Centauro Rent a Car Reviews 

Booked a car for a holiday in Italy, but after reading all the negative reviews I emailed them to make sure which documents they need for the rental.

Turned out they don’t accept credit card with initials + full surname, only with full names. Well, in NL that’s not possible and therefore I had to cancel my booking because they would not accept my credit card, although my initials correspondent clearly to the names in my passport and driving license. Glad I double checked!

But I have rented cars in many countries and never experiences something like this…

I was charged an additional fuel fee even though I filled the car up twice before returning it. The vehicle appeared to have a software issue: even after the gas station confirmed the tank was full, the car still did not show the last segment of the fuel gauge as filled. Because of this, I paid twice at the Petroprix station, spending an extra 10 euros just to make sure the tank was full.
When I returned the car, I explained the situation to the employee and showed her both fuel receipts. She told me that everything would be fine and that this sometimes happens. However, she then only pointed me to a place to sign without clearly showing me what I was signing. Later, I received a document by email showing that money had been deducted anyway. I find this misleading and very disappointing.
The car itself was acceptable, but not what I had booked. I reserved a comfort category car and was promised a Volkswagen T-Roc in the confirmation email, but instead I received a Chinese MG. The car was new, clean, and had leather seats, so it looked fine at first. However, the sound insulation was poor, and the electronic driving assistance was frustrating and, at times, concerning.
For example, the car would sharply pull the steering wheel in the opposite direction when approaching a lane marking. On mountain roads, this felt not just annoying but potentially unsafe. This feature had to be turned off manually every single time before driving.
Instead of properly responding to my complaint or apologizing, I kept receiving promotional emails inviting me to rent from them again.

Don’t book with these guys if you have somewhere to be:
- shuttle bus was 45mins, not 10-15
- only 2 people on site to handle collections and drop-offs
- smart key collection didn’t work
- I’m considering booking a taxi to get back to the airport

The only reason I got the shuttle was because I tried to get a cab, they rang a special number (not the one on the booking) and spoke to someone then. I rang the number on my booking whilst in the reception, no phones rang.

My girlfriend booked a car with Centauro at Barcelona Airport for pickup by 23:00. We provided our flight number, the plane landed early, and we were among the first to get our baggage. We reached the shuttle bus area around 23:00, only to discover the last shuttle had left at 22:45.
Their office is supposed to be open until 23:00, yet they happily took our money for a booking they clearly couldn’t fulfill. We called customer service once – they knew everything but offered zero help, zero solution, zero apology. We were left stranded at the airport like idiots after a long journey.
How stupid do you have to be to accept 23:00 bookings when your last shuttle leaves at 22:45 and you have no backup plan? This isn’t bad service – this is straight-up incompetence and customer disrespect.
Centauro promises cheap prices but delivers nothing but frustration and stress. Useless company from start to finish.
Stay far away. Pay a bit more for a proper company like Sixt or Hertz that actually knows what they’re doing.
1 star (being extremely generous).

After reading other reviews this seems like a systematic scheme when renting through a third party in my case booking.com they allow for denying their gap insurance if you leave a $1500 deposit on your card but when you go to process the charge it doesn’t go through. I tried 4 different credit cards and none worked. This is all done in my view to get you to add on the unneeded insurance. It is a scam and should be reported to authorities.

They (Palma airport location)were unable to process payment for deposit required for insurance deductible- tried 3 valid credit cards and debit cards. Called my credit card company direct and they said nothing was received. I believe it is fairly common as while I was there two other customers had the same experience. Very frustrating experience. Worst car rental experience ever. The counter lady was not concerned and said it was my problem,

Had to catch a ride back to the Palma, Mallorca airport and hire a Uber for transport to my hotel.

So I left without a rental and they refused to reimburse me for the rental car expense. Avoided at all costs.

Avoid at all cost. Aweful company, rude and ignorant staff. Tried to sell me extra insurance at all cost. Did not understand that passport and drivers licence could not be from same country! (Both EU). On return tried to chrge me for a scratch that they deliberately had not put on their form,assuring me that it would not be a problem. Luckily i had photos. Never again!

I had booked and prepaid a car rental, including an external AXA premium insurance policy. Upon arrival at the Malaga counter, I was strongly pressured to purchase their additional insurance for €140, which I refused multiple times.

