Europcar Funchal Airport in Santa Cruz

External mirror glass not cleaned. Front windshield dirty on the inside. We arrived at the airport on the last flight, which was on schedule, but despite this, everyone was charged a surcharge of about 65 EUR for late service from 00:00 to 01:00. It was known in advance, but unpleasantly high price for that, considering that there were 5 customers. Quite an expensive hourly rate.

I had an extremely negative experience with this car rental company and would strongly advise against using them. From the start, the staff at the counter were unhelpful and rude. They refused to assist us when we encountered an issue with our credit card, even though the card worked perfectly fine with another rental company. It turned out the problem was on their end, which wasted a whole day of our vacation. This lack of customer service and the unnecessary inconvenience they caused left me incredibly frustrated. I would recommend looking for alternative car rental options.

I am very happy with the service! I was in Madeira and had an unforgettable experience driving a small Fiat 500. The car is in very good condition, but there were signs of use (scratches and small dents). In order for you to have no problems when returning the car, take detailed photos or video before you take it. When we returned the car, we were asked if we took photos, I showed a video that showed the damage, and we got the entire deposit back without any problems. Also, we were offered a more powerful car, because the roads in Madeira are very steep, but having enough experience driving a car, even a small Fiat 500 coped with any ascents and descents. But, do not expect from it the power of a Dodge (I have a Dodge at home). This is a pleasant experience and a good attitude of the staff. Also, I want to note that I really liked the policy of the Goldcar company. Our flight from Lisbon was delayed for more than an hour, we contacted the staff and were assured that the car would be waiting for us until midnight! Whereas, the previous time we booked a car at Faro airport, and there was a similar situation, our car was given to another client, but it was a different rental company.

DO NOT rent from this company. They are a scam. My group rented two cars from them. They were in usual rental car shape. Meaning a few scratches here and there. Otherwise it was a fine car. The two returned several hours apart. On both returns they charged us for scratches that we did not put on the car. After returning home we got a bill for over 400 Euros. Don't rent here. they will steal from you. If you do, you better have detailed video and pics of every inch of the car.

AVOID RENTING HERE! THEY WILL CHARGE FOR DAMAGE YOU DO NOT CAUSE. My husband and I rented a vehicle from here for 5 days. We travel for work and rent cars often so we knew to take a video of the car before we left the lot. The process for renting was pretty typical although their customer service was sub-optimal. They could not be bothered to help with locating the car in the lot and it as well as every other car was pretty dusty/dirty. We returned the car full of gas on time with no damage. They tried to charge us EUR270 for a scratch. OUR FRIEND RUBBED THE SCRATCH OFF BECAUSE IT WAS DIRT. They did the same thing to our other friends that rented another vehicle. You can clearly see in their pre and post rental pictures that any and all scratches were already on the vehicle, but they are having to dispute almost EUR500 of damage a week later. It seems from other reviews this is common practice. IF I COULD GIVE THEM 0 stars I would.

BEWARE! Take way more pictures and videos than necessary to prove at the end that you didn't cause any damage to the car which is already damaged. Luckily, we had a lot of pictures and videos of the car, but they still claimed that we had scratched the back door of the car. While I was searching for videos and pictures we took when we rented it, my friend reached down and was able to erase the "scratch" with his finger. Had this not happened, I am fairly confident they would've dismissed our evidence and still charged us 270 euro they said was required to fix it. I will never rent from this company again as my friends had a very similar experience and are still contesting a "scratch" they are trying to charge them for. The cars in general were full of scratches and dents as can be seen in the pictures so it is very hard to prove which were there and which are new.

THEY WILL TRY AND CHARGE YOU HUNDREDS OF EUROS FOR "DAMAGE". I rented a vehicle through Europcar Funchal Airport. The rental was fine. Upon returning the vehicle they stated there was new "damage". I was shocked and said "where?" The lady pointed to a barely visible scratch and said "here". I had video on my phone of the before and after and the scratch cannot be seen in either. The vehicle was also very dirty at the time of pickup and had multiple small scratches. I've rented vehicles hundreds of times for work and leisure and have never had an issue before. She said I must talk to the rental counter to resolve the "damage". I went to the rental counter and they had an estimate printed out for 537EUR. I said I refused to pay for damage I did not cause. He said the minimum they would accept was 170EUR and I declined again. He said that Europcar would email me, and they did, asking for 463,07EUR. I sent them the photos and an awaiting their reply, but this seems like a scam. The other party we were with rented and returned a few hours earlier than us and warned us that they went through the same thing, again, for a scratch that was not visible in either their check out or check in photos/videos. The damage on my vehicle was supposed to be on the passenger rear door. I attached the photos taken at return. Update Oct, 11, 2024 I went to the link posted by Europcar in their response to my review and filled out all of the forms because I still have not received a reply from my email disputing the damages and I keep receiving the message "Sorry, your request couldn't be sent". I added a picture of the message.

My friends and I just got back from a week long vacation in Madeira. It was wonderful, but a car was definitely necessary to be able to see the many amazing sights of the island. After reading through reviews, we went with Europcar - and very happy we did! Their office is located inside the airport (you'll pass it as you exit the baggage claim area). The line to pick up the car was a bit long (about 45 minutes?), but all of the staff seemed to be working as quick as they could to keep the line moving. They did not try to upcharge us or sell us things we didn't want (we already arranged for rental insurance coverage prior to arrival) and they were extremely friendly. Picking up the car from the lot was easy, and drop off was just as easy as well. If we plan another vacation here, I would happily rent from them again. Thank you!