Europcar España Reviews 

Europcar Santander charged me for a tiny pre-existing scratch because I failed to see it when inspecting the car. They took payment for the damage despite me explicitly requesting that they would not until the case was reviewed. They also charged me an extra €180 on collection when I mentioned that I would be crossing into France. It is possible, however, that this is policy for them. The scratch was a scam though as i was extremely careful not to damage the car.

TL; DR: Helpful staff, but corporately not functionally clearly for the end user. I hope the staff are reporting these issues to their superiors to make both the customer's experience normal, and the staff's job more efficient and human.

1) Making the reservation online took multiple tries since it wasn't clear if I had the membership level to obtain a free driver.
2) There was no way to call a support agent for help with point number 2.
3) When I managed to make and confirm a new reservation with the waived additional driver fee, at pickup it magically disappeared.
4) The system the Europcar staff use to see my account does not show them my membership level so I need to: log in on my own device to show the tier I am at, then go to a page that reflects the benefits I should receive. Who knows if I actually lost out on a benefit since the staff member couldn't see my status in the system. That said the staff member was polite and understanding. He also was helpful in finding a way to obtain the fee waiver for the additional driver despite the incomplete system at his disposal. A+ for him!!!
5) The required process for picking up in person took forever. It was staffed by one person who had a queue of 3 to 5 parties at a time. I believe we spent over 30 minutes. Since the pick-up process does not have a way to confirm and submit ALL information in advance, each party is completing most of it in office. Absolutely absurd these days. That said, the single staff member was clearly working as fast a humanly possible. He was at no fault to what the business process requires and the tools he was provided.
6) The actual location of the carpark is not where the office is. It is a few minutes walk away, in a public garage.
7) The garage is very dark and makes it hard to record preexisting damage when picking up and dropping off the car.
8) adding an additional days was easy. A different agent processed the request relatively quickly. But the changes were never emailed to me. Nor were the changes reflected in my europcar account on the web nor the app.
9) this reservation disappeared after the original return time passed. Looking up the reservation resulted in nothing found online.

Extremely disappointing experience with Europcar

I was charged disputed fees, my attempts to resolve the issue were ignored, and my last email received no response. The invoice even included the €50.75 charge twice.

The lack of transparency and customer service was extremely disappointing. Europcar has completely lost my trust, and I will not use them again or recommend them to anyone.

I was charged an additional fee for an upgrade to an automatic car, even though I was never clearly told that it would cost extra. At the desk, I was simply asked which type of car I preferred and I chose automatic.

The rental contract and the additional charge were not shown to me before I signed electronically on the pad, so I had no clear opportunity to see that this “preference” would result in an extra fee.

I have also contacted customer service by email to dispute the charge, but so far I have received no response.

Very disappointing experience, poor transparency and poor customer service.

I am writing this review to strongly warn anyone considering renting from Europcar at Barcelona Airport Terminal 1. Their post-rental billing practices feel like an aggressive cash-grab aimed at tourists after they fly home. 
The car was already covered in a long list of pre-existing scuffs, scratches, and bumper damage when I received it. I returned the vehicle completely undamaged and handed the keys directly to a member of their staff. I thought everything was completely settled until almost two weeks later. 
Out of nowhere, Europcar sent a demand letter for €301.13. They claimed a brand-new "Dent <2 cm" on the rear left wing and tacked on a harsh penalty for "failing to deliver an accident report". Their entire "evidence" consisted of three dark, blurry, and unidentifiable photos taken inside a parking garage. 
The absolute kicker? Europcar’s own rental agreement email explicitly instructs customers to only report non-listed damage if it consists of "scratches and dents over 2 cm". Yet, their inspector officially logged a dent under 2 cm ("<2 cm") and decided to invoice me for it anyway. They are directly violating their own stated damage threshold to manufacture unfair charges against customers. 
Always record a thorough, slow walkaround video of every panel of the car before returning it—or better yet, avoid Europcar Barcelona altogether. Absolutely disgraceful customer service and predatory tactics.

Steer clear - unnecessary cleaning charges plus also silence on the airport pick up drop off surchage.

140Euros to wash off dry dust from an otherwise impeccable car is just punative and shows that they are simply price gouging.

An awful and atrocious decision for dry dust in midst of summer.
Consider me as a lifetime customer lost What a disappointment.

