Europcar Arvostelua 

Recently hired a car for a little over 6 hours and traveled just under 100km in the vehicle. A week later being accused of 5 stone chips in the windscreen and charged over $1,200 for replacement. I had taken 30 sec video prior to hire, but given the chips were so minor, I could not detect them in my pre-hire video.
Be very careful when using Europcar. And recommend taking car polish to assist in pre-windscreen checks to help identify any chips or blemishes that might cost you on return. I argued my case with Europcar and received a very poor response. STAY CLEAR

During challenging times the true colours of an organisation can be revealed. My recent experience with Europcar has been extremely disappointing as they profiteered from my need to change the duration of my booking due to the turmoil impacting international travel. Imagine being told the price of your 5 day hire will be more than your 7 day hire, despite explaining the circumstances. Be aware that Europcar may not actually care for you as its customer and is likely to try and profit from you at every possible step. Always being able to explain the gouging on their algorithms. I would love for Europcar prove me wrong.

DO NOT USE Sydney Airport branch. This company denied me access to a prepaid car when my flight into Sydney was delayed overnight and did not give any refund on a nine day hire. My phoned complaints were responded to with blatant and scripted insincerity. Emails have been ignored. Use a decent company like Ace Car Rental or No Birds or Bargain Cars

We were given what they call "a similar" vehicle rather than what we had booked. It was a downgrade. The car had been washed but inside was not cleaned or vacced. Empty bottles and dirty tissues were left stuffed under the car seats from the previous rental. The fuse was blown so we couldn't use our car fridge. They tried to charge us $58 a day for insurance even though we had already organised it with our booking. We only used this company to book the car we wanted and for so many reasons will NOT be using them again.
The confirmation email states to print 2 copies of the 12 pages they send to take to the office for pick up along with your Passport. They did not even look at any of those. Total waste of time, paper and ink.

Certainly will never rent a car from Europe car again
What a joke
There are so many hidden costs they don’t tell you about
Some strange reason they wouldn’t let me Pay and my daughter drive. It had to be my credit card and me be thr driver or her credit card and she be the driver.

My daughter didn’t have her physicalcredit card with herIso couldn’t be the main driver
Europcar then could take another $15 a day for my daughter to be second driver even though only one of us was planning to drive.
The car was dirty and the whole experience was negative

The line to pick up a car at Brisbane airport is attorcious. I can accept a long line but the lack of speed and efficiency in the process is mind boggling.

Terrible situation at Brisbane airport waited in a queue for over an hour and half Europcar had oversold so people were literally waiting for car returns. People and families waiting with young kids out in the carpark. Staff were fine but the car company should have stopped supply due to over demand. Irresponsible and greedy. Never again!!!!!!!

Very Disappointing Experience

We hired a car in Wellington and returned it to Auckland. The rental was already expensive, but what really frustrated us was the extra $70 charge just to notify us that their department would contact us about a parking infringement.

We washed the car ourselves and refueled it at the airport before returning it, so we made sure everything was in good condition. Being charged $70 simply for being informed about a parking issue feels excessive and unreasonable.

I rate Europcar less than 1…
I don’t even know where to start…😳😳😳
I arrived to pick up my hire car that I booked the night before…the person at the counter did not have my reservation…not only was she rude and unpleasant…she did not offer any assistance at all…zero customer service skills…
Europcar completely botched my reservation…they left me stranded with no transport at all…no offer of help…unable to speak to a supervisor or manager…
Despicable service…zero customer service…big mistake made with my booking…left me totally stranded…
Will most certainly be putting in a formal complaint…ended up hiring a car from from another company that were so very different and very helpful.

A big ‘NO’ for Europcar…they completely did the wrong thing by me…service is despicable 🙃

Threatened me with debt collectors even when I was in full cooperation. Terrible customer service who don’t acknowledge what you say. Would not hire from them again

not great not awfull

1st Feb 2026 had a car booked through booking.Com for pickup in Darwin Downtown. Arrived ar 11am and the branch was closed. Phoned +61 8 8941 0300 to be connected to the Darwin Airport branch. Was told to go to the airport as the person at downtown was not available. I had to uber to the airport and they will reimburse. When I arrived there was no one at the front desk and had to call a number on display for them to assist. The lady arrived, apologised and blamed booking.com for the mess.

She proceeded to confirm a $200 deposit and $300 insurance, which I agreed upon, but then wanted to charge an additional $277 for admin fees and the fact that I am now picking up a car at the airport and not downtown Darwin anymore.I refused to pay that and was then said if I want to cancel I need to take it up with booking.com

It was my first and would be my last experience with them. It left me scrambling to book another car but Avis and East Coast car rental sure made me feel welcome.

Absolute liars and cheats.
Paris office.
Booked car, checked booking prior departure, on arrival booking had been cancelled without notice.
Miraculously, they had another car…..for twice the price.
No choice as it was Xmas.
Follow up after return home - advised they had offered another car within category, but I had refused it.
Utter rubbish and lies.
What a way to upsell and get extra $.
Never again….and I am top tier loyalty member. WAS!

