Europcar Portugal Reviews 

Faro airport- Waiting over 90 minutes to pick up a car is not acceptable. Being told this is normal practice everywhere in the summer is untrue and also not acceptable.
Poor customer service. Will not use again and we have never experienced this in any previous bookings at different locations.
Never again. Avoid. Wish we had read previous reviews.

Be aware: Europcar Portugal is extremely rigid with paperwork. Even for a simple request (authorizing a colleague to collect documents), they refused all alternatives like written permission, ID copies, or digital signing. Emails went unanswered and customer care was poor. If you need flexibility or professional service, consider other rental companies

Terrible Experience – Avoid Europcar Porto

I rented an electric vehicle from Europcar Porto, but when I arrived to collect it, I was told I needed to use a third-party app and have a Portuguese debit card – something that was never mentioned during the booking process. Since I didn’t have that, I was essentially forced into “upgrading” to a more expensive vehicle.

To make matters worse, they added taxes I had already paid and pushed an unnecessary insurance upgrade. The replacement vehicle was dirty, and the tire pressure system was faulty, clearly showing poor maintenance.

After I returned the vehicle, they even attempted to charge my card again without authorization.

Overall, this felt like a scam from start to finish. I won’t be using Europcar again – especially not at this location. Be warned.

Added €100 of additional charges 2 weeks after I returned home for “missing car documents” even though on the return form it says everything was OK (including the documents). Have pointed this fraud out to Europcar head office who for some reason think it is appropriate to maintain the charge.

Clear from the onset. As long as you read the terms it is makes it clear the dos and donts.
Check in was great if a little bit slow after travelling, but they were all kind and helpful.
Checking the car was easy, the guy even picked up on marks I had missed which I felt showed they were not going to try to scam me as is the reputation of car hire companies.
The return was simple, they took 5 mins to check the car over, signed the paperwork and all done. Overall very happy with the Faro branch.

There’s a reason this place scores so lowly, 90 minutes wait to get your car when you get here is just a joke, but they do have a fan to blow the hot air around. Never again for me….

If you are in a hurry or with children, it is better to choose another rental company. You wait (standing because of the crowd) without any information and about an hour to get your car.

Three years ago when we hired a car from Europcar Portugal they sold me the idea of paying for a device to capture all tolls payments in order that I did not have to stop at the tolls to pay. Sounded like a goo idea as we were travelling across Portugal. The problem arose when two years ago I received a penatly notice for unpaid toll fees in portugal , the admin fees were outragious, despite having a device to record them. After a very long email correspondance they admited an admin error at their end and eventualy paid the admin fees, this was not without drama as they kept asking for proof of payment , which was supplied on three seperate occasions. Only this year did I receive a further penatly notice for unpaid toll fees and again Europcar Portugal try delaying tactics not to refun me. Despite them admitting the error they did not even offer to pay a miserly toll fee of £1.50 as a gesture of goodwill. It took allthe patiance of a saint to have to deal with these incompetant peolpe , this is typical of their service... Avoid them

Flight arrived on time.
We have 4 & 6 year old who wet
Not enough staff on check in to deal with customers.
1 hr delay is not acceptable. We chose to collect in terminal for quickness but it was no quicker than when we have used shuttle
Very dissatisfied

I booked a car online for 135€, all went well, however, at the pick up counter (Faro Airport), we went through the contract with the agent, we saw that the option premium protection was ticked so we told the agent that we didn't request that( it was way more expensive than the car rental price). He answered that that was a deposit and that we were going to get that refunded. That didn't happened, we contacted via email and phone. The phone operator said that there was no problem and that he was going to sort that out and send us the new bill. We got a response saying that we signed so there was nothing to do, no refund, those were instructions from the manager at Faro airport's Europcar office. I ended up paying 369€ compared with the 135€ originally agreed when booking online. I was totally misled!!!

I rented car in Faro airport through Ryanair and it was a mistake. They charged me online for full insurance £85 but only while picking up the car, lovely girl at the desk explained to me that it's not full car insurance(as Ryanair website states!!!! I really don't know what they're charging customers for!!!) Fortunately I was advised to cancel this for a refund and buy proper FULL INSURANCE from car company. Rest was easy and straightforward. I will definitely take the advice next time and book the car and insurance via Europcar directly. Thank you for your amazing service and support and make sure my holiday was peaceful. Love Portugal. Obrigado.

