Avis Reviews 

I rented a car from Avis at Philadelphia airport on 10th June 2026, for 15 days. The car itself was great. It was almost new and great to drive.
The check in at the airport, and the drop off on our return, were fairly straightforward, apart from one issue, which really spoilt the whole experience.
On our arrival at the desk we were greeted by a cheery, friendly female, who asked where we had travelled from and where we were going etc. When I told her our route in America she stated that we should purchase a pre-paid toll road pass, which would allow us to pass through any toll roads without having to stop or pay. She told me it would cost 254 dollars. I thought this was quite high and, having already plotted our route, I knew that we wouldn't be using many, if any, toll roads. I declined her offer and her whole attitude changed. She was very rude, saying that if we missed payments on the toll roads we would be charged a 65 dollar admin charge for each one and we were making a mistake not to buy. She continued being rude and, unbeknown to me, brought up my contract on a screen in front of me. I was supposed to check and sign the agreement. When I asked what it was she snapped at me and said I'd had more than enough time to check it! She printed off a copy and I wasn't sure whether the charges stated on the agreement were correct. She rudely stated that we must have turned up early if there was an extra charge. We didn't, we arrived approximately 30 minutes after the time we had agreed. She continued to be extremely rude to us, and again said we were making a mistake not getting the pre-paid toll pass. If I'm honest I got the distinct feeling that she must be working on some sort of commission to sell the pass. Maybe not, but her attitude changed dramatically when I refused to pay for it. It put a real damper on the start of our holiday.
We have been home for a month now and no charges have subsequently appeared on my card, despite her saying that there definitely would be!!
Not the best customer service from Avis at Philadelphia and something which really spoilt our arrival in America.

Another disappointing hire - I’m their highest stays (president’s club) and though the cars and the desk staff are all good, the customer service is utterly hopeless and pretty amateur (both UK, Spain and Italy). We had a couple of issues where they had mischarged for fuel and had missold the hire, and it was impossible to get any dialogue with them - the telephone agents can’t actually do anything, they tell you to email in, and then the customer service team never respond to emails. Only solution was to raise a section 75 credit claim. I recently status matched (by emailing in) to hertz and sixt, and having tested their customer service, honestly I’ll be switching away to Sixt. Avis improve your customer service, ignoring top tier status customers is just atrocious!

Nicky the blonde lady at the heathrow branch was absolutely brilliant thanks so much for your help and support

Highly recommend Avis Lucy who served us was kind, professional and extremely helpful. Infinitely better than green motion who we originally booked with!

I was very disappointed with my experience with Avis at Dublin Airport.

Despite being advertised as an airport car rental, the depot isn't actually at the airport. Instead, you have to take a shuttle bus for around 10–15 minutes just to collect your vehicle. Even more frustrating was the wait for the transfer bus. Avis/Budget claim the buses run every 10–20 minutes, but in our experience it was over half an hour for both collection and drop off. When we arrived, we watched several of the other rental companies' buses come and go multiple times, some had 5 pick-ups in the time we were still waiting for one Avis bus!

The transfer buses themselves also leave a lot to be desired. They were old, noisy, and one even had its front bumper held on with cable ties, which didn't exactly inspire confidence before we'd even collected the car.

The vehicle was another disappointment. The booking showed an image of a VW Golf, but we were given a Hyundai i20 instead. I appreciate that the advertised vehicle is only representative, but the i20 was extremely basic, underpowered, struggled on the motorway, and laboured on even modest inclines. It simply wasn't what I expected from a company that has long been regarded as a premium car hire brand.

The return process was equally frustrating. The staff inspected the car with a fine-tooth comb, looking for the slightest hairline scratch. Yet when collecting the vehicle, I wasn't given any opportunity to report pre-existing damage. When I raised this, I was simply told to record a video or take photographs and produce them later if there was a dispute. That doesn't feel like a fair or customer-friendly process.

Overall, this was a very poor experience from what was once a prestigious car hire company. Between the misleading "airport" location, infrequent shuttle buses, disappointing vehicle, and overly rigorous return inspection, I wouldn't choose Avis at Dublin Airport again.

