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21 Jun 2024

Best and worst car hire brokers 2024

If you book with the right car hire broker, you’ll increase your options, save money and get help to resolve any issues. Our survey of thousands of car hire customers will help you choose

Guy HobbsPrincipal researcher & writer

Only one car hire broker has ever been awarded Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) status.

Zest Car Rental will save you money by negotiating bulk rates with providers, including insurance and often, an additional driver, in its rates. Crucially, it offers an extra level of assistance if anything goes wrong.

The problem with using smaller car rental firms abroad is that you don’t know if they can be trusted. But Zest vets every firm on its website and monitors ratings weekly. If scores fall, a firm will be put under review before being removed from the site completely if there’s no evidence of improvement.

Zest doesn’t work with Goldcar, for example, the lowest-scoring firm for more than a decade in our survey of the Best and worst car hire companies.

And if a problem arises, Zest’s customer service will help you resolve it, quickly (because the providers won’t ignore Zest like they might a customer), and in English.

AutoEurope also has excellent customer service, and is worth considering. But we’d steer clear of Discovercars – a site with just two stars for its customer service.

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Car hire brokers rated

Only one company met our criteria to be awarded Which? Recommended Provider status.


RECOMMENDED PROVIDER Zest Car Rental	90%	Read full Zest Car Rental review	£31
AutoEurope.co.uk	80%	Read full Auto Europe review	£41
Doyouspain.com	74%	Read full Do You Spain review	n/a	n/a		n/a	n/a
Booking.com/Rentalcars.com	73%	Read full Rental Cars review	£40
Expedia	71%	Read full Expedia review	n/a	n/a	n/a		n/a	n/a
Holidayautos.com	70%	Read full Holiday Autos review	£46
Discovercars.com	64%	Read full Discover Cars review	n/a	n/a

Using the table: Star ratings are from one to five, the more the better. 'n/a' indicates we did not receive enough responses to provide a rating. Avg price per day Based on respondents recall of the price paid per day. Clarity of extra charges eg: insurance costs, additional drivers, child seats, satnav etc. Customer score Combination of overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend.

How we research car hire brokers

In March 2024 we asked 2,324 members of Which? Connect and the general public to complete an online survey about their experience of using a car hire company in the past two years.

Only those car hire companies that were top of the table and met our consumer-focused criteria are eligible for Which? Recommended Provider status.