Budget España Reviews 

SCAMMERS - all of their hire cars conveniently have scratches underneath the bumper. The rudest woman I have ever encountered went straight to the area and within seconds told us there’d be a charge of over £400. We know this scratch wasn’t caused by us - this is a scam. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS. I will be reporting to the relevant authorities.

As per their terms, followed to the letter. The only thing I could not control was the flight, so, I messaged them hours in advance. The zero f&£1s that they gave is beyond anything I have ever come across, and will unlikely see again. After this debacle with them it has really put me off coming to Spain again. Do not use them, don't entertain them at all. They don't care about you or if you are stranded. As long as they have your money you can rot in hell for all they care.

This is outrageous!!! When picking up a car at Malaga Airport, Budget added services without telling me about it, even an insurance that I already had paid for at Booking.com and a premium emergency roadside service that I had not requested. When signing the contract they just showed me the dotted line where to sign and nothing else. As everything had been prepaid, I naturally didn't think or thought I would have to check this and I only discovered it when retruning the car when they charged my credit card €148 extra. I will never ever use Avis/Budget when renting a car, which I frequently do.
They openly scammed me adding stuff that I neither had requested nor could imagine they would add without informing me verbally. If they had said something I would naturally have said NO.

Complete scamming scum, had damage on the car before I picked it up. They then tried to charge me for that.

This people are bandits, scammers... when I got the car I notice the car has a scratch on the bumper I came to the person that gave me the key and let him know that he said everything is marked on the contract but it is an electronic contract ... I was out of connection so I took a picture and left On return, they charge me a damage fee of €429.12 for the scratch. It's an organized scam. Avoid them like the black plague! by the way the car was dirty on pickup foot print on dash never ever with then!!!

Has anyone found a way to contact the Budget office at Palma airport? Nothing seems to work - email, phone, nothing! Unexplained credit card charges and no way to get an explanation as I cannot contact them!

Worst car rental company ever....hired a car from girona Airport,scratch on door prior to rental,took pictures and video of scratch prior to taking out car.Highlighted to girl in office,mumbled something about 2.5mm and waved her hand.Came home from airport 640e deducted from my account due to damage on car that had being highlighted and photographic evidence prior to taking out car.stopped answering my email,another 440e pending on my account from Budget yesterday with no explanation..will not answer any of my emails..worst experience ever with a car hire company..DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

I was very worried about hiring a car in Spain after reading so many terrible reviews. However my experience of using Budget car hire at Murcia Airport could not have been any better.

Our Ryanair flight was delayed so I called Murcia Airport Budget and told the man working there. He said he finished at 9pm - our flight wasn't due to land until 9:30pm but he said he would wait and when we arrived (at nearly 10pm) he was waiting to pick us up to drive us to the car hire location. There was no attempt to up sell extra insurance which many others have complained about. Just a 200 Euro deposit (on debit card)

When we took the car back it was quick and easy no attempts to imply we had caused any of the existing damage to the car. Just a swift return of the car and a drop to the airport.

The woman at the Budget counter hates tourists more than anyone I've ever met. Yelling at us, providing wrong information, refusing to explain things. Just awful. Then to top it off, I later receive a fine because Budget couldn't be bothered properly registering their vehicle with the city.

Same experience as many others ....Was charged 300 Euros for a barely visible scratch along the rim of the wheel arch, which clearly I didn't do, but because the barely visible blemish was not mentioned in initial contract I was held responsible. Renters beware of Budget's dubious business practices.

