Centauro Rent a Car Reviews 

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!
We hired a car from Alicante airport. Had to wait over an hour to be served. The assistant tried to hard sell additional insurance. We declined as we had already arranged cover. He asked for a credit card as a holding deposit which he assured us woulod be returned on return of the car with a full tank of petrol. We signed a form but we were not given a copy.
We returned the car and were told the deposit would be repaid.
However, since returning home we only received a refund for the petrol and have been charged 300 euros for the insurance we had refused to take out. We are now having to make a complaint and try to get a refund through Centauro, Booking.com and our credit card company.
Totally unacceptable and we will never use this company again.

Hello, you have to check your car at the reception, as you do everywhere with any car company, to ensure all damages are recorded in the car file, if any. The rest, taking the car or dropping off was seamless. The car was delivered clean and it was a very good car.

On Saturday, 4th July, we had a car reservation scheduled for 10:30 pm at Centauro Cagliari Airport.

We arrived shortly after 10:00 pm, well before our scheduled pickup time. The office was completely empty, with the only customer present leaving just as we walked in. Behind the desk was a female employee who, unfortunately, gave us one of the least welcoming customer service experiences I have ever encountered.

Without even greeting us, her first words were: “Are you Mark?” When we explained that we were not Mark and that we were there for our own reservation, she abruptly told us that if we were not Mark, we had to wait because there were people before us. Considering the office was empty and our booking wasn’t due until 10:30 pm anyway, waiting itself was never the issue.

The problem was the attitude.

From the very beginning, her communication was unnecessarily rude, dismissive and confrontational. Throughout the interaction she repeatedly made facial expressions, spoke to my 70-year-old father in a disrespectful manner, and created an uncomfortable atmosphere that simply should not exist in customer service.

As someone who works in customer service myself, I fully understand that everyone can have difficult days. I know what it’s like to work long shifts, deal with pressure and still be expected to smile. However, customers who have paid for a service should never become the outlet for someone’s frustration or bad mood. Emotional self-management is an essential part of any customer-facing role.

While we were waiting, we had the opportunity to speak with one of her colleagues. I unfortunately didn’t catch his name, but I would genuinely like to commend him. He politely apologised for the situation, explained everything professionally, and treated us with the respect and courtesy that we had expected from the beginning. Based on the date and time of our visit, I believe it should be easy for management to identify him. He was an excellent example of how customer service should be handled.

When we returned to the desk at 10:30 pm, the interaction unfortunately continued in the same tone. There were unnecessary comments about why we were renting the car, assumptions about where we were from, and a generally patronising attitude that added absolutely nothing to the conversation.

The most surprising moment came when the employee suggested that, because she was having such a bad day, she could simply leave her position and cancel our reservation. Whether intended as a joke or not, this is not something a paying customer should ever hear from a representative of a company.

At that point, we deliberately chose not to respond to the repeated provocations. Our only objective was to complete the paperwork, collect the car we had already paid for, and leave as quickly as possible. Someone needed to remain calm and professional during that interaction, and unfortunately it wasn’t the employee representing your company.

I’m taking the time to write this review because no paying customer should be made to feel uncomfortable simply for collecting a reservation. Customers should never have to wonder whether an employee is too frustrated, too tired, or too unhappy to provide the service they are there to deliver. They should simply feel welcomed, respected and valued.

Ironically, because I work in customer service myself, I probably would have appreciated something as simple as: “I’m sorry, we’ve started off on the wrong foot. Let’s begin again.” That would have immediately changed the entire experience.

Unfortunately, that never happened.

I sincerely hope this feedback is received in the constructive spirit in which it is intended. One unpleasant employee should not overshadow the reputation of an entire company, especially when there are colleagues who clearly demonstrate the professionalism and courtesy that customers deserve.

We had to cancel out trip unfortunately the day before we planned to pickup the car. As it was before the 24h cancelation policy limit this worked out without complication. The next day we had back the money on our account, also the fuel deposit.
We have a bad experience with the hotels we booked, playing games, and it was at least a reveal that Centauro worked flawless in this direction, will be happy to book them next time.

My experience with Centauro at Athens Airport was extremely disappointing.

