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Zest Car Rental, formerly Economy Car Hire, is a leading car hire broker, based in the UK. We provide worldwide car hire with excellent customer service.
Zest Car Rental was formerly known as Economy Car Hire
Reviews 899
Katharine
Aug 14,2024We regularly hire a car on holiday and from now on we will be using Zest. We had a bit of an issue at the airport in Italy - as our credit and debit cards weren't accepted. It's the first time that's happened but I put in a call to Zest and got through to someone right away. She sorted it all out on the spot. Cancelling the hire, rebooking with another provider and even calling back after a few hours to let us know that the first company had agreed to refund our booking charge. They were so helpful and it was a relief to be able to have someone to call to sort out the mess!
Matthew Rowley
Aug 14,2024Excellent service as usual, Harriet made everything simple and straightforward
Graham
Aug 14,2024The booking process was simple, and we assume Zest have done some vetting on the car-hire companies they work with as Drivalia were by far the best we've ever used. Added to that Zest avoided the whole additional-insurance-at-pick-up conversation by offering a very reasonable top-up policy which covered all eventualities
Bruce Cotton
Aug 14,2024My experience relates to my May booking. I chose to hire through Zest as the promotional material provided much greater clarity about what you were and weren’t being charged for during car hire and it seemed a breath of fresh air. Sadly, this set-up appears to be very much a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” with Zest presenting a slick professional front for the truly dreadful Drivalia that you are actually dealing with. Things got off to a bad start. The overcrowded and shared courtesy bus had been hard to find and seemed to visit every Ibis along the Bath Road before turning into a most unappealing car hire lot. It was late, and the lady on reception processed our booking. When she called her colleague to confirm which car, we overheard her saying “do you have another one available?”. Nothing else available. We were getting nervous. More nervous still when she gave us a piece of paper with the car showing multiple damage marks. If you’re not happy you can call us and we’ll try to get you another one. We went out to inspect, photograph and video. Of course it wasn’t the "advertised car", it was the “or similar” – a dark blue Fiat 500x. It had scrapes in lots of different places but most worryingly some of the skirting had come loose of a bracket and was hanging a bit above the ground. We didn't feel we had any choice but to take this car and contact Drivalia the next day. We drove to our first holiday destination. Dreadfully underpowered car but it got us from A to B and seemed to be mechanically ok. The next day I called Drivalia on the number they gave to discuss options. No answer. Tried again later. No answer. Phoned Zest. Just like the marketing material the experience with Zest was great. I explained to a very sympathetic person who said they would contact Drivalia. Ten minutes on hold and clearly Zest had no clout either as no-one was answering the phone at Drivalia Heathrow. Still hopeful, Zest contacted me to say that they had messaged the manager so I should expect a call. Time was ticking with our holiday itinerary and when no call received and a further attempt to call Drivalia went unanswered we decided that we’d flagged up our concerns with the state of the vehicle and would proceed. The next four and a half weeks passed relatively event free. During this period and unbeknown to us, we were later to discover that we experienced a very small chip to the windscreen to add to the woes off this beaten-up and rather sad Fiat 500x. Now everyone who’s hired a car always fears the return process. Anyone who’s read Drivalia’s public reviews would understand this nervousness as it seems that this is where the real money is made. We took the car in. No signage. No obvious return process. We stopped somewhere that seemed to be in everybody's way but didn’t know where else to park. Someone washing cars came over and told us to wait with the car. A little while later and clipboard man came out giving the vehicle the third degree. Probing all the hub caps, crevasses etc – a real pro at work. All of my panicky protestations that the car was in pretty rough shape when we got it were met with near total silence as “the new” piece of damage was spotted. “Cracked windscreen”. My wife and I looked closely and there certainly was a very small chip. We started to go through our photos and video of the car from a few weeks ago but it was dark when we’d picked the vehicle up and it was impossible to tell whether the damage was ours. What next we enquired of silent clipboard man. “You’ll have to talk to Raj – he’ll have a look at the CCTV.” Unsure of whether we needed to go to Raj or Raj would come to us, we stood waiting for another 15 minutes before being told that we were going to be charged for a replacement windscreen. “850 quid. You’ve cracked the windscreen” was Raj’s opening gambit. “Have you viewed the CCTV, it’s difficult to tell from my pictures?”. “Yeah, I’ve looked at them and there was no damage before.” Raj was leaning back on his chair like a poker player with a Royal Flush and he had no intention of showing his hand and sharing the source of his confidence. “OK. So, can the chip be repaired?”. I asked. “No, 850 pounds. New windscreen.” At this point, I thought that however bad my holiday insurance company would be to deal with I might at least be treated with a little more courtesy even if they reject my claim. So I surrendered and asked for paperwork and confirmed the money to be debited from my credit card. We were rattled and just wanted to get to the airport. Whether there was any signs for the “courtesy” bus in or around the yard we never found out. We took an Uber. Our experience was clearly marred by having to pay for damage (but was covered by our travel insurance). Badly damaged car. Horrible service. No control of customer experience by Zest. Shabby unprofessional premises. Poor!