Charged 200Eur for the 5cm scratch I didn't do, because that scratch was not mentioned in initial contract. Sending proof photos doesn't help. Customer support doesn't answer my emails. Contact form on the webpage doesn't work. Hate them

Absolutely awful company never ever use them. My son purchased a contract from a third party including CDW, all airport & resort taxes, young driver excess etc, the only thing he could not add at time of booking was the insurance excess waiver. I told him to ask for this when he got to Palma airport which he did, however, instead of just adding the waiver they cancelled the existing contract & got him to sign their own more expensive contract which also included roadside assistance which he didn’t ask for, they totally disregarded what had already been paid for. He has dyslexia & found the whole process overwhelming so just signed the contract as he wanted to get away from the situation. When he later sat down & read through & digested what he had been charged for he sent an email explaining what had happened, he again tried to explain it when he returned the car to the airport as his email was totally disregarded, they basically said he was lying & had asked for all the extras. Instead of honoring the items paid for on his existing contract they used the cost as a credit on their extortionate contract. €465 for 4 days hire!!!! Absolute sharks. Beware if you want to add excess waiver they will cancel your existing contract !! Had he not asked for it the original contract which was £145 would have stood. They basically take advantage of tourists, especially young drivers who have never hired a car before so don’t know what all the little hidden extras are as the are written in code. We thought using a big company like budget would be safer than using a local company, BIG mistake we ended up paying double what we would have paid to a local company & probably would have received much better service & had a nicer car.

I have hired a car from the Denia branch 3 times. First time I took the car back the young guy found a mark which he wanted to charge the repair to my insurance. I told him that I had taken my own insurance cover for excess costs. Luckily I had taken pictures of the car when we picked it up and the mark was already on. This didn't deter him and and I had to get cross telling him I would not claim for something I hadn't done.
Even after this I used them a second time and the drop off at the office was without issue.
Third time I dropped off the lady checking said that the fuel wasn't full, though I managed to prove I'd just filled up 10 minutes earlier, the fuel gauge did not show full when I collected the car and I think was faulty. She managed to find a small mark on the front about the size of euro piece, she was wanting me to claim but again, we had pictures proving it was on at pickup. We have been told in the past that any marks of that size wouldn't be charged for but it appears that the slightest mark is jumped on.
I will never use them again and recommend that anyone hiring a car takes detailed pictures of every mark and scratch as proof. You'll need it!!

This feedback is for Budget rent a car at Alicante airport. Avoid them at all costs. We paid for the car hire when booking the flights via the British airways website and paid in full for the car hire and the insurance. Despite countless attempts by the agent from Budget to tempt me into a bigger automatic car and to pay for extra insurance i explicitly declined on at least 4 occasions. I stated clearly i did not want any extra charges at all loads of times and said we had paid in full via the BA website. I was advised if i returned the car without a full tank of petrol i would be charged an excess. I categorically stated I did not want any extra charges at all.
The agent then pulled up the long contract on a small screen in front of me and asked me to sign with my finger. I did this, was given the key and off we went.
On returning the car full of petrol the car was checked over and all agreed everything was fine.
On return to the UK i have been charged £198.80 to my credit card. I have challenged the charge and got absolutely no where and have been advised I signed the contract so there is nothing to be done and the charge stands. They had added a waiver and windscreen damage protection which i explicitly told them i did not want.
These people are scammers and use underhand tactics and work practices to con you out of money. It is absolutely disgusting and i advise everyone who reads this to avoid Budget at Alicante airport.
I raised a customer complaint which has proved fruitless and is not worth doing because the contract that they flash before your eyes on a screen and ask you to sign is what they fall back on to complete the con.
I cannot advise strongly enough to read the whole contract even though they are trying to hurry you up and challenge everything you don't understand because trust me you will get home and have a charge on your credit card.
They are sharks and I will never use Budget again.
If i could score them a minus score I would

We were at the BUDGET pickup location in Alicante. They were very unfriendly and almost from the first moment on annoyed by us. then they didn´t even come out of the office room, as they didn´t want to talk to us apparently. We booked through opodo, so they saiid only they can help change the booking. Then they went on an cancelled our booking. (since my husband left his driver´s licence at home, the representative immediately got angry with us and told us to call opodo and step aside as she needs to tend to other guests.

