Rental Car Counter: Advice To Prevent Getting Ripped Off

None. I always go with a major company. The representative will tell you about additional coverages, but have never pressured me to purchase them. Additional coverages vary between companies and can be items such as, zero deductible, windshield, road hazard to cover tires, and personal injury protection.

I always use AutoEurope (a broker) for my rental needs in Italy, many people here do the same.
www.autoeurope.com

After you select your vehicle, with pick up and drop off location you will be prompted to select the insurance coverage you want.

BASIC PLUS (included at no extra cost):
Liability Insurance
Fire Insurance
Collision Damage Waiver (CDW)
Theft Protection (TP)

PARTIAL PROTECTION:
Adds Refundable Deductible to the Basic (I think it's an extra $5-6 a day). Deductible is 1,000€ with most rental companies.

FULL PROTECTION: The highest level at about $12-13 a day. (this one is the one I like to get). To the previous level it adds the following, which are generally not covered otherwise:
Wheels, Glass, Roof and Undercarriage Damage Coverage
Windscreen, Mirrors, External Lights and Lamps
Roadside Repairs and Towing Costs
Key Cover & Lockout

Your credit card may reimburse you for the deductible, if you don't purchase the Partial or Full Protection plans above, but you need to check with your credit card, as not all credit card companies do so in Italy.

What kind of upselling has anyone been hit with at the counter? For
example, hidden fees, local taxes, etc ?

None. We always book thru AutoEurope.com with Full Insurance/No Deductible.

Make sure all drivers have an IDP- required by law and last few times we rented in Italy the rental desk asked for it. We saw others being turned away because they did not have.

Others have covered the protection issues well here. The only issue I generally run into at ticket counters is reserving a small car and showing up at the location and they only have some collection of SUVs and/or large sedans. They will fall all over themselves to act like they are giving a "free upgrade in car class" and seem puzzled when you actually want the small car you reserved.

The only time I was pleasantly surprised was when I showed up to pick up my small car in Burgundy and was offered any of the three SUVs they had in stock. The clerk whispered "Take the Alfa Romeo." Driving the Alfa Romeo SUV was like driving a small, nimble car that was also somehow a spaceship from the future. Usually they are 'economy' SUVs that I hate driving on small roads like I had had on my previous rental in Provence. But if you get a chance to drive the Alfa take it.

Think about navigation and/or the ability to sync your phone's navigation with the car systems. The upper end rentals usually include this but having driven in rural France and Italy without it in he old days and now with it I cannot recommend it enough. Also see if they can switch it to English before you leave the lot for added help.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Adding to what Tod says.
SUVs that you will be offered, are not the huge vehicles you may see in the US
The most common are Jeep Renegade, Jeep Compass, Fiat500X, Jeep Avenger, Opel Mokka, Peugeot2008.
They are all manufactured by the Stellantis group for the European market (the first 3 manufactured in Italy, the 4th in Poland, the last 2 in Spain), and especially the Jeeps are very popular in Italy. Obviously when you select a car, they might give you that model OR EQUIVALENT. That is standard procedure everywhere in the world.
They are not that big at all, so you won't have issues navigating to the places you are going. I actually recommend a small SUV for the Dolomites (the more power the better).
If you have 4 people with luggage, then I recommend a station wagon (often appearing in the same category) as the aforementioned small SUV have limited cargo space, while station wagons have a lot. Obviously the station wagons are longer, so they may present some challenges for parallel parking in tight spaces, but I can guarantee you that most parking lot have stalls where you have to park perpendicular to the curb, therefore the length of the vehicle is never an issue. In the historical centers of many towns the streets are very narrow, but nowadays those city centers are all closed to cars, except for residents with permit, so you can't even try to enter there, unless you like to receive a hefty fine later.
I generally rent SUVs or Station Wagons (same category in the AutoEurope website and not that much more expensive than compact or economy)

While not specific to La Spezia car rental pick-up, it is Italy related. (FYI, we are very well travelled, including renting cars.)

In 2018 my husband and I booked (paid in advance) a 9-day Group F class (Nissan Qashqui or similar) car rental through Budget online. When we went to pick up our rental car from Rome Campiano airport (drop off in Venice), we handed the Budget agent our pre-paid paperwork (who was very nice/friendly spoke Italian and great English, she also appeared to be a Manager as other agents would ask her for advice). She advised there was no Nissan available, they only had a C-Max or Jeep Compass-which one do you want? We asked to see/compare both vehicles since we were not familiar with either one. The agent said go have a look but these were our only 2 options available (we confirmed there were no Nissans in the lot). We opted for the Jeep since it was most similar to the Nissan. We asked if there was any difference between renting the Nissan vs the Jeep, she said no. She also confirmed we were driving from Rome to Venice.

