Europcar UK Reviews 

Do NOT rent a car from Europcar/Keddy at London Stansted Airport. They are running a deliberate scam, exploiting and deceiving vulnerable tourists at the rental desk.I arrived with a fully prepaid voucher from Enjoy Travel (approx. 230 GBP including insurance). The desk agent completely refused to honor the voucher and lied directly to my face, claiming that my prepayment was "merely a deposit" and that the actual rental was unpaid. I was given an ultimatum: pay an extra £40 to £80 per day w/o insurance, or be stranded at the airport with no car. Being under severe duress and trapped at the airport, I had no choice but to insert my card. Europcar has now wrongfully stolen a staggering £1,762.15 for a rental car for 10 days incl insurance on top of the £230 I paid in advance. They covered their tracks by writing "upgrade" on the receipt, but I never requested, wanted, or willingly agreed to any upgrade. This was forced cross-selling through pure deception. This company uses fraudulent misrepresentation to rob customers. I have escalated this massive scam to the European Consumer Centre (ECC) and the Financial Complaint Boards. Avoid Europcar Stansted at all costs – they are thieves in broad daylight!

Beware of Booking with Europcar for Your European Holiday

I had an extremely disappointing experience with Europcar, and I would strongly advise others to think carefully before booking.

On 9 July 2026, I made a confirmed reservation (Reservation No. 1204624370) for a rental car at Barcelona Airport from 18 July to 25 July 2026. The booking cost was GBP 341.42 (EUR 388.10).

When I arrived at the rental desk, I was told that Europcar could not find my reservation. I then tried to make a new booking, but I was informed that I was blocked from renting a vehicle for an unspecified reason. No one could explain why this had happened, despite my repeated requests.

As I had already arrived for my holiday and urgently needed a car, I had no choice but to rent one from Sixt, which cost me EUR 604.92. This meant I had to pay an additional EUR 216.82 because Europcar failed to honour my confirmed booking.

I contacted Europcar customer service and was given case reference 26915236. I was assured that I would receive both a refund and compensation within five working days. While my original booking payment was eventually refunded, Europcar has refused to reimburse the additional EUR 216.82 that I was forced to spend because of their failure.

To make matters worse, the only compensation they offered was a 15% discount on a future Europcar booking. After what happened, I have no intention of using Europcar again, so this offer is of no value to me.

This was the first experience of my holiday, and it caused unnecessary stress, inconvenience, and additional expense. Instead of enjoying the start of my trip, I spent valuable holiday time trying to resolve a problem that was entirely outside my control.

After sharing my experience with friends, I was surprised to hear that some of them had experienced similar problems with Europcar. I cannot say whether these incidents are connected, but hearing similar stories has reduced my confidence in the company.

Based on my personal experience, I cannot recommend Europcar. If you book with them, be prepared for the possibility that your confirmed reservation may not be honoured. I hope Europcar takes greater responsibility when its mistakes leave customers significantly out of pocket.

Supplied with dangerously defective vehicle, condemned as not drivable by the AA.
We are currently stranded and they will not replace the rental vehicle until this one has been recovered which cannot happen until next week.

They are expecting us to get to them. We cannot because we don’t have a vehicle. They are refusing to deliver a car to where we are and have absolutely zero concern about the state of the vehicle which has had some kind of previous impact underneath making it pull violently right or left when hitting an uneven road surface. We have video and photographs taken from underneath by the AA.

Left me stranded 48 hours before a house move.

Review:I booked and paid over £270 in full for a large moving van with Europcar, only for them to call me a mere two days before my scheduled house move to tell me no vehicle was available.

Simply offering a refund does not fix the massive logistical and financial chaos they have caused.

To make matters worse, their customer service is utterly incompetent. When I called back to complain about the refund timeline, the agent claimed the Kingston branch did indeed have the van available and actually tried lure me into paying for it a second time!

I rightly refused to hand over more cash without absolute confirmation. When the agent finally put me through to the Kingston branch directly, the local staff explicitly confirmed they had no such van.

Europcar actively attempted to take a double payment from me for a non-existent vehicle. Quite clearly a circus of negligence.

They have left me stranded at 48 hours notice, forcing me to source an emergency replacement at last-minute rates.

