Budget Italia Reviews 114

I am extremely dissatisfied with my experience with Budget.

At pickup, we were promised winter tyres as a bonus. However, the car was parked in heavy rain, and since we were managing children and luggage, we did not immediately check the tyre condition. Later, we discovered the car had summer tyres, which is completely unacceptable given the conditions and our planned trip to the mountains.

Additionally, the fuel tank was only partially filled, which we noticed later due to an unusual and unclear electronic display. Attempts to contact the company were unsuccessful — they did not respond to calls or emails.

We had purchased full insurance through DoYouItaly specifically for safety while driving in mountainous areas. Due to the inappropriate summer tyres, the car slipped slightly at one point, resulting in a minor scratch on the rear bumper — something that could easily be polished.

We returned the car early in the morning outside office hours. No one contacted us regarding the damage. Then, exactly one month later, AVIS (their parent company) charged approximately €500 to my credit card without any prior notice.

When I contacted them, they simply sent a document stating the charge was for the scratch and claimed they were not required to inform me before taking the money.

The most concerning part is this: I had only 30 days to file a claim with my insurance, and they waited exactly that long before charging my card — effectively preventing me from using my insurance coverage.

This feels highly unethical and deliberate.

Now I am left in a situation where:

the rental company has taken the money without proper communication,
and my insurance is no longer valid due to their delay.

I strongly do NOT recommend this company. This experience felt like a calculated scheme rather than fair customer service.

Horrible horrible. My flight was canceled less than 48 hours before my pickup, and I rescheduled to arrive a day later. I made multiple attempts to contact you in advance—by phone and email—just to inform them of the delay. I wasn’t asking for a refund or discount, even though I would use the car for one day less.
Despite this, no one responded or helped. When I arrived, I was simply told I was a “no-show,” and nothing could be done. This was very disappointing given the effort I made to notify them.

We have travel to Italy every year for the last thirty years and on each visit, we have booked car hire for the duration of our stay. This experience has given us, we believe, a realistic expectation of the process of car hire.

No one will ever look forward to the experience of renting a car. The companies are in a price sensitive market and competition is high. Additional charges are always the norm and you know you will never pay the price quoted and rarely feel that you have had a good deal.

The staff have a difficult job and they have to deal with people stressed from the experience or expectation of a flight. They are also incentivised to increase income and we have become immune to the whole process. “Let the duel begin”, is usually our motto.

It is with this context that I offer my review of Budget Car Hire at Naples Airport. My advice is never, ever use them. If you are unsure, stop, pause, think about it and then go book somewhere else. There are people who hang around in dark alleys outside houses of ill-repute at 2am who you could probably trust more. Whatever incentives they publish on-line or whatever price that they quote, never believe anything they claim. They are merely a trap for the unsuspecting.

I would suggest that the experience of sticking a fork in your own eye would be less painful than renting from these charlatans. Actually, pouring petrol on your own genitals and standing close to a naked flame would probably leave you with less of a sense of pain or trauma.

The staff approach a returned car rather like hyenas who have spotted a wounded wildebeest. They sniff, probe and test for any sign of weakness and imperfection. I believe that should they not be able to find anything else, then they would insist that the windows were more transparent then when you collected it and charge accordingly.

I was already disappointed with Budget when I saw the added costs to the price quoted that were added from that quoted on-line when I collected the car two weeks previous. When I returned it, there was a slight indent on the passenger door on the drivers side. It looks like it was done by a door being open onto it by another car. It was the size of a chickpea - a very emaciated one at that. We believe that it was in the photos that we took but we were told that there was too much glare to see - Oh, what a fool I feel not to have booked and attended a professional photography course before my holiday. On our return, we were given excellent advice on how to best photograph dents and from which angle and the need to make a video with the picture quality of a cinematic masterpiece before driving away. All good advice that would have actually been quite useful when we actually picked it up rather than upon return.

All the time they are wearing you down for the kill and the charge that will exceed the national debt of Brazil for a small dent that will require the attention of a Formula One mechanic to repair it who has been specially flown in by private jet (I can only assume that is why it costs so much), the Budget team will tell you that “We are trying to help”, they really should add “….. to charge you more money”.

Genuinely, if you ever are in a position that your only option is to use Budget Car Hire at Naples Airport, please, please, please, I beg you either hire a donkey for your stay (at least then you get more good humour and patience than when dealing with the average car hire company employee) or organise a loan from the World Bank in advance of your trip.

