Auto Europe UK Reviews 

The platform has been good in the past at finding good deals, however the real test of a business is when things go wrong. On this basis they have failed me - I have written to customer services twice and called once (to be told that my issue was in the system). Zero response whatsoever and this is now more than 2 weeks later. I am seriously out of pocket.

I booked a car turned up only for me to be told by the agent there was no booking and no cars available. I called Auto Europe who accused me of not having the correct paperwork or license. I then had to book another taxi and wasted half a day and €80 they still haven't given me an apology or my money back 4weeks later!! I'm now in dispute with them and my c credit card company is helping

Recently used autoeurope to hire a car from Europcar, reserved in advance from Carcassonne Airport. We opted for the 'Full Damage and Theft Protection', which added about 12% extra on top of the hire price, and assumed that was what it sounds like, everything covered so insured in case of collisions etc. however when we went to the Europcar desk to collect the car we were told that collision damage waiver would be 60 euros PER DAY otherwise the excess would be 2,500 euros. Even cover for punctures was an extra 10 euros per day. The people at the desk were almost apologetic. We refused to pay any more but knowing we did not have collision damage cover made driving a lot more stressful! I should have looked more closely at the small print but I have never encountered this deceptive 'full damage and theft protection' nonsense before. Most annoying I found it is possible to buy collision damage waiver insurance independently of the car hire company, it would have been about 40 euros for the week, but of course you have to do this before the car rental starts. In summary, although Autoeurope look like good value, this is because you are not covered for damage to the car, once you factor that in there are many better value options.

A real shame. My flight was delayed 18 hours. I tried calling and emailing as soon as I found out (40 hours before the booking) but nothing. A family member in the UK (where i was due to pick up the car after my flight) called as well and was told the rental company would consider me a no-show if I was an hour late!! Crazy considering flights are often delayed. When I contacted customer service for Auto Europe after I was just told 'no changes to booking possible within 48 hours' - given how often flights are delayed this is a bit inflexible. Will never use them again. A real shame as the booking process etc was smooth and no problem in the past.

I pre-paid Auto Europe to hire an Alamo car at Niagara Falls International Airport. It transpired I had paid for a car hire at a location that only served ticketed airline passengers! This detail was only provided after booking and in an ambiguous section in the small print. Impossible to get any support while away, and complaint dismissed when I got home. They are cheap for a reason, and best avoided. When I got to the airport, it was deserted, as were all the car hire kiosks! I called the number on the small card at the Alamo kiosk but couldn't get through. I tried Alamo UK but they wouldn’t help because the car was booked with Auto Europe (a 3rd party). To continue my trip, I got a taxi to take me 50miles to a real airport, to hire a real car directly from a real rental company. I am £850 out of pocket, with NO refund in sight from either party. I have explained to Auto Europe how my day was ruined but they just didn’t want to know! I will NEVER book through Auto Europe again and I urge others to avoid using this Third Party.

Excellent website with lots of choices of vehicles. Good , clear pricing. Our car was provided by ClickRent in Majorca and the transfer, collection and return process was easy.

CUSTOMER WARNING: DO NOT BUY AUTO EUROPE’S EXPENSIVE EXCESS-REFUND COVERAGE EXPECTING REAL SUPPORT. When the rental company charged thousands of euros to my card, Auto Europe denied the claim and left me you without reimbursement or answers!
MORE THAN A YEAR AFTER THE ACCIDENT AND AFTER I PROVIDED EVERY DOCUMENT REQUESTED, AUTO EUROPE STILL HAS NOT HONORED THE EXCESS-REFUND COVERAGE I PAID FOR OR PROVIDED A MEANINGFUL RESPONSE.
In July 2025, a truck hit my rental car in Italy (Avis through Auto Europe) while I was completely stopped in traffic in Italy. I was not at fault. I submitted to Auto Europe and Avis the accident report, photographs, truck and driver details, communications, location data, supporting documents, and witness statements confirming what happened.
Avis immediately charged nearly €3,700 to my credit card. I had purchased Auto Europe’s Excess Refund coverage precisely to protect me against this situation. Yet Auto Europe summarily denied my claim because there was no official police report, despite the extensive evidence provided and my documented explanation of why such a report was unavailable (no victims, small damage, no Police/Law enforcement available, and the truck driver at fault left the scene).
In my legal assessment, relying on this single formality to reject a fully documented claim is illegal, unreasonable, unfair to the consumer, and inconsistent with the protection I was sold and to Consumer Laws in Italy and EU.
AUTO EUROPE: PROVIDE A FORMAL, COMPLETE, AND DOCUMENTED RESPONSE AND HONOR THE COVERAGE I PAID FOR.
#AutoEurope #ExcessRefund #CarRental #ConsumerRights #CustomerService #TravelItaly #RentalCar #ClaimsHandling

