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Deceptive business practices – legal action may be necessary
We are Swedish customers who prepaid a car rental via CarTrawler/Norwegian (provider: Goldcar, Milan). Despite presenting valid ID (passport and driver’s license), the car was withheld due to a sudden and undocumented demand for a national ID card — not stated in the rental terms.

We rebooked a new car with the same dates at a much higher cost, based on CarTrawler's assurance that a refund would be possible. After over six months of delays and contradictory responses, our claim was rejected.

This appears to be a recurring pattern, with many similar reports. We filed a claim through the Small Claims Court in Dublin, and after service of process, CarTrawler quickly refunded the full amount, including interest and court fees. Please note this is for EU citizens.

We share this to prevent others from being misled and having their holidays ruined.

If you’ve experienced the same:

You can file a complaint using the EU Small Claims Procedure. It costs €25, is handled entirely in writing, and you take no risk — you won’t be liable for the company’s legal costs if you lose. No lawyer is required.

More info & form: Search for european small claims procedure

CarTrawler company details for the form:

Company name: Etrawler Unlimited Company (trading as CarTrawler)

Company registration no.: 93433

Registered address: Classon House, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland

Court where we filed our claim:
Dublin District Small Claims Office
First Floor, Áras Uí Dhálaigh, Inns Quay, Dublin 7, Ireland
Email can be found online.

TLDL;
-Made contract with cartrawler (full AXA insurance + car from GoldCar)
-GoldCar laughs at this contract and demands their own insurance, or else I can continue walking. No car without their own insurance.
-When returning car, GoldCar refuses to refund insurance, still laughs at CarTrawler document as it's not their contract. "We have nothing to do with this contract"
-CarTrawler refuses to refund, as it's written on contract that nothing extra should be paid.

By far the worst experience I’ve ever had. I was scammed out of 3500 SEK for no reason. Even the Swedish National Board for Consumer Disputes (ARN) tried to contact the company for over a month and they never replied. Please stay away and book directly with the companies instead. They have better deals, terms, and agreements

Booked an Airport Transfer from Malaga Airport through Ryanair who use Cartrawler. Flight was delay 1 1/2 hours. Called company four times in the next hour and each time was told the driver was 5 minutes away. On the fifth call we were told they couldn't contact the driver. We had to pay for an airport taxi and have tried to get a refund from Cartrawler or Ryanair but neither interested. We were told the driver was there but couldn't wait when we wrote to complain yet this was never mentioned in any of the five calls to them, It is a total scam. There are plenty of reviews on other platforms. Read and under no circumstances use either for your airport transfer. Hopefully you are reading this before you book and not after you have been ripped off.

Terrible, STAY AWAY FROM THEM, coz they are too good at scamming and disappearing, and you will never get back your money.
They don’t have any contact number, just the “whatsaapp”, online support and the never-respond email address. They charged me for my full rental + car insurance, after few months of dispute, i was merely able to receive partial refund but did not return my insurance fee of CA$60. I attempted to connect with them a several times but never success.

Absolutely terrible. They still owe me £500
Customer service did not respond after weeks. Arrived at airport with two young children (2 and 3) to be told there are no car seats to put them in! Stranded, out of pocket and dealt with poorly. Avoid.

Stay away from them, they did not provide me the car oj the day with no preoper reson I have to soent £400 on the airport to find another car delaer. They have not give me refund either. Horrible horrible rude customer service. Just same reply over and over zero investigation. Scammers

Stay away from this company. I booked a car through them to be provided by auto union in Jamaica. When I got there Auto Union tried to charge extra insurance and when I questioned this they refused to give me the car which I had fully paid for. They potentially left me and my daughter stranded with 2 hours drive at 4pm. I had to find another company to rent a car. Car trawler has not refunded my money and are refusing a further amount to compensate Auto Union.

Avoid!! They changed my car hire to a location over an hour away and the customer service online and at the call centre is awful. The only option was for me to cancel and book with another company, while these thieves took 5 days to process a refund. A terrible company with atrocious customer service that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Avoid at all costs.

Long version: I booked on their holidayautos.com website in the UK. I searched for my pick up location and dates and was given a list of vehicles with daily prices. I selected a mid-range vehicle and paid online. When I opened the confirmation email the pick up location was over an hours' drive away from my requested location. Madness! I immediately used the online 'Manage Booking' option to amend the location, but was told there are no vehicles available at my preferred location. So - basically - the Holiday Autos / car trawler website fraudulently sold me a car hire service they knew they couldn't provide, took full payment, and when I asked for an immediate refund I was told by the chat function and then the customer service call line that I was at fault for accepting the car hire AND that I would have to wait 5 days for the refund to be processed. Such a cynical, dishonest business. They hide behind legalese, saying that on the payment page it would have shown a summary of the pick up address, but it definitely was not clear. And more to the point - what on earth is a car hire company doing re-locating a hire request to an hour away?! That is not a reasonable alternative, it's outrageous. How many customers can travel an hour to pick up the hire car? It is so so so cynical that it just stinks of corporate greed and an intention to deceive. The 'customer service' people were just patronisingly reciting corporate chapter and verse. I know I'll get the money back eventually but I am sick and tired of big companies bullying consumers... they take our payment immediately and then expect us to wait a week to get it back when they are the ones at fault. Avoid like the plague and tell as many people as you can to blacklist these corporate bullies.

