Drivalia UK - EDINBURGH AIRPORT Reviews 

Due to loss of physical credit card Drivalia would only release car if I paid an additional £97.98 for two days of insurance cover (almost 3 times the cost of car hire). They had me over a barrel. On returning the car had to wait 45 minutes for a shuttle bus then was stuck in heavy traffic during transfer... almost missed the flight. Never again.

ONE OF THE WORST AND MOST INFURIATING CAR RENTAL EXPERIENCES I HAVE EVER HAD.

I booked and prepaid through DiscoverCars at Edinburgh Airport and provided my flight number. My flight was 1h delayed. After collecting our luggage, waiting for Drivalia’s mandatory shuttle and reaching their off-airport location, I was told that my original car category had already been released.

The only two cars offered were significantly more expensive. Technically I could refuse; realistically, this meant losing my prepaid rental and being stranded without a car. I therefore had to accept an “upgrade”, resulting in an ADDITIONAL £372 CHARGE - MORE THAN THE ENTIRE COST OF MY ORIGINAL BOOKING.

The whole setup felt deeply unfair, exploitative and disturbingly well-designed to work against the customer. Drivalia’s Edinburgh office is off-airport and can only be reached via their shuttle, which runs approximately "every 25–30 minutes". Against that background, a "1-hour vehicle hold" is absurdly inadequate for an airport rental: passengers have to disembark, collect their luggage, find the shuttle, potentially wait almost half an hour for it, and then travel to the rental office.

What makes this even more concerning is that, after my experience, I found multiple other reviews describing remarkably similar situations: customers arriving after a flight, reaching the off-airport office outside the short vehicle-hold window, finding their original category no longer available and being faced with substantially more expensive alternatives.

After reading those accounts and experiencing it myself, it is very difficult not to feel that this is a well-established and deeply questionable system. The customer is put in an almost impossible position: either accept a substantial additional charge or lose the prepaid rental and be left without a car. In my case, that “choice” cost me an additional £372.

Whether intentional or not, the mechanism feels predatory and, from the customer’s perspective, dangerously close to a trap. There is effectively no reasonable way out once you are standing at an off-airport rental desk with your trip already underway.

Even more unacceptable and alarming was the handling of the rental documentation. I left the Drivalia office with the car without being given or emailed any copy of the documents I had signed. I had to chase Drivalia repeatedly by email before finally receiving the signed Rental Agreement. The Vehicle Condition Report, however, was never sent to me at any point during the entire rental period.

Worse still, during the vehicle inspection at collection, several significant and clearly visible pre-existing damages were missing from the Vehicle Condition Report. I pointed these out, yet the employee did not update the document accordingly. Fortunately, I took my own photographs and videos of the vehicle before leaving. The combination of incomplete damage records and failing to provide the customer with a copy of the condition report is, in my view, extremely concerning and completely unacceptable practice for a car rental company.

Then came the final insult: at drop-off I was asked for another £60 + VAT for having taken the car by ferry to the Isle of Skye. The clause exists in their terms, but nobody mentioned it at collection or asked about our itinerary - and the document containing the condition was only provided to me after the rental had already started.

Whatever the small print may technically allow, I found the overall experience OUTRAGEOUS, OPAQUE, DISPROPORTIONATE AND COMPLETELY CUSTOMER-HOSTILE.

My advice to travellers, particularly anyone flying into Edinburgh: CHOOSE ANOTHER RENTAL COMPANY. A flight delay ended up costing me hundreds of pounds extra, while the handling of the rental and vehicle documentation was frankly disturbing. I would never rent from Drivalia again.

Don was great! Love Don!

Don was incredibly helpful and friendly and made the experience really quick and easy!

Drivalia have a total disregard for customers. Our flight from London was 2.5 hours late (Drivalia ask for a flight no. but do not use them!!).

We waited 30 mins for a bus from the airport, arrived at their portacabin at 11.45pm, were given a form to complete check-in with DVLA code plus buzzer. There were 8-10 customers waiting.

At 12.32am my buzzer went off. I went to the desk and was told my booking was for 9pm and that I was late, to which I replied our flight was delayed from Gatwick.

I was then told they don't use the flight numbers to check flight arrivals. She then continued to tell me that their office was also closed (12.30) and that a payment of £100 was due.

I said I'd waited for 45 minutes in their offices, having filled out the form and applied for the DVLA code and surely it could not be a customers fault that they do not have enough staff to process bookings for their customers during that time.

