Routes Car Rental

Priya and the team were great. A few things to know to not be surprised at the desk:
- They don't accept the RentalCover insurance.
- You need to provide a second ID or a bill.
- The deposit is $1500.

I have rented 3 time from them and have been treated well. The cars have been clean and new. Also, they offer good value. On my last trip, my flight was delayed a day, and it was no hassle to extend my rental. Thank you!

NEVER RENT FROM ROUTES! If I could give them zero stars I would. Absolute worst experience I have ever had renting a vehicle in my life and I have rented 100's of times for work. I rented a ROUTES cargo van online using Kayak to move a dining table. I booked two weeks in advance. My Routes itinerary email confirmed my rental, indicating unlimited KM's as I requested but did stipulate an equivalent vehicle may be offered in the event the Van was available. I am an Ontario resident and my destination address was also in Ontario. When I showed up to pick up my vehicle I was rudely told they didn't have a van available, only a 16 ft cube van AND that they wouldn't honor my reservation unless I could produce commercial insurance and agreed to pay per kilometers. When I asked why, they said it was their rental policy. But when I went online in front of the Routes customer service rep and read line by line their own rental policy, it made no mention of either stipulation. When I asked to speak to the manager I was told she wasn't working today, then when I asked for the agents name, he refused. Again, when I asked for him to show me where in their rental policy it says I must pay extra for KMs and have commercial insurance, he said he had just requested a copy of the policy from his manager. But when I reminded him that "I thought your manager wasn't working today? , " he just smirked and refused to talk to me further. Figuring I would just go away if he waited long enough. There were several other customers in the waiting room who could corroborate my experience. I was treated like absolute criminal. I had to cancel my trip, then spend an hour on the phone with Kayak trying to get my money back, which was extremely difficult given their policy indicates no refunds. I will NEVER rent from Routes again and I will be sure to share my experience with everyone who even mentions the name Routes car and truck rental.if you want to ensure you have a vehicle available when you show up, rent somewhere else. I have had good experiences with U-Haul, Enterprise, Budget Alamo etc.

I was given excellent service by Saleh and the shuttle driver to the airport, also the best prices you will find for rental cars and a very clean suv that was a better vehicle than I expected.
Highly recommended!

I appreciated branch manager’s attention to detail and the effort she put into making the entire rental experience convenient and stress-free.

I had a wonderful experience. The transaction and process was so smooth. The staff is professional and helpful especially Priya. Overall, highly recommended. They also pick and drop you to airport.

They advertise as unlimited mileage on Expedia and then email you that is not! I hear this couple days before my big move and imagine how stressful is this! Not recommended at all!

In the past 2 years I rented around 6 times with them and no issue. I rented in Toronto, Montréal and a few time in Ottawa. People in Ottawa are very nice and accommodate me 1 time when my flight was delayed. I will rent car with them again for sure!

Excellent staff, exceptional service and unbeatable price! Rented (for the second time) on short notice/same day - these guys will be my go to guys in Ottawa from here on in

Stay as far away from this rental company as possible. Dec 26,2022, I picked up an SUV for 3 days. I had to provide a credit card and they put a $500 security hold on it which is standard. It was dark by the time I picked up the car and though I did a once around the car for damage, I wasn't able to see the tires well. I specifically asked for an SUV because I was travelling on snow covered roads. Once I got to my destination and hour away, I had to travel the last km on snow covered roads. The vehicle barely made it as it was sliding all over the road. When I reached my destination, I had a better look in the morning and saw the tires were BALD! So unsafe. I contacted Routes Rental and sent them photos of the bald tire. They advised me to drive it back to their location. I was nervous to drive it and asked them if they could pick it up, but they declined. I told them I would return it on the 29th when my flight left. I decided that I would leave during daylight the next day, Dec 28th. When I woke up it was snowing. As I was driving down the country road to get to the paved road, I applied brakes at an intersection and the car slid across the intersection and contacted a hard snowbank causing minor damage to the front plastic bumper. I contacted my insurance company who provided a claim number and then contacted Route Car Rental to advise them of the incident. Once I reached their location to drop off the rental one of the attendants had me complete a damage form and I provided the claim number again. The following day when I returned to my home in the west, I checked my Visa and they had charged me another $2,000! At no time did they contact me to say there would be charging $2,000 to my credit card on top of the $500 they already charged. With the cost of the rental and these extra charges it cost me close to $2,800 for a two-day car rental!
I can see it will be near to impossible to get my money back.
Stay far, far away from this rental company!

