Routes Car Rental Reviews 

Jovantae was exceptional! Although the wait is sorta long, by the time 15 people who were shuttled over, get out of the van and start lining up ...there's a 15-25 minute wait. None-the-less, Jovantae helped clear out the line. He was exceptional and provided awesome customer service. Also, the shuttle driver was courteous too.

I rented car on 27th August 2026. Even after 7 calendar days I have not received back my deposit amount. If you call them by phone it will be one hour wait before someone picks up the call to say it will take 5-10 business days. I m not sure why such long time it takes to pay back the deposit. Never ever go to this company for car rental

Very disappointing experience. I would not rent from this company again.

From the beginning, the person assisting me was not helpful. I specifically asked if they could check my car insurance from my home country to see whether any of my existing coverage could apply, but they didn’t even want to review it. Instead, I ended up having to pay significantly more for their insurance.

The condition of the car was also concerning. The brakes are extremely sensitive and do not feel normal or safe. Pressing the brake pedal with moderate pressure causes the car to brake very suddenly and aggressively, making it uncomfortable and difficult to drive smoothly.

The fuel situation was also frustrating. I had barely pulled out of their parking lot and driven less than two miles when the first bar on the fuel gauge had already disappeared. That immediately made me question how accurately the fuel level was represented when I received the car.

The passenger door is also extremely stiff and gets stuck, making it unnecessarily difficult to open and close.

For a rental where I ended up paying considerably more than expected, I expected much better customer service and, most importantly, a vehicle in better condition. Based on my experience, I would not recommend renting from this company.

I've rented from Routes for the past three years and highly recommend.
Travelling can be stressful yet Routes professional team, where courtesy, kindness, humor and trust are outstanding and the very reason I continue making them a part of my travels.
Easy to book on line, just as it is picking up and returning a vehicle.
Routes, a company I trust and one big reason I feel secure looking forward to this trip and future ones.

rental in Costa Rica 8/6/2026
Rental instructions clearly stated to call for shuttle pick up information and or you could email them for instructions. I did both, emailed several days prior to travel, and 4 calls at the airport with no answer, I would post photos of instructions and proof of emailing and the calls made, but don't see how to do so. Routes never responded to either. So we were left with no car, payment for car and insurance that never happend. They are claiming now that there was a person with a sign at the airport and they don't show any calls on their call log. When I filed a complaint with Expedia, they also called several times and did not get an answer to the calls.

Excellent customer service, deals and vehicles!!!

Easy and intuitive booking. Now let's see how the quality of service is at the counter when I arrive.

It was not easy, but I succeded. Only thing that I did wrong was delivery time. But will correct that when I pick up car at Atlanta site.

This whole experience was a nightmare. Super slow, long lines, took an hour to get our car. Worst of all is the up charges we had no choice in over doubled what we rented for. I tried multiple times to fix the amount and they wouldn’t budge. I was stuck. 5 miles from the airport and no car unless I paid the exorbitant extra fees. Outrageous!

I would give less than one star if I could.
I booked this as an add on with OneTravel/CheapOAir, which is a "travel service" Trusting THEIR referral.
I held OneTravel responsible for having a car rental listed on their site that was not fully vetted as (reputable) and honest..( OneTravel ended up doing the right thing and refunding my money, but I feel it was only because I was persistent and threatened legal action. It took 20 days, and hours out of my vacation. They are counting on people giving up, or accepting the "No Refund" disclaimer) I could have just booked myself elsewhere, which is what I ended up doing. In the small print, it says' Car rental non-refundable" They KNOW people are going to want a refund.

I was not the only person
in their lobby who cancelled their reservation and refused to pay their extortion prices! A woman next to us, said" I just went through what you are going through. I'm having my daughter come pick me up and going elsewhere"

They wanted to charge $250 additional for insurance, even though I have FULL coverage on ANY car I drive, because I was not the primary policy holder. If we had just been asked for the declaration page, it would not have been an issue.

This rental agency (which goes by at least 3 names that I know of, which was part of the issue STRIDE and NEXT, which is to avoid paying full taxes, so they operate under multiple names) has an agenda to extort as much money as possible from customers who think they have no other choice.

Then they wanted a $500 deposit refundable upon return of the car. This type of sketchy and unscrupulous agency will likely come up with some reason to keep part if not all of the deposit, and the agent probably gets a bonus if they do.

THEN they wanted to charge $19 A DAY for a toll transponder, or $25 for each toll PLUS the price of the toll ( which was like under $2 each way, and they wanted to charge $25 for each toll. How is that legal????)

DO NOT PAY THEIR TOLL/TRANSPONDER fee!! You can get a SunPassPro for $16, add $15-$20, or load money on it appropriate to your use, and cancel it when done. That's what we did. It was EASY!
They are counting on foreigners not knowing any better, or worse yet bullying and intimidating, manipulating the customer with fear to thinking of the consequences. They are INCREDIBLY aggressive ( other reviews and complaints confirm this) and condescending.

