Drivalia UK - BIRMINGHAM INTL AIRPORT Reviews 

Drivalia still refuse to refund the money they stole from me.
This company cannot be trusted and should never be used.

The rental car was OK off airport location was slow due to delay in their collecting us. by shuttle transfer 7 days after handing car back "all fine" and their still holding £1500 security deposit ? why are they doing this . THIEVES

UPDATE again checking bank and 9 days after return of car Drivalia are still holding on to deposit despite telling me they have authorised its release. Hire from these at your risk .

2nd UPDATE says 72 hours to release and 10 business days for your bang to return now 15 business days and nothing THEY ARE THIEVES

What a load of drivel. Turned up on time queued for 10 minutes to be told I was 10 minutes late and my car had been given away therefore I had to pay more. I went online and booked the exact same car “on time” and was told I was rude therefore they were cancelling my booking. Absolutely ridiculous and disgusting. Didn’t offer me a substitute car.

Great service from Gil and the team at Birmingham Airport. Great communication and they picked me up at the terminal. No hassle collecting or returning the car. Had to walk back to the airport on dropping off the car but it’s a short walk to the terminal (12 mins)

Drivalia were fantastic in my last experience with them. I had a car reserved with Motion Green, but the software system they use to check for ID in that company decided that my name didn't match my face and home address!!!! I'm not making this up, although I actually own that house.

Anyway, I went back to the dealer through which I made the initial booking (VIP Cars) and their agent was very helpful and found a new booking for me with Drivalia. When I got to the Drivalia office near Birmingham Airport I dealt with Afee Noor, and he was extremely helpful and polite. He moved things around to accommodate my request on the Easter Bank Holiday and got me a really good car. I nearly lost the trip I had planned with my family because of what happened earlier, but Afee Noor made sure that our plans remained intact and we all enjoyed a nice break thanks to his willingness to help and accommodate my need in a short time on a bank holiday. Thank you mate you're an example of the type of agents that I hope to be dealing with every day.

I hired a car from Drivalia earlier this year and was shocked to discover it had a strong smell of cannabis. I didn’t notice this until I was already on a journey to Stoke, but once it became apparent, it was overwhelming. When I phoned to report the issue, the staff admitted they were aware of it and had simply tried to "air the car out" rather than replacing the cabin filters or properly sanitising the vehicle.

To make matters worse, there was visible cannabis residue in the cup holders and door pockets — clear evidence that the vehicle had not been cleaned properly.

I raised a formal complaint through their system and received no response for over a month. It was only after contacting them directly that I finally received a vague, generic message offering a free upgrade next time — which is irrelevant, as I won’t be renting from them again.

I also had to buy cleaning products myself just to make the car usable. Despite including this in my original complaint, I had to chase them repeatedly before they agreed to refund the cost — and even then, they asked me to wait up to 28 days.

The whole experience suggests a serious lack of care in vehicle preparation and a dismissive attitude toward customer complaints. Frankly, it feels as though branch-level staff may be trying to avoid escalating problems to senior management.

Avoid this company if you want clean, properly maintained vehicles and customer service that actually follows through.

It was a great experience! Everything was origised, they Will pick you up from the airport and they Will bring you back when your holliday is over. All the people are very friendly and helpful. The only tip i give; your name is not visible enough when you leave the airport. There are a lot of carrentals named, but yours was missing. It was hard to find the right place. But when we called, we were helper very well and brought to the right place.

Afee Noor is a great and friendly man! Who helps with everything.

Drivalia took my payment then cancelled the car hire 20 minutes before it was due to start whilst I was on my way to collect the car. They claimed they had no cars available and it was a system error. promised full refund but have kept my money. They have failed to respond to my complaints. I have been forced to issue a court claim to get it back. It is surprisingly easy to bring a claim through the money claims online system and I recommend anyone with similar issues tries this approach.

UPDATE FOLLOWING DRIVALIA REPLY
I have already used your portal to complain twice and you have not even had the courtesy of a reply to either message let alone had the refund promised by your staff or any other resolution. Your reply to my review is just your standard response so that it looks like you take complaints seriously. I would be a fool to believe that doing the same thing again, i.e. complaining through your portal, is likely to lead to a different outcome to that received in my previous two complaints.

Ryan and RAF always helpful. Thanks guys

We flew in and rented 3 cars from the Birmingham branch. Ryan was really helpful would definitely use drivalia again

Arriving in Birmingham from Australia meant having to figure out if I had all the documents I needed to hire a car, Gill at the Birmingham office made the whole process easy, having already tried to hire a car at another company I arrived at Drivalia without a booking and was unsure how successful I would be - Gill not only found a car but upgraded me to a better vehicle which was amazing, Gill explained the whole process, gave me a really great price and I was quickly on my way, if you are looking to hire a car you can use the app to book from anywhere and upload all the information making the whole process seemless, if you need a car, Drivalia are the best, and if you speak to Gill he will surely get you a great deal

Booked a pre paid rental for a week at Birmingham Airport coming back from holiday as my car in repair- rental price was 146GBP. Called that we are arriving 2h late because of flight delays and spoke to Drivalia central office who told me no problem they change the rental time from 10am to 1pm. Arrived at noon to pick up the car just to find out my car was given away to someone else because I have not arrived within 60mins of original contracted time, even though IT WAS PREPAID FOR A WEEK, I WAS TOLD if I want a different car I have to pay 170GBP extra, could not obtain a refund- was told to write to customers service to claim for refund- this will last 30 working days to being looked into- its been a week and I have no confirmation anyone even read it. The morning after I took a car out from Hertz instead and will be taking those Drivalia scammers to Trading Standards if its not sorted in another week. dont be tempted by lower price - avoid, at least Birmingham branch- SCAM Behaviour

I’d give them a zero if I could!!! Still waiting for my refund! Branch manager - sort yourself out and refund me please. This has been going on since January!!! All your emails saying that you will refund.. then you don’t do it! Would never ever use your company again!

