Ireland Car Hire suggestions

[ellen10]

We will be flying in to Ireland late August and will need to hire a car from Dublin airport for 8 days.
6 years ago we used Hertz, but I have heard of some not so nice stories.

Does anyone have recommendations or experiences.

 

[Flashback]

Europcar I generally don't have good experiences with but in Ireland they were OK (we rented out of Cork). They're all much of a muchness really. Have you tried searching via Netflights?

 

[ellen10]

Europcar I generally don't have good experiences with but in Ireland they were OK (we rented out of Cork). They're all much of a muchness really. Have you tried searching via Netflights?

Thanks for the feed back @Flashback , I haven't searched via Netflights, but I will look in to it.

We will be driving into Northern Ireland as well, so I am not sure that will effect the car hire. I have read that Dan Dooleys has a good name in Ireland. but I think they are a bit more expensive, but I don't personally know anyone who rented from them.

 

[Flashback]

Thanks for the feed back @Flashback , I haven't searched via Netflights, but I will look in to it.

We will be driving into Northern Ireland as well, so I am not sure that will effect the car hire. I have read that Dan Dooleys has a good name in Ireland. but I think they are a bit more expensive, but I don't personally know anyone who rented from them.

Can't say I've ever heard of/used them before, maybe there's some posts of users with experience with them on the TripAdvisor forums?

I don't believe there's any issues driving into Northern Ireland, there's no hard border etc. (NB: dependent upon Brexit ) but if there is there will be a note on the site when booking.

 

[kookaburra75]

We will be flying in to Ireland late August and will need to hire a car from Dublin airport for 8 days.
6 years ago we used Hertz, but I have heard of some not so nice stories.

Does anyone have recommendations or experiences.

We used Hertz recently, without any issues. I picked up the car from one of the Dublin City depots, and dropped off at the airport.

 

[ellen10]

We would be picking up at Dublin Airport doing a Northern loop up through Belfast and west coast down to Galway and back to Dublin.
We have used Hertz before but I have read on Trip Advisor forums lots of complaints about Hertz but mainly from American travellers and the extra insurance.

 

[Flashback]

We would be picking up at Dublin Airport doing a Northern loop up through Belfast and west coast down to Galway and back to Dublin.
We have used Hertz before but I have read on Trip Advisor forums lots of complaints about Hertz but mainly from American travellers and the extra insurance.

Americans complain about everything

I always recommend a standalone car insurance policy (if your credit card doesn't adequately cover anyway) - cheaper and purchased on an annual basis if you do more than 1 rental a year works out pretty good value.

 

[Ski Traveller]

We used Dan Dooley's in Ireland in July 2017 - we hired a car for three weeks and they were great we had no issues at all. We picked up and dropped off the car in Dublin and went everywhere. Some companies charge an extra fee to take the car up into Northern Ireland but Dooley's included that. We used Europcar in the UK after that to hire a car for three weeks and it was the hire from hell but can't comment on what they are like in Ireland but we were very happy with Dooley's.

 

[Comoman]

A few months ago I used Avis from Dublin airport. Spent 8 days driving around the west coast and into the North and returned again to Dublin airport.

No issues - they had a good range of cars and have a large hire centre at the airport.

 

[jbman]

Used Avis before, tried to shonk me on the car type saying that's all that was on offer. I quick walk in the carpark I saw this was not the case and the car was quickly upgraded.

Driven both North and South with no issues at all.

I noted the cars next door at Dooley's looked like they were the used cars from Avis etc. Not new and many not in good condition

 

[lovetravellingoz]

We would be picking up at Dublin Airport doing a Northern loop up through Belfast and west coast down to Galway and back to Dublin.
We have used Hertz before

As per my thread on this topic from last year I used Hertz in Ireland (and Scotland, England and Sweden) all without a problem.

but I have read on Trip Advisor forums lots of complaints about Hertz but mainly from American travellers and the extra insurance.

I would simply ignore virtually all posts by those coming from the USA. When I researched this topic prior to my travels last year (there is a thread on it) it quickly became apparent the Irish Car hire was being whipped into a frenzy by clueless USA Travellers.


Americans are basically clueless about anything which is not exactly what they are used to in the USA.

With car hire and related insurances it is more so. One reason is that the terminology is different and the typical American is too ignorant to research the different use of words and terminology in different countries..

Another is that they arrive thinking that there CC insurance will cover them, which again is not so.

There are also huge numbers of USA Tourists in Ireland, and so this biases the forums.

This same USA Traveller ignorance I also got to witness first hand when I picked up my Hertz hire car in Bath England. Two american's arrived unfortunately just prior to me. I was not sure then whether I was witnessing a comedy or train wreck as the whole simple check in process became extended and each traveller was clueless. With No1 At each question it was well I don't know, I will have to ring the wife (who had made the booking, but who was also clueless.). Insurance was a huge part of the issue as it well we are covered back home so you should cover it here blah, blah. They guy actually rang his wife 10 times!

No2 was little better, but at least he did not have to ring his wife to slow down the process even further.

 

[Ski Traveller]

The car we got from Dooley’s was brand new.

 

[drron]

Next year we will be driving in Ireland so this thread is valuable.
And lovetravellingoz there was a clueless American family next to me at breakfast this morning.Must have been even more clueless than your example.Obviously didn't take in anything when they picked up the car and now after having an accident were amazed their insurance didn't cover them for Australia and NZ.
Though the US flights arrive in NZ ~ 0600 so may have not been awake.

 

[ellen10]

Thanks for all the great answers everyone.
We have hired cars in Europe from all the major companies and fortunately without incidence. We have hired directly with the company and also through a wholesaler e.g. Driveway.
I am tempted to go with Dooleys as many Irish people seem to recommend them and their prices are all inclusive, no extra upsell of insurances.
I will sit down and do some proper price comparisons.

 

[Flashback]

Thanks for all the great answers everyone.
We have hired cars in Europe from all the major companies and fortunately without incidence. We have hired directly with the company and also through a wholesaler e.g. Driveway.
I am tempted to go with Dooleys as many Irish people seem to recommend them and their prices are all inclusive, no extra upsell of insurances.
I will sit down and do some proper price comparisons.

Netflights is a good consolidator worth checking for rentals in Ireland.

 

[ellen10]

Netflights is a good consolidator worth checking for rentals in Ireland.

Thanks @Flashback I will have a look at them.

 

[bernardblack]

I would advise to avoid Europcar in Ireland due to issues with application of dynamic currency conversion against my express objections.

 

[ellen10]

@twiningb thanks for your reply. I will avoid Europecar. I am planning to book within the next week. There are a few earl bird offers that finish at the end of March.

 

[gty222]

Got the same thing with Hertz, DCC used without asking. However after three follow-up calls they reversed it.

 

[Flashback]

I've used Hertz in 5 different countries and have never come across issues with DCC, clearly a case of YMMV!

Europcar I'd avoid at all costs anyway for various reasons.