Renting a Car through Booking.com

Related Stores

Booking.com

• 

  Mechz on 20/05/2025 - 22:02

  +2

  I've booked several times through them and had no issues.

  Always get the insurance so the rental company doesn't sting you for more on the day.

  • 

    flylin on 20/05/2025 - 22:18

    -5

    Can't tell if the booking.com insurance is a scam or not.

    The government needs to step in and standardise this lol.

    • 

      sumyungguy on 20/05/2025 - 22:21

      They resell cover by Rentalcover.com which you can purchase direct for less.

      • 

        flylin on 20/05/2025 - 22:31

        Thanks will look into it!

        Bette than credit card rental insurance? I have a NAB card.

        • 

          sumyungguy on 20/05/2025 - 22:36

          @flylin: Credit card insurance often doesn't cover the excess which is stupidly high in Australia; and generally incurs a policy excess which means it's not quite zero excess. Are you doing domestic or international?

        • 

          star-ggg on 21/05/2025 - 09:21

          +3

          @flylin: Rental car insurance isn't the same the Full Damage Waiver offered by the rental car company. Insurance means the car company will take repair amount from you and then you have to claim that back from insurance. Full damage waiver means you walk away nothing to pay, no hassles except for some paperwork when you hand the keys in.

• 

  sumyungguy on 20/05/2025 - 22:03

  Now using Rentalcars.com more then Holiday Autos, no issues to report. Are you asking about domestic or international rentals?

• 

  stirlo on 20/05/2025 - 23:27

  +3

  Your profile says you're from New York. In the USA you insure the driver whereas in Australia we insure the vehicle. This means your own insurance from America will not be valid when driving an Australian car (unlike in America where you would be covered).

  Renting a car is simplier in Australia than in America. There is no requirement for supplemental liability insurance or other mandatory state insurances to be added on. The price you see on an Australian website is the price you will pay (and will include all taxes and mandatory insurances).

  We also operate on the same rental car model as Europe where when you rent a car you are responsible only for the damage up to the excess amount with cars offering a CDW (collision damage waiver) which limits your liability to the first few thousand dollars of damage to the vehicle. Medical bills and loss of income from accidents which you can be sued for in America are covered for free under Australian state government programs that cover anyone injured in an accident so there's no need for insurance for this.

  All this means that your liability should you get into an accident or damage the car is at most $2000-3000 USD (and often less). It's up to you if you think it's worth paying for insurance to lower this liability to $0. If you choose not to purchase the insuarance to lower this to zero you will normally have the full amount blocked from your credit card as a deposit when you collect the car (and refunded when you return it).

  Booking via third party websites is normally fine but you need to be very careful you are booking from the Australian version of the site (eg: https://www.rentalcars.com/au/) not the standard USA website as the USA version might provide a quote without the CDW included.

  If you do purchase the extra insurance to lower your excess to $0 always purchase it directly from the rental company (they will certainly offer it to you when you collect the car even if you booked on booking.com/rentalcars.com) rather than buying it from booking.com. When you purchase from booking.com the insurance they sell you is from a third party not from the rental car agency itself so in the event the rental car agency needs you to pay for damage you'd need to pay them first before then making a seperate claim with booking.com. If you purchase the insurance from the rental car agency directly they will just take the car back even if damaged and not bill you at all.

  Good luck with your trip downunder!!!

  • 

    sumyungguy on 20/05/2025 - 23:31

    +1

    Only purchase excess reduction from Australian rental car car operators if you're not price sensitive; otherwise you get stiffed a hefty lazy tax for failing to make your own arrangements.

    • 

      stirlo on 20/05/2025 - 23:35

      Thats true. Best to purchase a third party rental excess insurance online completely seperate to booking.com or the rental car agency.

      But it is an important factor that with these third party plans you are at the mercy of what the rental car agency calls "damage" and will have to manage the claim yourself. If you take their insurance you can return the car with a big scratch in the bumper and walk off without paying anything.

      For some people the convenience of this might be worth it

    • 

      star-ggg on 21/05/2025 - 09:26

      +1

      Size of the tax depends on how long your rental is for since the excess waiver is based on per day. If I am renting for less than a week I just pay the waiver knowing once my rental is done, it's done- no more hassles. If renting for a day, it's like $10 price difference.

