Donkey Republic Reviews 

2,088
TrustScore 3.5 out of 5

3.5

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Evaluating 200 reviews, most reviewers were somewhat happy with their experience overall. Customers frequently mention that finding and renting bicycles is a very convenient way to explore the city during short urban trips and commutes. Many people deeply appreciate the simple digital process, robust vehicle quality, and affordable pricing options for daily travel needs. Some reviewers were not happy with unexpected billing charges, price increases, and confusing rental duration tracking systems. Consumers also noted frustrating difficulties when attempting to lock or unlock the bicycles properly during their journeys. A few individuals experienced issues with incorrect GPS locations and faulty vehicle conditions at designated pickup spots across towns.

What people talk about most

Product

Reviewers highlight ambiguous aspects of product, with many customers praising the bikes as convenient,... See more

Price

Consumers find price to be ambiguous, reflecting a wide range of differing financial experiences. While many... See more

User experience

Customers consistently note ambiguous experiences with user experience, with some reporting that everything... See more

Service

Users describe ambiguous interactions with service, reflecting sharply divided opinions among customers.... See more

Location

Customers had ambiguous experiences with location, reporting both convenient drop-offs near train stations... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

I had subscribed for a subscription, but had misunderstood how the renting process worked exactly. Although I was quite annoyed on the phone, I was helped wonderfully and got a refund. From what I re... See more

Company replied

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

We found bikes next to the station. Unfortunately just one e-bike which we booked first. After that we couldn’t book a ‚normal‘ bike as all bikes had to be the same. Found another e-bike two street... See more

Company replied

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

It rides like a manual bike probably worse because it's so heavy ....there's barely any power going to the wheels. An electric bike that's harder to ride than a manual bike. Other than that in terms o... See more

Company replied

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Wow. As an American wanting to ride daily, I didnt know about Donkey Republic til getting to Amsterdam. Seems natives (who own tons of bikes) arent that familiar with it so hope this helps. 33 euro... See more

Company replied


Company details

  1. Transportation service

Written by the company

Donkey Republic offers an affordable bike-share system that is accessible via our app in a variety of cities across Europe.


Contact info

3.5

Average

TrustScore 3.5 out of 5

2k reviews

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1-star

No recent history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited customers recently, so reviews may not be representative

Replied to 100% of negative reviews

Typically replies within 24 hours

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3.5

All reviews

(2,088)

314 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Avoid

I’ve used their bikes in multiple cities, and the same issue keeps happening. For unclear reasons on their end, the rental doesn’t properly end, and the bike remains “active” overnight — even though it’s clearly locked and hasn’t been moved.
This feels like a deliberate business model.

They profit from these situations instead of fixing them. Customer care is 0, practically non-existent.

26 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hi Filip,

Your phone running out of battery is not something we have control over, if this happens and you cannot end the rental correctly, it is not an unclear reason, but very much your own responsibility.

If you keep the bike rented, we cannot rent it out, as such you have to pay for the time you rented the bike.

Best regards,
Donkey Republic

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

They change some e-bike for better versions

Good time ridding their bikes. Bru in Switzerland is a bit overpriced

25 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hi there,

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback with us! We are thrilled to hear that you had a good time riding our Donkeys.

We appreciate your honest input regarding the pricing in Switzerland. Our rates can vary depending on local operational costs and city requirements, but we will certainly pass your comments along to our Swiss local team for consideration.

We hope to see you on a Donkey again soon!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Excellent trip with donkey

Excellent trip with donkey

25 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hi! :) Thank you so much for leaving your review, very happy to hear you had such an excellent trip! :)

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Oh gawd worst rental bike experience ever

Oh gawd. If I had known it advance I would have walked.

I was stranded at a station in the middle of the night and wanted to walk when I noticed a donkeyrepublic rental bike and thought 'why not' since the code on the side said I got 30 minutes free.

So after registering I found out the code DOESN'T WORK. But I already registered and it's cold. So I thought why not it's only a few euro. Ofcourse you need to place E15 in your account in order to spend a few euro cause that's how this works.

Turns out the bike had no working headlight and one of the brakes is defective. Ok. I had to hold my phone in my hands with torchlight on to see anything. The saddle is as hard as stone and the bike is so cheap there's no suspension at all. It wasn't a fun ride.

I wanted to return the bike to one of the locations only to find out that this company has NO OTHER LOCATIONS in this city~! So you have to return the bike to the middle of nowhere station~!

I sighed and wanted to do this the next day, you know, when it wasn't the middle of th enight. But the next day I suddenly got a message saying 'rental ended, you didn't return the bike to a rental location and have to pay a fee'. That fee is E20.

I contacted the company saying that the biked locked before I could return it to the no mans land station. They agreed but weren't sure if I still had to pay a fine (WTF?). I'd have to return it first, then maybe I still have to pay or maybe not. The matter turned out to be irrelevant because I couldn't unlock the bike anymore.

So. They have already charged me E15 and want to charge a further E10. Here in the Netherlands you can buy an entire second hand bike in better condition than this pair of sad wheels was for E25.

I. Do. Not. Advice. This. Company.

17 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hey Kublai Khan, there are so many things here, its hard to unpack it all without being able to find your account, so we reached out to you for more info and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this!

The reason you needed to put money on your account is because of the payment method you selected, which requires a deposit from your side. If you choose to pay by credit card, or PayPal, no deposit is needed.

