The best and worst car rental companies in Europe were named by the British press to tourists, citing data from the Consumer Protection Service and the popular Which? In general, the news for tourists who prefer to rent a car on vacation is not very happy – by pre-Covid times, the average rental price increased by 77%, and even higher in popular places.
Based on a price analysis of more than 8,000 rental properties in nine countries, including Italy, Greece, and Spain, it was concluded that in three of the nine destinations, the cost of renting a car more than doubled: in Cyprus, prices increased by 100%, and in Italy by 126%. However, in this case, some companies have caused harsh criticism from tourists.
The ranking assessed factors such as the clarity of additional charges, the age, mileage, and condition of the vehicle, as well as customer service and value for money. As a result, Auto Reisen and Cicar took first and second place. They are followed by Alamo, Enterprise, and Hertz.
On the other end is Goldcar, which has been named the worst car rental company despite some of the lowest prices. Tourists primarily complained about “pressure selling methods”, saying that they were almost forced to buy additional insurance at the rental office and “compulsive selling sometimes became almost threatening”.