Cons:
*Location is not in the terminal and not recommended for evening pickups
* Not the best customer experience at the counter
*Takes credit card photo copy for both sides
*Takes copy of Passport
*$500 deposit from credit card and takes more than 10 days to refund.
* Only one attendant had to wait for more than 30 minutes

Pros: Free shuttle service to airport terminal.

Worst ever! They won’t refund me anything from what I payed because I cancelled my reservation 8 hours before the pickup. The reason I cancelled is because they require to hold $1500 on a credit card! Which is insane! Worst service ever!

Cleaning prices were set at one price at point of return & later over charged and claimed the employee was “new” which isn’t the case

This company is a scam, never do business with this guys. I had rented a car with them. 2 days after returning the car he called me saying they found
a scratch on the car while after the reception there is an agent who does the complete inspection of the car.for the invisible scratch they charged me $1217.48 and yet they withdrew $1500 from my account.the $282.52 was not returned.be careful.

August 2022 - Ottawa resident
Every review you see on here about how these car rental people are scammers, very true. They’re pathetic on the phone, they have loopholes and weird restrictions they don’t mention until after you’ve made the purchases rental, that you can’t cancel, or get a refund on, EVEN THOUGH THEY SAY YOU CAN IF YOU CONTACT THEM WITH MORE THAN 24hours NOTICE!
I’m doing a dispute with my bank in order to get my money back, AND I’ve changed my Visa card so that they don’t randomly charge me in the future cause I’m seeing a lot of reviews of that happening to people either a week, a month, or even a YEAR later.
I learned my lesson, I should’ve looked at the reviews I’ve now seen before, but I didn’t. I never leave reviews normally, this is a first for me, but I really want to stop anybody from falling into this trap going forward. You’ve been warned, DO NOT use Routes Car Rental or any PRICELINE service!

DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. I booked on Expedia for a car with unlimited mileage and the day I am supposed to pick up the car I get a text message from ROUTES indicating that there is a mileage cap. I called the store and the people I spoke to told me it’s not their problem that Expedia is advertising unlimited mileage. I asked to speak with a manager and they hung up on me. I ended up missing an important trip because of how unprofessional the employees at this location were.

Overall the experience was ok.

Pros:
1. Low cost compared to other car rental agencies during this time period.
2. The car was ready upon my arrival.

Cons:
1. The car was not clean. There was a huge amount of dog hair in the hatch area of the SUV, there were leftover belongings from the previous renters, huge bugs in the vents and just lacked overall cleaniness.
2. The credit card "hold" was excessive for the length and cost of the car rental. $1,500 for a 4 day rental which cost about $300.3. Gas tank was not full (about 3/4 full when I picked it up).

Also, please note this rental agency is not right at the airport. You will have to get a shuttle. For me, this was fine since I live in Ottawa.

Rented a van from them when I arrived to pick it up. The guy at the counter told me that the van had been in an accident and was unavailable. So I booked a car from a different company, but a few days later they charged me 184.53$. I have called them multiple times and email them over 100 times. They keep giving me the same canned message that they're looking into it. It has been 2 months now that they're still "looking into it". Do not book with these guys. They'll will cause you a lot of headaches.

They charge you even after cancellation. They charged me full amount for the rental that I didn't take.

If I could give less than 1 star I would. The customer service is terrible- you can't reach anyone! I cancel my reservation more than 24 hours in advance after receiving a text message saying I would need to put down a 1500 deposit! Even though I cancelled, I was still charged for the rental! I have been trying to get a refund
for over two months now with jo success. Don't get fooled by their cheap prices, it is a scam and they will charge you for the rental when you don't show up even if you cancel. Never again.

Great and the most efficient customer service I have ever had. The CSR made my day easier in spite of how busy it was

Told me it was their policy to put a $1500 hold on my credit card to rent a below basic car, for one day. Never heard of this sort of thing. Weird policy.

Horrible car rental place. I reserved an minivan 4 weeks in advance of an important event. Was supposed to pick up the minivan at 10 am Saturday and they called me Friday night at 8 pm to say they have no vehicles available. Avoid this place!

Very bad service. They dont pick up the phone and assume you should know where their location is at the airport.

