Car Hire at London Gatwick Airport

Friendly helpful staff, great clean car

Very easy pickup process. Slight confusion at return since they were in the process of moving to a new location. Should be better in future as they are now at the terminal rather than offsite.

Problematic drop off

Car rental desk was closed at the terminal I landed at. I had to catch a train to the other terminal which took about half an hour. Staff got confused sorting out the rental because it was priced in US dollars, but I was renting the car in England and paying in New Zealand dollars. That took two people about another half hour. The car I rented had an issue with the gearbox making it difficult to engage first gear sometimes, even though it only had 36,000 miles on the clock. When I returned the car there was no one at the yard to receive it. Another customer turned up at the same time and both of us spent about ten minutes trying to find staff members to take the keys and sign off the returns. Eventually, two mechanics came back to the workshop and told us we had to walk to the rental office to return the keys. Walking there and dealing with that took another ten minutes. I will not rent with Budget from Gatwick again. The price was also outrageous. I could have bought a small car for that amount.

Very good value for money, quick efficient service, was just really quite pleased overal.

The gentleman at the pick up was rude and arrogant. I have rented often from Europcar in Britain and have never had such rude service. I arrived early for the pick up and was made to wait 2 hours for a car which was already on the lot and unclean. He kept requesting that I upgrade my insurance or provide, by snail mail, a copy of my insurance policy or I would not be allowed to drive the car off the lot. I might add, he did indeed have a waiver form on site for this situation. He blatantly accused myself and daughter of being racist for not wanting to deal with him when my 2 hour penalty for being early was expired - simply did not want to aggravate an already horrid experience. I asked for a supervisor and was told he was the supervisor. The car return was easy and very pleasant.

Picking up the vehicle in Gatwick was easy. What wasn't great was being told the vehicle had no insurance just the rental cost was done with Kayak. I had to pay nearly the same price as the rental for the insurance before they would let me leave with the vehicle. The vehicle was an older car 2019 with marks and scratches all over it. Near bald worn-out tires on the front and what sounded like metal to metal (brake pads worn out) on the front brakes. Having to stop right away after pick up and fill it with windshield washer fluid shows that they hadn't even looked at it before sending it straight out on another rental. I won't be using Europcar again.

great customer service from eurostar