Car Rental South Africa / Car Hire South Africa / Rent  Anmeldelser 17

Very disappointing rental experience with Sani Sixt at OR Tambo Airport.

We booked two SUVs from April 9th ​​to 20th, 2026, for a self-drive family trip to Kruger and Pilanesberg National Parks, but to our great surprise, we received lower-category MPVs. No proper explanation was provided at the time of delivery.
The vehicles were clearly not equivalent to the SUVs originally reserved for this type of road trip. Being in a great hurry as we needed to reach Skukuza before Kruger closed, we were forced, reluctantly, to take these replacement cars.
Upon return, a small chip in the windshield was correctly noted on one of the two vehicles. However, forty-eight hours after our departure, SANI SIXT cashed our deposit (8640 ZAR = €451.08) and then never provided the official documents required by the insurance company for reimbursement, despite repeated follow-up emails over several weeks.

There are many positive reviews on Google Maps, but I think we shouldn't rely on them too much, because it's obvious that without any problems to report when returning vehicles, the reviews can only be positive, whereas if you report a problem (even a very minor one), you quickly lose interest, and that's when the real ordeal with this agency begins.

This situation created unnecessary stress during and after our trip to South Africa. The communication and after-sales service were extremely poor (and continue to be so). Future travelers should seriously consider using a more reliable and professional rental company (and there are plenty at Johannesburg airport...).
So, in conclusion, and quite simply, "RUN AWAY!"

Booked SANI Sixt through DiscoverCars
Paid insurance to DiscoverCars.
Arrived at airport and told have to take insurance with them which cost more than the car hire £235/SAR 5,185. Car hire only cost £ 228/SAR 5,02. Inferred that their cover was better and glibly told that I could try and get a refund.
Contacted SANI Sixt like wading in treacle - took over a week to respond. Essentially said tough not interested.

I would strongly caution anyone considering Sani Car Rental.

Our experience started off okay, but looking back, there were concerning signs from the beginning. A number of the staff seemed poorly trained and we repeatedly had to explain their own services, policies and what was included in our booking package. At first, we were polite and patient about it, but the mood changed quickly once we pointed out that they were trying to charge us for things that were already included in the package we had booked. The professionalism dropped from there.

Because we were renting in South Africa and know that things can happen, we chose their highest tier of insurance, the “Super Cover”. Unfortunately, the car was broken into. We followed the process, provided the police statement, and paid the maximum standard liability as required. At the rental office, we were told that everything was fine and sorted.

We were therefore expecting our deposit back. Instead, six months later, the deposit has still not been returned, and Sani continued charging our card for different alleged damages, despite those damages supposedly being covered under the most expensive insurance option we purchased from them.

We have tried to resolve this matter properly, but our emails are now being ignored. Even worse, their responses stopped being signed, so there is no longer even a named person taking accountability for the issue.

Be very careful with their high ratings. In our experience, they push customers to leave reviews on the spot using QR codes, before the full rental process has actually been completed and before any post-rental issues emerge. That creates a very misleading impression.

What started as a normal rental turned into an extremely frustrating and expensive experience. Based on how this was handled, I would not recommend Sani Car Rental. Read the fine print, keep every document, monitor your card carefully, and do not assume that paying for their highest insurance cover will protect you from further charges.

We have just got back to the UK from a glorious family holiday in South Africa, hired a car from Sani Sixt at Tambo airport. The young man at the desk was courteous, helpful and friendly. We took out a full insurance and car was in excellent condition and easy to locate. Dropped it off, lady looked around it, signed the pad and took the keys. We never filled up before the airport which was deducted but absolutely no problem and totally recommend.

Never again.
I have used Sani Sixt twice when renting from Cape Town airport. Twice it has been a problem getting my deposit back. It has now been almost 2 months.
I have photos of the car at collection and drop off.
In future I'll just pay enterprise/hertz - they may be fractionally more expensive, but it avoids all of this nonsense.

We rented from Sani Sixt, Cape Town international airport.
The first car had warning lights on, before we even set off.
Changed to a second car and half an hour later on the road to Simon's Town, a warning light came on.
Minutes later another warning light came on and it was a serious one.
We were not comfortable driving with the car, so they did bring us another car and the driver told me "don't worry about all the warning lights, it will be fine". SERIOUSLY!!!!
So, 3 cars from Sani Sixt and not one was serviced or looked after. People pay a lot of money to hire a car and that is what you get!!!!

Forgotten items in car 'not found'
I hired a car for two days from the Oliver Tambo airport branch. The car hire process was efficient and I felt satisfied to use them again in future.
However, when I returned the car, I forgot my Sony overear headset and my ABSA bank card in the car.
I realised my mistake right after I had been through security for domestic flights and called the office immediately. I got no response and sent an urgent email notifying them of my issue.