Avoid this company at all costs if your move relies on them. They are entirely unreliable.

Booking Reference: 1205601226

Avoid renting from this company as they will charge you for petrol not used and damages not caused.
I was given a courtesy car through my insurance. On returning the car Europcar tried to charge me for petrol and damages. I asked for proof, they were not able to provide it. The damage was old and petrol gauge was showing I had given them extra petrol almost 9 miles worth! I even paid to have the car washed before returning it!
After many many back and forth messages with Europcar and the possibility of escalating the matter by me to the Industry Ombudsman BVRLA Europcar decided to cancel the false charges!
The whole matter caused a lot of stress to me.
They didn’t even offer any compensation!

BEWARE OF UNAUTHORIZED CHARGES AND EXTRA FEES!
​I prepaid £156.67 online for a 1-day rental (Reservation No. 1205186237 / Rental Agreement 159367236) at the Swansea branch. However, Europcar ended up charging my card a total of £467.44 without my authorization—an overcharge of £310.77!
​Overcharging Rental Days: Even though the car was returned according to schedule, they processed the check-in late and charged me for 2 full days instead of 1.
​Unauthorized Upselling: Expensive optional coverages (£76.32 Premium Protection, £46.80 Roadside Assistance, £16.00 Personal Accident) were added to my invoice without my explicit consent or knowledge at the desk.
​Customer service has been unhelpful and slow in addressing this clear overcharge. I have already escalated this matter to BVRLA and initiated a credit card chargeback with my bank.
​I strongly advise anyone using Europcar to check their receipts carefully. I demand an immediate review of my case and a full refund of the £310.77 unauthorized charges.

Where do you start?
Charged 400 more Euros for deposit than stated in contract.
It took a month to get that deposit released.
Customer services seemed helpless to act.
No assistance in car lot with car (unlike other car hire companies).
It's getting two stars as the car was fine, but really, who needs such substandard service for the price they charge.

Scammed. Booked a car and agent added extra coverage and charge without notifying me. Customer service was abysmal after trying to get answers.

Avoid Europcar if you don’t want to get scammed.

Snails….the booking in process is outrageously slow. Over an hour and a half, and there were only three people ahead of me. One of them with “Happy to Help” on their t-shirt stood around smiling rather than helping.

I had one of the most frustrating customer experiences I’ve ever had with Europcar, and I would strongly advise anyone considering using them to think twice.

I urgently needed a hire car for seven days, so I booked and paid in full for a vehicle from the Cardiff branch. Less than 30 minutes later, I received a call from the local branch informing me that they had to cancel my booking because they had no vehicles available. This was despite my booking being confirmed and payment already having been taken.

Trying to resolve the issue only made matters worse. The only Europcar phone number that actually worked was the central booking line. None of the local branch contact numbers were reachable, leaving me with no way to speak directly to the branch. When you urgently need a vehicle, this level of poor customer service is incredibly stressful and unacceptable.

After speaking to the booking team, I was assured that my payment would be refunded. I then asked them to find another available vehicle as close to Newport as possible. They suggested the Tredegar branch. Before making another booking, I specifically asked the booking agent to confirm that a car was genuinely available. I was explicitly told that one was, so I trusted them and paid for a second booking.

Just 10 minutes later, I received another call this time from the Tredegar branch telling me they also had to cancel because they had no cars available either. The staff even informed me that there were no hire cars available anywhere in Wales.

To make matters even worse, I then had to wait 12–14 days to receive my refund for money that Europcar had taken for bookings they were unable to fulfil. It is unacceptable for a company to take customers’ money for vehicles they don’t actually have available and then expect them to wait nearly two weeks to get their own money back.

This experience exposed a complete lack of communication between Europcar’s central booking team and its local branches. The booking system appears to have no connection to actual vehicle availability, meaning customers can pay for cars that simply don’t exist. This caused unnecessary stress, wasted hours of my time, and left me without transport when I urgently needed it.

Europcar markets itself as a reliable car hire company, but my experience was the exact opposite. The service was disorganised, unreliable, and highly unprofessional from start to finish.

