car. We mentioned the damages and the fact that they were not all filled in on the form. That was not necessary they told us: only the "headlines" were shown. At the return however they told us we created damage. Result: nearly € 400 additional cost charge. As a so called evidence they showed an unclear picture dated nearly 2 months ago. Don't trust these guys and find another rental company!