Rarotonga Rentals - Avarua (Car Rentals Cook Islands) — Local services in Avarua

Booked a hire car through (Island car and bike hire) was approved and was sent an approval email for the pickup location on arrival. With details of the vehicle, including plate number and where keys will be left .

On arrival, our rental car was not where the email had detailed it would be left . I then called "Island Car and Bike Hire" was told a car was not allocated and to make my way to their facility. In the meantime, I enquired with "Rarotongan car rentals" who own "Island car and bike hire" . Was told by a younger female in the office " Sorry your booking was cancelled. we over booked the cars , so just walk around and just ask the other companies for a rental ". I did not receive a cancellation and if I did I wouldv organised alternatives . Not only that but they still took payment too, not only did I have to find a new hire car but also costed me more as the refund takes 3-5 buinsess days .

If I could give no stars, I would . I was not the only customer who was left without a car join the cook island fb page there are over 30 people with the same issue with this company . A few families with children were left in the same situation. Thank you to the lovely woman from Avis who noticed how stuck we were and was able to provide us with a vehicle on no notice at all for the duration of our holiday .

Seriously do better. We spoke to numerous others at our accommodation that were in the same situation, a woman breaking down in tears because she had no form of transport with children and was told to catch a taxi to her...

The location is conveniently across from the airport and they allow late drop off. That’s about the only plus. The cars are sh*t. Not competitive prices. Slow service.

The first car we looked at was an absolute wreck. Convertible roof didn’t work so we asked to swap for a different one before leaving the car park. Second car had a working roof but was probably in even worse shape. I am suspicious that the odometer read “70000 km” because the car looked like it had more than 300000 km. It was probably the worst car I’ve ever driven, and I’ve driven some lemons. I felt like it could just fall apart at any moment and was just hoping I could limp the thing back to the office before it died for good. It was honestly laughable. The brakes felt like they were metal on metal and might give up at any point.

Aside from the terrible car, the pickup process took about 50 minutes. There were only 2 people in line but only one person, slowly, working the front desk.

It wasn’t cheap compared to other places around the island and they really aggressively upsold insurance which seemed odd as the car was such a piece of garbage to begin with I would imagine most of its value would come from melting it down for scrap metal.

I would never...

Booked a vehicle for our family of 5 (3 kids including a newborn), we flew in from NZ.. received a confirmed booking email with card details provided to them to "secure" vehicle only to arrive to their head office on the morning booked to pick up and no vehicle available. Advised a car would only become available 3 days later. Same day, we had gone ahead and reached out to other companies for assistance and thankfully did. Received an email to "remind" us that our booking for vehicle was coming up, i replied to advise that we had sorted a vehicle elsewhere and received a reply saying "Booking cancelled, please note we did not take payment as your credit card declined at the time we tried". I knew it would as they had my card details when I booked so i made sure i transferred funds out of account after turning up on the initial date of my booking. So unprofessional and unacceptable! With the island having an influx of visitors during this time of celebration, it was obvious they weren't prepared for any of this! Will not be booking...