I have had many calls and emails since but after three days, I finaly got this response from them:

>>We received a query about lost items that you believe belonged to you during the course of your rental. After inspecting our lost and found area and consulting our Car Park Attendant, who inspected your vehicle, however we unfortunately did not any find of the lost items you were looking for.

We take grate pride in keeping lost items safe that belong to our clients and we do apologize for the inconvenience caused about your items that were not found.<<

To be clear, I am 100% sure that those items were left in the car and that someone is now very pleased with their lovely noice cancelling headphones worth R2000. The debit card was imediately cancelled and has since been replaced.

I would simply not trust this company in future and will take my busiiness elsewhere.

I have been renting with SANI SIXT at Cape Town International Airport for several years, typically for long-term periods of 4–5 months per year, so I consider myself a loyal and high-value customer.

Unfortunately, my most recent experience was very disappointing.

When I tried to extend my rental, I was initially quoted over R15,000 for 13 days, which was far above the current market rate. After questioning this, the price was reduced to around R10,000, but this was still significantly higher than a reasonable rate.

I clearly pointed out to the reservation agent that the exact same vehicle was available for approximately R5,600 when booking directly through the official SANI SIXT website (not via any third-party platform), and asked how such a large pricing difference could be justified. After raising this, I did not receive any further response.

As a result, I had no choice but to make a new booking online through the official website at the correct rate and drive to the airport to return the existing vehicle and collect a new one. This entire process could easily have been avoided.

At collection, I was then given a manual vehicle instead of the automatic I had before. When I asked to switch to an automatic vehicle, I was initially quoted around R10,000 extra, which was then reduced to R6,600. Even at that level, this would have meant paying more than double the original rental price just to get a comparable vehicle.

This pricing approach is simply not reasonable.

As a long-term repeat customer, I would have expected a more transparent and customer-oriented solution. Instead, the entire process felt inconsistent, overpriced, and unnecessarily complicated.

It is disappointing, as I have rented here multiple times in the past, but based on this experience, I will reconsider future bookings.

I gave away a perfect car. They didn't return my deposit. They don't respond to messages. They look like scammers! I will always avoid this company. A scam with a deposit.

This company is a scam
I rented their vehicle, it came back with damage, they forced me to pay full R16,142.66 damage amount, telling me that the insurance I took and extra super cover i paid for won't pay for this damage, its insane
They refused to return my R8700 deposit and try to forcefully take another R7442 from my credit, people be careful these are scammers.
I sent them many emails complaining and they ignored me.

We had a good experience with this company, no problems, and the staff were very friendly. We picked up and returned the car at Cape Town Airport. The deposit was refunded promptly.

I had a terrible experience with SANI Sixt South Africa — easily one of the worst car rental experiences I’ve ever had. We rented a vehicle for a month, planning to drive both on highways and light off-road routes. The car was nearly new, which at first seemed great — until it became clear that was actually a liability.

After returning the car, we were charged for small surface scratches on the rims of the tires, which is absurd given the driving conditions in South Africa, where minor scratches from gravel and rocks are unavoidable. It felt like they were just looking for any excuse to bill extra.

What made things worse is that they kept our deposit without justification and later charged additional fees without prior notice. When I followed up — even referencing a police report we had filed for a separate incident and handed directly to them — they claimed they never received it. Months later, no transparency, no accountability, just unhelpful and dismissive responses.

In my opinion, this branch operates in an untrustworthy and unprofessional manner. I would strongly recommend avoiding SANI Sixt South Africa and choosing another rental company if you value honesty and reliability.

⚠️ Avoid Sani Sixt Car Rentals – Serious Deposit & Fraud Concerns

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I strongly urge anyone considering Sani Sixt in South Africa to read online reviews before proceeding. There are numerous reports-mine included-of issues with deposit refunds and even potential credit card fraud.

🚩 Red Flag #1: Unsafe Credit Card Practices

Before my rental could be confirmed, I was asked to email a photo of my ID along with photocopies of the front and back of my credit card-a highly questionable request from both a data protection and fraud prevention standpoint. I complied only because I urgently needed a car, and I emailed the information to an individual named Irfaan Muhammad Hanif.

🚩 Red Flag #2: Deposit Taken as Payment

A 14,000 ZAR deposit (high because I am an international customer), plus the rental fee, was charged to my credit card (by a man named Khaya Duma) as an actual payment, NOT held as a standard pre-authorisation- in direct contradiction to their stated policy. Khaya’s attitude was also notably poor.

🚩 Red Flag #3: Fraud Attempt Shortly After

Within a week, my bank flagged an attempted online shopping transaction using my card-which they blocked as suspected fraud. Given the timing and other online reviews mentioning similar incidents, I find this deeply suspicious. Simply Google the company name along with “fraud” and you'll find other similar stories.

