Movida Reviews 223

Rented a car from Denmark. Arrived in Sao Paolo Airport and went to the Movida store to have the car. When arrived, first car was damaged, then they exchanged to another similar car. After a short ride I found out that radio/GPS didn't work. Went back to Movida. They didn't have a similar car, then they upgraded to an other little better car. I signed the contract for 35 days, paid and went off. Almost 3 weeks later, Movida sent a email (to a wrong mail adress), that I had to return the car in one day because they now have a smaller car available for me..! (Renault Kwid vs Hyundai HB20)
I rented the car upgraded to 3000 km, now they want me to go many hundrede km back to Sao Paolo to exchange the car..!!! No way. Try to talk to Movida, but they don't care. DON'T USE THIS COMPANY, IN THE END IT WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN USE A BETTER ONE..!!! Regards Brian from Denmark

Albufeira, Portugal.

We were charged 200 euros extra for insurance that we had already paid for through our package holiday provider. This was not communicated to us as we were told everything we were putting down were refundable deposits.

Robbing, thieving criminals. Will never use again.

Got a car with a flat tire!!! Had to pay to be fixed and then it was my fault???? Not recommended!!! Very bad service!!!!

We used Movida when we went to Portugal in the summer of 2025. We had been to Portugal 5 times before this. They insisted that I needed to buy car insurance in Portugal before I even got the car. I told the guy he was out of his mind, I know what I am doing. I never complain or argue with travel companies, but I could sense this guy thought he had a "dumb American" on his hands - he was wrong. After we returned the car, we had no issues with the car. Perfectly returned. I reminded them of their unprofessional service when I picked up the car and their insistance that I needed to buy insurance. Great, drop of the keys, adeus. 3 months later we had a $2,500 charge from Movida. They said we put the wrong gas in the car before we dropped it off! Right before I dropped it off, I filled up a full tank of gas for EUR 75. We drove about 5 or 6 miles to drop the car off - no smells, no smoke, no issues with the car. If you use the wrong gas, especially with a full tank of the wrong gas, you will notice immediately. I am not even a car guy and I know this. We had No issues - but bang - three months later they said it was the wrong gas and had to replace the engine with no support. No documentation, no call, no warning, no explanation. Nothing! We disputed the charge and we won. Do not use these guys. They are bad bad bad news.

I went to Brazil August 2025 and rented a car, paid with lifemiles but they asked me for a deposit, been fighting over the deposit for 6 months and they ignore me, email, whatsapp, phone calls. When I rented the car I paid the deposit with my CC, so they saved my CC information and today 2/9/2026 they charged my cc again for no reason.

Be careful this is scam.

I am writing this review to warn other travelers: Movida Rent a Car uses coercive and aggressive sales tactics that left me financially damaged and powerless.

I arrived with a fully prepaid reservation, clearly stating €0 due at pickup, with coverage already purchased online. At the counter, Movida staff refused to release the car unless I either:

- paid €504 for additional insurance that I explicitly refused, or

- allowed a €2,500 hold on my credit card.

I was told clearly: “If you don’t pay, you don’t get the car and you lose your reservation.”
This was not a choice — it was a threat.

Movida later denied any coercion and refused responsibility, despite numerous identical complaints from other customers describing the same pattern: bait-and-switch pricing, intimidation at the counter, excessive deposits, and forced insurance.

This experience cost me hundreds of euros, months of stress, and countless hours trying to resolve the situation.

This is not customer service.
This is not transparency.
This is predatory behavior toward travelers.

⚠️ If you value your money, your peace of mind, and fair treatment — do not rent from Movida.

