Europcar Reviews 3,891

My review applies to a rental from Venice, Italy to Florence (Firenze), Italy. Picking up the car in Venice was uneventful The Citroen vehicle was clean and had low mileage. The vehicle has Apple CarPlay, so I was able to use my iPhone to navigate to Venice. The drive was pleasant, though there are frequent changes in the speed limit. I was told that those are speed traps, and that I may receive a traffic ticket in the mail, anytime in the next 12 months. Not the fault of Europcar, of course.

The return process in Florence was difficult, because the parking structure for the office near the Arno river was closed due to construction. I was given a map with no scale and incomplete directions in English. My Italian is very limited. I was lost for an hour in Florence (not unusual) until I found a parking space and used my phone to get directions to Europcar Firenze Nuvoli. By the time I arrived, I was frazzled, but that was due to driving in Florence and low blood sugar. The gentleman at Firenze Nuvoli was very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, the parking lot is underground, and artificial lighting creates shadows inside the car. My camera had rolled under the driver's seat. I left it behind.

I tried to call Europcar regarding the camera. Their phone lines were closed between 5 PM and 9 AM, which I found unusual. When I eventually got hold of an agent, he contacted the Nuvoli office, determined that my camera was in the car, and contacted me to let me know that I could retrieve my camera in Nuvoli. They could easily determine that the Sony RX100 is an expensive camera, and I am grateful to the gentleman at Firenze Nuvoli for his honesty.

I did not see any unwarranted charges.

I would rent from Europcar again, though in Italy I would rent from airport pickup to airport dropoff, and take taxis to and from the airport locations.

Never use Europcar in Kiruna Sweden. After 2 weeks they charged another 100% of rental price. Then after long email huricane they stop replaying and that was the end of our investigation. Instead of paying 750€ we paid twice the price!!!

Europcar St Maarten was easily the worst rental experience I've ever had in 20 years of renting cars. Not only did they fail to honor my PREPAID RESERVATION, booked directly on Europcar's website, they also failed to honor the terms of the contract that required them to rent a car at their own expense from someone else. This forced me to rent a vehicle elsewhere, wasting multiple hours, and then when I asked for reimbursement of the $300 difference they ghosted me.
P.S The acting manager on site said that the company has gone to hell since being acquired by a French parent company in 2024, and that French tourists now get preferential treatment.
Avoid at all costs.

Absolutely terrible experience.
My partner booked a car for our weekend trip, as she was the one organising and paying. She made the booking in her name, assuming (quite reasonably) that I could be added as the driver when we arrived. Nowhere during the booking process did it clearly state that the person making the booking must also hold a driving licence.
When we arrived late at night, she was asked for her licence. She explained multiple times that she doesn’t have one and that I would be the sole driver. Despite this, we were stuck in a frustrating loop where the staff member kept asking for the same thing over and over again, not really listening or offering a solution.
Eventually, we were told the booking had to be cancelled and I’d need to rebook in my own name. Completely avoidable if the requirements had been clearly communicated upfront.
To make matters worse, it wasn’t made clear that paying by credit card was necessary to avoid a £250 deposit. Another surprise.
When I went to rebook, I was told we’d have to wait around 90 minutes — which made no sense given our original booking had just been cancelled, so the car should have been available. Only after questioning this did things move quicker.
The original booking was £26 for a small car (Fiat 500 or similar). We ended up paying £130 (excluding the £250 deposit) for an “upgrade” we didn’t ask for or need.
Overall, a stressful, poorly handled experience with unclear policies and unhelpful service. I would not recommend.
Safe to say that I felt like we were being held to ransom and being taken advantage of given our circumstances.

I hired a car from Peterborough as mine was off the road. Had it for4 weeks, returned it without any issues however 2 months later am still awaiting the return of my £700 deposit!! They have assured me twice now that the deposit has been released however it has not. Would never use again! Disgusting

Yet ANOTHER fantastic experience with Eurocar!
Due to a different car rental companies incompetence, we were left stranded at the airport with a child and an infant, and NO CAR! The staff member at Europcar (Euan) could not have been kinder, helpful and more efficient!

I booked and paid a rental car via an online platform economy bookings that selected Europcar as best deal.
Upon arrival Europcar refused the deal as I only had a debit card with. Being Easter WE and being able to rent out on the spot for double the money they were unwilling to assist me and cancelled my booking saying no rental car company will accept my debit card.
Thank God sixt rented out without problems.
Now it cost me more but customer services at Sixt outstanding, europcar terrible and uncaring.
The online platform refuse to refund!!!!