I booked a car in advance. They cancelled my booking just because I was late. And never pay me back

4 Months, No Refund
Trawler/Holiday Autos Is Not to Be Trusted

It has been 4 months since I cancelled a car rental through Holiday Autos (run by Trawler), due to a cancelled flight. The rental providers, Dollar/Hertz, both confirmed in writing that the booking was cancelled, the vehicle was never picked up, and no services were provided. I followed the cancellation steps. I provided every piece of documentation they asked for—multiple times.

CarTrawler has not refunded me.

Worse, they publicly replied to my review claiming they already refunded me. This is false.

They emailed me to say the refund had been issued. Again—false. I have the emails. I have the screenshots. I have the case number.

What’s happened over the past four months:

- They ignored evidence from both me and the rental company.

- They claimed my case was "new" even months after it began.

- They demanded I re-send documents that were already sent and acknowledged.

- They closed the case prematurely.

- They lied—in writing and in public—about issuing a refund.

This company uses delay, denial, and dishonesty as strategy. Their system is designed to exhaust customers into giving up.

If you're thinking about using Trawler, Holiday Autos, Argus Car Hire, or any of their white-labelled brands: don’t.

You risk paying for a service you’ll never receive—and then fighting for months to get your money back.

I do not recommend this company – stay away! Once we arrived at the destination, they didn’t provide us with a car. On top of that, they forced us to get full insurance (full casco) and demanded a €200 cash deposit. Total scammers!

Auto geboekt duidelijk vtv aangegeven wil met mijn asn bankpas borg betalen ,was geen probleem moest wel €3000,- opstaan.
Bij aankomst werd mijn bankpas niet geaccepteerd want het was v-pay en dat namen ze niet aan
Resultaat geen geld terug gekregen zelfs na een klacht en melding niet en een hele nieuwe auto kunnen huren à €450,-
De andere €254,- zijn we kwijt
Nooit meer hier iets huren ,lafhartige oplichters

I had changed the date of the car I wanted to rent from Car Trawler. The foreign official who called the call center misunderstood the date and scheduled the car 1 month before the actual reservation date. They did not refund my money in any way. They did not change the date either. I do not recommend it to anyone. I do not recommend you to choose this place to rent a car when buying a ticket from Pegasus. My reservation number is TR135660090.

BUYER BEWARE: Booked online through our hotel site. After waiting in a queue of over 100 people at the Hertz/Dollar/Thrifty location in Dublin Airport, we arrived 2 hours after our proposed time of arrival. They do have QR codes available to check in while in line. DO NOT USE THE QR CODE - because then, you are automatically checked in and cannot dispute the car.

Our Credit card company provides insurance coverage when we rent cars using them. Wether this is a HERTZ corporate requirement or a Cartrawler one, we ended up as captive to their requirement to purchase insurance at 48euros/day!!! Or, lose out on the entire reservation with no refund (because I checked in using the QR code).

In either circumstance, I've tried to get back to the main website but am unable to do so, to see if I could book another vehicle and buy the insurance BEFORE the rental begins, to see if it is any cheaper. When I try to access Cartrawler.com or even cartrawler.ie, I get an error code as if it doesn't exist. Thats not a good feeling - nor a decent customer service experience for anyone!

Extremely poor service. I encountered issues with my bookings, and the car rental company agreed to let me cancel without any charges. However, Cartraweler is refusing to refund the cancellation fee and is unwilling to investigate the situation.
Additionally, they seem to have significant difficulty understanding English! I strongly recommend to avoid this company when ever possible!

I had a terrible experience with CarTrawler and their partner, Goldcar. Despite arriving at the rental location on time, with proof of my journey via Uber (which I provided), Goldcar falsely claimed I was a no-show. Even worse, CarTrawler took their side — ignoring the evidence and completely failing to respond to my follow-up message.

I wasted hours chasing this issue, only to be met with silence and blatant dishonesty. Not only was I denied the car I paid for, but I also lost money on transport and wasted my time dealing with this mess. CarTrawler's customer service is appalling — no accountability, no resolution, and no respect for the customer.

I will be escalating this through every available channel — including formal complaints and legal options. If you value your time, money, or sanity, do not use CarTrawler.

Don't use them!
You will most like end up without a car and money.
Collection was for 10am
I arrived at desk at 10:15, was queuing for over 45min. When it was my turn they said the booking is cancelled because I'm late! Without any explanation or notice whatsoever.

Avoid avoid avoid! Booked a transfer from our apartment in Spain, took my money in advance and the transfer never arrived. Tried for one month to get a refund and just constantly fobbed off so I’ve given up.

Rouge trader. Avoid at all cost! They are an agent for Opodo. They refused my refund for the 3 week car rental after their agent agreed a refund for providing with an unsafe car that nearly killed us. They also did not vetted their car rental agents and you will likely receive an unsafe car and risk your life. I have experienced that. Don't believe me? Try searching CarTrawler and read other reviews on Google, Trip Advisor and Trust Pilot.