At that point, an absurd situation began: after checking my documents, I was told that my Revolut credit card “was not acceptable” and that the only way to be allowed to pick up the car was to take their insurance — naturally, however, to pay the €140 insurance fee, the Revolut card was perfectly fine.

In other words: pay, or no car, despite the fact that the rental had already been fully paid. This is not a simple service issue: it was pure extortion.

The same Revolut card was then accepted without any issue to pay €85 as a “deposit” for the fuel tank, making the situation even more contradictory.

What is most serious is that these conditions were not made clear at the time of booking and are only introduced at the counter, putting the customer under pressure when there are no practical alternatives left.

The whole situation took place with a staff member (an older woman with short blonde hair and glasses) who maintained a rigid attitude and showed no willingness to find a solution, repeatedly stating that “there were no alternatives”.

I do not know whether this was the improper behaviour of a single employee or a systematic company practice to make money, but in either case it is extremely serious.

Unfair behaviour, extortion, total lack of transparency, and a contradictory and unprofessional attitude towards the customer.

Avoid at all costs ! They scam you with the fuel asking you to bring it back 65% full. Almost Impossible !
Then they scam you with the insurance. Their price seems competitive until you get thereto collect the car and they charge you another £250 for insurance.
Avoid !

Never go with this company . Poor customer service and don’t reply for emails , need to contact my bank for final refund payment.

I have rented a car at Centauro for 4wks early March 2026 at the Heraklion/Crete location. I have rented cars at that location twice before, mostly because they have new and well maintained cars - and I really liked the staff the 2nd time I rented. The 1st time was not as pleasant at the pick up, because I had a pushy agent being aggressive about selling extra car insurance. But there were more customers waiting in line and therefore she let it go.
Now this time we unfortunately had this particular person again, there was nobody else in the office. And this time she tried again aggressively to push car insurance on me, when I kept declining it, she said that the security deposit for the rental was €1100. Which was no big deal as I am used to getting charged a security deposit when declining insurance. But what happened next was quite remarkable and has never happened to me before. All of a sudden my Credit Card was instantly denied at all the terminals, she claimed that there was something wrong with the chip of my card. Never mind that I had just paid with the same card the rental car fee and use this card all the time without any problems. I did then call Chase, the Credit Card Bank to ensure that there was nothing wrong with my card. They were surprised because there was not even an attempt for a charge on their end and assured me that there should absolutely be no problem with the charge on my end. I was also not allowed to use a different card. To make a long story short: This woman told me that I could have the car if I paid €300 for insurance, otherwise I could not have the car since a security deposit could not be processed as there was a problem with my card. Since it was late and we needed the car to get to our place, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the €300...and -surprise- my card worked like a charm again for this payment. My card also worked perfectly fine when picking up another car and paying the security deposit just recently. I have been disputing this charge now through my credit card company as it was clearly not an issue of my credit card but wanting to force a considerable charge on me that I did not need...by whatever shady means. I am truly sorry that this happened as I also had really great experinces at this location before, but definitely not with this person.

Always had excellent experience with Centauro, both in Porto and Faro. ( I always pay to remove the excess so never any funny business with damage. )

Centauro charge me unjustified cost after the car return .They have dishonest business practice . I will not recommend this company.

The worst rent car company ever.
DO NOT RENT A CAR WITH CENTAURO.
NEVER!!!
Total bandits. When you catch the car they charge you for gas. Charge a preauthorization over 1400 Euros.
Then I git the car. An old car wtih over 92.000 km and a lot of damaged. Total of 12 damages, one really huge one at the driver door.
When I returned the car the employee of Centauro “found” a small risk near a pre-hitten place and charged me more 215,00 Euros. I discussed with him and he said to claim my rights.
Centauro I want my money back!!! I will go to hell to get it back…

Overpriced car rental company with a very poor attitude. I tried to resolve a parking fine when returning the car, but the staff refused to help. In the end, they still charged me a €40 administrative fee. Bad service, not recommended.

