Friendly service

I booked Passat or similar and Europcar was trying to give me a compact car (Volvo V40), claiming that they don't have anything bigger. After my complains, they offered me Peugeot 3008, which was still way smaller than Passat, but we fit our luggage there (carrying one of the bags on the back seat). I hate when companies offer something which they cannot provide. I booked my trip ~1 month in advance, so they had enough time to prepare themselves. On a good side: the car I got was almost brand new - just 300 miles on its meter and it was very well equipped.

The small car that we hired wasn’t available on arrival. Infact there were no cars available! The next available car was given to someone else who was waiting. We eventually ended up with a large Volvo V40 which was very thirsty on diesel. We hadn’t bargained on this extra expense!

We arrived slightly early but the Europcar guy was friendly and went out of his way to help us get away as quickly as possible. It would have been five stars if the guy hadn't then tried to sell us excess insurance (which we already had). This made the whole thing slightly uncomfortable, which was a major shame as otherwise it would have been perfect. Please can Europcar train its people not to clumsily up-sell insurance to its customers? It seems to be endemic in the sector, unfortunately. I want to be left alone to make my own decisions about what insurance I buy, not frightened into buying Europcar's insurance!