About us

We are small, and we are not pretending otherwise

NET CAR RENTAL is a small business in Chiang Mai. We are not a franchise of an international brand, we do not have counters at three airports, and we do not have a fleet of two hundred cars.

We mention this first because it changes what you should expect. You will not get a 24-hour multilingual call centre with hold music. You will get a small team who answer their own phone, and an owner who reads the LINE messages personally.

The trade in the other direction is that when you message us at eleven at night because a warning light has come on somewhere outside Mae Rim, you reach someone who knows the car, knows the road, and can actually decide something — rather than someone reading a script who will "escalate" your problem.

Why every car is electric

This was a deliberate decision, not a marketing angle.

The driving here suits it. Chiang Mai is compact, the trips people actually make are 30 to 200 km, and the mountain roads that surround the city are exactly where an electric car is most pleasant — instant torque going up, regenerative braking coming down, and no gearbox hunting for a ratio on a switchback.

The running cost is genuinely lower, which is why our daily rates can include unlimited mileage without arithmetic that only works if you stay in the city.

The air here matters. Anyone who has spent a March in Chiang Mai understands why. We are one small business and we are not going to claim we are solving that. But we can decline to add to it.

And it is quieter. On a mountain road at seven in the morning, that turns out to matter more than we expected.

How we work

Every booking is checked by a person. When you send a request, someone looks at the actual fleet calendar and confirms the car is free before replying. That is why the status says "awaiting confirmation" until we answer, and why we do not claim a booking is confirmed the instant you press a button. A confirmation that no human has verified is not a confirmation.

We photograph the car with you, twice. At handover and at return — all four corners, both bumpers, the wheels, the cabin, the odometer and the battery level — and the whole set goes to your LINE chat immediately. That set belongs to both of us. It exists so that neither side has to rely on memory about a scratch, and in practice it is the reason we have never had an argument about a deposit.

The deposit comes back on the day. In full, in cash or by transfer, once we have looked over the car together. It is not withheld pending a review and it is not offset against the rental.

Prices are complete before you commit. Insurance, unlimited mileage and tax are in the figure you see. The only additions are ones we name explicitly on the site — delivery beyond 25 km, out-of-hours collection, and any extras you choose.

What we have deliberately chosen not to do

No online payment. There is no checkout on this website and no card form. Payment happens in person, in cash or by PromptPay. This is simpler for both of us and means there is no card data to lose.

No fake reviews. Our reviews page is empty of testimonials until we have real ones from real customers whose identity can be checked. Invented reviews are easy to write and tell you nothing. In the meantime, read us on Google, where we cannot edit the wording.

No stock photography of our cars. The photographs are of the actual vehicles you will be renting. Where a photograph is still missing, the page says so rather than borrowing someone else's.

No airport surcharge. Collecting at the airport costs the same as collecting in town, because it costs us roughly the same to do.

No excess-reduction pressure. We will tell you when we think the ฿300 per day is worth taking and when we think it is not. On a two-week rental where you are mostly on open road, we will usually say it is not.

Where we operate

Chiang Mai and the surrounding province. Free delivery within about 25 km of the city centre, which covers the old city, Nimman, the airport, the railway station and most of Hang Dong, San Sai, Mae Rim and Saraphi. Beyond that, ฿300 per rental, stated to you before you commit.

Our cars may be driven anywhere in Thailand. They may not be taken across a border — the insurance stops there.

Business details

Our registered name, e-commerce registration number and tax identification number are shown in the footer of every page.

Where a value is still pending, the site says so rather than leaving a blank. We would rather show you an incomplete registration honestly than have you wonder why the information is absent.

Talk to us before you book

If you are not sure whether a car makes sense for your trip, ask us — and be prepared for us to say no. We have told people staying four days inside the old city walls to hire a scooter instead, because that was the right answer.

We are on LINE, and on 091 072 3336, at any hour.

Read next: rates and packages, how insurance works, or driving in Chiang Mai if you have not driven in Thailand before.