Loretta at the Las Vegas Harriet Reed airport, was an amazing person at the Avis car rental and I had to turn my vehicle in and get a bigger SUV because I'm getting spinal surgery. Loretta was very efficient. A complimentary upgrade. So it was an easy swap. Thank you so much Loretta and thank you so much Avis....👍😘

Hired car through BA. Paid in advance. Florence airport. Thought the system was good and pleased with the car hired. On return there was a slow puncture and I was advised I would be contacted and informed of any details/charges. I suspect they would not repair but replace tyre as it's easier for them! WHAT I DIDN'T EXPECT WAS TO BE CHARGED ON MY CARD BOTH FROM THE DAY OF HIRE , WHEN THE CAR WAS PREPAID , AND ALSO FOR THE TYRE WITHOUT ANY INFORMATION BEING SENT TO ME. YOU TRY AND CONTACT AVIS/ BUDGET. YOU HAVE TO HOLD ON FOR WELL OVER 40 MINUTES TO GET THROUGH . YOU ARE TOLD TO ALLOW 1 WEEK FOR RESOLUTION AND I AM WAITING STILL FOR AN EMAIL. NOT IMPRESSED. I DO HAVE AN ANNUAL CAR HIRE EXCESS POLICY AND THEY ARE GREAT. ( INSURANCE4CARHIRE) THEY RESPOND IMMEDIATELY.

Got a car from Chicago. Not a lot of information. Being a foreign driver there was no assistance or tips and tricks for driving in usa. No general info. Reception was very pushy to take toll passes. Had to geuss and hope car was petrol when filling up. Then returned car full of fuel and got charged for fuel even with photo proof. Customer call centre was on hold for over 1 hour 30 minutes then got cut off. Will definitely look at other hire companies next time.

The worst. Booked direct and pre-paid for a hire in the US. Am Avis Preferred to skip the lines but when I arrived at MCO rather than being ready I was told I had to go to the counter. Checked my license and told good to go. Only then found they’d added fees I hadn’t asked for nor did they mention. Fraudulent behaviour never using again

Queued for two hours then because the person who booked it was not the main driver they wouldn't process our booking. Incredibly inflexible and unwilling to find a solution - only wanted to sell another car for 500euros. A terrible experience with zero customer service . AVOID AVOID

The most dishonest and fraudulent company I have dealt with coupled with terrible customer service.

For the previous three years Avis Valencia did not have the car I selected and each time instead we were offered a Renault Kadjar. Even when last year I went up a group, still apparently I was being upgraded to a Kadjar.

The issue is that it is not an upgrade the Kadjar is physically a lot smaller than the vehicles I selected. It will not fit three medium (67 to 69cm) suitcases. In fact the Kadjar has a removable floor and even with the floor and parcel shelf removed it will not fit three medium cases and then you have a parcel shelf and full boot floor partition to store. So will then only fit two passengers.

This year, I tried to avoided having to pay for a genuine upgrade and contacted Avis by phone in advance. I was given the Valencia desk email address and told to email Avis Valencia nearer the hire date.

I sent the email on the 12 June for the collection date of 4th July. When we got to the desk at Valencia around thirty minutes before the desk closed. The Peugeot 2008 manual I booked was of course not available and, yes of course we were presented with the keys to a Renault Kadjar. We went to the vehicle and tried to fit our luggage. As per our previous years, it would not fit.

I returned to the desk and explained the issue. I was then, even though I am an Avis preferred customer. I was charged to have a Peugeot 2008 automatic. As it was now close to the desk closing time, I did not argue.

The luggage fitted with ease in the much physically larger Peugeot 2008.

The next day I emailed Avis, after four emails answering different questions the AI asked, I was told it had been escalated to the relevant team.

After a week of not hearing anything from Avis, I drove to the Denia office. The polite lady at the desk said she agreed that I should not have been charged and would contact Valencia and have the charge cancelled.

After handing the car back to the Valencia station, the additional charge appeared on my credit card. I called Avis UK and again was advised that they will contact Valencia and have the charge refunded.

48 hours later, I am still waiting. Once it gets to five days, I will be contacting the credit card company to get their assistance in resolving this issue. Maybe Avis will take more not of them.

We had hired and paid for a car through Jet2 to be collected at Avis office in Tivat airport, Montenegro. We were in a queue for approx 1.5 hours as everybody in front appeared to be having a problem, when we eventually got to the desk we were told that Avis did not recognise our Jet2 booking reference and our insurance was not legal in Montenegro, in order to get a car we had to pay again for car rental and insurance. Never again will we pre book a hire car through a third party, it has cost us a lot of money which Jet2 say we will not get back. We want this to be a warning to other travellers who hire a car from Avis at Tivat airport.