The car we rented was not available when we arrived. We sat in the lobby for three hours with a 7 month old baby while they tried to find a car. They found a car and tried to give us the new car they found and upon loading our luggage the trunk would not close. They found a third car, this car smelled like there was dead animal inside. We did take the car because we were tired of waiting. Someone backed into us with this car the same night we started the rental. We did not purchase the additional insurance nor were we informed, on the contract it appears to be included. Since it was not included we took the necessary steps to ensure we were not charged for the damages. I also returned the car several days before the rental was due. Police report was made and the third party came to the location to pay the damage fee. I was ensured by Douglas the manager at the location we rented (Porto Seguro) from all rental fees would be waived and the damage fee was to be charged to the third party card, just so i would sign, and i did. The next day a i found the maximum allowable charge per the contract for the damages was prematurely charged to my credit card before any kind of repair estimate was created, as well as the full rental fee. 12 hours of phone calls to Movida. Everytime not one person spoke my language until i explained the phone call was being recorded, though Movida has a prompt for english. Not one represententave is able to explain why the process was being completed in the manner that it was. My entire vacation was ruined because of the hassles of Movida. Now i am forced to take legal action. Do not rent from this fraudulent company! Movida does not deserve one star!

TERRIBLE. Rented a car for 2 days, with full insurance, got a flat tire in 30 minutes. There was no spare tire, so it took 5 hours to get towed to a shop and buy new tire. Trip was ruined. When I returned car, Movida said it's their policy to never have spare tires in cars, and that renters are responsible for cost of tire replacement, so they refused to compensate cost.

This was the worst service I have ever experienced with a car rental. I prepaid for my car rental and we picked up on a Saturday. We waited for 2 hrs to get our car. They had one person working here on a very busy Saturday. They were slow, rude and didn’t care that we waited sooooo long even though we prepaid. Stay away from this rental company. They are the worst!!!

One star because I can’t rate 0 stars…
They gave me a car with a flat tire that I had to pay for repair after a week of using the car the light of low oil came on and they don’t give a replacement car, their suggestion is drive the car on the motorway to their offices to get checked… and open the bonnet and check the oil take a picture and send to them😱
This is the service you
⚠️ ZERO STARS: Major Safety Risks & Negligent Management
I would give zero stars if possible. My experience with this company wasn't just poor customer service—it was genuinely dangerous. Avoid them at all costs for the following reasons:
• Mechanical Negligence: I was handed a vehicle with a pre-existing flat tire (which I had to pay to repair myself) and a critically low oil level that triggered warning lights within just one week of driving. This suggests they do not perform basic safety checks between rentals.
• Dangerous Technical Advice: When the low oil light came on, their official "solution" was for me to drive the vehicle on the motorway to their office. Any mechanic will tell you that driving with low oil pressure can cause catastrophic engine failure, potentially seizing the motor while at high speeds.
• Unprofessional Requirements: Instead of providing a replacement vehicle or roadside assistance, they expected me to perform manual maintenance (opening the bonnet, checking levels, and photographing components) to prove the car they provided was faulty.
• No Support: They refused to provide a replacement vehicle, effectively leaving me stranded with a car that was unsafe to operate.
The Bottom Line: This company prioritizes profit over passenger safety. Do not risk your money or your life—rent elsewhere

The worst experience I have ever had with a car rental company. Ever. Please AVOID these clowns !

After hours in a queue - no cars available - despite the reservation and paying up front.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

Can’t recommend Movida/Drive on Holidays car rental highly enough!
Sincerest thanks to their exceptional, friendly staff! 🫶
Collected and dropped off at P4 car park by their orange van.
Depot is a 2 minute journey. Spotless and staffed by fantastic people!
Hassle free car collection.
€70 refundable(depending on actual costs) deposit for toll fees and (comparatively, very reasonable) €1100 refundable deposit for damage.
Absolutely no hassle over excess insurance cover which was already purchased through the booking company as didn’t know cost of this with Movida.
Car had lot of minor damage due to lots of, obviously uncaring, drivers over its 40k kms lifetime but nothing noteworthy.
Drop off was also an absolute pleasure.
Given everything, I’m pretty embarrassed that the 16 car hire of a Fiat 500 was only £50! 🙈
Lot of unwarranted complaints caused by hirers not reading beforehand what they need to provide when hiring a car - especially a physical credit card! 🤦‍♂️

Extremely Disappointing Experience

I had a terrible experience with Movida SP-Brazil and would not recommend this company to anyone. I booked a rental car in advance with a pickup time of 8:00 am. There was no information anywhere in the booking terms or confirmation stating that the pickup time was strict or that the car would be cancelled if I arrived slightly later.

