Practical Car & Van Rental

Having recently been made redundant and losing a company car, I have slowly been adjusting to life without transport. So far buses have been able to get me as far as I need to go, but what I barely remembered in time was that I was due to attend the wedding of my best friend. Although it was being held just two bus rides away I felt that dragging my partner and three kids (all under the age of four) on two buses and a 90 minute one way trip probably wasn’t the wisest idea. The next idea of a cab would have cost in the region of £30 each way and would then leave me with the problem of getting ... more

I have rented hire cars from Practical on three seperate occasions. All rentals have been from their Sea Street,Herne Bay, Kent branch and I have been thoroughly satisfied with the service I received. Practical have numerous branches in England and usually have a range of cars available for hire. I have rented a Skoda, a Nissan Micra and a Fiat Punto and found that all the cars were virtually new models,had a radio,AA membership and were extremely clean at the time of the handover. Naturally rates vary according to the length of the hire, for a weekend the rate is proportionately considerably ... more

Do not use these people. I booked a car on carrentals.com through Ace Rent-a-car for 5 days at Liverpool. They actually subcontract to Practical. At the airport, they have no desk. You call them and they are supposed to pick you up and take you to the car. I had arrived a few days earlier that I needed the car, so I told them I did not need meeting at the airport, and would go to the car's location directly. It turns out that they use the off-site long term airport parking place, but have no office there. The staff for the parking place are not connected, and although they are patient, they ... more

We rented a car through Practical Car Rental last June through Travelocity. We were going to a wedding and had five people and a a few bags, and, according to the website, an "intermediate" would be enough. When we got to Dublin, there was no one at the counter - only a telephone, which I should have been suspicious about. I picked up the phone and explained who we were, our confirmation number, how many bags, and - oh wait! the intermediate is not big enough, we would need a larger estate car. We needed a car, and didn't argue, but it turn out to be twice the price. They picked us up in their ... more

I turned up to discover that my £130 of van hire had rented me an 7 year old Ford transit that had done 90,000 miles, had a very noisy front wheel barring, a flashing coil light, a bent drivers door that whistled loudly at 70mph, a chipped and cracked front windscreen and a built in rev limiter that meant you could only do 60mph up hill on a motorway!! It took over ten minutes to do the walk over on damages because of all the dents and scratches and then when I asked about the flashing coil light the young lad told me he’d serviced it last week himself and it was fine (very reassuring), and ... more

I booked my reservation with the company through Travelocity's booking site, because they had a very attractive price for one week rental. A Big Mistake !!! Firstly, I had to pay an extra eight pounds to be taken between their rental office and the LHR airport ( This kind of pickup service provided by the National, Hertz and other car rental companies is free ). Secondly, I had to pay much more than the price that the company had quoted on Travelocity's website. Though I have my insurance coverage from my visa card company and I brought the document to prove it, the company still charged me ... more

I have rented out a seventeen seter transit van from Hounslow site for a week from 28th July to 5th August four weeks in advance and ask them that I could have the van by 7.00am. The man was very rude and said no right away.He said to us that if we needed the van by seven o clock we have to pay for one day extra. So we did but he did not mention us anything for returning the vehicle. So we thought that we have whole day to return the vehicle. so we went 10 am to return the vehicle. The man said we shoud have return the vehicle by 9 am and charged us 75 pounds extra for one hour erley renting ... more