Avis Reviews 

It’s unfortunate, but there was no element of the use experience that was considered well done. It was a complete mess from start to finish. The one star was for the BYD, which was not unpleasant.

Right at the start they started by charging me more than I was expected to pay, on account of a one- way fee. This was fine but very annoying to be told of it on the day , rather than when booking.
In spite of returning the car on time and the date promised, Avis did not register the return. The man at the counter, who I returned the keys to, told me he was going to take care of it but didn’t. What followed next was a case of extremely poor customer service across the board from Avis.

Firstly I get a call from their loss department stating the car wasn’t returned, 3 days after I returned it. These people had no account of a car that was parked in their lot for 3 days. Thankfully I had a full video walk around of the the car on return which had a location and date stamp so I quickly showed them the proof and they moved on to closing my booking finally, but not before delivering the Coupe de Grace, and charging me 3 days extra charge and a late fee, taking my 80 pound booking to over 300 pounds.

Then it was 5-6 calls to their helpline (which took a minimum of 1 hour , most often 1.30 hours to connect). Each call lasted a total of 2-2.30 hours including the hold time. No call centre person was really helpful in closing the queries, they just move it to another stage, so it took a total of 6 calls to finally get them to cancel the charge. This is still to be approved but is in progress. I expect to make another call when this process stays unresolved in 3 days. My last call, the call centre lady called Crisly had the audacity to tell me that she won’t refund my late charges because I picked up the car at 11.45 am instead of 11.30 as planned. I cannot explain here how absurd that logic was, anyone that had ever rented a car knows thats just nuts. Another 30 minutes ot explaining to her why I cannot accept that and finally she relented. She even threatened to cut my call if I wasn’t polite. I can assure you all i wasn’t rude, I was just frustrated and it sounded like it, but wouldn’t you be? Does it justify a customer service rep threatening me with a call drop? I think it’s a breach of their service commitment.

I’m exhausted but I felt I need to write this. You need to know this.. you cannot rent from Avis.. ever! I will never … ever! They provided unequivocally the worst customer service I have ever experienced, ever in my life.

Avoid this company. They take optional additional charges from your bank. Avoid at all cost. Hard to contact to rectify the issue and getting your money back.

Rented with Avis via a British Airways fly/drive package. Car voucher clearly stated CDW and TP were included, along with the airport collection fee. Shockingly slow service at Montenegro Tivat Airport and they were adamant that additional insurance was ‘necessary and company policy’ and refused to let us have a car without adding that charge. They also added a ‘premium location fee’ which had already been covered. Incidentally we separately had a personal insurance policy/excess reduction which they were aware of but dismissed. We ended up having to pay an additional €187 for our hire and the paperwork showed this to be ‘5 days promo surcharge’. Absolute scam and suffice to say Avis have not responded to my complaint. BA should cease their partnership with this unscrupulous company!

An hour and a half on the phone before I was answered, chasing my €300 deposit back..
Took it in 10 seconds but apparently it can take up to 20 days to return it !!
Can't fault the car or pick up service although there was no one at the return desk.
Not tempted to use them again.. too stressful..

Paid upfront to hire a car at Lourdes. No booking confirmation came through to the email I provided, can't solve the problem by phone as I have no booking number which the system demands. They also ignored my email asking for the booking number. But they happily took my money. Avoid.

Having booked and paid in full well in advance for my car hire, I received an email a few days before I travelled, telling me to go online and check in with my licence to make the process at the airport more efficient.
I did so, which led Avis to subsequently bill me an additional €311, as they somehow saw this as me changing the booking.
2 months of battling indifference finally resulted in someone admitting to this error. Although a refund is finally in the offing, it seem to taking several more weeks to effect. Best avoided

AVIS.BUDGET CHARGES MORE FEES AND FREELY DEBITS YOUR ACCOUNT WITHOUT REASON - THEY IGNORE REFUND REQUESTS

I used Avis.Budget in May 2026. Booked with clear terms. Car, additional driver, insurance, one toll charge is all I shouuld have paid.

But they charged £70 more. They took the liberty to debit extra amounts from my card while I was away.

I had taken out insurance through Booking.com. I explicitly refused their insurance at the desk. They seem to have charged it anyway.