I arrived around 9:00 am, and instead of being flexible or helpful, the staff refused to release the car, claiming I was “late.” They showed no willingness to assist or offer a solution, even though I had already paid in full.

To make things worse, they refused to accept responsibility and tried to justify it with terms that were never shown at the time of booking. In the end, I paid for a service that I never received, simply because of poor communication and lack of transparency.

Overall, Movida demonstrated terrible customer service, zero flexibility, and misleading booking practices. I will not be renting from them again, and I strongly advise others to be cautious.

AVOID
Booked car rental through EasyJet and paid fully comprehensive insurance. Only to get to Lisbon and have this insurance declined saying theirs was the only option at 5 times the cost along with 2000€ upfront excess, also toll cover, vandalism cover etc.
Worst car rental experience I’ve ever experienced.

Web check in doesn’t work. When clicking the link you are taken to a blank page

The shuddlebus driver was driving outright dangerously and way too fast.

Waiting time was more than 1 hour. Less than half the counters were open.

It costs extra to return the car after 20:30 although they market themselves as an airport car rental company

When receiving the car the petrol tank was only half full.

Be aware they ask you “have you used us before?”
I said no and got mugged into signing for Vandalism coverage? Which we were led to believe was returnable,however they took the money almost immediately
After contacting Zest Auto who we rented from in England and many phone calls later, we managed to get the Vandalism cover taken off
We were told to come to the office at Faro for a refund for the days we had left
When we got there Pedro was the only person I would say who was helpful, but when I said do you want my card to refund the money he said no I can do it without it! Why didn’t someone tell me the first time I phoned? I could have saved myself time and money
Yes I got some of the money back, but I do believe Zest Autos should warn people about this company
They also charge you €70 just in case you use the toll road,most other companies charge €20 , although now I believe some do not charge at all as the A22 is now free

Would give zero really if i could we picked a car up in Fortaleza everything fine we were travelling around to Prea the next day we left our overnight stay at a hotel at 12 afternoon and arrived at our pre booked apartment in Ilha Do Guijera at 2 pm . that week we received 2 tickets from Movida saying we were stopped by police in Fortaleza one at 5.35pm the other at 5.37pm on same day when we were 200 kms away we have absolute proof from the hotel a receipt we checked in at 1.58 we also have meta data as proof from our pics , they took money out of our account two payments £127.57 £127.49 . Silly mistake by them is saying police stopped us for driving under a suspended license how ridiculous if that were true they would not have let us take the car from Movida the night before and also the police would have arrested us and definitely taken the car away, absolute scam look out for this in Movida Fortaleza.Will book through another company next time , fraud coming from a big company like that is disgraceful if they want more money just increase your daily charge don’t do this to good people . We rang them they put phone down repeatedly on us luckily i booked through booking.com they are dealing with it now, almost ruined my holiday FRAUDULENT COMPANY .

Booked a car at Lisbon, and at the rental they engaged in a hard sell of additional insurances to cover any exterior damage such as scratches - an additional €200. To remove the excess of €1,800 in the event of a claim we could pay another €200.
On return, we arrived at the rental before 8am and they wanted to charge an out of hours check-in fee, I proposed waiting in the car for a few minutes to avoid this, they then decided to waive it.
The 15 minute trip from accommodation meant a slightly less than full tank when we reached the rental and cost €32, most of which was an admin fee (€25). I Won't be using their services ever again.

Rented SUV highest tier and when I arrived to get the car, they had only a HUYNDAI which I accepted. Once I got into the car, it was the most basic possible version of the car. Not even an original computer board, bluetooth or a beep for reverse. They refunded me 5% of part of the payment in the end which was ridiculous.

STAY AWAY

FRAUD ALERT !!! STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY..They are completely unprofessional, they didn’t give me the car I rented because there were unexpected charges which was 2,500 on-top of 87 pounds insurance I didn’t receive my refund of 570 pounds which I paid and didn’t even get the car.