Drivalia Italia Reviews 

A one-hour pickup deadline with such severe financial consequences should never be hidden in the Terms & Conditions. We lost our prepaid reservation and were pressured into paying EUR 549 to avoid ruining our family holiday.

Update mid-august: No response from Drivalia.

You left us carless after a delayed flight (with you we were one hour later than indicated), youasked for our coordinates at rental cars and didn't react after two weeks... Very sad! You are as unreachable now as the night we tried to inform you about the delay.

AVOID! I was charged €400 for alleged bumper damage after returning the vehicle. The damage they claimed simply wasn't there, and they have provided no photographic evidence to support the charge. Since then, they have ignored all my emails and other attempts to contact them. I’m still yet to hear from the company since their response on here

Booking D014499253 DRIVALIA 036101,customer care is terrible,they don t unswer emails nor phone calls, I picked up the car in Rome airport, after a few km the tire light came on, i stopped and i saw a big crack in the tire, the crack was already there before i started to drive it,i got the car replaced at Bologna airport, but after a few days i received an invoice for euro126 ,they charged me the damaged tire i didn t damaged ,someone else before me has damaged the tire, they obviously deliver cars already damaged by preaveus renters.
The second car i got from Drivalia in Bologna airport also had issues, as soon as i left the airport the rear plastic fender flew off on the highway ,i returned the car and they gave me another one.
I m also warried they will charge me for the second car they gave me already with a loose fender.
The most annoying is that when i returned the third car to Rome Airport ,they told me it was my fault because i didn't checked the car properly.
Be careful ,they will charge your credit card ,weeks later ,for damages that were already there .

We arrived at the counter on time with the voucher, a valid driving licence and ID. Drivalia refused to release the vehicle because the credit card was not in the main driver's name.

Drivalia then refused to release the vehicle to my partner, who was standing at the counter with a valid driving licence and a credit card in her own name with funds available for the deposit. She met every requirement in their own terms.

We offered to leave the entire security deposit in cash. Refused.

Staff then told us we could have a car if we made a completely new booking and paid again at a higher price. Shortly after, they told us they were fully booked and had no cars at all.

We rented a car from another company at the same airport the same day without any issue.

Drivalia has kept 407 EUR and delivered nothing.

The charge is being disputed with my bank and the matter reported to AGCM.

P.S. They say their Customer Support Team will reach you, it never happens, it's just to balance out all the negative reviews here...

In spite of the description on booking.com, Drivalia is not actually based at Newcastle train station. In communication before collection we were informed that we had to call the Drivalia office 30 mins in advance of our arrival at the station and they would arrange to pick us up. When we did so we were told that they would only be able to pick us up some time later as they were busy and also didn’t have the staff to pick up the two families who had reserved the cars. We were told it would be better for us to get the metro (told it was 10 mins when it was more like 20 mins) and then had to walk 5-10 mins with our bags to the Drivalia “office” (a trailer manned by 1 person in a pub car park).

While the Drivalia rep argued with an American whose credit cards weren’t being accepted by the Drivalia system, we confirmed our cars and despite the pressure from the rep, kept to our original plan of the basic cover. (The excess on the sales sheet was stated as £2,500 but when we came to signing the agreement it was only £1,500 – felt a bit misleading).

Just before we left, I wanted to clean the dirty windscreen, and discovered that the windscreen cleaning liquid was empty. On request, the rep filled it up.

Then, just before leaving, the tyre pressure warning symbol came up. I went to get the Drivalia rep again who said he was sure there was nothing wrong as the car had just been serviced (strange then that it had a dirty windscreen and no cleaning liquid), and he just re-set the tyre pressure in the system without checking the tyres. 15 mins after departing, the tyre pressure warning system came on again. I trusted the Drivalia rep’s assurance that there was nothing wrong as it has all just been serviced.

A few days later a tyre was flat and it turned out there was a huge nail in it. It was a nightmare trying to get it fixed as Drivalia had failed to include the locking nut unlocker in the car so no-one could get the tyre off. We lost about 2 days of our holiday due to this saga.

The complaints process took months and eventually they agreed to pay for the tyre and part of the booking costs. Complete nightmare. Will never book with them again.

Car was good, as expected, service as the desk was ok.
The main problem I had is that price doubled compared to what I reserved, due to the fact that I discovered that my bank card is considered as a debit card. (I made a lot of rentals with it in various countries and rental companies). Due to that : the only solution was to add a debit card package that make it mandatory to upgrade also the insurance ! I had no choice otherwise I would have lost the initial paiement of the rentral! It makes it very expensive and double the expected price at the reservation.

I definitely do not recommend Drivalia. We ordered a car with automatic transmission, but when we arrived to pick it up, they said there were none. If you want one, wait. We waited 4 hours, but none appeared. I genuinely do not understand how a company can operate this way. I strongly recommend avoiding Drivalia.

AVOID DRIVALIA AS THE PLAUGE.

Had no credit card but a debit card, had to pay €60 extra in insurance per day, totaling to €310 for 5 days. The double pay as ordered.

Do NEVER buy a car rental through booking.com, as you ends up between two chairs and the renter swears himself free as he losses revenue.

As a foreigner was treated as complete shit, no intro to the car, no info, nothing.

