Never us Hertz or Firefly

There ought to be a rating on 0

I have had to endure the worst experience with a booking made on Travelstart. My family and I planned a holiday on the South Coast. We booked flights on Travelstart. On Saturday I booked the rental vehicle from Firefly. I printed the booking in the evening and did not read the entire document as I assumed that the arrangement of R3000 would be charged as is it with other car rental companies. Upon arrival, I could not find firefly and after requiring I was informed that I had to go to Hertz. We were tired and had to wait for more than 45 minutes as their systems were extremely slow. At this point my two children were tired and irritable. I eventually got to the counter, systems were slow and it took forever to even finalise the booking. I was then informed that they had to put on a hold on my card for R17 000 and in addition another R1600 for the fuel top up. Both my husband and my credit cards are set at a R5000 limit and neither of us could provide a card for this large deposit. In addition we were informed that they will block these amounts and the funds will be released 21 days after returning the car. How could they place us in a position where they would block R17000 and we were going on holiday. After much discussion, I asked then to call firefly and they simply responded to say that firefly is an international booking company and they have no access to them. In addition any cancellation would mean that we lose the entire booking amount. The only solution was for us to pay an additional R1800 for insurance for the week so that we didn’t pay the excess amount of R17000. I tried calling Travelstart for assistance and the lady was extremely unhelpful. We arrived at Hertz at 12 and only got into the car at 15:00. Staff at Herz King Shaka are absolutely *********** and are of no assistance. I even called the manage and she knew less than the assistant at the desk. They have no solutions to the problem, they just provide you with more problems and tons of reasons why they cannot assist.

Hertz uses firefly a subsidiary international company with no local presence. When making a booking you are required to have a further R17000 available on your card that must be blocked to cover possible damages. Otherwise you have to pay R315 per day (totally unplanned). Staff are not helpful. Cannot even cancel the booking they have to call the international company. Don't use this company and Firefly. Worst experience. A booking meant to cost R1400 ended up costing R3200. Check all terms and conditions.

Travelstart surely you have better control over such bookings. I have used your service for international bookings and never encountered such problems. This experience has left me wondering whether I want to use Travelstart again.

Absolutely terrible experience and a spoiler for our holiday.