Changing the main driver or adding an additional driver is a basic service of a rental company or service, which should be possible at the pickup. Told us they are sorry but there is nothing they can do after the pickup time has elapsed is ridiculous and they should be out of business.


We were told "The car hire company reserves the right to refuse a car if you fail to arrive with all necessary documentation. In such a case, unless the car hire has been canceled at least 48 in advance...."

Needless to say, we did not get a refund. spent 221 EUR and didn´t get the car, although I had my driver´s licence with me. I was so angry and felt that this is soo unfair.

Misleading pricing from Budget. Booked on Booking.com and the base price was doubled for some reason, no explanation. I hired Alamo a couple of weeks ago and was much cheaper inc insurance. The guy in the Budget office was rude and unhelpful. Not a good experience. Definitely do not recommend Budget Avis.

We had 2 major issues with our recent rental in Palma de Mallorca airport.

1- Unfortunately our flight was delayed en route to Palma. However after checking the literature on the Budget website (see below text) that states that Budget staff wait to facilitate flight delays, we felt reassured as we had been asked for, and provided, our flight number at the time of booking.

"What happens if my late-night flight is delayed and the Budget rental counter is closed by the time I arrive?
Budget airport locations that don’t operate 24 hours a day will remain open to assist customers with confirmed reservations who are arriving on a delayed or re-scheduled flight. Locations will remain open until the last scheduled or delayed flight has arrived, and customers will be given a reasonable length of time to clear baggage claim and arrive at the Budget counter.
To help ensure that we have your correct arrival information on file, please be sure to provide accurate and timely flight reservation details when you reserve your car. By providing us with your airline, flight number, and expected arrival time, our staff will be prepared to serve you in the event of a late flight arrival."

We arrived to the Budget/Avis area in the Palma airport carpark and the office was closed, nobody was there to greet us. We tried ringing the office phone number, to which we got no answer. We asked the people in Sixt (who did wait for their customers!) if there was a number to contact and they said that they have seen this before and that Budget could not be reached.

Unfortunately this left us with no option but to ring nearby hotels to get accommodation for the night as we couldn't reach the accommodation we had booked and paid for. We paid a total of €240 for a hotel for one night and 2 taxis to and from this alternative accommodation as a direct result of this broken promise from Budget.

We returned the following morning to pick up our car. Staff member Alejandro, when asked why there was no one to provide us with our car the night before, became agitated and told us "it's not mandatory to wait, we have lives too". We explained the extra cost incurred and the information on the Budget website above - he merely shrugged.

2- On return from our holiday, we have now received a invoice for significantly more that the price at the time of booking. We have not received any phonecall or email regarding this additional cost- a difference of 157.98 euro.

We have received no reply from Budget despite multiple emails.

Beware when you rent a car in Malaga airport from Budget. My car return time was 11:00pm. At the time of rental Budget said you can return the keys in the box when you return the car.

I reached before 11:00pm and Budget office was getting closed but there was one employee in office. He said we are closing, you can leave the keys in the box.

Reaching back home, I see a 20 euros taken from the fuel deposit. I emailed Budget and they said I returned the car next morning. Quite surprising that they have no mechanism to know when the car gets returned.

They asked me to send the boarding card as proof. It was painful to get the boarding card from the airline as almost all airlines use digital boarding cards. Finally after getting the boarding card, 20 euros were returned.

DO NOT RENT A CAR FROM BUTGET
The service was totally awful. The guy in Valencia Airport called Pablo and his colleague was very respectlos and they tried to give us huge damaged car. And now Budget charge us 68 Euros, we don’t know why. Customer support is terrible!!!

Your seller at Alicante-Elche Airport has missled my boyfriend and made him sign a contract that he afterwards understand oblige him to pay more than 1.200 euro for hiring a Fiat 500 in 19 days!!! Please find a solution and don't rob us! We will be happy to deliver the car back! RA 358200393.