I do not often do reviews but firstly, my therapist said it would help me and, secondly, if this serves to help others to avoid the descent into bitterness, self-blame and angst that I have encountered from using them. I consider that should this review help to stop only one person making the same mistake as me, then I can feel that I have done some good in this world.

Dear Reader, should you have been so kind and patient as to read this far into my review I can only add that renting from this company, no matter how good a deal you feel that you are getting, the money that you save will never be more than the cost of the therapy required after the experience.

For those who feel they still wish to rent from Budget Car Hire in Naples, I can only say that I admire your courage and that it was on such daring that great empires have been built. I salute you.

I suspect that one day some archeologist working on Pompeii will find a figure with a clenched hand holding a wooden tablet on which it is written, ‘Vesuvius do your worst, I have used Budget Cart Hire what greater tragedy could befall me?’.

It was good service and everything went quickly and well in Rome ciampino apt.

I rented a car for a business trip, using Booking as the reservation platform.
I booked a compact automatic SUV as I need to drive around 600-800 km a Week.

A very rude staff hanlded my pick up at the Linate airport.

In spite of the car category, htye insisted to provide me a city car. I was handed over a dirty and very old car, way below the category I booked. I complained twic and then was haded over a city car of a better category. For the transition I was charged 18 euro, I found out later from an email communication.

I had to hear comments from another woman on the car category on women not needing a car anyway.

I have cancelled several meeting and now will forever avoid Budget,AVISand Maggiore as they share same staff.

My business trip is ruined and will not really consider long term renting again.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS, SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES

I have rented a car through Booking.com for a total and final cost of €55 with no additional charges.
The original rental period was from 10:00 AM on February 6th to 3:30 PM on February 7th.

At your Linate Budget agency, I was told that:

I would receive a category upgrade at no cost to me.

I could keep the car until 10:00 AM on February 8th, having rented the vehicle for two days.

I could have added comprehensive damage insurance for about €20 per day. As I actually did,

To avoid penalties or additional charges, I would have to return the vehicle full.

I returned the car on February 7 at 8:10 PM, early, and with a full tank.

In the end-of-rental invoice, also attached, I was billed the following items:

Rental fees €85.11
Location surcharge €25.11
Vehicle license fee €4.70
Late return surcharge €15.00
Optional services €20.72

For a total of €183.78 (including VAT).

None of the above items correspond to the costs indicated in the contract with the booking portal, nor correspond to what declared when I have rented the car.

pS THEY ARE ALSO LYING ABOUT WHEN I HAVE RETURNED THE CAR

PPS I have written them several emails and they never replied.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS, SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES

Not even one star, but there's no option to give ZERO... We booked a car through Ryanair (flights and car) and paid in full 45.53e. The car was dropped off on time, keys were left in the box, as per instructions, see photos attached.
The following day we received the invoice 408.87e :
252.53 rental charges, 55.86e location surcharge, 11.75e license fee and 15.00e late return fee.
163.34e was already deducted from deposit, the amount due is 363.34e.
We are renting cars quite often - 5,6 times/year, nothing similar ever happened to us...

Budget Naples, there was no one at the car rental lot, we had to take care of everything ourselves. We took pictures and videos of the whole car, but somehow we missed a little scratch on the passenger mirror. It was very obviously an old scratch. They managed to be there when we dropped the car off and completely lied, said we did it, when it was obvious that it had been there for months. They are still putting charges on our card several days later. They are frauds, liars and cheats. Disgusting.

Budget at Trieste airport. They have not returned my deposit amount back after 28 days. I have been calling and calling and calling nobody answers, sending emails, nobody replies. They told me then that my deposit should be send back after 7 days but after 28 days still nothing. They have no one when picking up the car or returning the car to confirm the condition of the car. The document they give you which supposedly showing the condition of the car is barely understandable. It is so small you are not sure if the damage you see on the car is actually on the document. You have to go all the way back to the counter inside the airport to confirm with the guy and show him the video you took. Otherwise they might think that you did the damage. It is ridiculous.

Absolutely agree with the other terrible reviews. Downright dishonest. Lying about the time I returned the car to charge me an extra day. Lying about refuelling the car. Lying about damage to the car. They should be in jail.

Budget in Cagliari recalculated the cost of a 2 day hire when I returned the car. I had booked online in the UK directly with Budget. The revised price was £36 more than quoted. They insisted on charging this as that is what the computer said. There was no valid reason. We had a long debate about this in the airport car park, which unfortunately held up others. I won’t be using Avis-Budget again. It’s a racket.