Unlike other companies at the train station, Euro car was closed at 330 pm when our train arrived with a sign, "Volvemos Enseguida, We will be back soon"
Did not reopen until 5 pm even though we had booked to pick up car at 4.
Very very very frustrating as this was not in the mix when we booked to pick up and told them when our train was arriving.

Bad experience at Barcelona Airport, should have known when customer service rep told me to photograph whole car before driving it, "as sometimes mistakes are made", in her words. Got a bill for €249 for what looked to be a black scuff mark on the bumper which magically appeared after drop-off. Customer rep, at drop-off conveniently didnt examine car while I was giving him key, he remained seated in cabin and asked me was I fully insured (before looking at car 1/2 hour after I left and claiming a scratch). I felt as I hadn't purchased the full insurance that they were going to get their money some way. Scammy, I disputed charge and first I got a zero balance due from Europcar Europe, then I got a 2nd invoice with a €249 due from Europcar Spain. Choose another provider, too many things not adding up, I've rented many cars and the whole process here was not normal. I've never been warned to take photos before and after.
Judging by their statistic here on TrustPilot "Replied to 3% of negative reviews", I dont expect much to change.

Absolutely disgusting company. Not only did we have to wait over an hour to be seen there was then no end of extra hidden fees and grifter sales tactics. After we refused to pay for an upgrade that we didn’t want or need and then declined taking out their extortionate insurance, only then did they make us aware that we would need two credit cards in one name to take the car, despite pre-paying for the booking and this not being mentioned in the confirmation email. They then made a complete song and dance when we asked for a full refund and after nearly 2.5hours of discussions, reduced their initial fee of £1500 (on top of what we had already paid) to £200….AVOID at all costs

They charged me for a damage which was already there when i rented the car. I have a pocture but because it is unsharp they are not accepting it. It is scandalous to hand over a car with small damages all around and then charging the client for these damages. Never again

I am a returning user of Europcar, and also of the broker Discover Cars in this review.

Pros of Europcar:
* Organised, ticketed queue for pickup.
* Clean and modern car, and gave no issues.

Cons of Europcar:
* During pick-up, they saw the size of our luggage and tried to upsell a larger car, which is standard practice. However, when I declined and mentioned that we've previously fit the same luggage into the car that I've picked (I understand it's never guaranteed that you will get the car you've picked, but often you do), the car suddenly was unavailable. I instantly recognised that the car offered, from the same range, had a slightly smaller boot. We ended up having to drive with a suitcase in the cabin, which was not a pleasant experience. I've hired plenty of cars over the years, and understand this could have been a genuine scenario, or potentially 'punishment' for not taking the upsell.
* After this, they next wanted to charge me the one-way rental fee, which I have paid at the desk in the past, but for this rental this was prepaid to Discover Cars (the rental itself plus the one-way rental fee), and had the voucher explaining this. They would not release the car to me without paying this directly to them, and asked that I take this up with Discover Cars. In the end I had to pay this fee to Europcar too and now in a dispute with both parties for this mix-up. It has been three weeks since and neither party has resolved this. (My review for Discover Cars also mentions this, and being honest, as of writing I don't know which party caused the issue). The takeaway here is that documents and agreements from brokers are NOT authoritative nor respected by Europcar.
* During drop-off, and as often instructed by Discover Cars, I started to take a video of the car. This appeared to make the attendant uncomfortable and more determined to find an issue. They highlighted a mark, less than 2cm, which they said was not on the paperwork. Once I mentioned I also have a video taken during pickup, they simply continued with processing the drop-off, even without seeing the video, and did not mention the mark ever again.

Go away it is a real scam they charged me 49 euros for 1.7 liter of fuel

Europcar Palma de Mallorca Airport is THE WORST car rental company we have ever experienced, purely down to their lack of customer service. The 2 members of staff who served us on Saturday 15th August 2026 around 9/9:30pm should honestly be fired or leave the vocation of customer service as they definitely do not understand the meaning of it. If I could give this company a rating of 0 I would. The 2 staff members a woman and the only man serving were so rude that when I informed them I would be complaining about them, neither would give their names. The man said “go ahead, go to our head office and complain” and the woman argued that she shouldn’t be reprimanded for her colleagues rudeness toward us, however she laughed every time he was rude to us and never corrected him for being rude. So honestly, she is just as bad.
We will never be using this service again and from other reviews I have read this is clearly an ongoing issue of the company.

