Star RV Motorhome Hire - Christchurch Reviews 17

lots of little things didn't work, took it back to them 3 times to get stuff sorted,
fuel tank was empty wastewater was full, not happy with them at all, they obviously turn them around as quickly as possible and don't check stuff properly,
certainly wouldnt recomend them

Don’t use this company!!!
Our group had two camper vans . Neither were fully equipped as advertised for example no gas in the gas bottle .
After two days one van was taken off the road as it was unroadworthy.(faulty brakes). The replacement van was also ill equipped had a small old foam mattress that was infested with mould. The other van lost all electrics twice and the repair dept seemed to have no idea how to fix it. We had no fridge , no lights , no hot water or running water and we had to throw away food. One night was spent in a BnB which after about two months we finally got reimbursed.
The second van also had faulty brakes. While driving down the very steep Haast Pass the low brake fluid warning came on.
We spent hours being put on hold on the phone. No one ever called us back and we lost between 3 and 4 days of our 15 day holiday with vehicles off the road or waiting in their depot in Queenstown for repairs to be done. The bloke behind the counter in Queenstown said “ It’s not my problem “ This pretty much sums up the company.
The only person who was willing to help was Fabian at Christchurch . After numerous calls and emails and much frustration we eventually received a piddly amount of compensation.
As I said at the start, don’t use this company.

What a nightmare
Hi,we are 3 weeks into our trip in New Zealand with 3 weeks to go.
We paid over $9000 for our star RV van & we expected some sort of comfort but we got the opposite.
If you are looking to hire a van please look at other companies, star RV would be the last company I would deal with.
Yours sincerely
Mathew Carmichael

We hired a Polaris 2 from Christchurch for 4 weeks in Dec 2925 - Jan 26. Mixed experience. The booking system was frustrating with my eventually having to contact juicy head office to get a quote honored. Emails to weeks to be responded to. But on the other hand our pick up experience was very good. The pick up shuttle was easy to organise and turned up promptly. The staff were friendly and helpful.
The van was pretty poorly fitted out which was a shame. Blinds were difficult to use, the roof window leaked, a cupboard base was loose. We’d learned from previous van hires with other companies that it pays to bring a few things of your own so we went straight to Kmart and bought kitchen knives, tee towels, pillows, a mattress topper and extra mugs. Consequently the van felt comfortable to live in. We found it easy to drive and easy to park.
On our third day of hire we were contacted to ask if all was ok - a nice touch especially as it was Boxing Day. We mentioned the leaking room and the staff member was helpful. Some damage was done to the van in a Supermarket car park and the staff dealt with our report quickly and efficiently - we were fully insured and they assured us there would be no further cost to us On returning the van we pointed out the problems we’d had and they offered some compensation and apologized.
So on the whole our experience was positive mainly due to some nice kiwi staff. I would just have liked a better fitted out van. As we said to the staff if we’d paid hundreds of dollars for a hotel room and the roof leaked, the blinds wouldn’t close and a cupboard was hanging off the wall we’d ask for a refund. They agreed.

Do not hire from this company, NZ is beautiful but star rv made it a nightmare, $8000 AUD We hired Polaris 2 for 4 weeks in Christchurch New Zealand in 4 weeks we exchanged 4 vehicles as each vehicle had major faults, and that was because we took the vehicle back,every request was never answered until the end of our 4 week vacation,from bald unroadworthy tyres,to heating not working,usb charge points not working, insect screens not sealing letting in blood hungry sandflies, vehicle running low on engine oil, with the oil light flashing on dashboard, when we emailed of issues we got a reply two days before leaving the country,phone calls went to answering services in Philippines with no replies for upto ten days.

Horrendous experience from day one. Collected Polaris 4 in Christchurch depot. Staff member openly stated when numerous customers were checking in, that she didn’t know what to do and went looking for other staff who weren’t in a hurry to assist. Same staff member handed us keys to camper without a walkthrough or sufficient handover to ensure that camper was in full working order. Arrived in first campsite 3 hours away, only to find that the water pump was broken, locking mechanism on cabin door was broken, toilet cassette had not been emptied. Called customer service teams, assistance teams numerous times on day one/ day two only to be kept on hold for up to 30 mins each time before being transferred to another team. Ultimately no solution offered. Repairman eventually sent out to inspect the camper for the water pump,, and couldn’t find the water pump. Star RV offered no replacement vehicle but told us to book into hotel up to $80 a night. Stated they’d book an appointment with mechanic to completely take out water tank which would result in loss of days travelling. Star RV main concern was fixing issue for next customer and not assisting us. While driving on the main roads, the cabin door would intermittently decide to swing open. My passenger had to sit on the step and hold door closed until a safe spot to stop was found. Only solution was to use power cable tied to handle of door and wrapped around table. Star RV didn’t acknowledge serious health and safety matter.. BBQ on side of camper did not work either. All issues addressed with numerous emails/phone calls to different operators/customer service members who could not offer a solution, instead said they will make a follow up call tomorrow. Bed linens and curtains were filthy and full of dust.. Delivered the camper to Queenstown and outlined every issue. Staff member mentioned that Christchurch branch are notorious for not checking vehicles and sending them out to customers in unfit condition. Offered a 1/2 day compensation for our troubles which were declined. Provided with another email address to address compensation. Made numerous calls/ emails to feedback teams or management team. Star RV could not even reply to the emails and blatantly ignored calls by transferring to different team members. When queries were addressed, they offered a credit note to use with the company, as if o would use Star RV again.. Overall terrible experience and could not recommend the more of any vehicle. Paid for a premium service and did not receive one. Might as well rented a car and slept in the boot.. Customer service was non existent during hire period and weeks after.. If possible to give 0 star or negative feedback, I wouldn’t hesitate