I learned my lesson!
STAY AWAY FROM EUROPCAR AND 3RD PARTY ONLINE BOOKING SYSTEMS!!!!

After prepaid also they charge me 185$ + 35$ unexpected charges .. from my credit card which they swipe only for security perpose.. 220$ after i prepaid actually renting charges .. not at all trust worthy.. i will give minus star ..

Never go to the EUROPCAR of the Malta airport. The manager is a thug that will invent scratch when you return the car to make you pay extra cost.

Use any other rental companies of the airport, not this one until the current so-called manager - but real delinquent - has not been fired which should happen soon if the other prejudiced customers warn the consumers associations like I did.

Nice car, bad customer service. No out of hours contact so can’t ask why they still haven’t collected a car that’s off hire. No one has called to explain, basic stuff.

You wonder why they're cheap? Simply because they will find ways to make you pay double. That's how they make money... We rented a car for a week in Costa Rica. We have family there, not our first time, we know the local rules related to insurance. Costa Rica laws require all car renters to have CDW/LDW insurance, but it doesn't have to be the one provided by the rental company, the one provided by credit card providers are accepted. Our rental was prepaid, the employee at the counter gave us 2 options: pay extra for their insurance or give a US$30,000 deposit to use our credit card insurance. This deposit is about twice the value of the old, damaged and cheap car they gave us. Obviously this mandatory deposit requirement was not properly specified in the accepted T&Cs, and we were unable to give such an enormous amount. Refusing to pay their insurance would have cause denial of service (and obviously won't refund). They know you're abroad, in the middle of nowhere and won't have any other choice than accepting. Europcar Costa Rica customer service ignores all emails. Europcar World customer service will make you wait 2 weeks just to tell you they don't really care what the T&Cs say and they have no intention to refund. Absolute shame, they know most people won't spend weeks to fight back and will give up at some point. Never again

Absolute Fraud... as per other posts I fell foul of there just initial here and sign this policy ... which resulted in being charged twice what the car hire was... avoid avoid avoid

Avoid Europcar.
We arrived in Spain to find an issue with our reservation dates, and instead of helping, the staff told us it was “too late” to cancel or adjust it. We were instructed to book a completely new reservation and were explicitly told the original prepaid booking would be refunded within 24–48 hours.
That refund never came.
To make matters worse, they had already re-rented the car we originally reserved without ever contacting us. We were then left with only one option: a more expensive vehicle that cost an additional $150 and required a $500 deposit.
We were told that deposit would be refunded after returning the car. It has not been.
When we followed up about the missing refund, they asked us to provide sensitive banking details (IBAN and SWIFT) to process it—even though we paid by credit card. That is completely inappropriate and raises serious concerns.
So to summarize:
Charged for a reservation we couldn’t use
Promised a refund that never happened
Re-rented our car without notice
Forced us into a more expensive rental
Still holding an additional $500 deposit
Requesting unsafe banking information
This company shows zero accountability and very questionable business practices. Rent elsewhere.

Europcar Malaga, Spain

We booked a Compact Elite car (BMW i118) and when we arrived with 2 big and 2 small suitcases the employee warned us that we would not be able to fit these into the trunk. He explained that we were required by law to pack ALL of them in the trunk and that none should be put onto the back seats. He also warned us that failure to do so could result in a fine of up to 10,000 euros.

I have done the research later and it turns out that the truth was very different. Firstly, the smaller suitcases could go onto the backseat, given they are secured by a seatbelt. The employee asked us about our plans and we explained that we were only going to go with all the luggage to one location and stay there for the entire trip. This means we could securely fit everything in for just the trips there and back. Secondly, if we did anything wrong, the fine would be either 80 or 200 euros, not 10,000. Either of these actual fines would be less than the extra amount we were made to pay.

All in all, we feel like we were taken advantage of and tricked into paying over double the initial booking amount. It's clear that bookings are more expensive at the location and time of pick-up, and we were made to feel like there was no other choice. Lastly, it was concerning to see that the employee started with most expensive cars first (60 euros/day), and only after some discussion shared that there is a cheaper option (15 euros/day), citing personal discounts.