I asked for a refund. They ignored me. No reply. No resolution.

This company treats your card details as an open invitation to charge what they like.

PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY. AVOID. Go to the competition.

My daughter is on holiday in Italy and her flight home has been cancelled. She has tried to contact Avis to extend the car hire but, guess what, their customer services dept only works Mon- Fri! What kind of a global car hire company doesn't provide any support at all at weekends? There is no reply from the airport pick-up desk either. She wants to legitimately extend the car hire but cannot contact anyone to do this.

All had been a fantastic experience. No issues hiring multiple times from this company Avis, in Heathrow Terminal 5 Rental Office. Great polite, smiling staff, very fast service. Recommended for future rentals.

DON'T LISTEN TO THESE NEGATIVE REVIEWS, SO MANY WHICH IS NOT TRUE, SAYING AVIS IS TERRIBLE. My experience has been great.

The vehicle provided to me was in very poor condition. It had visible damage, missing parts, and multiple warning lights on the dashboard related to tyres, engine, and oil. The fuel tank was also almost empty, despite the contract indicating it should be full.

Shortly after starting my journey, I experienced a serious tyre failure. After only a few kilometres, the tyre lost pressure completely. Upon inspection, I found two screws embedded in the tyre, which caused the puncture. I had no choice but to arrange and pay for the replacement myself in order to continue my trip safely.

Although I had purchased full insurance and roadside assistance, the support was practically non-existent. I called the emergency numbers repeatedly with no answer. When I finally reached someone (Johana), I was told to handle the situation myself as Avis could not assist at that time.

The handover process was also unprofessional. The vehicle was left in a parking area, and the staff member disappeared immediately after giving minimal instructions, leaving no one available to report the issues.

I have full photo evidence of the vehicle condition, dashboard warnings, tyre damage, and fuel level.

Overall, this experience was unsafe, poorly managed, and far below the standards expected from an international rental company.

I strongly advise caution when renting from this location.

Terrible experience .
Car was dirty , underpants left in the back seats. Staff at airport tried justifying it saying they don’t always have time to clean every car !

That was the least of my worries with them….
I am left well out of pocket.

I was charged an additional £150 pounds on my credit card on returning car.

5 phone calls , and several emails, know one at Avis could tell me what the additional charge was for .

Email replies are generic , written by Ai . not one email addressed my concerns.

Eventually I was instructed to ring US Avis as Uk Avis couldn’t help.

US Avis also useless , 5 calls , absolutely terrible customer service! No one could give me an answer for extra charge .

Eventually I worked out I was quoted £650 for car hire , Avis in US didn’t convert the amount I paid in Uk to dollars. They only deducted 650 dollars off car hire . Then charged me a further 150 to make up the difference .

So to sum it up - avoid Avis . Go to another company . Crooks or incompetent or both?!!!

I eventually got a refund from them when I pointed out the error they had made in converting the payment.

£150 back in my bank, one small win .

BUT all the calls to US Avis have cost me £170 ffs!

Did a quick check-in with car full of fuel at Glasgow airport, but didn't get any documents. End up with a £30+ credit card charge. Called customer service about this, and other charges, and told completely incorrect information. The only thing I was told , by the customer representative, was that this has happened before, which I can believe.

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID
I booked a car for the 12 of May 2026 on the reception the bad experience started when I took all the relevant documents with me and a lady at the reception said we need to do certain checks i gave them my licence as a proof of address and my passport as a proof of ID and she said she need to talk to her manager after that she asked me provide another proof of address and luckily I open my credit card app and download the a statement and provide as a proof of address, she gave me the keys and asked me to check the screen it shows the damage signal it for me and she said you can take the car, and hold £302 as refundable deposit, when I came the next day on the 13th of May at 1pm there was another gentleman waiting the agent from Avis came out he checked his car and told him about a wheel damage which the gentleman denied he came to check my car and showed me a scratched on the alloy wheel I told him this is old damage you can tell then he said may be because of rain it look old I told him check the weather forecast there was jo rain at all here in leed and Luton and also I did not touch any kerb while I was driving the Avis car, I'm 50 plus and a very careful driver, I told him it's old I made a video of the damaged alloy which clearlyshows it's old damage, on the 15th of May they took £304.44p from my account I called to ask why they said you will get it back in 5 working days after 5 days called again they said by the 2nd of june you will get it and when I called on the 5th of june they said there was a damage on the car and that's why we took the money luckily I bought the extra insurance via 3rd party who I booked the car through so now I'm claiming my money back.
Avis is a thief company who steel people money keep it with them for months and use it for their business, and I believe it must be in millions each month.