I rented a car in Pisa from OK mobility via AutoEurope. On arrival I presented all the required documents, Passport in Name of Alistair David Court, Driving Licence in name of Alistair David Court, rental voucher and credit card
I was astonished when the assistant said she could not accept the credit card as it was in the name A D Court, whilst the voucher was in the name Alistair Court. I said it was clearly my credit card as supported by the other documents, but she simply would not accept this.
I called AuroEurope helpline assuming they would be able to resolve this, but they were no help whatsoever and sided with OK mobility. They offered me a refund but I would have had little chance of booking another vehicle in the height of summer and certainly not at the same price
Eventually the OK mobility assistant said the only option for them to release the vehicle was for me to take out their full insurance and roadside assistance (even though I already had this through AutoEurope) at the unbelievable rate of €434 for a week, which I strongly suspect this whole charade had been leading up to. Under the circumstances I had no choice but to pay this

This is a disgusting company with horrible customer service. Not only do they allow you to pay for the vehicle for when you need it, and then cancel on you day of because they in fact do not have the vehicle, they then also send emails stating they will refund within 28 days, AND THEN state that you should've made a claim to even get the refund!! Calling them up for some assistance is ridiculous with the stuck up customer service employees they have that talk to you like you are nothing!! From my perspective, you are a company that messed up, not us. You should not be speaking to people like you do. Nor writing misleading emails and then demanding we should make a claim for a refund??

I unfortunately got to Pisa airport and realised id lost my credit card that I had booked with (luckily I traced my steps and it had dropped out in the sister in laws car on way to airport so in safe hands). The car company would not accept my apple pay (even though I use it all the time to put reserves at hotels for a tab to spend), tried debit card and again would not so we were stuck. The car company said to ring Auto Europe in the UK who I had booked with and ask to change to a company that accepted debit cards, unfortunately they do not work weekends in the UK so could not get hold of anybody (since then they claim they do but was not the message I heard on my phone). Anyway found somebody who would accept debit cards and £450 later we had a card.
Tried to get money back from Auto Europe but they said “if I had added cancellation to my booking I could have cancelled but would need 48hrs notice for this “ not very helpful but if I had lost my card 48 hours before I would have had enough time to get another one brought with me !

Anyway I have flattered you with a 1 star rating only because you cannot pick 0

I rented a car with Europcar in France via Auto Europe. The rate was reasonable and I booked online. However, on collection, I was informed by Europcar that Auto Europe's bookings often do not provide mandatory insurance coverage and I was forced to pay 197 Euros at the counter (on top of my $132 rental fee). Europcar have blamed this on Auto Europe's misleading sales tactics.

I urge UK drivers to be vigilant when booking car rental through Auto Europe and maybe pay slightly more via more trustworthy third party providers to avoid the stress I experienced when visiting France.

6th August - still no meaningful response from customer services beyond being asked for patience as it is peak season (!)

Very difficult to get hold of customer service. No clear phone numbers on website. When you ring the phone number automated messages direct you to the website to access features they have not set up yet.
When finally reaching the customer service (through an international line) they were rude and unhelpful. I would strongly recommend against this company and book through the rental companies directly. This is a third party shell and does not actually rent out cars.

Auto Europe left me £1000 out of pocket after selling me a car hire voucher that was never going to be provided as the location only served ticketed airline passengers, but that detail was only provided after booking and in an ambiguous section in the small print. Impossible to get any support while away, and complaint dismissed when I got home. They are cheap for a reason, and best avoided

Arrived at Rome airport having booked car hire through AutoEurope and because flight delayed by 1hr 20min on tarmac the car was cancelled because of late show. Flight details provided at time of booking. Provider even tried to offer the same car at 2x the price. No customer service response from Auto Europe despite chasing 3 times now including submitting by their website and subsequent chasing. Excuse busy time of year

*" Urgent: Double charge for child seats (Voucher [516523562])*
I booked (10/jul/26) a car for Faro, Portugal. Your website forced me to upgrade to the Total Protection plan just to add 2 child seats, charging me an extra €30.78. However, at the Movida counter, I was forced to pay another €46.00 for the exact same seats. I have already uploaded the Movida receipt and my credit card statement through your website customer service form, but received no response. This is a clear double charge for the same service. I demand an immediate refund of the €46.00."

