Thrifty Car and Van Rental Birmingham Airport

Check in took a long time and since the cabin was tiny, my wife and child of 16 months waited outside in the cold. When we were finally given the car it was filthy and although we booked a car seat for a baby of 9 to 18 Kilos, we were given a seat for a toddler of 18 to 36 Kilos. We refused it and asked for the car to be cleaned, at which point the car was sent to another Thrifty office in the centre of Birmingham to collect a car seat and be washed. This meant we waited for a further hour by which time we needed to use the toilet. The cabin used by Thrifty has no toilet so the staff told us to go to a nearby TravelLodge with whom they insisted they have an agreement for use of the toilet by their clients. We went and informed TravelLodge that we were sent by Thrifty, but the TravelLodge refused us using the excuse that the toilets had just been deep cleaned. This was quite ambarassing! Furthermore to the above, after we dropped the car off, it was checked for damages and we received a photo of a scratch on the left hand back wheel rim and 85 pounds of our deposit was not refunded to us to cover the 'damages'. This is just a scratch on the wheel from parking. Charging for this is OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

THIS IS NOT AN AIRPORT HIRE CAR COMPANY AND THEY DONT TAKE AMEX.They are located nearly a mile away, have no desk in the airport and haven’t bothered to mark which bus stop you need to use. They aren’t in the main airport car rental car park so forget walking, the bus took 40 minutes to pick me up and the email has no details on how to find the mystery Thrifty location.They also insist on printed copies of bookings - how I’m supposed to find a printer once I’ve booked my car at an airport in the USA is beyond me - especially in the modern era of connectivity, smartphones and apps. Their staff are awkward and will not answer a straight question - apparently I need a utility bill to rent from them even though I reside in the US. Mr Customs Officer, aka the thrifty rep wasn’t happy with me having a British passport but an American green card and a British driving license. He then parrot like repeated that he could give me a car if I had the correct documentation, but wouldn’t tell me I couldn’t have a car. I’ve been a flexilease customer of Thrifty for 8 months before. There’s no chance I will ever come back to them. When the car finally arrived it was filthy inside and particularly out. They also don’t take AMEX. AVOID EVEN IF ALL OTHER FIRMS QUOTE YOU DOUBLE.

Booked 2 cars to get us home from Birmingham airport back to Swansea.Get back from 10 days away for them to tell us they have no record of our booking (despite us having reference numbers) and that they have no cars available.Waste of space!

To describe this car hire place as Birmingham Airport is a bit of a stretch, as it's a mile or so away. Not walking distance with luggage!Apparently there is a bus you can get from the airport terminal to the location, however I only found this out retrospectively. The other rental companies all have desks in the airport and the parking lots are a 5 minute walk and are sign posted. This rental place is not located with the rest of the car rental companies in car park 4/5 and does not have a desk in the airport.It took me quite a while to find the place as there were no signs to it anywhere in the airport and even the airport staff didn't know where it was. Make sure you know exactly how you are getting here before you travel to avoid annoyance! In the end I took an uber (which took 10 mins or so) and even the uber driver didn't know where it was as the address online leaves you on a dual carriageway. We did eventually find it nestled behind the Holiday Inn in a small portacabin inside car park 7.So why 4 stars? When I got there, the staff were so helpful and friendly, all my irritability dissipated. Mohammed in particular was excellent. I ended up with a higher class car than I had paid for free of charge and was on my way quickly. They accepted pdf version of the required documents on my phone, which was very handy indeed. 8To summarise, I actually would use this again, despite the initial frustration, as the service provided in the end was very good. To reiterate, make sure you know exactly where this place is and how you are getting there and then you'll have no trouble at all.

The thrifty hire car centre is in car park 7 with no signs. The centre was also closed at 0725 when it should open at 7am.

The attitude of the staff at this branch is outstandingMohammed supervisor is always will to help ....Kasim has really good customer service.....a good Thrifty branch.

Worst company. Not at the airport, closed when we got there and not answering phone....