She repeated I was late and that there was a charge so I said it is unacceptable and that I wanted to cancel my booking.

I was left stranded at the portacabin with my son at 1am. I told the remaining 4 or 5 customers in the waiting room that they would also probably be "fined" £100 for the privilige of collecting their hire car.

Is this just a scam during the Edinburgh Festival for Drivalia to extort more money from customers??!! Please avoid this company at all costs.

Terrible. I specifically booked a van and when I arrived (after an extremely long wait) I was told they didn’t have any vans. My only option was an SUV. Completely impractical.

Terrible service from Drivalia at Edinburgh Airport. Staff were rude, surly, unhelpful, seemingly hating their jobs and the customers. One of them used the f-word in front of me when riled by another customer who was justifiably complaining about the long wait for their car. The shuttle bus is not on demand. Don't bother ringing to book it as told to do on the website. You will ring them for ever and when someone eventually answers 3 days later you are told the website is wrong and then they put the phone down on you. The car was grubby and covered in scratches, all documented by the staff member so they knew what a rubbish car they were giving me. The gearbox felt like it was on it's way out. The rudeness, dismissiveness and don't-care attitude I experienced from the staff on collection was very upsetting. It was better on return but did not come close to making up for the initial bad experience. The staff member promised an email confirming the car was in the same state as when I collected it. This has not arrived. What is the reason for that? Some of the other customers were vocal in their complaints and I don't blame them. I have never come across such terrible customer service anywhere else and wholeheartedly would not recommend Drivalia.

Avoid at all costs. They are a bunch of cowboys with no cars.

A disastrous experience with Drivalia at Edinburgh airport.
The first point is that you have to take a shuttle bus from the airport to reach the desk of Drivalia located at 3 or 4 miles from the airport (therefore you may have to wait for the shuttle bus, hence a delay on arrival at Drivalia’s desk).
My flight was delayed on arrival, and I had to wait for the shuttle bus, resulting in a 1h15minutes delay at Drivalia’s desk. The agent said that the one-hour slot had expired, therefore my booked car (and paid in advance) had been given to somebody else. He could only propose a superior category car with of course an additional payment. Did I have a choice ? Of course not ! Therefore I had to pay an extra amount (£86.40) on top of what I had already paid (73€), the whole cost amounting to 180€ instead of the initial 73€…
The agent issued an invoice which showed another type of car than that delivered to me. No mileage indication, no registration number, nothing. When he went around the car to note the damage, he refused to give me a copy of the paper. He also said that the fuel tank was full, which was not true (one third was missing). He refused to take the insurance I had subscribed for this rental and said in case of a problem I had to deal with the broker (Carjet, which I strongly advise not to deal with).
On returning the car, he refused to deliver a paper that said the car was ok. He claimed that papers would be sent to me by email. I never got anything from them, and I thoroughly checked my spam’s. Nothing.)
In summary I am extremely unhappy with Drivalia. The staff was unusually unfriendly and you have a clear impression that this company is organised to trap the customers.
Never ever again shall I call on Drivalia for a car rental. The same applies to Carjet (the broker) who could not care less about this situation.

Quite far from the airport, shuttle is not on demand as suggested. The shuttle itself comes every 25/30 minutes and about 15 minutes. Issue was the volume of people collecting cars, took two hours from arrival to car collection.

Staff were fine, but short staffed and lots of people in the same situation.

Rented a car on Aug 19th 2026. The entire experience was a disgrace, i have never experienced customer services that are so bad. This operation does not meet health and safety standards and ought to be shut down. The cars are not roadworthy and they dont have a relaible shuttle bus to the Airport.
Firstly the car collection took 2 hours. I arrived on time and had all the pre-checkin requirements up loaded beforehand. On arrival, there was no communication, despite the fact that i was travelling with a young child. The car i received had not been cleaned, it had no fuel in it (5 miles in the tank), and was not roadworthy. it had warning lights showing it needed new brake pads / discs, low tyre pressure and was overdue a service. The return experience was even worse im afraid to say. It became clear that the Drivalia do not own the bus shuttle, there was an event on at Ingleston and the car parking company that runs the shuttle bus was busy and therefore just ignored Drivalia customers waiting to get to the Airport and left us waiting. This was immensly stressful for everybody needing to catch flights. In then end, 15 of us had to storm on to the bus, despite the parking company refusing us. The Drivalia people offered no help or support, they literally ignored people complaining or ask for alternative transport. This obviosuly created huge tension for people needing to catch flights.
This whole experience was absolutely disgraceful from start to finish. They should also be transparent and make people aware that the bus shuttle operated by the parking company is on a "best efforts" basis and they have no obligation to transport Drivalia customers.