I had a fully prepaid reservation for a 10-day rental and provided my flight number during the booking process. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed.

The pickup instructions directed me to the "Kimbo Coffee Shop," where a Centauro representative was supposed to be waiting to take customers to the shuttle bus. However, I could not find the meeting point as described, and there was no Centauro representative waiting.

I spent approximately two hours trying to locate the representative and the shuttle service without success. As it was late at night, I had no choice but to take a taxi to my accommodation at my own expense.

The next morning I went directly to the Centauro office hoping to collect the vehicle, but I was informed that my reservation had already been cancelled. Despite having paid in full, I received neither the vehicle nor any assistance in resolving the situation.

The most frustrating part was the lack of any practical solution. I had arrived in Athens intending to collect the car and even visited the office in person the next morning, yet no alternative was offered.

I hope Centauro reviews its airport pickup procedures and ensures that meeting point instructions are accurate and that customers whose flights are delayed receive better support.

We had to wait for MORE than SIXTY minutes to be served!. By the time we got the counter we were very stressed.....he tried to sell us the additional protection - but we said no - when we got home, they HAD in fact charged us 300 Euros.
We will be in touch with Booking.com and then Barclaycard to try to get our money back

Would give 0 stars if possible. We went to go pick up our prepaid car. Since the beginning, it was clear that the staff didn’t want to give us the prepaid car. They kept asking us for new information, and every time we gave them the right informations (flight details, etc) they found a new excuse that prevented them from giving us the car. After 1hr 30 mins of discussions and trying to answer all their silly requests it was clear to us that they had already made up their minds at the start and didn’t want to give us the car. They most likely DIDN’T HAVE THE CAR to give us. On top of that, they were extremely rude and disrespectful, and refused to give us the required information to request for a refund. Watch out, this is the Centauro near Florence Airport.

It was good overall. I picked up the car around 22:30, and I was the last customer that day. I asked about their insurance (the "Smart Cover") before they offered it themselves, and it cost me €243 (9 days, €27 per day). With the Smart Cover, they do NOT require a safety deposit, only a fuel deposit (of €119.60). I chose their insurance because I was honestly not in the mood to deal with any damages or scams.
They upgraded me from "Kia Niro or similar" to "Kia Sportage Hybrid". It was a bit too big for me to park in some places, but it was very fuel efficient (the car charges its battery while driving downhill). I only refueled 3 times (last time before the drop-off), half a tank each time. I drove a total of 1100km in Aosta Valley, and the fuel cost me €135 (it was around €1.85 per liter).

More details:
- Booked via Booking.com
- My pick-up was for 22:30. I arrived at Milan Malpensa Airport entrance 17 at 22:13, and immediately tried to call them, but no one answered. Luckily, they had my flight details, and by 22:20 their shuttle van found me. But I did panic a little before that, it really felt like there was no one to talk to at that hour.

Extremely disappointing experience with Centauro.

We picked up the car at Málaga Airport, and it already had numerous scratches and signs of previous damage. Fortunately, these were documented before we left with the vehicle.

After returning the car, everything seemed fine. No issues were raised during the return inspection. However, Centauro later charged my credit card €300 without any prior notification or proper explanation. When I contacted customer service and requested the damage report, repair invoice, photos, and any other supporting documentation, I received no response.

More than a month later, I am still waiting for an answer. To make matters worse, another €300 was charged to my credit card without any documentation or justification.

A reputable rental company should be transparent, provide evidence for any damage claims, and respond to customer inquiries. Unfortunately, this has not been my experience with Centauro. Until this matter is resolved, I cannot recommend renting a car from this company.

Update (4 July 2026): Centauro has now responded to this review. Unfortunately, the response appears to be a generic template that does not address my complaint.

My issue was never about deposits or insurance - I had already paid for Full Cover without excess. My complaint is that I updated my arrival details, sent four emails, and attempted to call customer service 10–15 times without ever being able to speak to anyone, yet my prepaid €1,326 booking was still lost.

It is disappointing that instead of addressing these points, Centauro appears to have posted an automated response unrelated to the actual issue.

I am extremely disappointed with my experience with Centauro.