Terrible, I advise you all to use a different rental company. I was charged an additional £279 (after returning to the uk). I was not told this charge would be made and their explanation is taxes and airport location fees. The pre agreed price stated ‘all airport fees and taxes included’.
Please do not use AVIS

Shocking business. Became a preferred member and also completed online check-in in order to speed up my car pick up in Munich. Thoroughly pointless exercise as I was still stuck in a long queue and had to repeat the submitted information. On return, imaginary damage to an alloy wheel was reported by the check-in team. I had video that the issue was present at pick-up but this fell on deaf ears. Fortunately I had taken out full cover insurance. I was also overcharged over 100 euros for mileage and station surcharge, despite my original rental agreement saying these were included. Complaining to Avis and raising a ticket is futile as you can’t get a response so I’ll have to do a partial chargeback via my credit card company. A poor experience all round.

Absolutely disgraceful experience with Avis from start to finish. DONT TRUST

The vehicle broke down, and we were left waiting over three hours for assistance. WOTG CHILDREN IN THE CAR.
Trying to contact customer services was just as bad, with call waiting times of over an hour before anyone answered. AND ALSO CALLS CUTTING OFF.

This has been, without question, the worst customer service experience I have ever had

Our hire car developed a fault, and we received an urgent email from Avis instructing us to return the vehicle immediately for inspection We drove to the Luton branc, as it was the closest location

From the moment we arrived, Farooq was rude, dismissive and completely unwilling to help Rather than trying to find a solution, he made us feel like we were an inconvenience

I contacted Dominika, the manager at the Manchester branch where I had originally collected the vehicle. After hours of emailing her because customer care was not answering. She told me she would call me back in five minutes after looking into the situation. She never did. Instead, we were left waitingover three hours with no updates whatsoever.

During that time, we asked Farooq if he had heard anything because we had children with us who were hungry and just wanted to get home. Instead of showing any empathy, his attitude became increasingly hostile. At one point, he became so aggressive that he threatened my friend, saying that if the CCTV camera wasn’t there, he would smash his face. We did nothing other than ask and cctv was in place. That is completely unacceptable behaviour from anyone, let alone someone dealing with customers. My friend was only looking out for me and asked very kindly but Farooq had some sort of power trip and was horrible “we not giving her a car” FOR NO REASON

To make matters worse, we later discovered that Dominika had asked Leonard, the Luton branch manager, to inform us that they were unable to provide another vehicle because they simply didn’t have any available. Yet Leonard LUTON MANAGER couldn’t even be bothered to come over and tell us. We were left sitting there for hours with no communication at all, while staff knew there was no replacement vehicle available.

After all of that, Avis offered no practical solution.I was forced to pay for an Uber from Luton all the way back to Staffordshire with a young child because they could not provide a safe replacement vehicle or even communicate honestly with us.

The entire experience was disgraceful poor vehicle reliability, terrible communication, shocking customer service, aggressive behaviour from staff, and absolutely no care for customers who had already been inconvenienced by a vehicle fault.I will never use Avis again and would strongly advise anyone considering hiring from them to think twice

Charged twice for using "preferred customer" service in South Africa and paying upfront for an additional driver. This has happened on two occasions - on the first I was refunded, but Aivs not responding on the second so I'm out of pocket.

Avis Europe said they can't comment and sent me to Avis South Africa, who aren't responding to emails after repeated attempts.

From walking in through the door, customers service was second to none.
The young man at Avis Exeter Airport was polite, incredibly helpful. He got us out or a situation of being let down last minute by Enterprise as we needed to attend a funeral in the north.
The whole process of care-hire was a pleasure with him. We even got an upgrade.
I can’t say thank you enough for the kindness shown.

First class service from Avis Exeter Airport.

Booked with full price online through the website didn’t make me aware that I can’t hire at a young age. Travelled 40 miles to get the car was told at the desk that I wasn’t able to get the car. Keep calling Customer Service however no response I wait over 1 hour and no one answers the phone and then when someone did answer they said it’s gonna take 1-2 days to get the refund still haven’t received it after 2 weeks. Proper scam of a company don’t trust them at all.

1.5 hours for an AVIS president to get through with a complaint about our invoice. The first agent forgot that Budget and AVIS are combined and hung up because I am an AVIS customer. 20 years of loyalty and I get scammed by AVIS Bristol and AVIS Gatwick. Fake contract with bad data - get to the car and it has no fuel. We return it with more fuel and get charged 100 pounds. We then got charged 1,450 pounds for 2 scratches and a scuff which we did not do. No email, no message, no call. Just hit the card with this. Terrible on every level - the local franchisees must be doing it hard to have to do this.