I will never use Europcar again, and I certainly would not recommend them to anyone. If you need a car urgently, I would suggest looking elsewhere, as confirmed bookings and payments clearly do not guarantee that a vehicle will actually be available.

Charged me a fortune for a supposed fault on return which I suspect was already present when we took the car. On top of this, I suspect the 'damage' will simply pop back in place and they'll repeat the process with another customer.

I'd avoid this company at all costs and to be honest, I'd think twice about the hassle of renting a car from any company in the future, it's just not worth the bother of checking it when you get it and on return.

If you are offered a car as part of insurance repair work then think twice, I didn't want the car but the insurance company handler kept insisting, if only I'd known it would turn out like this.

I booked a car for a week with Europcar in June 2026, I booked the car through Booking.com and as part of this booked their excess protection insurance via Zurich.

When I picked the car up from Edinburgh Airport I was offered the usual extras, which included the premium protection insurance which reduces the excess you pay if there is any damage to the car etc this was £380.

I declined this and explained I already had excess protection and therefore had no need of their product. I then clarified and was assured that the money I was paying on my credit card at that point was the security deposit which would be refunded to me when I dropped the car off, I was assured the entire amount would be refunded. I have not had this refunded and when I contacted Europcar they stated I agreed to the extra insurance which I had not. They are refusing to refund this.

I would urge anyone booking with Europcar to be be absolutely clear on what you are paying for as it is obvious the staff are either incompetent or deliberately put through products you do not ask for.

I will not be using Europcar again and I would suggest you avoid them aswell.

I landed at Manchester Airport after a long flight from Shanghai and was immediately met by a salesman who seemed determined to pressure me into paying an extra £1,200 for an upgrade. When I declined, he literally threw the original car keys at me.

When I collected the vehicle, nobody walked me around it or explained anything. Instead, there was just an A4 sheet saying, “Sorry we couldn’t clean it.” Loading my luggage was a nightmare because I couldn’t fold the rear seats down, and there wasn’t a single member of staff available to help.

During the trip back to Middlesbrough I noticed the windscreen was very dirty at eye level, making it difficult to see clearly. I also began to notice the general poor condition of the car, including its age, damage around the bodywork, and the fact it sounded like a tractor.

During the rental, the tyre warning light came on several times. I took the car to the Middlesbrough branch, where they inflated the tyres and reset the system. However, this reset caused Apple CarPlay to stop working. While there, I also asked to switch the vehicle due to the warning light, the lack of valeting, the overall condition of the car, and the fact I had rented it for six weeks and expected something more premium. I was told there were no available cars, but that they had my number and would call me if something suitable came in. They never called.

I also contacted Europcar directly, but I was passed from person to person. At first, they treated it as a new booking enquiry rather than a complaint. Eventually, I was referred back to the Middlesbrough branch, who again said they had no cars available. Their only suggestion was that I email Europcar, despite me already having visited the branch twice and followed up with a customer service phone call without success.

Because the windscreen mark remained and made visibility worse, I eventually paid to have the car professionally valeted. I then discovered the mark was not dirt at all, but pre-existing damage to the windscreen that had not been pointed out to me at collection. I reported this by phone and returned to the Middlesbrough branch, but once again I was dismissed.

The tyre warning light came on again later in the rental, but by this point I refused to return to the Middlesbrough branch, as they had not been helpful and neither had the call centre.

This was, without doubt, one of the worst car hire experiences I’ve ever had. Europcar seems very keen to answer the phone when you’re making a booking, but once you’ve got the car and need help, you’re on the other end of a broken system with no support.

I will never rent from Europcar again.

I booked a car for 17 days from Milan Linate airport for 17 days. Waited 1 hour to collect as they only had 2 people working and must have known they had more bookings than. They could cope with. I specifically booked a car which could handle 4 suitcases, but was told they didn't have a car at the price I paid which would take 4 suitcases. After a bit of discussion I was given a Fiat Tipo estate, not a car on the list of cars or similar on the website where it's all Audis and VWs. It was late and it managed to take our 4 suitcases. I was advised the car had lots of damage. The car summary had a list of 12 points of damage, but at this point I just want to start my holiday. I photographed and took a video of every panel. It was quite darn in the garage and we had a way to go. The car also had 70k km on it. It was quite obvious after a brief drive the wheel bearings were worn and gears didn't go in cleanly even after double declutching to build up pressure. The next day, OMG! The front wheel was buckled, every panel was dented. One of the rear doors didn't open properly because of a dent which had thrown the door out of alignment. I was with my family and don't want to ruin the holiday and it became a bit of a joke. In the US they have rent a wreck and it felt like that's what we'd hired, however we hadn't paid rent a wreck prices. So we added 1300km.to the car and when we handed it back I suspect the wide jaws of the crusher were waiting for this car. I won't be using Europcar again.