The process of the car hire and the staff at the Avis centres to collected and returned the car to were helpful and I had no issue.
The issue I have is that the car I hired has received a parking charge for before I collected the car, ie overnight from the day before to the morning of the day I collected the car.
I collected the car at 6pm, but despite the date and time being clear on the parking notice and the time I picked my car up being evident in my contract, they have sent the fine to me.
I have disputed with Avis that this is THEIR clerical error and not for me to challenge the fine, but all they say is I have to challenge it, and keep closing my complaint. They won’t engage on phone, i was on hold for 30+ minutes one day, no one will ring you back, and they won’t accept that this is their error. I have also automatically been charged for the parking fine and administration charge.
Customer service is non existent - I will not use again

If i could give 0 stars!! We booked with Avis for a weekend trip in Italy. All was fine, we returned the keys to a 'key box' at the car park and off we went. This is obviously intentional to remove any interaction between the customer and the agent, as they can inspect the car and charge for damage with absolutely no contest. This is exactly what they did. 20 minutes later we receive an email with a £200 bill for damages, no images, no explanations. Luckily we had pictures of the damage on the 'brand new car' before we drove away. We sent an email demanding images within a 14 day period. Nothing. I called their services line 4 times to be told their systems are down, which is funny, as when i bluffed and tried to book a new car they were more than happy with the systems and were well able to take money from me. Eventually after 4 emails demanding evidence that they actually did 'repair' the damage (idle fees), evidence of the damage, and phone calls where i would not hang up we get an out of the blue email, unrelated, telling us they have cancelled the charge.

I'm certain they purposely damage the vehicles to charge people these fees as it was given to us as a 'brand new unused' vehicle.

Never EVER use this company.

I rented Avis car from stansted airport uk and returned well, but after 1.5 months they charged me for dropping the car from where i picked it up saying you parked it in the wrong holiday inn parking . But actually they are located inside holiday inn and both have the same parking lot. They are even not replying to calls or mail.
They are scammers never rent a car from Avis ever.

Ineffectual company. The electric car I reserved from Heathrow did not have a cable to hook up to household plug - all other electric cars I've hired previously have - was told this was standard package and told me to reserve another car. I was standing at the counter! When challenged, the employee said he could book over the counter. Time passes. I had to extend the reservation and have spend the entire morning being bounced around the various Avis reservation numbers only to be told I need to talk to the Heathrow Avis location directly. All numbers they gave me either push me back to the Avis central reservation or don't work. The last number they gave me which is a mobile number to the Heathrow Avis location in 'unavailable'. So now I'm faced with driving all the way up to Heathrow - a long way - because there are no local Avis locations - just to extend the reservation - at my own cost! What is wrong with this damn company?!

Terrible - border line criminal as with most of these car hire companies.

Turned up to no car despite having checked in ahead of time and done the express pick up option! Had to come back a couple of hours later which wasnt easy at an airport.

Car was good - dropped it off and they managed to find a chip that wasnt there previously. About 5 mm I'd estimate - how much do you think it cost? Over a £1000.

Luckily I have third party insurance so hopefully that will cover it but i have no idea how these companies are allowed to operate in this way.

Booked for Inverness Airport
Booked months in advance
Did all the pre requisites as advised
Car not there when we checked in at the airport. Left waiting for an unacceptable amount of time . Car dirty when finally arrived. Have contacted Customer Services to complain who are refusing to give me complaints department contact . Won't book with them again.

Car hire in USA , They take no responsibility for their errors and and nobody knows what to do when this happens when you make calls to try and sort their errors it cost over £70 pounds when you ask for a managers no one can tell you who they are when you get back home uk and make a complaint all you get it’s all sorted Now no refund for call even with evidence you made these call all you get never mind 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