Ordered a fiat500 with ac but got a Panda WITHOUT, totally unbearable and they probably will keep the difference themselves

After one day the tire pressure indicator started lightning up but apparently no problem.

In Italy, use a reliable company, like “Sicily by car” as they have no problem renting with a debit card , probably just an excuse to rob foreigners.

STAY A LONG WAY FROM DRIVALIA, a complete mafioso company.

Theses mafioso’s think they can treat foreigners as they like.

After this review, they sent a link to customer review. All in Italian and given a link with a code for reply. Nothing works of course, bcs once scammed by this company , they have zero interest in interacting with you.

Use an international car rentals firm with local office in your home town, book from there.

U have ZERO consumer protection as a foreigner in Italy!

READ ALL TRUSPOLIT REVIEWS AND BE CRITICAL.
THE POSITIVE RVIEWS ARE PROBABLY BOUGHT!

The agent in Palermo was very helpful and easy to work with. We don't speak Italian and fortunately our agent spoke English very clearly.

Claudia was incredibly pleasant and easy to work with!

Misleading rules. Different offer on web than reality in-person. We were scammed of over 150 eur.

Very disappointing experience with Drivalia Venice Airport. After returning the vehicle, €59.10 was charged to my American Express card: €50 for unspecified “vehicle damage” and €9.10 for battery charging. I received no damage report, photographs or clear explanation showing what damage I allegedly caused.

The vehicle already had visible damage when I collected it, and I have video evidence. The electric battery also performed very poorly throughout the rental. No employee was present when I returned the car, so I had to leave the key in the return box, which I also recorded.

I contacted Drivalia to dispute the charge and requested evidence, but they have not replied. Customers should photograph and film the entire vehicle at collection and return and carefully check all later card charges.

VERY DISSAPOINTING experience with Drivalia in Italy.

The car was in poor condition: dirty, heavily worn, and the air conditioning did not work. With 37°C outside, this made the car almost unusable.

We returned immediately, but the staff couldn’t fix it and offered no replacement vehicle. We were forced to continue our trip in the same car.

Driving for hours in extreme heat without A/C was unacceptable and ruined the comfort of the trip.

This is far below basic rental standards. I would not recommend Drivalia.

I reserved a car on internet but cannot have it because the credit card wasn't at the same name that the driver Who is my husband... I used this credit card to pay the réservation .
The woman told me that i must be on second driver for 50 euros extra per Day... we reserved the car for 1 week... 350 euros of extra costs for 245 euros we alreday paid. So i asked to do another fil just for me in driver, and the price was 750 euros ! Finaly we have no car for our holidays and the 245 euros won t be refounded. And they told me that usingmy credit card for the deposite was a fraude.... Who are they kidding ?? They are the stolers. Don t use their services !

Improved service in areas of customer service at time of car pick at airport kiosks and improve the online experience
Include area maps in the immediate service areas could be big help for customer planning trips
I received a lot of help from a associate at the ostuni office other than tha service was ok improve staff knowledge of services

Very smooth pickup. Friendly staff. Transparent terms. Generous upgrade.

Do not use this company!
(UPDATE - Drivalia have reached out to respond below - I tried for three months to get a response that wasn't, 'ask someone else' in so many words. I do not believe this response here will be any different. Please don't be fooled)
I tried the address they gave me and it is page not found!
DO NOT USE! Any company receiving money from the public must have strict records of all transactions, or they would not be in business. They don't need us to provide that!
I was 'persuaded' to purchase additional insurance. This was by the agent at the Drivalia Kiosk refusing to let me proceed with the collection until I signed for the insurance. At a cost of 355 euros, (I did not notice this at the time - the signature places were what I was shown) it was more than my original car hire cost through the broker.
The Electric car was dirty and had several bumps and advisory points from previous users, according to the inspection voucher.
The battery on the key fob was virtually dead. We had trouble getting the car to open from pick up.
On the third evening, 1st May, a Bank Holiday in Italy, we went out to eat. When we returned to the car, it wouldn't open for ages, then wouldn't start.
Tow truck came out, driver of the vehicle could not repair hire car and it was towed away. We were left, without a car and had to find our own way back to the accommodation.
And find our own way back to the airport to collect the replacement car. It was a manual and I have a disability, which means that I use an automatic car. The only automatic car was a very nice huge wide 4x4 SUV. I had practised driving on the Sicilian roads, with Sicilian drivers, (very fast everywhere and bonkers to a man, or woman!) When driving on the wrong side of the road, I don’t need more stress… I had to remember fast how to hill start in a manual car, with the hand brake on the 'wrong' side!
The taxi fare was 133 euros. I have been able to claim this back from the insurance.
Since our holiday I have been disputing the coercion used by the agent from Drivalia to get me to pay for insurance I did not need. I have also reached out to my credit card providers. No deal on all sides. Don't get caught like I did. If you even suspect that Drivalia is who your booking has been passed on to. Drop it like it's hot and go for someone else.

Ilyas was a great help and so was the girl on the day of return. No complaints !

we arrived with a contract by booking . my wife had an international license but not the israely. the teller did except even though i had my licence at the end i rented directly from you and i payed more than twice . to tell the truth i feel robbed