The agent showed us the Jeep paperwork online, but it was all in Italian. We said we do not speak, or read, Italian. She said no worry, I will go over it with you "it's all very standard". We asked to see it in English and she said that was not possible. Unfortunately, we were left with no choice but to have her translate the document for us-initial here, sign here. At no time did the agent advise that the Jeep (or C-Max) was a different Group/class than the Nissan, or that there would be an additional fee (we were led to believe it was the 'similar' option. We asked about filling up the fuel prior to drop off. The agent advised do not fill up prior to arrival as Budget has very good/preferential fuel rates and it's easier to just drop off and go, especially in Venice. This went against what we had ever done previously with returning car rentals but the agent said everyone does this, especially in Venice. We signed the contract and left for our 9 day drive through Italy.

At Budget Venice, the agent took our rental form and advised we would have to go inside to 'pay the balance' owing. We told the agent we paid in full prior to arrival in Italy so no $ should be owing. The agent said we 'agreed to upgrade' our rental in Rome from a Nissan to a Jeep so we owed an additional 218Euros, plus other fees. I explained what took place in Rome and the Venice agent said we signed the paperwork agreeing to the 'upgrade' Jeep. In addition, we also owed 50Euros for the Budget fuel 'service fee'...for the convenience of Budget filling up for us! In addition, even though we booked Rome-Venice (and paid in advance), we were charged a Location Surcharge and One Way Service (Rome-Venice). Again, none of these fees were explained to us-we were only offered the contract in Italian, no English version was made available for us. This was extremely frustrating since the Rome agent said we did not have a choice re: car class change, she knew we were travelling one-way and we also told her we always fill up the tank before returning a car but she said not to. We had to pay the extras (about 310Euros) before we could leave Budget Venice.

Unfortunately and despite multiple efforts to contact Budget regarding this experience, we never got refunded the 310Euros for all of the 'extras and upgrade'...which was more than what I had paid initially for the 9-day rental! I was contacted Budget Europe...then Budget Italy...then Budget North America...then Budget Rome or Venice. The only responses received were to contact another office and/or location-so frustrating!

In the end, the upcharges included class upgrade (which has never happened before or since), fuel charge, location surcharge, one way service and road tax. We believe the Rome agent likely received a $ bonus based up 'upcharges' made by customers.

(PS Jeep Compass was a terrible vehicle to drive-do not recommend!)

Could not agree more with Tod.

SIXT is great..never any upsell that I've experienced. A couple of times they've offered a discount at the counter..

When I went to pick up my rental two weeks ago, they also told me that had an SUV and I squawked.

"Yikes, I don't want to drive an SUV..it's too huge. no, no, no".

They said," just go look at it; if you hate it, we have a smaller car....sure enough, the smallest SUV I've ever seen...a bright red Audi, brand new, was sitting in the lot..

They hooked up the GPS to English; set up my 'Amazon music to the speakers; made sure I would hear the spoken GPS directions over the music........and sat in the passenger seat while I drove around the lot...

I've had the car going on three weeks now and wish I could take it home with me!

I am not ashamed to say that I love Sixt!

With the last Compact SUVs I rented overseas, we were given a Hyundai Tucson to give you an idea of size. Remember that no matter what you reserve there’s that “or similar” someplace in the print. We’ve never been charged for the next class up when what we rented wasn’t available. On our 2024 Spain trip we were offered an automatic rather than a manual, but I said no when I asked and was told it would be an additional €15 a day.

Rent through AutoEurope if you want great rates without any billing surprises. AutoEurope’s customer service is superb.

A few points, remember that you may think you're renting a specific car but you're actually renting from a class of cars. So you may or may not get what you expect, and you may only have something bigger or smaller to choose from.

Which also means you may have insisted on an automatic but you're getting a manual and that's all we got. So be ready.

It also didn't used to be a given that you would get A/C if that matters to you.

To follow up on Rebecca's lengthy posting, while it can be comforting to rent from "Hertz" or "Avis" some locals are just licensing the name and IP and if there's ever an issue, the mothership in the US is probably not going to be of much help.