Drivalia UK - LONDON STANSTED AIRPORT Reviews 

Please avoid using Drivalia Stansted for car hire. Pay a bit extra and go to one of the well known companies instead, it will definitely be worth your while. Drivalia’s prices look very good but their system seems very nicely set up to squeeze more money out of you if you’re not careful, and you get the bonus of dealing with horribly rude staff as well.
Among the problems I have had from only TWO visits there: demanding that I sign the existing damage sheet without being given any chance to inspect the car, being given a car with a warning light on the display panel (‘It’ll be fine, don’t worry’), and finally, some of the rudest, most incompetent staff I have ever met at a car hire company. One lady in particular has a very interesting attitude to customer relations. On my first visit she was a bit abrupt with me but I just assumed she was having a bad day, so I let it go. On my second visit I found out that being an awful person is actually her default setting.
On my last visit there, my flight had arrived early and I got through passport control at Stansted really quickly, so I arrived almost an hour earlier than my scheduled pickup time at Drivalia. When I entered their office I explained that I was a bit early and is there any chance that the car is available? NO IT’S NOT. Oh. Well, ok, it’s my fault but how about I come back in half an hour, would that be okay? NO. This same lady bluntly insisted that I come back at my allocated time, without making any effort to check and see if the car might be ready. COME BACK IN AN HOUR. Then after a pause she offered me a different car that I could take immediately, and quoted a price for it. I was a little confused because this was actually lower than the original daily rate I’d agreed to. She saw the puzzled look on my face and actually sighed impatiently and ROLLED HER EYES at me. So I started by asking “I’m sorry, I’m just a bit confused because...” at which point, she and her colleague gave each other a look and sniggered at me like a pair of schoolkids. It turns out that the price she was quoting me was on top of the original price, which makes sense, but she hadn’t originally clarified that. It seems that they were basically assuming that I was a bit stupid and had never set foot in a car hire place before. Well, not like this one I hadn’t. So to avoid any more unpleasantness I just gave up, told them I’d wait for my time slot and went away for a cup of coffee.
I did eventually get my car but apparently I upset them by asking if I could check it first before I signed the damage report. You know, just the normal standard practice at professional car hire companies. Then I had to take a bit more lip and impatient sighing from Employee of the Year before I got the keys, but at this point I had decided to grit my teeth, get through this awful experience and leave as quickly as possible.
So that was my experience at Drivalia Stansted. If you absolutely have to use them for car hire, be careful what you sign, and take a video of the car, not just photographs. They’re an awful company and I can honestly say that I would rather build sandcastles out of dog poo than go anywhere near them again.

Terrible experience. Picked up car at night in the dark, not shown round the car, on return staff went over the car with a fine tooth comb, hoovering and washing it while I waited, to then proudly tell me that there was a minor scuff on the alloy (no sign of a scuff on the tyre). £150 for the scuff and an £80 admin fee! Not sure what the admin fee was for! Maybe a wee reward for staff finding something. Then vat added, all in £260. I felt pressured into signing to pay for this at the time as we (and most people will be) were heading to catch a flight. It felt that because I didn’t take out extra insurance and the initial hire price was low that they were determined to find something. I will be asking for costings and proof of repair, however I doubt that wheel is ever getting fixed. Be aware t’s and c’s state ANY damage no matter how small will be charged. My advice would be avoid, however if you are going with them go over that car very carefully before driving off. And if you are driving a 25 plate Skoda from Stansted, check the drivers side alloy for a tiny scuff cause it may cost you if you miss it.

I booked Drivalia via Ryanair. My flight was delayed I landed at the exact pickup time. As soon as I got through passports and baggage collection I called the office and explained I had been delayed and was on my way. This was 57 minutes after the pick up time. So within what I considered as an hour grace period. I arrived at the office to be told my car had been given to someone else I had to re book the cost of the re-booking was 3 times as much as the original booking price. That I had also paid for in advance. I complained and was told that because I did not pick up the car at the time agreed the car was given away and there was nothing I could do about the situation. A refund was totally out of the question. So this means that if you book Drivalia you cant be late or it will cost you 3 times as much and you cant even call to say you are late and on your way due to a delayed flight. I have used Drivalia a few times but never again they are inflexible and lacking an understanding of customers being delayed they are just trying to make money.

