BUDGET CAR RENTAL REVIEWS IN SPAIN

Avis and Budget at Madrid Airport share the same office. There's no difference between them.

The location inside the airport is easy to find, and the service is warm and attentive.

Very dissatisfied. I booked a BMW 3 Series, but they insisted on giving me a Japanese car. If I didn't want it, there was no other option. In the end, I had to settle for a BMW 5 Series at over 200 euros a day. Initially, they said it would be an extra 60 euros a day, but at checkout, it became an additional 120 euros a day. They said the 60 euros was a booking fee. So why mention 60 euros at all? There was only one staff member, and a long queue behind me, all urging me to hurry. I had no choice but to accept it! I ended up spending nearly 150 euros more per day!

We were initially given a mini car and had to push to get the car we booked. We were initially charged a full to full fuel fee, which we had to argue wasn't in our contract. We felt they were being underhand to try to get more money from us.

Car was perfect for us a family of 4. Good value for the money we paid to rent the car.

Like: Easy hire and helpful
Dislike: Fuel gauge didn’t register full

Quick

Like: all
Dislike: nothing

The car was good, but budget tried charging us more then we agreed and had to prove the contract price then all of a sudden there where extra for this and that. I told them they could cancel the contract and we go elsewhere. Then they agreed to the costs.

Extremely poor service. I rented an Audi A3, but they insisted I upgrade to a Mercedes for an extra fee. I refused, so they gave me a Citroën Élysée, which was very difficult to drive. When returning the car, they claimed the right door had a scratch and asked for photo proof that it wasn't me. Finally, after insisting on speaking to the store manager, they admitted their records were wrong – the scratch was on the left door. What a terrible rental company!

The last row of seats in the first car couldn't be locked in place; an abrupt stop caused the seat to flip and injured a teammate's face.

There was no queue when picking up the car and the paperwork didn't take long. The staff assisting us was polite. The company might include some insurance in the contract by default, so if you sign without looking carefully, you may end up paying more when returning the car.

It was extremely slow. There were only two people ahead of us, but it took about an hour and a half from the start of the queue to getting our car keys.

The only difficulty we encountered during the whole process was getting through the barrier of the airport car park. It caused us some consternation, but was soon fixed by the rental company. Otherwise it was fine with no hidden costs, which was the prime driver in my choice.

Pick up point was very difficult to find, several other customers for Budget just standing around waiting in random spots - bus didn’t have a Budget logo on it. Office didn’t respond to phone calls after landing to help us find the bus stop. Once on the bus (after 65 minutes) the process was as easy as with other car rental firms

The wait time wasn't long, but most of the time was spent trying to upsell insurance or vehicle upgrades!

Good service attitude, no forced insurance.

Good

When I picked up the car, it had only half a tank of fuel. I returned it with a full tank. The rental company acknowledged this but only refunded me 22.08 euros. I believe this is too little. I asked them to show me the basis for their refund calculation, and they said it was automatically calculated by the system and that they couldn't change the result. They suggested I file a complaint on their website afterward. Since it was quite late at the time, I had to accept the refund. The average fuel price in Madrid was 1.35 euros per liter at the time, which means their refund was only for 16 liters—far less than the cost of half a tank. I later negotiated with them through the rental platform for two months, but they insisted on not providing any further refund.

The check-in process was quite slow. Maybe that's just the typical work pace in Spain.