I prepaid €1,326 for a 2-week rental. Unfortunately, due to unexpected immigration issues, we were legally unable to board our original flight to Milan. As soon as our plans changed, I updated my flight details in my Centauro account, sent four emails explaining our delayed arrival, and tried calling customer service 10–15 times over two days. Every call was automatically disconnected after about a minute on hold, so there was simply no way to speak to anyone.

When we arrived in Milan two days later, our 2 weeks reservation had disappeared from the app, and our €1,326 was gone.

I understand that companies have late pickup policies, but when a customer has prepaid over €1,300, makes every reasonable effort to notify the company, and cannot reach a single person because customer service is effectively inaccessible, this is simply unacceptable.

Based on this experience, I cannot recommend Centauro to anyone who expects reliable customer service when travel plans unexpectedly change.

I booked through a broker but the experience at pick up was disgusting. Waited over one and half hours to be served, and then treated as second rate, when questioned they said they deal with their own customers first some of whom attended an hour after us. I was then charged £ 116 for fuel and had a full/full arrangement, I filled up 3 km from drop off but received £81 back waiting for explanation. On positive car was brand new which is why I have given them any stars at all. Will I use again NO!!!

Awful. The whole experience was awful. It all started at the airport pick up, where the first car drove right past us, stopped, the driver looked right at us, and then drove off. The second time he came around, he told us to load our own bags in the trunk, told 4 people to squeeze in the middle row, and suggested to my partner that she “leave me behind.” The experience at the rental place was just as horrible. The only person working there was the driver, who took orders at a snails pace told us that our American credit cards “don’t work” and that we need to spend 200 Euros to get insurance for the already had. He looks to have been 19, and yet this company placed all their trust into him. We ended up being there for an hour at 21:00 PM while this kid keeps getting upset that we don’t want to pay 200 € for… nothing really. Once we got the car there were no back sensors, a loud beeping sound that would play loudly for a minute if you went a single kilometer over the speed limit for a second, and the only thing on the screen was music that didn’t even play. Let me restate, awful.

Collection of car was smooth apart from.pushy sales tactics. Returning car to alicante airport was apalling. Stodd waiting 45 mins for car to be inspected (didn't want to leave as car was damaged when we collected it) served other customers before us even though we where standing the longest. Terrible customer service

Scammers Rhodes branch

AVOID.

Charged us for a scratch that we did not do. Tell you the car is brand new don’t worry about noting marks. Take videos of every detail. The scratch was already there. A couple before us did not even use the car used it from airport and back and they got scammed to and had a video. All the reviews on their page are amazing and above 4 but none of those reviews are true. It’s strange how we can’t add a review on their page so you can obviously buy reviews which they have done. We tried to take a cheaper option but not saving money next time. Small companies like this trying to make money off us. Horrible way to end a holiday. If you need us to pay more lift your prices we got money we will pay don’t steal from people who love your island.

overcharged at Malaga airport due to an incorrect automatic invoice, told at the desk to contact via the website. I have had no response despite three chasers. Would not recommend.

I have rented cars on many occasions, and one thing I've learned is that the real quality of a rental company only becomes apparent when something unexpected happens.

I used to rent from Ciao Rent Car, but after my experience I decided I would never use them again. What should have been a straightforward rental turned into an unnecessary and stressful dispute over an alleged minor scratch. The whole experience left me with very little confidence in the way the situation was handled.

Since then, I have chosen to rent from Centauro instead, and the difference has been remarkable. Centauro has been operating successfully for many years and has built a strong reputation by providing a professional and transparent service. Companies with an established reputation understand that customer trust is one of their most valuable assets, and it shows in the way they treat their customers.

For me, peace of mind is just as important as price. I'd rather rent from a company that values long-term customer relationships than take the risk of dealing with unnecessary disputes. Based on my experience, I would happily recommend Centauro and will continue to use them for future rentals.

Stay away from this company.

This was one of the worst car rental experiences I've ever had.

The booking was far from transparent, with unexpected charges appearing only when I arrived at the counter. The customer service was unprofessional from start to finish, and once I needed assistance, it was almost impossible to get any real help or response.