I want to warn anyone planning to rent a car from this company in Sardinia.
I returned the car in perfect condition - no scratches, no visible damage. However, upon return was conversation like this: “it seems like you don’t have full insurance, I have to check your driver’s door lock ” And what a surprise I was suddenly told there was an issue with that part. I never even used that lock during my rental, and I am convinced this was a pre-existing problem.
When I asked for proof that the lock was working before I took the car, no clear evidence was provided. This made the situation feel very questionable and honestly quite unfair.
It seems like this could be a convenient way to charge customers for issues that were already there.
Please be very careful:

Check every detail of the car when you pick it up - not just visible damage, but also things like door locks, keys, and mechanisms that are easy to overlook.
This experience was stressful and disappointing, and I hope others can avoid going through the same situation.

I rented a car with Centrauto for 14 days. Arriving at Alicante Airport, the lady at reception told me there was a extra insurance fee of 408 or 1.100 euro + to pay, in spite of my rental agreement stating that there would be no extra cost at the desk (desk is hard to find). She said: this is no option, pay or leave. So I payd reluctantly. I drove to Calpe and back, less than 150 kms in total. After returning home, I was charged 15 euro for gasoline. Never no more !. Eddy H. Antwerp - Belgium

Unfortunately, I had already been warned by others around me about the poor service of Centauro, but I decided to give it a chance anyway. This turned out to be a big regret afterward.

The problems started right from the beginning when we went to pick up the car in Seville. It was very unclear where exactly the shuttle was supposed to pick us up, and on top of that, it took far too long for a shuttle bus to arrive. We had to wait at least 35 minutes and even started to doubt whether we were standing in the right place.

When we tried to call, we were unfortunately unable to reach anyone. After a long wait and asking people nearby, a shuttle bus finally arrived.

After that, the problems only continued to pile up.

When picking up the car, an additional insurance was imposed on us without first asking whether we had already arranged and paid for this ourselves. As a result, I ended up taking out insurance twice, which caused me a significant amount of unnecessary extra costs. The employee came across as very pushy and repeatedly emphasized that it was important to take out this insurance, without even asking whether we had already arranged insurance.

Before even starting the car, I went back to the employee, but she stated that I had already signed and that it could no longer be reversed. I tried again to explain that I had not initially understood her and that, due to this miscommunication, I had unfortunately taken out an extra insurance policy, even though I had already arranged this via Booking.com. However, the employee was very curt and rude and insisted that it could not be undone.

For a third time, I explained that I had not even gotten into the car yet, nor started it, and once again asked whether she could accommodate me in this matter, but unfortunately without success. Once again, she was dismissive and then walked away.

I will never, ever book anything through your company again, and a negative review will follow. This is not the way to treat customers. Some understanding and respect would have been appropriate.

I am extremely disappointed, especially since I have rented cars many times through other companies and have never experienced any problems. Therefore, I will no longer consider your company due to this negative experience.

The worst experience ever.
Unprofessional and unwillingly to assist the customer service support is POOR.

The vehicle offered to us was damaged and the substitute faulty. When we asked for assistance they told us we had to pay for towing 300km to thw nearest town with the amenities to check if we had damaged the vehicle.

Awful!

They will tell you everything is fine when you bring the car back and then "suddenly" find a problem once you're gone and out of reach to steal money from your deposit. Suddenly there's too much sand, or the gas tank isn't full (despite being filled to the brim), or some other bullshit. I would always ask for a written condirmation that they checked the car and considered it good to go.

I strongly advise against renting with Centauro. I had my car return scheduled for 11:00 PM (23:00) as per my contract. I arrived at the exact time at the designated 'Return' area, but there was no staff member present to receive the vehicle.After waiting and having to find staff in a different area, they registered the return at 11:04 PM. For those 4 minutes of delay—caused entirely by their own lack of organization—they charged me a €40 'out of hours' penalty fee.The most shocking part? When I asked for an official invoice with my Tax ID at the counter, the staff stated they could not issue it because their IT system shut down exactly at 11:00 PM.How can a company allow rental contracts to end at 11:00 PM if their systems and staff are not operational at that exact time? This is a clear trap for customers. I have GPS and CCTV evidence proving I was on-site on time, yet they refuse to refund the unfair charge.  I have already filed formal complaints with the Portuguese Regulatory Authority and the Tax Authority. Their support only replies with generic templates in English, ignoring the legal facts of a service provided in Portugal. Avoid this company if you value transparency