You should never under any circumstances cycle on a faulty bike, for your safety or that of others. Doing so puts you and all other road users at risk. If you encounter a faulty bike, please report it in the app and do not use it, we will of course then disable the bike until it is repaired by our mechanics.

Drop off locations can be found on the map in the app, so please check those out, before setting off on a long cycling trip at night.

Hope to hear from you soon so we can help you out with the rest :)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Knars

Good vetuy
Nice roods guy

20 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Thanks a lot Yared for the positive review :)

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Dont trust this company!

strongly advise against using these bikes. I was charged an extra 200 kr, and I still don’t understand why. I filed a complaint, and they can clearly see that the bike was parked and not in use. I properly locked and ended the trip, yet I was still charged until the following day.
Later, I received an email saying I had been charged 250 kr for just 5–10 minutes of usage, which makes no sense. This feels like unfair billing.
Overall, the app is unreliable, and the customer service is very poor. I would not recommend using Donkey Republic.

17 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hi Milad, Thanks for your review. We have investigated your trip and found that the rental was not ended correctly in the app. Because the trip remained active, the bike was "digitally invisible" and could not be rented by other users during that time. Per our policy, we cannot offer a cash refund for rentals that were not ended. We are always here to help you out if you ever are in trouble in the future!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

For urgent and necessity time the best…

For urgent and necessity time the best choice.

18 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hey Hizbullah! Glad to hear our bikes were of good use in your moments of need! Hopefully fewer urgencies and more fun bike rides in the future! Thank you!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Declined due to many attempts

I am being declined due to many attempts but it is my first attempt

18 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hey Dianna! Sorry to hear that!

Please make sure you are using mobile data as your internet connection.

Could you please reach out to us at support@donkeyrepublic.com? That way we can look closely to what might be causing this error.

Thank you!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great Experience

Great Experience, easier to use the app I really enjoyed.

I'll recommend it for everyone 👍
Please try once 🚲

14 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Fabio, so happy to read this <3 Until next time :-)

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Bad first experience

Tried to book 2 bikes. One bike worked and started counting minutes but other bike suddenly didn’t show up on the map anymore, after I booked it (minutes counting). Tried closing the app, resetting Bluetooth but nothing worked. Then the first bike suddenly locked and also did not show up on the map. I did talk to customer service who was very helpful but could also not see the bikes on the map. Then one appeared again. All in all, my first experience was terrible. I have requested a refund and immediately uninstalled the app, unfortunately.

11 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hello Jesper!

Thanks for your feedback.

Sorry to hear this was your first experience with the app. Also happy to hear that we could assist you in solving the problem. Hope next time you give it another try the experience will be smoother!

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Worst company ever

Worst company ever, draining money from ur bank account for unfair penalties

11 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hello Ritvars! Thank you very much for your feedback. The app always warns you in advance if you want to end the rental outside a return location. You then have the choice to correct it or accept the consequences which the warning displays. Hopefully it will work better next time!

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Really rude customer Service

Really rude customer Service

Prices have also gone up loads recently. I rented a bike for 5€ for 1 hour. The first one was broken. There was a really bad noise coming from the chain. Okay, it can happen so I exchanged it for another but the same issue. The next available bike was far and my time was running out. I was tied of this and didn't want to risk another attempt to exchange it. So I gave up and put it back.
When I asked for a full refund, instead of considering me as a loyal customer for the past 5 years, they said I should have just got another bike. It made out it was my fault with no apology for the other broken bikes or the inconvenience it gave me.
A simple 5€ refund would not have cost them anything and I would have remained a customer with them.

Their rudeness has made me write this review and delete the app. There are so many other bike rental companies. Why would I bother to continue with these people???

7 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hi Tim,

Thank you for your feedback, and we’re sorry to hear about your experience.

We understand how frustrating it must have been to encounter issues with multiple bikes at the start of your rental. That’s not the experience we aim to provide.

To clarify, our day passes are not tied to a single bike but give access to all available bikes in the area during the validity period. For that reason, we’re not able to offer refunds once a pass has been activated and used.

That said, we do want to be fair in situations like this. As a gesture, we’ve added extra time to your pass so you still have the opportunity to use it without losing value.

We truly appreciate you being a long-time user, and your feedback regarding bike quality has been noted and will be shared with the relevant team to help improve the service.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

When I used a voucher to get a free…

When I used a voucher to get a free ride, I got hit with a 50 euro fee because I parked it outside of the allowed drop-off location. I didn’t get a clear warning I would get hit with a ticket, then when I loaded 50 euros into the app I got a email that I can’t do that and should just make it over, but when I searched it up it said that they could just take it out of my in-app wallet. So they made it a whole problem just to pay, I exchanged emails with 4 employees and only one was of real help. He gave me clear instructions and was all around just nice to work with.
So I would say read well before accepting something and read the fine print.

20 March 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hey Rune, that is not a good experience :(

We always are trying to improve this app, and the training of our staff that assists you, so we will take this onboard for future.

In regards to the penalty, if there is anything that is unclear about it is still, please let us know of course so we can clarify it.

We hope you will give us another chance in the future.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Over charged for faulty bike

Charged for three bikes when was faulty and reported faulty at the point of usage - only used two bikes and charged for three

6 April 2026
Unprompted review
Donkey Republic logo

Reply from Donkey Republic

Hi Martin! I see there is a bit of a miscommunication. My colleague refunded the amount back to your donkey wallet, which you can always refund again to your bank account. I have done this now for you and the money will be back within a couple of working days!

Sorry for the unclarity!

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