I am absolutely appalled by the way Auto Europe has treated me.

I had fully paid in advance for a one-week car hire starting at 9:00am. Due to circumstances completely outside my control – flight/travel delays and my 13-year-old son becoming unwell – I arrived approximately three hours later than my scheduled collection time.

To my astonishment, Auto Europe (and/or their supplier) had cancelled my booking, refused to provide the vehicle I had already paid for, and kept my money.

This makes absolutely no sense.

I had paid for the hire from 9:00am onwards. If I choose to collect the car three hours later, that simply means I lose three hours of my own paid rental. The car was fully paid for. Why should the booking be cancelled altogether? It wasn’t costing anyone anything extra.

As a direct result of this decision, my family and I were left stranded in Italy and I had no option but to hire another vehicle at the last minute, costing me over £600 extra, on top of the money Auto Europe had already taken.

The result is:

* I lost the full cost of my original booking.
* I had to spend a further £600 on another hire car.
* I suffered unnecessary stress at the start of a family holiday.
* My young son was already unwell, making the whole situation even more distressing.

This is not customer service. It is completely unreasonable and shows a total lack of common sense, compassion and flexibility.

I will be escalating this complaint to Auto Europe’s senior management and, if necessary, to the relevant consumer protection bodies. I will also be pursuing reimbursement of my losses.

I expect:

* A full refund of the original booking.
* Reimbursement of the additional £600 I was forced to spend.
* Appropriate compensation for the inconvenience, stress and disruption caused.

I would strongly caution anyone considering booking through Auto Europe. If you are delayed by only a few hours—even after paying in full—you may find yourself without a car, out of pocket by hundreds of pounds, and left to sort everything out yourself.

They accepted reservation for mid sized automatic. On morning of collection, they emailed me to say that they only had a small manual. Why accept reservations for cars you don't have. Also won't answer telephone. Slow to process refund. Stay away from these cowboys

I booked through Auto Europe UK and provided my flight number, leaving me with the impression that my reservation would be protected if my flight was delayed.

My flight was delayed by bad weather. ABC Car Rental in Pula told me they knew my flight was late, but they still cancelled my reservation because their policy is to hold bookings for only one hour after the scheduled pick-up time.

If I had known that providing my flight number offered no protection, I would simply have booked a later pick-up time. I would rather have waited at the airport than lose my reservation.

The only replacement I was then offered cost around €1,300. Instead, I checked online and immediately found a comparable rental elsewhere for about £350.

The whole experience left me feeling that the system works against customers: your booking is cancelled despite the rental company knowing your flight is delayed, and the only option offered is a dramatically more expensive replacement. Judge for yourself, but I would not book through Auto Europe and ABC Car Rental again.

Facilitating scams!

Used Auto Europe to rent a car from Palermo airport (Dryyve), turns out to be a scam.
Auto Europe have so far been unreachable to refund or even hear our complaint.
Below is our experience of trying to collect our car:

Dryyve and wheego

Kidnapped and held for ransom!
100% a scam.
Arrived to collect our car and because our collection time (which we believe to be a rough guide) was a hour earlier they cancelled our booking which was 130 euros and try to rebook for 650 euros.
They pick you up from the airport drive you to a quiet industrial estate so you feel trapped and refuse to take you back to the airport, complete con, wasted our holiday time, horrible people.
We had to walk to a local plant hire, who kindly took us in and called us a taxi to the airport.

Have used this company for car hire many times as they are very competitive price-wise for basic car hire and give you alot of choice at booking. However, their customer service is shocking, not only hard to get hold of (long call wait or find a number to call for your specific query) but the supplier they use for the CDW insurance are terrible and it is impossible to speak to someone. Fortunately I have only had to claim once so far (which was an awful experience I am still going through) so I can't recommend that part of using them. Be warned if you do purchase the insurance option or instead maybe use the car rental supplier's version or your own third party insurer.