The staff seemed interested only in getting me to sign the paperwork as quickly as possible, without properly explaining the rental process or making sure everything was clear.

If something goes wrong during your rental, don't expect anyone to stand behind you. There is practically no customer service, no accountability, and no willingness to resolve issues fairly.

Corfu has many rental companies—choose another one. I definitely will never rent from Centauro again.

I would not recommend renting from Centauro.
I was charged €85.80 for a rental extension after being told by customer service that if I returned the car on the agreed date, this amount would be refunded. The money was taken from my account, but despite several contacts, I still have not received the refund or a clear explanation.
What is even more frustrating is that the call center provided incorrect information. During my first call, I was assured that the extension charge would be returned. Later, another agent told me there was a problem with their system/platform and advised me to send an email instead. Since then, I have been waiting for a resolution and have received no satisfactory answer.
The lack of communication, conflicting information, and unresolved refund issue have made this a very disappointing experience.
Be careful when renting from this company. Make sure to keep all documents and check every charge carefully. Based on my experience, customer service was unreliable, and getting accurate information was difficult.

From the outset, the vehicle collection process was chaotic and poorly managed. The queuing system appeared disorganised, with little communication from staff about where customers should wait or how the process worked. As a result, we spent over an hour trying to collect our vehicle.

This was particularly difficult as I was travelling with my baby and my pregnant wife. Having to wait for such a long period in a crowded and confusing environment was stressful, uncomfortable, and entirely avoidable.

I was later informed that we had opted for the self-service pickup option. However, when I attempted to use the self-service system, I was unable to complete the process because it would not allow me to pay the required deposit. There was no clear assistance available, and no member of staff proactively offered help. Instead, I repeatedly had to approach staff members to ask whether we were in the correct queue and how we should proceed. Unfortunately, nobody was able to provide clear guidance, leaving us uncertain about what we were supposed to do and causing further delays.

The problems continued even after we finally received the vehicle. We had specifically booked a child car seat, but when we reached the car, there was no car seat provided. I then had to return to the desk and inform staff of the omission. Rather than resolving the issue properly, I was simply directed to a room containing car seats and told to choose one myself. No assistance was offered in selecting the appropriate seat, carrying it to the vehicle, or fitting it correctly. Given that this is safety equipment for a child, I found the complete lack of support both disappointing and concerning.

What was most frustrating throughout the entire experience was the lack of customer care. Despite the lengthy delay, confusion surrounding the collection process, and the missing child seat, no apology was offered at any stage. Nor did anyone make any meaningful effort to assist us, despite it being obvious that we were travelling with a baby and a pregnant woman.

To make matters even more disappointing, I had paid for your premium service package specifically to ensure a smoother and more convenient collection experience. Unfortunately, the service we received was the complete opposite. After waiting for over an hour, dealing with a failed self-service process, struggling to obtain assistance, and having to resolve the missing child seat ourselves, there was nothing about the experience that felt "premium". In fact, the level of service fell significantly below what I would expect from a standard vehicle hire, let alone a premium offering.

Overall, the experience fell well below the standard I would expect from a reputable car hire company. The combination of a dysfunctional self-service process, poor organisation, inadequate support, excessive waiting times, failure to provide the pre-booked child seat, and the absence of even a basic apology left us feeling frustrated and undervalued as customers.

So far, I have just done the booking. I paid for express service and it asked me to fill in my details and upload my documents. The site to upload and verify the documents was COMPLETELY USELESS and had no clue that some driving licences are different from Spanish ones. (My licence has no photo, it rejected it for that. My International Driving Permit has a photo, but it refused to upload that). The page to fill in my address made it 100 percent impossible to fill in the address, because it did not allow the right fields and the "road selection" DID NOT HAVE ROAD IN IT. I live in a ROAD. Not a street, avenue, a ROAD. What a complete nonsense. Now having read the other reviews, I worry the rest of the rental will be as bad.
UPDATE 16 July: I have tried multiple times to contact customer support as suggested by the comment by Centauro below. They reply with comments like "read the FAQ, now your issue is resolved" or just "your issue is resolved" without even doing anything. My original comments stand.