Europcar in Vila Nova de Gaia

Fantastic location, excellent staff, good range of vehicles available in site.

I got scammed, unfortunately. My card, which was not even used for the booking, was randomly charged. Luckily, I found out quite quickly that it was charged and I created a dispute + contacted the office to understand what the charge was for. They didn't answer the phone 5 out of 5 times. After many emails back and forth, they apologised and initiated a refund. Terrible communication.

Very helpful staff and respectful. Old car with mire than 100k milage, deformed seats because of usage and not working apple car play. Not fair price for this quality.

Everything worked very well. We booked the car very spontaneous and just for one day. They gave us a nice car. You need a credit card on the name of the main driver! The car had a thing for the tolls pre-installed so it was easy to get through the toll point ( there a quite a few in Portugal). Return was easy as well. You can take the tram from Porto so it's quite easy to get there. It is located inside the shopping center. You have to go inside and take the elevator to -2 (it is a small counter on a floor where they sell luggage).

We booked a car, but when we arrived to pick it up at Lisbon Airport, they said they didn't have it available. The fine print stated they should offer a similar car if the exact one isn't available, but they offered us a much more expensive option instead. Additionally, the minimum insurance we selected online was deemed unacceptable by the staff member. We had booked a second driver, but upon arrival, we were told that the second driver needed to be present in person; the documentation we provided wasn't sufficient. There was no information about this requirement online. The experience felt pushy. We just wanted to pick up the car, not argue about additional charges. The drop-off location at Europcar Vila Nova De Gaia in Porto was very difficult to find. It took us 35 minutes to locate it, as there were no proper signs. For future customers, use the entrance on Rua de Raimundo de Cardalho. We tried calling customer service for assistance, but no one answered. On a positive note, the car was clean, and the staff member handling our drop-off was friendly and helpful.

We rented a car in Lisboa and wanted to return it in Porto. Everything was ok with the car. But finding the right place to return it was a horrible trip. Google maps didn't show that the place is located in the parking garage. The solution is to understand that ,,Piso" in the address means ,,floor". Well, after having entered the garage there was no sign that led us to floor -2. We felt like Harry Potter, searching gate 9-3/4. Also signs to ,,Europcar" were missing. We were wandering through different areas and were suddenly outside of the building. After a new trial with entering floor -3 (not logical at all!) and then asking a man for help, we were told the right way. All in all, it took more than half an hour with traffic jam and a lot of stress. Please, add more signs!

The staff there is very helpful and kind. We needed a car very last minute and they did their best to give us a good deal. Special thanks to Maurice for his efforts! We will keep this in mind when we visit Porto again.

In short, they don't care about safety!! 1) In the middle of Covid, they handed over a car without cleaning after the previous passengers. 2) They provide a child seat WITHOUT Isofix... the child seat we got looks like from the 90s', without isofix, and I'm pretty sure none of the employees would use this for their kids. The long story even worse, they confirmed a car with child seat from 10 am on 6th Oct, but they didn't have the child seat (without which you cannot travel legally with your kid in Portugal). So I had to reshuffle our entire trip... then I returned at 9 pm in the evening at the same day (as discussed), so we had a car, and the child seat. But the car was not cleaned neither inside nor outside and it was not fully tanked either. It still smell of the previous passengers. The child seat is very old, not up to safety standards in 2021 in Europe. Totally disappointing, this unit should not use Europcar brand. I travel a lot (for business) and never had such a terrible experience, and low level of standards. Of course the company didn't offer any compensation, and not even an explanation why did this all happen...