Was interested to book Star RV. However i found that they deliberately increased the per day price to soften the BF discount. From before BF promo of 150$ to 185$ per day. Hence they are actually only giving 2$ discount.
Thankfully i have the habit to screenshot for comparison. This action just nailed it for me, off to your competitor!

Final Update 16 Oct: StarRV has now offered compensation, including a partial reimbursement for accommodation and a discount on the campervan hire. While the outcome was less than we had hoped for, the matter has been acknowledged and settled for now. Communication took time, but responses were eventually provided. Overall, a mixed experience — some effort was made to resolve the issue, though there’s room for improvement in service and follow-through.

Update: After my initial review, StarRV/Travvia replied publicly asking me to send feedback to their email. I did exactly that — even copied the same address again in my follow-up reminder — and still received no reply.
At this point it feels like lip service meant only to look good on reviews, not to genuinely resolve customer issues. The silence and lack of accountability are unacceptable, especially for visitors who trusted the company while travelling in New Zealand.

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Booked a Polaris 4 from StarRV but got a completely different van that had loads of issues. It looked nothing like what was advertised. Windows sliding open while driving, ladder falling off, rainwater leaking in, reverse camera not working, and the steering felt unsafe. First gas tank was empty on the night of day 1 and only one set of bed linen was provided for two beds. Because of this we had to spend extra on hotels and gas, which wasn’t cheap.
We put in a complaint on 19 Sept and still haven’t heard back – not even an acknowledgement.
Honestly, the whole thing has been stressful and a real let-down during what was supposed to be a family holiday.
Wouldn’t recommend StarRV to anyone.

Horrible customer service. Dirty vehicles. Paid for premiums which were not delivered. Many things broken. Insufficient amount of cooking utensils including no frying pan, no spatula, no bowls, etc. Supposed to be less than 1 year old - was well over 1 year old for the first one and who knows for the second we had to get because ALL of the batteries in the first one died second night out. Polaris 6 awning??? HAHA! Yeah, you get it but they tell you not to use it because if you break it you have to pay for it. Promised a half day credit for the 2-1/2 hour wait to get delivery. Never received. Never again.

UPDATE: Reached out per their response and was ignored. Just as I expected.

If I could give negative stars I would. We had issue after issue with this company. I have been through circles with customer service.

Our RV broke down and needed a tow. The road side assistance gave the mechanic and tow truck driver the wrong directions and sent them 40km in the wrong direction. We were stranded on the side of the road for 4 hours. I had to hitch hike twice in service to call and ask about the information, which they had no idea what was going on. After explaining several times I did not have service so no one could call me, they informed me that the mechanic “gave up because I wasn’t answering and didn’t see us on the side of the road (due to given the wrong address.) Luckily I had direct contact with the tow driver when in service to explain where we were. They told us they would take us where ever we wanted and give us a hotel to stay for the night. We were taken to a town (not by our choice) with no hotel availability and had to sleep on top of the tow truck in the salvage yard and use a fork lift as a step to climb up. There was engine oil all over the tow truck and ground and we were lucky not to slip, some of our clothes got ruined from the climb up. They also charged me $730 NZD for not cleaning the toilet that was towed (even though the contract says they can’t charge more then $500 and we shouldn’t have been charged anyway due to the car breaking down and unable to empty it.) They also didn’t supply us for a power cord and made us buy one ourselves, which I have not been reimbursed for. I have talked to 10 people about this and they all refer me to talk to someone else and are terrified by our experience. I sent an email as directed and still not been responded to in 3 weeks. I haven’t been reimbursed for any of these issues which comes to a total of $1625NZD. We had several other issues with this company such as having to wait 1-2 hours for each new RV due to it not being ready, given no explanation on how the RV works and sent a 15 minute video on how to work it, not having an RV for 24 hours, our groceries going bad due to the RV break down, giving us a new RV with a bad battery and broken brake light, missing general supplies). Terrible customer service. Would not recommend this company. The people in Queenstown location were very nice though.

