New Zealand South Island

The car's condition was very poor and felt like it could stall at any moment. Initially, we were worried about fitting our luggage, so we deliberately rented a larger car. However, when we went to pick up the car, the staff gave us a Smart with a piece of paper as a license plate. The luggage barely fit inside, but it was very uncomfortable for passengers and there was no room for any additional luggage. Upon arrival at the airport, there was no staff to be found, so we quickly contacted the car rental customer service. The customer service representative said the staff should be holding a sign to greet us and asked us to contact the rental company. We called, and the rental company told us to wait. The airport staff noticed our anxiety and kept calling on our behalf. In the end, we missed the sunset completely. We didn’t get to see the sunset for the remaining two days on Santorini due to the weather, which was deeply disappointing. Given the perfect weather on the day we arrived, it made the disappointment even worse. This car rental experience felt like a total failure. I would have preferred not to book in advance and instead rent from a larger local company upon arrival to avoid such issues.

Couldn't find the store at the airport and saw no one holding a sign. Had to call and wait 15 minutes for someone to come. However, the car was good. I rented a manual but got an automatic Smart. I wasn't fully prepared for the road conditions on the island, so the automatic helped a lot.

A dedicated person came to the airport for pickup and car delivery. Satisfied.

It took us forever to find the car rental company after coming out of the airport, we couldn't find it at all! Called the rental company on-site and they said someone would meet us at the airport exit. We had to ask everyone at the exit if they were from the rental company until we finally found them. The guy from the rental company was squatting in a corner, and had I not asked, I wouldn't have known he was the rental company contact. Couldn't he at least hold a sign?

We specifically booked a “full to full” policy on the car to avoid all the usual scams but were given a “like for like” and, not surprisingly, it was almost empty. We were “helpfully” directed to the adjacent Shell station to fill up where they, not surprisingly, said that they only had the most expensive octane 100 fuel. We found out that this was also priced 20c/ltr above the norm. There is an EKO fuel station within 3km along the road away from the airport but this was, not surprisingly, not mentioned by the Caldera rep. As a result of this scam we paid rip-off prices for a grade of fuel we didn’t need and had to leave over half a tank of fuel in the car - neither of which would have happened if we had been given what we had booked.

Efficient with good follow up.