🚩 Red Flag #4: Late Deposit Refund

I received an email on December 5th, 2026 confirming my deposit would be released within 14 business days. In reality, the deposit only returned to my account on December 31st, so19 business days later.

That's five business days overdue, and it only happened after repeated emails and phone calls, during which I was told casually “Oops, we forgot.” This delay violates their own refund policy and, again, is part of a pattern reported by many other customers (just search the company name plus “deposit”).

Also, because the deposit had been taken as a full payment rather than a hold, I also incurred interest charges on my credit card during the delay-something that wouldn’t have happened with a proper pre-authorisation.

✅ The ONLY Positive: The Car and Green Point staff

The vehicle itself was fine. It drove well and I returned it with no issues to the Cape Town Green Point branch, where the staff were polite and professional- the only good part of the experience.

Final Word:

This company appears to operate with disregard for customer security, transparency, and professionalism. The combination of unsafe card practices, poor communication, delayed refunds, and suspicious activity should serve as a serious warning to others. I think a lot of the reviews are misguiding - at the desk at George I was asked to leave a good review for the staff member who served me, and I can see many of the five star reviews look like they were requested this way.

Use a more reputable provider. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

At the Centurion branch of SANI SIXT, I rented the Toyota Corolla Cross, which is supposed to be full of gas when I collected it; however, the next day, I noticed that about 7 liters were missing from the tank. I have driven 222 km to the petrol station, where I refilled the tank with 22.69 liters of petrol. With an average fuel consumption of 7 L, it leaves us with about 7 L missing from the tank.

When I returned the car, I was treated very unfriendly by the staff. The guard at the boom gate requested to see my driver's license. I was handing it to him, he was saying " not that one, the other one pointing to the 100 EUROS note sticking out from my purse.

When I checked in and parked the car in front of the office, no one came to me to process the check-in. I had to go and look for someone to do it. The man, at the inspection, was rather indecent. He asked for the car keys, started taking photos, then asked me to sit back again and reverse the car. I asked what the reason was that I should, but he did not answer, just kept taking the photos. Then I saw he had no space to take a photo from the front. He was rude.

Now, I can do it for him, that is fine, but isn't it his job? Where is the service? The most important thing for him after I signed was to scan the QR code for a Five-Star SANI Google review. What star would you give it? Prior, I gave good reviews on Google - but not now!

When I followed up on the final invoice and the deposit hold release, the manager noted that 3,74 L is missing from the fuel tank. I have refueled the tank before check-in. The garage was about 20km from the Sani branch. It should be about 1,4 L less than the full tank, not more.

10 liters of petrol are still missing. Where should it be? We are not just talking about the R200 value, but the treatment. I emailed a complaint, which has not been answered.

A recurring customer gets shortened and is treated unfairly. I have been renting vehicles from SANI for over R100 000 lately. I doubt if I will ever, if it is not going to get handled.

Car was fine but Sani make it very difficult to get the deposit back if you don't have a south african bank account. They don't just preauth the money on your credit card, they take a full payment and then don't respond to refund requests - no excess was due on the returned vehicle.

A month after returning a rental car to Sixt Sani in Johannesburg, my wife and I have still not received:
- the official rental invoice,
- the refund of our deposit, or
- any proper documentation regarding alleged damages.

When we returned the car, the receiving agent was extremely rude and accusatory, claiming we had scratched the car — which was completely untrue. We have clear, time-stamped photos from both the start and end of the rental proving there was no damage whatsoever.

Since returning the car, we’ve received no correspondence, no explanation, and no refund. After I finally contacted them, they sent only a “damages invoice” — a document that didn’t even describe any damage, just a receipt showing they had deducted money from our deposit. No remarks, no damage report, no proof.

At this point, it feels like they’ve simply stolen nearly €500.
I’ve now filed an official claim against the wrongful charges, supported by photographic evidence of the undamaged vehicle.

I strongly urge everyone not to rent from this branch. Their behaviour is dishonest, rude, and deceptive, and — as other reviews confirm — this seems to be a recurring pattern at this location.

I rented a car from this company in December 2024 while visiting South Africa. I provided my card details to complete the payment at their office. The initial charge was correct, but 10 months later, my bank blocked a suspicious transaction attempt from the same company. Despite cancelling my card and getting a new one, I recently discovered another unauthorized withdrawal linked to them- 11 months later.
After checking online, I found multiple similar complaints from other customers on Face book about unexplained or repeated charges. Unfortunately, the company has not publicly addressed these concerns or offered clear explanations.
I urge anyone considering this rental agency to be extremely cautious with their payment information, or preferably use another reliable rental office. And I strongly encourage the company to investigate these reports and improve its data security practices.