Drivalia UK - BRISTOL AIRPORT Reviews 

Great customer experience !
We received a warm welcome from Amir. I strongly recommend.

Thank you Simon! You saved the day! 💕

When picking my hire car up at Bristol airport , the place was in utter chaos and so many people were complaining.
I was NEVER ONCE offered to pay the £1500 deposit, which was refundable!!!
I was given the card terminal machine and £460 was on the screen, so I assumed it was cheaper because of the size of car that I had been given. Nothing was explained to me at all !!!
Yes I signed the machine, but amid the chaos and confusion I didn’t read it !! Actually how many of us do read everything??
On returning the car I find that my £460 was not refundable!!!!
I have put in 2 emails of complaint to Drivalia and all I get is basically….. well you signed it!!!!
I’m a single mum and was down South looking after my ill Dad for 3 weeks and can not afford to lose this kind of money.
I WILL NEVER BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY AGAIN!!!
They don’t care about their customers just the money!!

After seeing the reply below from Drivalia, they obviously didn’t read my experience above, as I've already sent 2 emails of complaint to their head office!!!
I have had no apology for not being offered to pay the refundable amount and they have said “Case Closed”
Unless this company REFUND me and show a bit of customer care, I will still stick by my honest REVIEW ABOVE !!!

Update: Don't be fooled by the reply from Drivalia posted below, I wrote my original review after contacting the Drivalia customer service and they confirmed that they work on a first-come-first-served basis and after one hour they will rent your prepaid car to someone else and not issue any refund.
Original review: If you prepay, 90% chance they will not have your car and refuse to give you a refund. They will use any excuse, like you got here too late even if you tried to let them know of the delay and even if you paid extra for cancellation protection. In the hours I spent there trying to get a car or at least my money back, other three clients arrived, all three had prepaid their rental and all three had to walk away with no car and no refund. They say it is all written in their policies, so they are thieves according to their policies.

Terribile experience! A scam! Our flight was 2 hours late at Bristol airport and when we got there the guy at Drivalia said that we were late, he was about to close, our car had been given away, he did not have our money to give it back. He was very rude. And while we were there other people came to get their car and the same happened to them! We all had to go rent something else from other rental companies last minute paying quite a bit more or risk having the holiday ruined

Drivalia Car Rental Bristol Airport - Poor Experience

I recently rented a car from Drivalia for the first time and had a disappointing experience from start to finish.

The process began poorly with a significant wait to collect the vehicle. I did not receive any pre-check-in information via email, which led to a long delay at the rental desk. The customer service from the desk staff was also a major issue; the employee I dealt with had a tough and unhelpful attitude.

The car I received was not the one I booked. I had reserved a VW Polo, but was instead given a much smaller MG3.

My biggest concern, however, was the condition of the car itself. When I turned it on, the tire pressure warning light was illuminated on the dashboard. I immediately returned to the desk to point this out, but the staff member was dismissive and told me to simply "ignore the warning light" and use the car. This response was completely unacceptable and left me feeling unsafe throughout my entire three-day journey.

Overall, the combination of poor customer service, a downgraded vehicle, and a serious lack of concern for my safety made this a very bad experience.

Not at all happy and cannot recommend this company.

I was meant to pick up my car at 10am. I arrived at 11:20 due to a mistake I made with the one hour time difference and the much longer than anticipated walk to their offices. They had given my car away and said that the only other option was to pay an extra £18 per day. They were rude, unhelpful, disrespectful and belligerent. Customer Service Representatives should not poke their fingers at you and argue with each other in front of you. Horrible people who shouldn’t be allowed to serve anyone. I went next door to @Greenmotion and they said that car companies usually have a 4 hour hold on cars and one hour was simply ridiculous. The staff at Green Motion, just 5 more steps down the road, were kind, courteous, professional and found me a car even though they were exceptionally busy and short of cars. I will never use Drivalia again and will ensure that no one else I know does. Disgraceful service, utterly awful people.

Excellent service by amir really recommend this guy his brilliant

Amir was exceptional and gave us the best customer service we could ever ask for.

Deffo recommend Drivalia Bristol Aiport

We had a very good experience. Simon (the branche manager) made a big effort to support us in anyway he could. I would recommend renting here.

Honest and cost effective company near Bristol airport. Both the pick-up and the drop-off were spotless. staff is kind. the car was also quite good with only minor stain to the upholstery but for the price unbeatable. I will use them again.

I'm writing this review as a warning to others. I booked the car through VIP Cars. I've hired cars with other companies before and I recall that because I don't use the PIN on my credit card - I only ever use it for online purchases and so I've long forgotten the PIN number - they were able to do a transaction that sent me a OTP to my phone and we got the car booked out on my credit card this way. Drivalia though said no, they absolutely could not do that, and they also absolutely could not book the car out on a debit card either unless I paid for what is very expensive daily insurance. In the end I had little choice, either catch a bus with luggage and try to sort out a hire car elsewhere or just pay up. The fee ended up over double the price of the online reservation price. I know they have a policy that says your have to present a credit card, but to refuse any method of using the credit other than the PIN seemed petty considering I've been able to use it elsewhere before and so it just felt like a method to get me to pay for their overpriced excess insurance.
If you have any doubt about how this company deals with issues have a look at the copy and paste reply to each and every 1 star review on here. They never responded to my simple request for a copy of the hire agreement to be issued to me. In the phone they told me it was available on their website when I log in, it wasn't, so I messaged them on their online system and never heard a thing from them. Like others have said, I tried them, but I'll stick to the reputable companies in future.

Nous avons été accueillis à Bristol par Gill qui a été très professionnel et très agréable
Un grand sens de l’humour et un sens du service exceptionnel !
Nous tenions à le souligner
Ce loueur de voiture est très bien
Nous avons loué de Bristol et ensuite nous avons voyagé jusqu’au pays de galles.
Nous repasserons pas cette compagnie

The experience was good. Mila and Amir are great.

Had to extend car hire at Bristol airport on Sunday 22nd June and add a driver. The gentleman at the desk couldn’t have been more helpful and polite. Very good service well done

The staff are always helpful and attentive. I make a point of returning to this venue

great, helpful staff

Amir was fantastic!

First time using Drivalia and I would highly recommend. Check in and return process was exceptional. Amir was very attentive, friendly and very accommodating when I needed to return slightly later than planned.

The car itself was clean and a good standard.

Thank you for the great service.

The guy called Amir at the Bristol air port branch was the rudest person I've met in a long time. To be frank he was a liar, he tried to con another £25 a day for our 10 day hire on top of the near £700 rental agreement just because we were 3/4 of an hour late to pick up the car we had already paid for (despite us ringing him and emailing him to let them know we were running late). An absolute con. Avoid at all costs. We ended up not being given our hire car despite paying for it a second time. We managed after 2 hours of listening to lies to get our money back when he was threatening with us calling the police. Again avoid this liar at all costs.

AVOID. They failed to explain all the details clearly and due to an issue with my credit card I ended up being forced to pay an additional sum of over £200 to get the car in order to get to an important meeting. They advertise low prices but they end up the same as others with better service.
On returning the car they listed a parcel shelf at £250 as damaged after we left the compound. We didnt touch it at all. AVOID.

EDIT. I received an email saying that the £250 charge for the parcel shelf was a mistake on their part. Had I not raised the issue I doubt the "mistake" would have come to light. Still wouldnt use them again as the overall experience falls well short of whats expected