So, on top of my $162 I already paid they wanted me to pay an additional $152 for 8 days of sun pass OR at least $60 to use the sunshine skyway bridge round trip from Tampa to Sarasota and back.

PLUS $250 for additional insurance that I only “needed” because they refused to accept that I had full coverage.

PLUS a $500 deposit

So, $162 ( original paid rate) +$152+ $60+$250= $624 for a compact economy rental.
PLUS $500 deposit, is $1124 to get out the door with an economy car. That’s Cadillac Escalade rental prices!

Unacceptable.

They are not technically a "scam" because they've figured out the loophole to be within the law, but there is a special place in hell for these parasites.

RUN in the other direction.

Very easy to book.

Most competitive rates in the area. Very quick in and out experience at pick up and return. No pressure for additional insurance. Clean, newer model car was provided. No trouble or issues were had. Vry smooth experience. 5/5. Nice professional staff - with special mention to Harshita who was extra helpful and kind!

Exceptional experience with this Company - Dubai Airport Branch (Element Hotel).
Highly recommended, professional and helpful team Specially Zunair.

The fee started at 500. Then went to 800. At purchase then after we were done with car they sent a new bill of 1000. Adding 115 fuel fees when car was brought back full. And energy recovery fees.

Routes Car Rental did not allow me to post this review.

Very disappointed with Routes Car Rental — misleading mileage information and no effective solution

I booked a rental car through Booking.com because the listing showed unlimited mileage. Based on that information, I paid for the reservation.

When I arrived at Routes Car Rental in Ottawa to pick up the vehicle, I was told that the unlimited mileage only applied within Ontario. This was a major restriction that I did not understand from the Booking.com listing when I made the reservation.

By the time I discovered this at the rental counter, I was already there with my travel plans depending on the vehicle. There was no reasonable option to simply change the reservation without losing my money.

The situation became even worse because the customer service at the Routes location was extremely rude and unhelpful. I ultimately had to take an Uber back to the airport and rent another car from a different rental company.

I did not receive the Routes vehicle, but I also did not receive my refund. Routes told me that Booking.com was the third party that needed to handle the issue.

What is most frustrating is that Routes Car Rental advertised the vehicle with unlimited mileage without clearly explaining the Ontario-only restriction before payment. When I contacted Routes about the problem, I was not given a clear answer or an effective resolution.

I believe Routes Car Rental should clearly display important mileage restrictions before customers pay for a rental.

I am asking Routes Car Rental to investigate the mileage information provided for this reservation, review the terms that were communicated at the time of booking, and refund the amount I paid for a rental car that I could not use.

I would strongly recommend that other customers take screenshots of the mileage terms and all rental conditions before

Easy rental process and good prices

EASY RESERVATION PROCESS, EASY PICKUP, FRIENDLY AGENTS

Seemed okay when we parked, though the process to our airline was messy- dropped at a secondary location, then had to monorail etc- but while away the 3 weeks got a notification that my car was active(engine turned on). Then, upon pick up (slow, and again not smooth) we drove about 12 kms to my daughter's apt and after being parked there, loading the back, went to start the vehicle- dead battery. They'd obviously killed it when they'd started the car while we were away.
cost me $140 to jumpstart...
Never again, with Routes.ca

The rental was a disaster from the time i showed up. My written reservation was for $281.00, when i showed up to get my car the charge was $1439.00. The explanation was for toll charges and a full tank. Had no choice but to take the car as i was on time constraints. When i dropped the car off, within 45 min i got a call saying they could not find the key FOB, explained to them that i handed the FOB to a young lady working the drop off lane, described her and everything. Was told that the next step was they would do some investigating and get back to me. Had a bad feeling so i froze my account right away. Chase contacted me less than an hour later and told me they refused a $500 charge from Routes. 48 hours later have still not been contacted after they "investigated" further. Feel like they used the bait and switch with me and flat out lied about numerous things. Will never even consider using routes again. I put in a dispute with my CC company. Horrible experience all the way around.

AVOID THIS COMPANY — UNEXPECTED CHARGES AND MISLEADING INFORMATION

Don’t be fooled by the good ratings — in my experience, those seem to mainly reflect the airport shuttle service, not the actual car rental experience.

I rented a car from Routes in Canada and had a very frustrating experience. I was told that the rental included unlimited mileage, but I was later charged for additional kilometres. If unlimited mileage is advertised, customers should not have to discover later that there are conditions or limitations that were not clearly explained at the time of rental.

The same happened with other policies and fees. Important conditions were either not properly explained or were presented in a way that was very easy to misunderstand. You only really discover how their pricing works when additional charges start appearing.

I was also charged $190.25 CAD for crossing from British Columbia into Alberta for 6 days, even though I only actually spent 3 days in Alberta, and I had to dispute this charge and request a partial refund.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that these aren't small unexpected costs — they can add up to a significant amount on top of the advertised rental price.

My advice: rent a car with any other company but this.
There are too many unclear policies and unexpected charges, and the final price can be very different from what you initially expect.