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Renting a Car via AutoEurope's European Website

Posted by (Seattle, WA) on

Has anyone from the U.S. booked a rental car via AutoEurope's European website? Did you have any problems getting the car when you arrived?

After reading Rick's article on "Tips for Booking a Rental Car in Europe" I followed the advice I found there and compared offerings on AutoEurope's European website and the U.S. website. I found better selection and prices on the European version of the website (just like the article said I might) so I booked via the European site. I emailed AutoEurope to ask an unrelated question and in the response the agent also wrote: "More importantly, if you are a US Client booking in the EU system then you
had better have a home over there or something. To be sure you are not refused your rental, you are always best booking
where your currency and your driver's license are."

So now I'm worried that we'll be refused the rental car. The rental is via Alamo by Enterprise and we are picking up in Treviso Italy. I did call Alamo's customer service line. They confirmed I should not have an issue with the reservation even though I'm based in the U.S. booking through the EU website. But I'm still worried.

Just wondering if anyone has run into issues rental a car this way.

Posted by
3166 posts

I was in Italy last month. I rented through the AutoEurope.eu website and had no problems whatsoever. This is not the first time I’ve rented thru that site.

Posted by
1441 posts

One thing important to double check: is this for a manual or automatic?

Posted by
569 posts

I have rented in Ireland using the AutoEurope.ie site and in England using the AutoEurope.co.uk site. Yes, the rates were always better than the .com site and I had no problems with either rental. You have to include your address and the country in which you reside when filling out the rental request. The request could have been denied at that point since I reside in the US but it wasn't.

Posted by
6905 posts

I've never had any problems playing around between .eu, .com and .fr versions of Auto Europe, all with slightly different prices somehow.

Posted by
3103 posts

Just make sure the insurance coverage on the .eu rental is appropriate for US residents.

Posted by
5610 posts

I just checked the .eu site for the car rental I already have set up for September. There were options that were cheaper than the quotes I got on the .com site. They were for local companies in Italy that I wasn't familiar with. The chains that I was familiar with, the prices were higher than my quote. That said, when I went back to the .com site, the prices were higher than when I originally booke

Posted by
1200 posts

I once rented a car for Hawaii through the autoeurope.ca site. The price was so unbelievably low that I called their customer service to verify the reservation and to ask why it was so much cheaper compared to other sites including their autoeurope.com site.

The customer service rep explained that each autoeurope site, although related, cater to different segments of the market and will make different deals with local rental car providers and will offer different promotions to their target market. One site is not necessarily better than another. It just pays to shop and compare.

Posted by
4117 posts

I went back and checked my two rentals made through dot com against the eu and ie sites. Same price, unfortunately.

Posted by
3 posts

Thank you all for your replies! I’m feeling a bit better now. And yes, I have made sure to choose an automatic. I have plenty of experience driving a manual but I think an automatic is best considering it will be our first time driving in Italy. We’re just using the car for the Dolomites and taking the train for everywhere else.

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