I'd give zero stars if I could! Firstly, this was Budget from Bari booked through Ryanair. Budget bombard you with emails and phone calls, ostensibly to speed the pick up process but really trying to sell you insurance and breakdown cover. The pick up process at Bari was diabolical, despite having completed all the online forms and the phone call. Queues were terrible, and this was late September !
Now, as it was an out of hours key drop return, they're trying to stitch me up with damage charges ( luckily my videos and photos should put paid to that!) and additional hire charges - for which I paid Ryanair in full.
What a shambolic mess.
Avoid them like the plague and don't believe any positive reviews you read.
I've hired dozens of cars from airports all over the world and this was the worst experience by a very long way.

This place is terrible never rent from them. They charged me €6000 for a car rental stated that I had a major car accident and I never did could not get my money back from them no matter how many times I wrote to them. when I called budget head office they told me it’s my problem. I will never rent from budget again be very careful. I even sent them photos after I dropped off the car saying that it was in perfect condition. They would not speak to me. Don’t rent from this place. You can buy a new car for what they charge you.

Horrendous experience - avoid at all costs. Terrible service when picking up the car and made to wait hours. Checked the vehicle with the attendant and despite this are still withholding deposit. No answer from the Customer service contact given. Removing from our companies providers of car rental. Do not use

Terrible experience!!!

The car they handed me was in an awful state and had scratches nearly everywhere (6 listed in their own remittance documents). I inspected the car but was eager to pursue the trip, and I somewhat trusted the company - which is a big name - for having done the identification thoroughly, so I didn't really tried to identify if there were any other flaws.

All went well (the motor and air condition worked fine), until the last day.
Upon my restitution of the car, to my surprise they made a fuss about a very tiny scratch (they photographed it in their report using a special lighting which makes it appear far most serious than it is in reality).
I objected that it was impossible to affirm whether the scratch had been there before given the awful condition of the car.
They ignored my objections and, barely 5 minutes after "discovering" the scratch, handed me a document called "Budget's estimate of rental charges". I obviously refused to sign it, as the damages were grossly exaggerated and the repair costs totally unrealistic, together with other unclear / unexplained charges presented in a total mess, but this did not prevent them from unilaterally debiting my Visa Card for an amount in excess of 1.000Euros,
Later, when they sent the final invoice (dated from the day after but sent 2 weeks later), it bizarrely showed exactly the same amount that they had "estimated" witin a few seconds upon remittance. This proves that they are not charging real repair costs, but a widely exaggerated lump sum. I even suspect that they overstate the amount so that they can repair all of the car's former anomalies at my expenses.
Thus, while the whole car rental was supposed to cost me less than 200€ for one week as per Booking.com, I found myself paying 6 times that amount!

Fortunately enough, I had subscribed a full protection insurance and I managed to get a reimbursement, but that's certainly not thanks to Budget Milan, and i cannot imagine how terrible the experience must be for those who don't take the insurance!!!

Large deposit taken. Deposit return is 28 working days. After the 28 days they will give you a number of reason's why they won't be refunding your deposit.
DO NOT TRUST BUDGET........
After the 28 working days your holiday is over and your on the other side of the world. Good luck.

Car provided had lots of dents and scratches on collection, when returning the car they tried to say that one small scuff mark was new and we would need to invoke our insurance excess.
The car also had a headlight not working so was unroadworthy.

One of the worst rental experiences I’ve ever had. The car we received already had a lot of damage, which was even noted on the rental agreement. However, the pickup agent did not go over the vehicle with us, did not point out the existing damage, and did not mark it in our presence.
Later, we were charged a very high amount for “new” damage — despite the fact that it was already recorded on the agreement and I photos that I took before we started our journey.

I did not authorize this charge, nor did I sign anything admitting I was at fault, yet they processed the payment anyway. I have already sent an email with proof and tried to call, but have received no response.

On top of that, one of the agents was rude, and the car had a faulty window that never closed, creating loud wind noise for our entire 10-day trip and making the drive uncomfortable.

This experience has been frustrating, costly, and unacceptable. I will not rent from this company again and urge others to be cautious.

I need to be honest, the reviews about car rentals in IT were horrific, I was apprehensive about what was going to happen. It turned out that everything was flawless, even a deviation in the amount of fuel was fixed by then without any stress. Based on my experience, I recommend Budget!

I can only say that we had a very positive experience with this company on Pisa airport. We booked in advance via Booking.com including their insurance. When we picked up tha car there was absolutely no pressure to take extra insurance. Also the return of the car was fast and easy, done by a very friendly man.