Save yourself the headache and use a credible car rental service

The most trusted car rental company in the city. Will go above and beyond to make sure you leave satisfied.

If you can avoid renting here, do it. Customer service is abismal, the girl who works clearly does not want to be there. The first car we got here smelled like cigarette smoke. The next time I rented, the car was overdue for an oil change by over 8,000kms. When we switched that car out the one we took shook on every turn. We couldn't even switch the cars again and chose to not drive it to avoid getting charged for the company's lack of vehicle maintenance. We weren't able to get a refund or any form on compensation. I guess when you book the cheapest price, you get the worst experience.

No star for this scam company. Not sure how come Business Bureau still able to give them license, as their license is to cheat. Never book with routes.they scam you and will not refund your money

This is literally Fraud and Scam.

I made a complaint to local Police for this Fraud and also registered a complaint to Canadian Anti Fraud center for the Fraud and identity theft.

Don't get a car from this Scammers. They don't have any reserve options or pay at counter options available during booking the vehicle.
The cancelation policy says you won't get refunded if you prepaid. So even you canceled, you won't get money back any how.
THIS IS A SCAM RETNAL COMPANY.

Terrible business. Scam their customers out of money using their "insurance". Also doesn't help that their customer service is atrocious and actively lie to you while you're on the phone with them.

Do not use this company.

Horrible experience. Got to this location (ottawa). Didnt have the car that was on the web site and didn't have unlimited mileage like promised. THIS LOCATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED

Disgusting service. Rude staff … they try to take a $1500 deposit which I have never heard of in my entire life and push their insurance coverage to make extra money by telling you that the one you have isn’t valid

Very happy with their product and service!
Van was great, ran without any problems, and service was fast and helpful.

I'd say this is the worst car rental service I have ever had. I'd suggest opt for budget. Lot's of hidden charges and I booked from Priceline which clearly said unlimited km but I was told you are only allowed 300km. Would never opt for their service again.

Extremely unhappy as I had to change my plan due to certain restrictions which we got to know at the counter!

Good prices for their car, really far away from the airport and city, but it allows them to have competitive prices.

The location was advertised as part of the airport but it was a good 10-15 drive from the airport. In addition, not sure if this applies to everyone, but they asked me to hold $1500 on my card. I found this strange as I usually rent with Enterprise or Hertz (both were fully booked) as they hold the amount you want to rent for plus $300. I hope this was not a targeted charge just for me. The. After my rental, it took them 1 week and me calling multiple times to release the hold on my card. The whole experience was not pleasant. They also adverted as EuroCar and I found that it’s Routes. The two start us because I was given a free upgrade, but the upgrade itself was a Kia shortage that looked like it has been through a rough patch.

I rented a car for two weeks this summer from Routes, their cars are very clean and they had the best prices comparing to other places, their customer services was excellent and special thanks to Priya for her wonderful communication and service. Definitely renting a car from them again on my next trip to Ottawa:)

3035 Orlando Drive, Mississauga ON location has a very good Customer Service. Me and my friends rented a car in this location and did not regretted it for a single second. It was HARPREET who helped us. She was very good in Customer Service and was able to answer all the questions and concerns we had. She deserves a raise or an acknowledgement for doing her job very well.

Overall I recommend this location. Not just the good customer service but the cars are very well cleaned and no regrets at all.

Wonderful customer service and unbeatable prices! Priya went above and beyond to make sure that I received exactly what I asked for. Will definitely book with Routes for all future car rentals!

SCAMMERS! They took an extra 100$ from us, and REFUSED to PAY IT BACK. And this the only time that they have stole from us. DO NOT RECOMMEND AT ALL. And honestly, I couldn’t rate it any lower, so unfortunately I had to give it 1 star, which they don’t even deserve.

I strongly recommend Routes Car Rental, Ottawa. 5*

I often rent a car from this location staffs are very helpful, very polite. Prices are very competitive in the city.
Cars are in great condition, very cleaned.
Some times brand new cars.
Very efficient services.

Specially Priya the manager always provide help to the customers, very friendly services and accommodating requests.

Over the weekend of June 18th to 21st, I had the pleasure to rent a Kia Sportage through Routes Car Rental. Priya is the easiest and nicest person to deal with. She's very understanding and caring. I will for sure rent again!
Thanks again!