L'auto prenotata tramite Rentalcars presso la sede di Edimburgo dalla società DRIVALIA. L’addetto ha rifiutato la mia carta multifunzione, sostenendo che fosse una carta di debito e non consentisse il blocco della franchigia. Mi è stato quindi imposto il pagamento di ulteriori € 546,92 per una copertura assicurativa totale, precisando che senza tale pagamento l’auto non mi sarebbe stata consegnata. Invece la mia carta è abilitata anche come carta di credito. Avevo inoltre già acquistato una copertura completa da Rentalcars.
Il veicolo presentava parabrezza con forti aloni e tergicristalli molto usurati, con conseguenti problemi di visibilità con la pioggia sempre presente in Scozia. Servizio di riconsegna pessimo con personale sgarbato e disorganizzato. Non è stata rilasciata alcuna ricevuta al momento ma solo una mail arrivata dopo qualche giorno annunciava l'esito positivo della riconsegna.
Il Customer Services ha risposto in maniera secca e negativa ad ogni mia richiesta, non risolvendo nessuna delle problematiche da me riscontrate. Anche in questo pessima azienda!
The car was booked through Rentalcars and collected from DRIVALIA’s Edinburgh branch. The staff member refused to accept my multifunction card, claiming that it was a debit card and therefore could not be used to place a hold for the security deposit. As a result, I was forced to pay an additional €546.92 for full insurance coverage and was told that, without this payment, the car would not be handed over to me.
However, my card is also enabled as a credit card. Furthermore, I had already purchased full insurance coverage through Rentalcars.
The vehicle itself had a windscreen with severe smearing and very worn windscreen wipers, which caused serious visibility problems in rainy conditions — particularly concerning given the frequent rain in Scotland.
The return service was also extremely poor, with staff who were rude and disorganised. No receipt or confirmation was provided at the time of returning the vehicle. Only several days later did I receive an email confirming that the vehicle had been successfully returned.
Customer Services responded to every one of my requests in a dismissive and negative manner, without addressing or resolving any of the issues I raised.
Overall, an extremely disappointing experience and, in my opinion, very poor customer service.

Great service. Our family use this company every Months

Beware: 1-hour late rule will cost you your booking and your money!

We had a terrible experience with Drivalia due to their rigid and unfair policies. Our flight was delayed, and we had to wait a long time at the baggage carousel—things that are completely normal and out of a traveler's control at an airport.Because of this, we arrived about 2 hours late to pick up our car. We were shocked to find out that Drivalia has a strict 1-hour grace period. They cancelled our booking, marked us as a "No-Show," and refused to give us a refund. An airport car rental company should have policies that accommodate standard flight delays. Instead, they took our money and left us stranded. Avoid them if you want peace of mind when traveling.

We rented a car in July, and upon arrival, we were told that for an extra £10 we would get better coverage, so we agreed. However, when I went to pay, the invoice had jumped from £470 to £920. I asked the employee about the increase, and he told me it was a deposit—unrelated to what we had booked—to cover any potential traffic fines.
​An hour later, when I received the contract, I realized they had charged me twice for coverage on the exact same car. When I returned the vehicle, I spoke with a manager who promised they would refund my money. As of today, nothing has happened.
​BE CAREFUL with what you sign and agree to, because they will try to "sneak in" a higher rate. Everything is now in the hands of my lawyers, and I will do whatever it takes to get back what is rightfully mine.

Dreadful service from start to end at Edinburgh.
More than "off site" 15min in coach to compound and massive waits. The staff neither hurry nor help.
Waited 1hr 30mins to collect a car where I had completed all paperwork online and due to the delay was unable to pick up a disabled parent waiting in wheelchair at airport despite notifying staff. Upon return they claim I had damaged the tyre and wanted to claim for the damage but when pushed was unable to confirm that the damage wasnt there before I collected. By their own admission they are "cheap for a reason" AVOID AT ALL COST !

Raghil was very kind and competent and explained everything in detail!

I rented a car from Drivalia at Edinburgh airport. Although when we arrived it was very busy Stuart and Robbie were super helpful. Drop off was very easy too.

Shuttle took forever. Lady in the desk (Flo) was so not collaborative and harsh.
Car is not ready, incredible considering we arrived later than the time expected.
Now over 30 mins just to get the car.
Never ever again using this company