• 

  Ponsonby on 21/05/2025 - 00:17

  and if you read the detail of the "insurance" provided by the rental car company, you will be surprised by the numerous exclusions - the exclusions typically include underbody and over body damage and tyres and off bitumen driving. In some remote areas, any damage that happens while driving outside daylight hours is also excluded (due to high risk of animal collisions). Most importantly they usually exclude any damage that happens when you are breaking the law (over the 0.05 alcohol limit, running a red light etc)

• 

  AustriaBargain on 21/05/2025 - 00:53

  Uber has car rentals now, but only major car rentals are offering cars through it, at least here in Adelaide. Might be worth checking other cities though.

• 

  ryefig on 21/05/2025 - 09:38

  +2

  Be very careful about insurance - this gets a lot of people. Most rental sites will make it sound like the car is uninsured unless you pay extra (they have an incentive to do so because they get a healthy commission on these sales and it is part of their KPIs).
  In Australia, this is incorrect, the car absolutely IS insured, but what they are trying to sell you is an excess reduction policy meaning that in the event of an accident, the excess you pay might be $300 instead of the default $3000.

  Do you have travel insurance and if so, what is the amount of Rental Car excess it will cover in the event of an accident involving a rental car?
  Compare that to the excess you need to pay in the event of an accident and if your travel insurance amount will cover the excess, there is no need to purchase insurance with Booking.com or the car rental company.

  Finally, if you purchase the 'insurance' from Booking.com or any other third party site and you are involved in an accident, you will still need to pay the full amount. You will then need to go through the additional step of making a claim through the third party insurance to be reimbursed. Depending on the T&Cs and the company, this process can be a nightmare.

  Anyway, back to your question. I have made a few car rental bookings through Booking.com and so far I have had no problems.

• 

  6079 Smith on 21/05/2025 - 13:46

  I find Skyscanner to be the best OTA comparison site for car rental and then insure the excess either through your travel insurance (check the excess on this line item) or through a company such as RentalCover

• 

  snivy on 21/05/2025 - 15:43

  Rule of thumb for booking through third party site is that if something goes wrong it'd be harder and take longer to get it fixed, as you have to contact the third party agent, the agent will clarify with the company, before contacting you again, and the cycle continues like that until it's resolved. They're basically the middleman who holds your money. So as long as you're aware of that, I see no problem.

  If people say they never had issues, then good on them. I had problems with some bookings in the past (mostly flights and hotels) where I had to spent days/weeks calling back and forth just to rectify the problems.

  Anyway enjoy your holiday, watch out for our wildlife on the road.

• 

  flylin on 25/06/2025 - 13:03

  Thanks all.

  Ended up booking directly with Budget. However, didn't take up their excess reduction option.

  Instead, took out insurance with Rentalcover.com, on top of $5k excess cover for car rental my credit already provides.

  I did get a minor scratch on the front bumper during our trip, likely from stone of the road. Will be interesting to see if it falls under the fair use wear and tear, or if it will get escalated to a claim.

  • 

    kerfuffle on 23/07/2025 - 15:25

    How many times do you need to spam your business?

• 

  dj123 on 19/10/2025 - 15:47

  I booked an Ace rental car for Tasmania via booking.com. They outsourced the booking to Cars on Booking in London, without telling me about that. As a result, I was charged a foreign exchange fee on the rental charge, which I put on my AU credit card. Had booking.com told me the situation during the booking, I would have used my other no-FX-fee credit card instead. Sneaky non-disclosure of a relevant charge. So consider that FX issue if getting a rental car via booking.com. The booking is still in the future, so I cannot comment on the whole process. I complained to booking.com and got a generic AI-sounding "nothing we can do" type reply. Also google "booking.com rental car review" to see extensive negative comments.

  • 

    flylin on 19/10/2025 - 16:09

    I got slapped with that charge too.

    Fortunately when you cancel, you also get that part refunded.

    • 

      flylin on 19/10/2025 - 16:10

      Also to be fair. I think all rental car companies have bad reviews