I would like to express my disgust towards Europcar Venice, Sorrento and Rome, and all your employees for the way me and my family were treated during our trip to Italy.
The store had just opened, yet the two employees stunk of cigarettes and were flustered and clearly unprepared.
I handed over the DriveAway VOUCHER I already had pre-paid in Australia, together with my international licence and passport.
The young employee who I was interacting with, told me they did not have the vehicle I had requested and would give me another one which was of the same size.
He then asked for my credit card to pay for the One-Way Fee of € 183.00 which was clearly shown on my
DriveAway VOUCHER, and to my surprise he told me I was also required to pay Insurance on top of the Roadside Assistance and the One-Way Fee, totalling € 982.94.
I told him once again that I already had paid for insurance and that I paid for it in Australia via my Travel Agent. I told him to check, but all he did was ignore me and said I needed to pay for insurance otherwise they would not release the car. He said "we cannot give you the car unless you pay for insurance". I insisted and showed him the voucher one more time and pointed at the box which clearly shows: ADDITIONAL FEES COLLECTED LOCALLY BY EUROPCAR One-Way Fee €183.00. He insisted and again said that it was a requirement to pay for the insurance or else they would not release the car.
I told him that I was sure this whole procedure was incorrect and that I would check with the Travel Agent as soon as I could get in contact with her. I then asked him if they needed to take any photos of the car in case there was existing damage, and
he told me I didn't need to worry about any damage, and that I could dent it, scratch it or throw it off a bridge if I wanted to because I was fully covered by premium insurance.
I was tired of arguing with him as it was cold, it was raining and my stomach was churning from the turbulent boat ride from Venice lagoon to the mainland. So I put the luggage in the car boot and proceeded to drive away.
My Travel Agent was furious and confirmed that all I was required to pay was the One-Way fee of € 183.00, as clearly stated on the DriveAway Voucher.
My Agent said that she would contact Europcar and find out why I was charged the extra money.
The next time I spoke to my Agent, I was in Sorrento. She told me that she had spoken to the wholesaler and that I needed to go to Europcar in Sorrento and ask for a refund.
I proceeded to Europcar and spoke to a lady at the front desk and explained to her what had happened and what the wholesaler told my Agent.
She shrugged her shoulders and said that she could not give me a refund and that it was impossible that my agent would tell me such a thing. I showed her the DriveAway Voucher and asked her to check the reservation in the system and that she would be able to see all the details. She said she couldn’t do that, and looked at the receipt I was given in Venice and said I was charged for the Premium Protection that I must have asked for. I told her I already had insurance and that I had paid for it in
Australia via my Agent.
I said I did not ask for premium insurance and that I wanted a refund.
She said that one of us was lying, either me or the employee at the Venice Europcar.
However she said, she could not verify it because she was not there physically to see which one of us was telling the truth.
She said she couldn’t do anything about it and wrote an email address on the back of my voucher (customerserviceitaly@europcar.......), and told me to send a complaint to them.
Europcar and all the employees I dealt with in Venice, Rome and Sorrento are rude, unhelpful and have no empathy whatsoever.
I was robbed of € 982.94 which converted in Australian
currency is $1742.06. That is a lot of money in Australia.
I have travelled extensively and have hired cars all over the world. This is the first
time I have used Europcar, and it will be the last.
4 months on, Europcar is still avoiding any conversation with my travel agent.

The car was picked up from a dark car park so we initially didn’t see the tiny crack in the windscreen. Did as soon as we drove out and called to report it and they said you did it and staff were so rude when took the car back. We had full insurance to cover us but the way the staff member in charge spoke to us was nasty and upset our child.

Ripoff terms. Paid for 9 days- denied use of car because of airline delays.
We arrived in Sydney Airport after closing time on a stormy Saturday night. Arrived at our accommodation at 2am. Rang Europcar at 8am Sunday before the end of the "grace" period and was told we had to arrive at the desk by 9 or forfeit the whole cost $A700. Accommodation was too far away. Agent totally unsympathetic. Won't use again despite previous good experience. Ace Rental car was great and much cheaper.

Booked a rental car at Melbourne CBD. Had no Passport, but heaps of other IDs. International and local. Told him on forehand that I did not have my Passport. Took him 20 minutes to come up with a price for an upgrade. When I asked why, he said that was better for when he would go to the manager. I did not need an upgrade, so refused ( 10 days hire ). He came back, supposedly discussed it with the manager, and told me no car could be rented. Went across the street and rented a car with Avis with no problems at all.

Charging $4.00 a litre is outrageous especially when you aren't shown where or how to open the petrol cap, which i'm of the opinion is deliberate. The release for the petrol cap is on the floor and its unmarked, again my opinion is that its also deliberate.

The only thing the man was trying desperately to push was the additional insurance which you wanted to charge $18.00 a day for, again outrageous.

I've passed this info on to my insurance and their response was that these charges are 'a rip off'.

Its bad enough being in an accident that wasn't your fault but to go through all that with a hire car company really is too much.

Was completely ripped off by Europcar in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. I was in a car accident and the person at fault had insurance to cover a hire car. I was told if I paid for cover it would be $200 in total in case of an accident, and if I had to extend the hire I would not have to pay anything further. I did have to extend the hire due to my car not being ready. When it was finally time to return the car, they took an extra $220 off my card which was all I had left on my card, they did this without explaining why, and without telling me or getting consent. They then sent me an invoice for an extra $315 because they couldn’t get it from my card. I tried to explain that I was told I would not be charged extra, and then I was harassed every two days by the head office in Sydney to pay the extra $315 even though I was never informed of these additional charges. They are deceitful, and they refused to engage in a solution, rather continually harassed me to pay for something I never consented to. They were threatening and rude, and I would suggest never doing business with them unless you wish to be swindled! This is my first ever google review, but I think people should be warned!

What a ripoff! DON'T Prepay for a rental, because if you need to bring it back early YOU DO NOT GET A REFUND for the days not used!!!! This needs to be highlighted when you make a booking online.