Thanks for your reply I did raise a case via my booking as you suggested the branch manager replied nothing could be done and the case was closed. I would have expected that either the original booking amount or the extra booking was refunded.

avoid this company at all costs. Booked car in December 2025 at Stansted, uk and it took them almost an hour to process my booking. At the end of this, was told that my booking had been cancelled and I had to book another car. With family and a 2 month old baby the only option was to rent another car and pay again.

Certainly will be avoiding them in future!!

Mehmet Marius and Yamna were super nice and helped us out a lot. Can highly recommand

Be careful! It's a total scam! You'll end up paying more, and to save a bit, they'll force you to leave positive reviews. In our case, it was Sergio. Highly discouraged!

First time user, usually have used one of the Car Hire centre guys. Very pleasant and efficient service from Sergio, would recommend

We feel that we were royally scammed by this car hire company. We rented and paid for a car to pick up at the Drivalia car hire deal desk at Stansted airport. We had our own car excess policy. We presented our credit card for the deposit. However, we were then told that we needed to have 3 months on our credit cards and that they could not take our deposit and that we had to pay for 4 days insurance at ST30 per day. We felt we had no choice but to pay this ST120 in order to carry on with our journey.

Yamna was excellent ! Helped me with my car pick up was very friendly and professional ! Will be using this place all the time now!

Sergio was superb with his service

⭐☆☆☆☆
Flight delayed by 1 hour, then forced to wait 4 hours at the car rental desk. Offered a car four times more expensive for extra pay but refused by us, then left with no car and no refund. We also paid extra for transfer from desk to terminal and lost 4 hours of our holiday. Booked another car from other car rental. Completely unprofessional and not recommended.

Good service as always
Car could be a bit newer

Absolutely terrible experience with Drivalia from start to finish. Flight was delayed by 2 hours so they cancelled our booking (despite having already paid for the vehicle) and made us pay the full rental again to take a similar car. The vehicle they gave us was 300miles overdue a service (warning light on dash) and there was no oil in it so it broke down on our last day and required lengthy call out. Miracle we didn’t miss our flight but Really spoilt our last day of holiday. Car itself was quite old and below usual standard of rental cars. There’s a reason they are the cheapest! False economy. Beware

Yamna in the branch is a super helpful person she is quick and efficient

Quick & easy, no problems at all

We had a car from 1st January until the 5th January.
The lovely lady Yamna dealt with us and gave us our car.
A lovely Skoda Scalia which was new, very easy to drive and spotlessly clean.
Will definitely use them again.

It was very quick and great service, definitely coming back. The workers there are very lovely and helpful specially kamila

I wish I'd read these other reviews before hiring through Drivalia. I booked through Booking.com (Drivalia is a rental partner) at their Stansted Airport branch. Great price and backed by a respectable brand (Booking.com) - what could go wrong!? Well, the classic credit card scam - "Sorry, your credit card is not working" - this is despite using the chip and pin 2 mins earlier in the BP garage 100m down the road. They then give you two options: 1. choose another rental company (but it's too late to get a refund) or 2. purchase their deposit waiver insurance. Given it was late in the day and I had a deadline, I chose to take the deposit waiver (£87 "reduced to £63"). On returning the car and dropping the keys at their office, I then saw another customer going through the same issue with a different Drivalia agent. When I confronted the agent that there were no issues with our cards, he simply said "your issue was different" despite not knowing who I was at that point. I've no doubt these agents get a bonus or kickback for selling the additional insurance, but they are clearly doing this in a fraudulent way. Do not rent with them.