carhire-hebrides.co.uk Avis 

On 29 September 2026, I attempted to book two rental vehicles through Car Hire Hebrides / Adventra. Neither booking was successful because the vehicles were unavailable.

Despite this, two card authorisations totalling £1,473.81 were placed against my account.

Lloyds Cardnet subsequently confirmed that both transactions had been voided on 29 September and that no payments had been collected. Nevertheless, the funds remained unavailable through my card provider, Wise, which reported that the cancellation instructions had not reached its systems.

As of 16 October 2026, more than two weeks after the failed bookings, I am STILL waiting for the £1,473.81 to be released. The money remains inaccessible in my Wise account, despite Lloyds Cardnet confirming that both transactions were voided on 29 September and that no payments were collected.

Wise has informed me that the authorisations may not expire automatically until 30 October, meaning my money could remain unavailable for an entire month following two unsuccessful bookings.

What followed was an exhausting process of correspondence between the rental company, its payment provider and Wise, with no effective resolution.

I appreciate that the staff member I initially dealt with made efforts to investigate the issue and contacted Cardnet on my behalf. However, those efforts have not produced a satisfactory outcome, and my latest correspondence has gone unanswered.

As a customer, I should not have to spend weeks investigating what happened to almost £1,500 following two unsuccessful booking attempts.

I recognise that the failure to release the authorisations may involve the payment processor or card issuer rather than the rental company alone. Nevertheless, the booking system initiated these authorisations despite the vehicles being unavailable, and the overall experience has been completely unacceptable.

My greatest concern is that customers can find substantial sums temporarily inaccessible without receiving a clear explanation of what went wrong or an effective route to resolution.

I would strongly advise prospective customers to clarify exactly when payment authorisations are created, whether vehicle availability is confirmed beforehand, and what happens if a booking fails.

An extremely disappointing experience that has seriously undermined my confidence in the company. I cannot recommend this booking service.

The vehicle supplied was damaged.
There was a poor handover at the Barra airport. (Keys just handed over). I had to find out for myself the operation of the vehicle.
I hired the vehicle for two weeks and asked for a medium sized car. I was supplied with a Vauxhall Mokka, which in my opinion falls short of that description.
I had to email about previous damage as this was not handed over to me at the time and I was concerned that I would be held accountable for the damage.
I paid a considerable sum of money for a hire vehicle that was sub standard. Unfortunately I did not expect this.

Great experience. Nice, welcoming staff on arrival. Car was clean and ready. Easy to find within the airport parking. Drop-off was swift and easy again. No issues at all. A great service. Will definitely use again on my next trip to the island. David

My only specification was that the car needed to be big enough for 4 adults with luggage ( 4 suitcases and 4 holdalls ) . They had 9 months notice to find a suitable car , or decline the booking . They came up with an Omoda SUV ( Chinese ) . It was obvious immediately that this car did not have the required boot space . It would have been obvious to a 5 year old , let alone people that are meant to be professionals in the car rental business . Their response to the car not being big enough was ,
" we don't have anything bigger ".
So that was it , take it or leave it . After 9 months of planning to provide a large car as requested this was the best they could do .
They only had one job .......
So we had to travel with a suitcase on the rear seat between passengers , holdalls on passenger laps and between front seats and no space to pick up any grocery shopping for our trip . We were touring , stopping a numerous places , so we had to endure discomfort the whole time . It very near ruined our holiday . If you are ever considering using this company to hire a car , take into account that they have no concept of space , numbers or volume . Clearly amateurs with no real concern about customer requirements . Also the car had a service light on the whole time and the brakes made a drumming noise whenever they were applied . The Android auto would not connect to mapping on my phone and the windscreen had not been cleaned on the inside ( we did it ourselves in order to see out ) .

This is my second experience of hiring a car from car hire Hebrides and both have been excellent. This year I received a very new VW Golf, almost a clone of my own so that I just had to adjust the seat and drive away. Staff are friendly and efficient, we were on our way just 20 minutes after landing. They even noticed damage below the sill on handover and sent me an email confirming it was pre-existing.
I had also booked pre Covid and, when it was clear I couldn’t get up to Stornoway, my money was refunded immediately.
I’ll be booking again soon, for next year. I have family in Callanish so will be a regular visitor.

Joyce Falconer

Hired a Transit van, great service and vehicle was ready when requested

On 9 May 2022 I tried to hire a car using the mandatory online application form. They take your credit card details and then reply to you with car availability. In my case, they had no availability. And that was for three applications on that date. But they still pushed a pre-authorisation for the hire amounts, totalling about £500, through my credit card. They said it would be removed, but it wasn't. As a consequence, I had to cancel my credit card and get a new one, with all the hassle that involves. Not an organisation that I would trust. John Newell