My main advice to anyone renting from them is simple: document absolutely everything when you collect the vehicle.

According to our booking, the car was scheduled for collection at 5:00 p.m. We arrived around 30 minutes early and were perfectly prepared to wait until the official opening time. However, a Europcar employee was already there, invited us into the office on her own initiative and handed over the vehicle early.

We were later charged EUR 63.80 for “extended service hours.” We had never requested an earlier collection and were never told that accepting the employee’s invitation to come inside would result in an additional fee. Had we known, we would simply have waited until 5:00 p.m. Charging customers for a service they did not request, simply because an employee decided to process the rental early, is completely unacceptable in my opinion.

There were also problems with the fuel. The vehicle was not handed over with a full tank, yet we were later charged additional amounts for fuel and a refuelling service. This is why I strongly recommend taking a clear photo of the fuel gauge at collection and again at return. I regret not taking a photo of the dashboard when I collected the car.

There was already paint damage on the car that had apparently not been documented. I noticed it myself and reported it before leaving. Had I not inspected the car carefully, I would have been seriously concerned that I might later have been held responsible for damage that was already present.

The vehicle itself was also different from what I had booked. The reservation was for a VW T-Roc SUV or similar, whereas we received a Mercedes-Benz A-Class. Just to be clear, the Mercedes was actually a slight upgrade in terms of vehicle class. However, for the mountain roads in the Málaga hinterland, I would have preferred a car with more ground clearance — which is precisely why I had booked an SUV in the first place.

To be fair, there was one genuinely positive aspect: returning the car at Málaga Airport worked perfectly and was completely straightforward. The return procedure itself caused no problems at all.

Unfortunately, that does not outweigh the problems with the collection, fuel, undocumented damage and additional charges.

After this experience, I can understand why there are so many negative customer reviews about Europcar. In my case, the way additional charges were handled felt extremely customer-unfriendly and lacking in transparency.

My advice to future customers: photograph the entire vehicle from every angle, document every scratch and defect, photograph the fuel level and mileage, and make sure that every discrepancy is recorded in writing before you drive away.

car was given to me filty . terrible rude staff on phone when looking to extend rental . no receipts ever provided except on initial hire in store . I extended the hire by 8 weeks and dropped back at airport . received notification that the return was perfect . despite my telling them I had received a parking ticket which I had tried to pay multiple time which took the council 3 weeks to enter in system . the cost was sent to me and I payed in full immediately . their pay window said paid in full . 4 weeks layer I started to receive legal threats from their debt collection department for a 40 euro outstanding balance . requests for invoices and explanation ignored eventually after many many attempts to receive some clarification I discovered it was an admin charge for them to send me the email . I paid it immediately but when I asked them why they never sent me an invoice explaining this charge and what it was they said its in our terms and conditions . all very well if THEY HAD TOLD ME IT WAS AN ADMIN CHARGE . they lost a customer for good . worst people to deal with so rude and unhelpfull

We hired the Service through an online broker and added an insurance. When we got to the counter, they told us we had no insurance, suggested we had been scammed and made us buy a new much more expensive insurance on the spot. Turns out we didn’t need it and we ended up paying much more for the whole reservation than we had planed

We picked the car at the airport in Santiago de Campostela. Very friendly assistant, helpful adivce and made the process easy for us. The car had a few defects, which were mentioned in our contract. Very clean car and almost new car.

This agency is from far the worst experience I ever had. I'm traveling every other months. Hypocrite, car dirty and in a bad state (20+ listed defects communicated at the very last moment), commercial guy not clear at all trying to do 5x more expensive on my rent (pretending to offer me a "discount"). I do not recommend this Europcar agency.

worst experience i have ever had ...upcharged me as car was not available, told them a month in advance that i would arrive a day later but keep booking, then said booking was gone but could upcharge me and provide a more expensive car? how is that possible if booking is gone? then manager treated me terribly and ultimately black listed me..i told him what a horrible person he is.. cancelled my booking in ITALY, didnt respond to me, said international license is required

NEVER USING THEM AGAIN and will tell everyone my experience

Europcar denied our international drivers licenses and demanded we pay an additional insurance despite having third party. What was supposed to be a 1100$ rental turned into 2700$.
Car was damaged upon pick up we took photos and acknowledged it. Returned car early because we had a 6am flight. 1 month later at home in Canada received a bill and they had already charged our card 500$ for the damage that was on the car when we picked it up. Criminals.