This company does lure you in with cheap prices....however, there is tons of fine print & hidden charges, so read. If you do not have a debit card, they sting you a further £200. They practically wanted to see my whole life as identity, a drivers licence...I had to up load a bank statement or utility bill as my drivers licence with address was not enough. The front desk guys were fine, but the after rental service appalling. Un be known to me I received a parking ticket....I was out of the country in December, this company did not notify me by phone, text or email but attempted to take £55 off my debit card which had been lost so was declined. No communication, I then returned to country saw a parking notice at my house from a third party, as I did not receive this for 6 weeks, it had escalated to over £100. This was paid immediately, next month I have a debt collection service on my doorstep demanding £75 for an admin fee for Drivalia. Admin fee for what? They did not attempt to contact me once, and if they did, I would not be out of pocket £175. Ringing them, no one could help, writing to them got 1 response said they would look into it, then nothing! Their Debt collection agency does not even contact you. So be warned, stay away from this company, you will get alot more than you bargained for!!!

Huge fees, hidden charges and still getting charged weeks later definitely don't use

Office is not on airport. They arrived in a van promptly to pick us up, but when we got to the office they didn't have any of the compact cars we'd booked left, and palmed us off with a tiny VW Go. They then charged me an extra £80 because my licence had some old penalty points on it (this is never asked when you book & pay). Then, when we arrived back with the car at the end of the rental they had nobody available to take us to the airport so we had to walk. Pretty poor overall, which is a shame as I specifically went to them after using Drivalia at Girona Airport (Costa Brava) where they were excellent. I won't be using them again. 👎

The guys at the birmingham branch are always helpful, nothings ever too much. Have ALWAYS been looked after. I've been using this company on & off for a few years now and I'd definitely recommend them.

I booked a Mini Electric car through the third-party website Discover Cars and arrived at the supplier office, Drivalia UK, to pick it up. However, this company requires a high deposit and insists on accepting only credit cards with embossed numbers.

In the UK, most banks now issue credit cards without embossed numbers. I presented two credit cards issued by UK banks, but the Drivalia UK receptionist refused to accept them, claiming that it was my problem for not having an embossed card. (How is that my fault? I don’t control how banks issue cards!) They weren’t even using old roll-over card processing machines, so this requirement seemed like an excuse to reject customers booking through third-party websites.

As a result, Drivalia refused to honor my original booking and instead offered a different rental plan at 2.5 times the original price.

The entire experience felt like a scam. As I left the counter, I overheard another staff member trying to sell the same overpriced rental plan to another customer. This made me suspect that this is their standard sales tactic:

1. Advertise a low rental price to attract bookings.
2. Refuse to accept the customer’s credit card using a made-up excuse.
3. Offer an alternative rental plan at a significantly higher price.

This seems like a dishonest business model. Be aware—do not book with Drivalia!

BEWARE!! You will end up paying far more than you thought. I booked and paid for a car rental at Birmingham airport in October 2024. Upon pick up, I said I had adequate insurance cover for the excess so did not require full insurance. I had my credit card used on many other occasions for this purpose. I was told that my card was declined so I needed to pay for the insurance cover. We tried three times. I needed the car and as the pick up site was off site (not at the airport) there was no other option than to pay. I checked my bank account and the credit card authorisation had gone through as normal - three times. I asked for a refund after sending them the proof of the three transactions but the customer service is non existant. I tried to go to the ombudsman but of course (as I needed the car and needed to sign the contract to get it) they couldn't do anything as they had a signed contract. I ended up paying three times the original cost of the rental. I think they are operating a scam and have urged the ombudsman to investigate them further. Look at other review sites - they generally get terrible reviews and quite a lot of them are for the same issue that I had.

I had booked the car via the Easyjet website. Upon arrival at the rental check in desk, I was asked for the paper copy of my UK driving licence. As I did not have this, I was asked to make contact with NI Direct to obtain a share code for my driving licence. I had difficulty obtaining the code. In order to have the car released to me, I had to pay £140.00.
I had hired a van from this Company in April 2024 and was not asked for the paper copy of my licence or a share code. This appears in my opinion to be double standards.
I was advised that this was a new ruling.
I had hired a car in October 2024 from another Company and was not asked for the paper copy of my licence or a share code.
I think this Company needs to move with the times and stop asking for paper copies of UK driving licences.
A disgruntled customer who is out of pocket to the tune of £140.00 that I have no recourse to a refund even though there was nothing mentioned about this amount. Renters beware.