autovia.it - Brindisi Aeroporto Reviews 

Great car for bargain, easy to go for on arrival and easy to drop on departure, great, thanks

Avoid at all costs – shady business practices and non-existent customer service

I booked a car on Autovia’s official website the 29th of December 2023 at Brindisi Airport and paid online via PayPal. When I arrived at the agency, they refused to rent me the car because, according to their terms, they don’t accept debit cards for the deposit… but miraculously, if I paid an extra €200 for unnecessary insurance (since I was already covered), my debit card would suddenly be acceptable! 🤔

Refusing this borderline extortion, I was told that my reservation would be automatically canceled and refunded. Of course, no refund was issued. After weeks of silence and no response to my emails, I had to open a PayPal dispute, which I won. End of the story? Not at all.

A few months later, surprise! Autovia suddenly demanded payment again for the canceled booking, and more recently, a lawyer sent me a request for €210 for a service I never received!

Autovia exploits vague terms and tries to squeeze money out of customers with unacceptable tactics. No customer service, zero transparency, and unbelievable bad faith. Stay far away from this company if you don’t want to get scammed.

Appalling experience. Charged for damage we did not cause. Rude and aggressive staff. We hire cars often, and this is the worst experience we ever had.

Clear information, punctuality, cleanliness, fair pricing, convenience.

Friendly helpful staff on both pick up and return made the hire a totally stress free experience. Competitively priced and free extra driver was a bonus

Smooth service at pick-up, smooth and fast return. Staff informative, but not too pushy about the additional insurance, which I really appreciated. Got a car which I paid for and it served me well. Deposit released 5 days after return. Would reuse Autovia/Ecovia any time without hesitation.

refused to charge the 500 euros deposit to my debit card pretending it needed to be a credit card not a debit card.

However he could solve the issue by charging insurance for 36 euros per day

also laughed at me when I said I was a loyal returning customer and they had always used my debit card in the past

never again

I Can't give Zero stars..... but 1 is far too many for these bandits !

Picked up car at Brindisi airport, nice helpful desk staff - walked out to the car park, where a guy started shouting at me - walks over grabs the keys out of my hand, jumps in a car drives it out of a parking bay get out and walks away. I get up to the car to see it looks like it has taken part in an off road rally across Nepal ! every panel has dents, scuffs, every wheel has been scuffed, dirty inside, stains on seats, loads of sand in the boot. But hey ho, I'm only driving to our holiday home for 4 days and driving back, so it doesn't matter... 4 days later I return the car a 3:30am, no staff, a dark car park, drop the key in box. all done ! Until I land in Manchester and get an email from them saying left mirror damaged with a photo of a blue sticker on the mirror, and saying they are charging me 300 Euros. No close up pics of "damage" no reply to several emails asking for close up pics - the sign out sheet shows damage to that mirror, and the return sheet shows exactly the same. I didn't take their excess insurance and returning it in the dark made me a prime target for these scammers - I have used many other rental companies from Brindisi all perfectly fine - but AUTOVIA ( AKA - Optimo Rent - AKA ECOVIA) are an absolute disgrace to their industry and to Italy - NEVER USE THEM !!!!!

Its a shame I can't upload pictures of the car to show what a shed it was....

Rented a vehicle on the hoof at Brindisi Airport. Was served promptly by a knowledgeable assistant without any fuss or ‘additional’ options , extras or insurances. The standard cover included was very thorough and we were given clear instructions should any accidents or breakdowns occurred. We were thankfully quickly on our way. Highly recommended.

This company is not to be trusted. They fabricate damage to the car on return. In Brindisi Airport, They asked me to fill in a claim form for the premium insurance which I had taken out and assured me that there would be no charges for the fictitious damage. They, however, charged €160 to my credit card two months later without notice. When I queried this they sent me an invoice which they generated themselves. There was no mention of the premium insurance which I had in place. Incidentally, the information on this invoice showed that I had driven 1,950 kilometres when I had at most done 400 kilometres. I was on unlimited mileage so that didn’t affect me. It was probably part of another scam that this company gets up to.
Do not rent a car from this company. Be warned they are dishonest.

I took a car at Brindisi airport for 7 days, the assistant gave me a quote for 7 days from Friday to Thursday, I’ve never received an email confirmation as they have misspelled my name, also misspelled my husband’s name, little did I know that they also put incorrect date on the document so I was chased to drop a car back a day earlier as apparently only paid for 6 days and I was told I will be charged for one more day if I keep it for 7 days, absolutely outrageous and communication with Brindisi guy (Vanni) through WhatsApp extremely poor - he ended up blocking my number when questioned about an original email I never received.

Don't use Autovia ! 18 months after renting a car they still regularly take amounts on my credit card arguing its administrative costs for a police fee for which they are unable to produce documents.

Nothing to say.
Good welcome, car not new but very good and clean.
Good price, top!

Rented a car with 3 other friends visiting Puglia for a week. DISASTROUS immediately when I got there to pick up car because I gave a debit card instead of a credit card. Of course it’s my fault not realising how big of an issue this is as it mentions ‘credit card’ when booking.

Didn’t have the flexibility/ basic customer service to allow me to use my friend’s credit card so the car rental DOUBLED, simply because I used a debit card (Revolut).

After paying 500 euros instead of the original 250 euros, she then gave us a MASSIVE car (DR 4.0 - never heard of this Chinese made car but it was alright apart from having to drive a TANK through tiny Italian streets) when we ordered a Renault Clio.

In short, I’m sure this company provides a decent enough service if NOTHING goes wrong. If something goes wrong, DON’T expect ANY basic customer service.

We travel to Italy frequently and always tend to use this company as the prices are competitive, the staff are friendly and we have never encountered any issues wifh them, we normally fly to Bari or Brindisi.

Great car! New and fresh

Excellent experience from pick up to drop off, very quick process and kind people

Firstly, there were no queues. I did all the paperwork within 5 minutes.
Secondly, the deposit was returned within 24 hours.
The car was new, clean. A few scratches, but the staff showed me all the scratches with the appropriate document.
The holiday was fantastic, so that also influences my opinion :-)

When Tyre blew out we got another car within 24 hours

The employees were very kind. Everything went very smoothly. We drove a Volkswagen Polo. It was a good car. We really can't say anything bad about Autovia.