Terry Penhall
Aug 14,2024Zest holiday car rentals offer a very competitive package with an excellent range of cars at very low prices including insurance. I have used them several times and will continue to use them in the future.
Mr Robert Vella
Aug 13,2024I have been using Zest for many years now and have had no cause for complaint, in fact it is the only company i book car hire through.
Richard Fisker
Aug 13,2024Very happy with our experience booking a car at Alicante through Zest - booking was easy and we had no problems with the rental.
Bogey B
Aug 12,2024Zest booking process and website was all good, unfortunately Zest have been let down by their car rental provider Click Rent at Malaga Airport. 1 hour 25 minutes wait in the waiting room, 25 customers ahead of us on arrival (midweek). All customers in the waiting room were advised to create an online a/c to enter their passport/driving licence in order to speed up collection process. Did this but then had to do it all again once i got to the check in desk. A shambles that I havent witnessed in 25 years of car hire. Update, following reply from Zest: All 5 desks in the office were occupied so no staff absence. The obvious reason the waiting room was full with 30 people is Zest has positioned itself online such that it gets lots of hits from new customers, also the website is very good and the price is competitive. Great business for Zest, but not so all for the customers in the waiting room, who obviously won't rebook.
Glyn
Aug 12,2024Having experienced the highs and lows of car hire round the world, I read this firm was highly recommended. I booked on line but then found that I needed a larger car. A phone call to a real person quickly sorted a larger car and in doing so we realised that I had over lapping times for collection and return, adding another day's rental. This was sorted. Later again I discovered that I was an hour out on pick up. Knowing that some firms will kut that as a no show, I informed Zest. Back came the email that it was sorted. The car rental is for February next year and I will update the review then but so far full marks from me for a brilliant service.
Pete3d
Aug 12,2024We noted this firm had good reviews including Which? Recommended and got a quote from Zest for Marseille car hire July 2024. After consulting with friends we logged in to confirm booking 2 days later to find the price had escalated more than 50%. There’s something wrong with this set up so our conclusion was that the firm couldn’t be trusted. Booked with another broker more successfully.
Greg Webster
Aug 11,2024Extremely reasonable deposit, great value for a quality vehicle. Information pack, location of vehicle, booking staff, all excellent will definitely be using them again.
Andy Nicholson
Aug 09,2024I have used Zest Car Rental several times now for my holiday car rental and have always found them to be great value and an excellent service. They have been quick to respond to queries and the cars received through the local rental companies have always been of a good quality. The added peace of mind with the included insurance is a positive, although luckily I have not needed to use it to make a claim.
J Wright
Aug 09,2024Zest packages include a number of hire features as standard, and the website is clear and easy to understand if you wish to add optional features or contact someone for assistance. I have used them 4 times and they are now my first choice for holiday car hire.
Nigel
Aug 08,2024Excellent service throughout the booking process and slick pick-up with Sixt... happy to recommend Zest and would use again
aello
Aug 08,2024I have used Zest twice now and each time has been perfect. The first time, I had to change the date / times of my bookings which was extremely easy when I spoke to them. I was concerned about the revised booking as the reviews weren’t great with the allocated hire firm but was reassured that I could contact them quickly if there was a problem. There wasn’t and it was all good. The second time, the car hire company gave me a much smaller car than booked. I complained at the hire firm but no other car was available. I took the car and then messaged Zest. Within 2 hours, the car hire firm had messaged me to say another car was available and that I could swap. The second car was as ordered if not better. Problems happen, but Zest made it very easy to get them resolved.
joanakew
Aug 07,2024Excellent service. Easy to book and reliable. Will most definitely use Zest Car again.
Liz Mann
Aug 07,2024We had a couple of issues before we went and had to amend the car hire. The person I spoke to at Zest was extremely helpful and sorted the problem out straightaway on both occasions. Picking up the car in Pisa was very straightforward.
Sheryl Carson
Aug 07,2024Simple, honest company. Just what you need from a car hire company. Nothing hidden, all open and upfront. Clear and helpful.
Grant Davies
Aug 06,2024Excellent service, great value for money and no issues with the rental firm who were very accommodating and understood we we had booked via an online service and had non of the usual difficulties like haggling over insurance cover. I have travelled the world and also hired cars most of the time and in my opinion this was the best.
Nelson House, NR19 1DJ, Dereham, GB
https://www.zestcarrental.com
Mr Brodie
Aug 14,2024Very polite and helpful when I rang for information