The car was great, brand new. They checked it and returned the deposit after few hours.

I put a three star rating because almost a month ago I asked customer support to tell me whether there is a key box where I can drop my car keys when returning because I was supposed to leave Albufeira at 2 in the morning. On customer support they told me that there is a key box and even the rental works until 18:30, I can leave the car later. Upon picking up the car, they said that it was possible 4 years ago and I wrote to customer support again and they confirmed that the information they gave me was outdated. Basically why in the first place you gave ne wrong information? And they didn't offer any refund or anything. I had to shorten my trip because of this and change plans. I would say very unprofessional. FIX YOUR CUSTOMER SUPPORT!!!

So Albufeira rating is 5 stars. Europcar customer support 1 star = 3 stars.

I rented a car from Europcar in the Lisbon airport for one week. I pre-paid online via a third-party site, and, like many others, upon arriving at the store in the airport, I was immediately pushed by the sales representative to pay more to upgrade to a better vehicle than what I had initially reserved online, as well as pushed to pay extra for insurance. Although I ultimately opted to pay more for both of these items, I was fully aware that I could have declined and simply received the car which I had reserved online without any insurance. This is not the cause of my complaint.

However, upon attempting to collect the car, I was surprised to hear that I would be required to pay a nonsensical 89 euro "convenience fee" and another nonsensical 30 euro "damage administration fee"; in addition, I was surprised again when I was informed that my online pre-payment did not include the taxes, and that I would be required to pay them as well. These fees are entirely different from the additional payments made for the voluntary vehicle upgrade and insurance because I was not informed beforehand that I would be required to pay them, and if had I refused to pay them, then I would be refused my rental car which I had already pre-paid online for. This is dishonest business practice.

Contrast this with my experience with another rental car which I had rented from another company during the same week: the *only* money which I paid in addition to my online pre-payment to reserve the car were (1) the toll charges and (2) the electric charging fee (as I had returned the vehicle with a nearly empty battery), both of which I had been clearly informed of at the time of booking online. I was not charged any absurd, surprise last-minute fees or taxes by this other company, unlike Europcar, which seems to feel that they can make up unreasonable fees as they please and deny their customers their rental cars that they have already pre-paid for if they refuse to play along.

The core complaint is not in regard to the amount of the fees, but rather the lack of prior communication and the unpleasant surprise at vehicle pick-up. This would not have been an issue if I had simply been informed at the time of online pre-payment of the existence of these additional fees, which would have allowed me to make an informed decision regarding this rental.

They know that their customers are often foreign travelers without the experience, time, or energy to dispute this dishonest practice, and that we are often forced by necessity to pay any last-minute surprise fees in order to collect our rental car. Do not use Europcar; there is at least one other rental car company located merely a few kilometres from the airport which does not charge any of their nonsense fees.

Very disappointed with my rental experience with Keddy by Europcar in Portugal.

During one rental, I was charged for two extra insurances that I had clearly refused – verbally and in the presence of others. These were silently added to the contract, and I only found out when checking my credit card. No clear explanation or warning was given at the counter.

In another rental, I was told at return that the car had no damage. Days later, after chasing a missing invoice, I was suddenly informed of a damage charge – again with no proactive communication and a questionable signature on the form.

Customer service responded with copy-paste answers and ignored the main points of my complaint. I wasn’t expecting money back – just transparency, respect, and an honest reply. None of that happened.

I will not be renting with Europcar again and hope others read this before booking.

Collected a car from Europcar Faro Airport on June 21st. Collection point was easy to find and was quick and seamless. We were asked if we wanted roadside assistance, we said no. We signed a contract in Portuguese in small print. We dropped the car off with a full tank with no damage. We were charged £105 additional a few weeks later which turned out to be roadside assistance and an additional charge for collecting from an airport. When we queried this we were told it was all in the contract. So beware of these "additional charges".