They are absolute thieves. In La Paz Mexico they played the language game and tell you that they’re giving you what you’re showing them in clear notes in agreement in English, but then they do a differently on the contract so when you’re signing, you must really pay attention and make sure the numbers are what you think they are. Do your currency exchange right there do not trust them whatsoever. They doubled the rate on us by selling us insurance when they agreed at the rate that it had full insurance. And when we spoke with the management about it, they responded too bad you signed the form. You signed it on a digital pad and you don’t see it until you get the email and you’re traveling out of town so that night you see what’s there and now you’re hundreds of miles away. You’ve been had.

Do NOT rent an electric vehicle from Europcar in Spain!
Using a rental car from Europcar in Barcelona was one of the most stressful and unenjoyable days of my life. To begin with, when I reserved the car I paid a higher price to get a Europcar Comfort Plus package which was supposed to provide us with an electric vehicle that had a range up to 410 km. However, upon arrival at the Barcelona Poblenou-Sant Marti office the young man said that in order to get an electric vehicle with a high range we needed to pay 20 EUR more. We told him where we were going and that it was a 140 km drive one-way and he assured us multiple times that we would not have to charge the vehicle. Once on the road, I noticed the battery was only 80% charged and according to how many kilometers remained on the battery we certainly would need to charge the car in order to make it back to Barcelona. We also had to be back at the office before 7 pm because at this office we could not drop the cars and keys off after hours. We had no place to park the car at our hotel so we were locked into the 7 pm return. We decided to drive to our destination and worry about recharging the vehicle on our way back. This should have been no problem except that the first eight, yes, eight, charging we stations we tried there were issues. Some were broken, some were only for Teslas and some required an app that we did not have. It was a nightmare as were found ourselves running out of charge and time. Along the way we tried multiple times to call Europcar for help but only got a phone tree. When we called the emergency number the man who we spoke to just rudely asked if we needed a tow truck and if we didn’t he couldn’t help us. We felt completely unsupported by Europcar. Thankfully, people all along our way had tried to help us and finally, when we were down to 5% charge, we found a charger at a hotel that worked. By this time it was already 7 pm – and we had given ourselves three hours for what we expected to be an hour and half drive back to Barcelona. The only helpful thing the tow truck driver mentioned was that we might be able to return the car to the airport, which is what we eventually did since we had no place to park the car otherwise. For this we were charged another 15 EUR. When we returned the car the three people at the desk were very understanding and nice and even said to us “driving an electric car in Spain is very stressful because Spain is not set up for it.” This is NOT what the young man at the beginning of our journey said. He did not in any way indicate that we may have trouble finding some place to charge the car, in fact, he said many times we did not have to worry about charging it at all. This did not prepare us for what we encountered. Had we been given fair warning we would have planned our day much differently. I hold Europcar responsible for not giving us all of the information we needed to drive an electric car in a country we were not familiar with. When I reached out to Europcar with this story and asking for a 35 EUR refund for the extra charges we thought they should be responsible for they only emailed me a copy of the contract I signed and said that I authorized these charges.

Europcar in Curacao is very shady, do not rent from them. They lie they steal and try to trap you into buying insurance you don’t need, they will hold you and your rental car hostage until you pay for fees that you shouldn’t have to pay, stay away

Absolute gangsters. Avoid. Tried to charge me for a no show when they had already processed my rental charges. CHECK your bank account after dealing with this crowd or better still AVOID. Terrible customer support also.
Update: Had to email and telephone customer service in Ireland, UK and France but they acknowledged they made a mistake and reimbursed me. They said they are investigating how this happened. Check your bank account after using this company if you must. Also tried ringing UK billing, left my number.... no response to date surprisingly. The most unprofessional company I've ever dealt with.
Further update: Europcar responded, see below. If they bothered to read my concers they would know I wanted to speak to their Billing Section who have still not responded to my calls and messages. Am I surprised ... NO. Id you read this Europcar, have your Billing Section UK answers their voice messages of they can't be bothered to answer the phone.

Europcar charged extra 350 EURO for washing. I sendt a complaint to the help desk but they don`t answer

We had a Sat Nav failure (interface was stuck in German language and no menu option that we found could alter it). The Sat Nav re-routed us on our airport return and we nearly missed the flight as a result. Car was returned without re-filling (we'd used 60%). The charge from Europcar was 164 Euros. Completely abusive but they hide behind their small print. I am disgusted.