I picked up the car at Luton Airport and returned it at Manchester Airport. At both locations, the service and courtesy were impeccable, and the car was equipped with all the optional features. I’d say it was a very positive experience.

Santiago airport Spain. Dreadful experience. We specifically booked a car that was big enough for 3 suitcases. We were given a vehicle that stunk so much of cigarettes i couldn’t sit my children in it. They refused to provide a car that had the same luggage space unless we paid more, refusing to give us a free upgrade despite not being able to provide a suitable replacement for the stinky car. so we had to take a smaller car and squash in. The car was a manual despite being told at the desk we had an automatic. When we returned the car they complained the parcel shelf was missing ( it was never there) and the whole process of returning the car took over 40 minutes. The worst bit we filled the car, up as obliged, from a filling station 500m from the return and they claimed it wasn’t sufficiently full and charged us €10 for 500m. It was perfectly clear they knew what they were doing and it was an opportunity to increase their margins. The driver who returned his car just before us had the same experience. Disgusting. Will never use this company again.

Hired a Jaecoo 7 from Europcar Stansted for two weeks (booking ref 1204940768). On collection the car was dirty inside — ice cream sticks left in it and dirt everywhere. Clearly hadn't been properly cleaned between rentals, despite Europcar's T&Cs promising an "initial clean" with every hire.
The condition report at pickup already listed heavy scuffing on the front bumper, side skirt, mirror cap AND a heavily scuffed alloy — this car has been round the block, yet Europcar still nitpicked it at return.
At drop-off they found a small dent in the door and charged me ~£550. When I said I wanted to challenge it, I was told there would be an admin fee to dispute — which appears nowhere in their own terms and conditions. Pressuring customers with made-up fees to discourage legitimate challenges is a shocking way to operate.

So: dirty car on collection, a vehicle already covered in recorded damage, a £550 charge at return, and misinformation at the desk when I tried to use the dispute process their own contract provides.

I had a great experience with Europcar Luton Airport, Illiya the desk rep was informative, helpful, polite and he had a little humour. Made me smile anyway and I felt that I had got 1st Class service.
Like other companies they try to sell extra insurance but after I informed I had worldwide cover far cheaper than he could provide he didn't push it further only reminded me I would have to claim costs in any event from the other insurance.
My car was top notch, exactly what I asked for. A very clean, low mileage Sportage with high spec.
The handback was trouble free although I'm still awaiting my deposit back and its early days yet.
Overall I'm well pleased

Truly awful
Shockingly bad uncontactable customer service
One price on my rental agreement and another on the invoice when I returned the vehicle!
Claimed I wasn’t entitled to my deposit being refund
Managed to get £50 back after 2 weeks but explained that I wasn’t entitled due more which they denied
Many emails later and supporting evidence they agreed to the fully refund - but to do so they had to debit more money from me to give it back as the original full amount
Debited without my consent and then told me it will take 10 working days to get refunded
Contacted my bank and raised it as fraud - bank retuned my money
These bunch of scammers magically refunded full balance 24hrs later
AVOID - these are scammers of the highest level of unprofessionalism
Should be shutdown

Sad that some people have had a bad experience with this company, because ours was faultless. We needed a 6-seater to accommodate all the family, and Europcar were the only people we could find who had what we wanted. We hired a Skoda Kodiaq from their branch at Lausanne station. The service was friendly and very efficient, the car was ready and waiting - not especially cheap, but exactly what we needed - and performed brilliantly for the 2 days we had it. Handing it back was similarly hassle-free, and my deposit was refunded within a couple of days. Very pleased indeed with the service we received.