AVASA, the company in Mexico that controls Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty and Firefly, has perverse monopolistic practices, misleading advertising and terrible business and customer service practices. Never rent a car in Mexico with them.
For the third time, this time with Thrifty, I have been brutally deceived by AVASA. On the first two occasions, both in the Christmas period with clear overdemand for units, having confirmed and paid reservations, when I arrive at the counter to receive the rented car they inform me that they do not have units.
The third is the most abusive of all. I made the reservation and payment for my car during the buen fin, with supposedly 70% discount (reservation from December 25, 2025 to January 2, 2026). A week before the start of the reservation (December 19th) I receive an email from the company saying that my reservation, even when it is confirmed (with confirmation number on the reservation receipt) and paid, does not comply with "its terms and conditions", asking me to contact a telephone number (5591289019) and that if I do not do so my reservation will be canceled. I called immediately and, after waiting 30 minutes just listening to music, without further information, after exactly 30 minutes of waiting (from 3:20 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.), the call was automatically disconnected.
After that, I wrote an email responding to the email received, explaining my annoyance at the great lack of professionalism for the email sent as well as the impossibility of communicating with the company to resolve an alleged issue regarding "its terms and conditions" not timely declared in the reservation process. They never answered that message, explaining in detail their argument of "we detect that some details do not fully conform to our current terms and conditions", as well as the fact that "In case of not receiving your confirmation, the reservation will be automatically canceled", even if it is confirmed and paid. In that email I told them that, in the event of non-compliance on their part, I reserved the right to take the corresponding legal and financial measures for their non-compliance.
After not receiving a response, I called directly to the reservations phone number on my confirmation receipt (5591289020), where they informed me that the discount of my reservation, received during the good weekend, did not apply to the dates of my reservation. I informed them that this condition was never explicit during the booking process, so it was a misleading promotion. They told me that they couldn't do anything and that if I wanted to keep my reservation, I would have to pay the current reservation price (800% higher, demanding the payment of $32,000 pesos instead of the $3,370.06 of the original reservation for 8 days of a Jetta vehicle or similar). In addition to being misleading advertising (it allowed the reservation during the good weekend, without establishing any exclusion of dates, in addition to giving a confirmation number of said reservation), it is clearly a practice without professional business ethics, since they wait until the last minute to inform the argument of the existence of "some details do not fully conform to our current terms and conditions", to try to charge an excessive overprice. Not agreeing with their practical lack of ethics and deception, they told me that they would cancel my reservation, offering me to refund what I had already paid in a period of 3-7 days to my credit card, with the obvious intention of being able to count on the unit that I had already reserved and confirmed, to another person, at the exorbitant price of the Christmas season.
In short, it is a constant that AVASA conducts unethical business practices and misleading advertising, accepting paid reservations for units they do not have and using strategies to get cancellations of reservations that generate less income. These business practices are particularly worrying as they not only take over the national consumer, but also foreign tourists, especially in the face of an event of international significance such as the 2026 World Cup.
Never in my life, I will book with them again and share this information with my acquaintances through my social networks. I will also file a complaint with Profeco, as well as with the National Antitrust Commission for these practices and deceptions. I hope that no one else has to suffer from these abuses, so I recommend not booking car rentals with Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty and Firefly in Mexico, all part of AVASA. read more
