Girassol Rent a Car Reviews 9

🚩 RENTERS BEWARE 🚩

We paid for a full 8-day rental with Girassol Rent a Car, and the experience was deeply unprofessional from start to finish.

Vehicle issues at pickup:
The car was given to us with a coolant warning light on, and the heater did not work at all. This alone raised concerns about vehicle safety and basic quality control.

Return was never arranged:
At pickup, we were told someone would contact us the day before return to coordinate, yet no return location, time, or instructions were ever arranged or confirmed.

After not hearing from them all day, we reached out multiple times prior to our return date and again the morning of return by phone, WhatsApp, and email.

No response. No instructions. Completely unreachable.

With zero guidance, we left the car at the airport, documented everything, and notified them immediately.

After the car was dropped off, the company suddenly became responsive — and then began harassing us for days over an €11.40 parking fee, repeatedly messaging and escalating the situation. We were even threatened with police involvement over €11, which is absurd given that the fee occurred only because they failed to communicate or arrange the return.

We paid the €11.40 just to stop their harassment, despite the issue being entirely of their own making.

Conflicting and misleading explanations followed about “scheduled meetings” and “booking changes” that never existed. We paid for the full rental with full insurance and made no changes.

Failing to arrange a return, becoming unreachable, then persistently harassing customers and threatening police over €11 is unprofessional, alarming, and deeply concerning.

We rent cars frequently around the world and have never experienced this level of disorganization, blame-shifting, and intimidation.

⚠️ Renters beware: return logistics may not be arranged, communication may disappear when it matters most, and you may still be charged — or threatened — for problems you didn’t cause. And if god forbid there is an issue with your rental car or your flight gets changed - you may not be able to reach anyone at all for assistance. We definitely wouldn't recommend this company to anyone.

I don’t usually leave reviews but this is an exceptional service. I’ve had so many bad experiences from car hire companies I’ve lost count so these guys really stand out. Super easy to book, no waiting around when I got there, they delivered the car to me and collected it, they had a super convenient 15E per day full cover option and most of all they were very friendly. I wish all my car hire experiences were like this.

Hired a car for 3 days and the service was definately above and beyond what i expected.We hired a SEAT Ibiza 1.0L and was a bit worried that it might not be powerful enough for the hilly terrain but had no problems whatsoever.Dont hesitate hire a vehicle from here today!

Michael B

Automatic car is a must in Madeira. Google maps on car screen with Android auto made my trip so easy and comfortable

Excellent car and very carefully service! We had a car delivered to the hotel and picked up from the airport. Great team! I have already recommended it to my friends and I recommend it to you.

The company that I usually go to for car hire had rather negative reviews in Madeira. Was recommended to enquire about availability of a car at this company. From first contact, through rental process and during return all went absolutely smoothly, staff were very professional and friendly. I understand that the team is rather multilingual as well. They also helped to accommodate some change in plans which was very handy and much appreciated. I would recommend using full insurance that they offer. Was advised that somehow in Madeira attention is given to condition of interior (not covered even by full insurance), so maybe worth paying attention to this.

Madeira is great! and when we were faced with what we had to do for its research, we turned to this wonderful company Girassol.rent with AKP, for Madeira this is just a godsend! I recommend the best car rental company in Madeira!