Europecar Guatemala
When we picked up the car we were forced to pay about 500 euro for an extra ensurance (we never pay for ensurance, since we have our own insurance ánd we never have damage!) bc otherwise our creditcard would have been blocked for 16.000 USD!!! 16 THOUSAND USD!! Normally its around 500-100 which gets blocked on our card. That would have made our card unusable so we were forced to take the insurance.
The car was just fine and we got it without any damage back.
At the morning of returning the car we waited for 30 minutes and nobody showed up! There was no reaction whatsoever on the many whatsapps I send to the number where we were in touch with before. We had no clue what to do bc we had to check in. We left the car key in the car, send a picture and heard nothing back. I can provide all the whatsapp on this. When we returned home after a 25 hour trip I send an whatsapp again and then finally we got the answer that the car was recieved yesterday and the closing and return proces was completed.
This kind of behavour is OUTRAGIOUS!!! Forcing us to make extra costs and not showing up to return the car and letting us in the unknown is ridiculous! We will never rent with europecar Guatemala again and we make this review, to help others to not have to go through the same.
The car was just fine to drive with. Its the attitude and forced extra payments we had to make that were ludicrous!!

Book through EasyJet. Rental included Airport pickup and breakdown recovery but was charged it again. This was taken from my credit card deposit and not refunded despite providing the evidence it was covered in base rental agreement. Avoid if you don't want to be stung with hidden charges. Very unscrupulous.

Awful experience. We collected our car at faro airport to the car not inspected after the previous user. They inspected the vehicle as did we with video footage. After the inspection we were given a paper copy of where the damage was on the vehicle. I took such good care of the vehicle where using it as I didnt want to have any problems when returning. I checked the vehicle and took video footage again. We returned the car off at 5am prior to Europcar opening which was a big mistake as we were not able to inspect the vehicle with an employee. We returned home to an email from europcar informing us we have damaged the rear passenger alloy, we explained that there was already damage noted on the paper inspection carried out by an employee before we started using the car. They have informed us the case is closed and the damage noted was somewhere else on the vehicle. They have been unhelpful and we feel completely scammed. Europcar are that company you should be worried about scamming you.

I rented a car through Europcar in Bratislava. The day after returning the vehicle, I received
an invoice of nearly €800 for damage and cleaning cost. This is very unjustified because:

• Vehicle check conducted without our presence: The final inspection of the vehicle was
carried out without us being present. When I made the booking, I was given the option
to select the return time myself, and I chose 18:00. At no point during the reservation
process or afterward did Europcar inform me that this return time would fall outside of
office hours, or that returning the vehicle at this time would mean I could not be present
for the final check. Had I been informed of this in advance, I would not have agreed to
this arrangement. As a result, I was unable to be present during the inspection, which
has now led to charges that I do not agree with.
• Excessive cleaning charges: We were charged a high cleaning fee for a small amount of mud
on one of the seats—something that could have easily been cleaned with water. My request for a second opinion was ignored.
• Damage charge: A fee of €350 was charged for a barely visible scratch.
Additionally, the vehicle was inspected the day after we returned it, which means there were many hours between handing in the car and checking the car. Therefore, there is no conclusive evidence that we caused this
damage.
• Lack of photo evidence: Despite our explicit requests, we did not received any new or
clearer photos of the alleged damage.

Given these issues, I find the charges disproportionate and the handling of our case unsatisfactory. It is extremely difficult to find someone in customer service to help you or to get a second opinion on the case. I would therefore strongly recommend using another rental company.

I arrived later than intended at Europcar Faro due to long queues clearing customs. The wait time to be served was even longer at the store due to appalling management with more staff sitting around chatting and on phones rather than serving customers. This was stressful as I was late for an appointment already due to the airport queues.
When I was finally served (well over an hour now after when I had the car booked for) my vehicle wasn't ready and I was advised there would be a further wait of around 30 mins. This was simply not possible for me to do. Europcar's solution was to offer me an upgrade for £150 which was approximately double the cost of the original booking. When I pointed out that I would be charged if I returned the vehicle back an hour and a half late the staff just thought it was hilarious. In short:

(1) Staff were painfully poor resulting in long queues.
(2) Car not ready even though well past intended collection time.
(3) Paid nearly double the original cost as had no choice due to vehicle not being ready.

There are other car companies on site or alternatively get an Uber and use a local company such as QDL Car Hire when you get to your destination.

This will prevent you from being the victim of poor service and much higher charges than anticipated.