I would like to begin but stating that the driving cab and the mechanics of our vehicle lived up to the expectations of a less than 2 year old vehicle, however need to let you know about the overall experience in the Nova camper that we hired from you from December 27th 2024 to Jan 17th 2025.

Despite following all pre booking prompts and supplying driver licences and booking details, as well as checking in just prior to travel what awaited us on the end of a long international flight from Perth via Auckland was not the best start.
To wait 5 hours to pick up the vehicle following a long flight is either negligent or very poor management of vehicles. What was the point of pre registering and was there actually a vehicle allocated to us?

After 5 hours wait we were finally handed a vehicle with no induction other than, there she is it’s all self explanatory … Following a request for a better handover it was discovered that the vehicle we had been given to drive away in had no grey water hose, no table and only one chair (for 4 people), there was no pole to extend the awning with the explanation that it gets too windy on the South Island to use. In our travels we found this to be wrong, many sites we stayed at in the bright sun with no wind and no shade. The cover for the power input was broken and continued to fall off during use.

On the first night the grey water tank in the shower overflowed a discussing organic mess of fluid, indicating that this was not emptied or checked prior to handing to us. The drainage from the sink remained an issue throughout our stay, taking ages to drain and ending up bubbling into the shower even when the waste sump was dry, clearly a blockage.

The sink on the main tap was so loose it was virtually unusable and was probably the cause of the leak of water that continually flooded the floor of the camper.

In the first rain we had overnight there was a leak in the rear window and the bedding was soaked. There was also a constant leak under the cabinets causing some of our gear and medical supplies to get soaked.

Not sure if this was connected but there was a constant drip from the bottom of the vehicle (near the rear side step), this may be linked to the fact that the potable water tank would empty without use over a few days.

There was a constant leak from somewhere that caused a flood in the cab most nights and worse in the rain.

The fitting in the rear of the cab for the blinds was replaced by two screws (loose) that was the only way to tie off the blind (really, in a less than 2 year old vehicle)?

Yes we were offered (and accepted) a refund of a days rental on return but I seriously would like you to consider the issues that I have mentioned above to see if it fits with your quality expectations for the Nova vehicles that you rent to people. You offer competitive rates for a premium rental but this experience would indicate on a n=1 basis that you provided a low budget vehicle for that price.

I would like to refer this to you and the customer team on a first basis to allow you to respond, before I publish my critique. To put it simply, I do not consider the vehicle we were issued (after a 5 hour wait) to be of the quality that we paid for. I would be reconciled with an additional discount that would be in line with the level of rental that reflects the under equiped and issue ridden vehicle that we drove for nearly 4 weeks.

Great rental and great staff. Motorhome was clean, new and well-stocked with everything you needed for travel to an off-grid place. Restocking of laundry was also fast and efficient. Will be renting again when I come back to NZ.

Down to earth, very good deal and made the check in process smooth.

Be careful when you hire from this company

- we were given our rented camper van 6 hours late scheduled time was 8:30am got it at 2:30pm reason was camper van was not cleaned( we were told this when we reached chch office to pick up )

- after dropping it back I got charged $250 cleaning fee from my saved card without notification for toilet not cleaned (we haven’t used toilets as it was used for storage throughout trip and we suspect cleaner didn’t clean it when we hired , I didn’t bother checking as we were not going to use it anyway)

Poor customer service and unnecessary charges after hire period ended

Lack of Communication and Inadequate Service
Our experience was disappointing due to a lack of communication and insufficient service. We had a pick-up scheduled for 8:30 AM from the CHC airport branch, but upon arrival, we were informed that our van was not ready due to staff shortages. This should have been communicated to us before we arrived, especially since we had booked two vans for a total of nine people.

We agreed to pick up the vans at 12:30 PM, with the understanding that we would be informed if there were further delays. However, we received no updates and finally had to leave, only to have the vans handed over at 2:30 PM. This delay forced us to reschedule all of our bookings to stay on schedule.

Additionally, there were several issues with the vans. Despite booking two campervans, some of the complimentary items were missing, such as only one heater between the two vans, no cleaning supplies for the toilet or vessels, and no rubbish bags or bins.

The most disappointing aspect was the $250 cleaning fee charged to us. I have requested an explanation as we never used the cassette toilet, and the gray water tank was emptied on the last day of return. We hope to receive a satisfactory resolution regarding the unnecessary cleaning fees.

only problem is you cant plug into power at someones house cause they dont supply adaptor