Drivalia Car Rental - Alicante Airport

A very unpleasant & disappointing experience.
As a holiday home owner in Spain I travel there frequently & rent cars about 6 times a year. This was our first time with Drivalia - booked might I say through Ryanair car rental.
First. The company took over an hour to turn up at the airport despite repeated calls from customers. By the time a bus did arrive driven by some disinterested boy in his late teens there were too many people to board it. We then waited another 25 minutes til he returned by which time we were in a similar situation. I became annoyed & loaded my hand luggage bag onto the coach & this seemed to annoy him. He shoved the bag back at me narrowly missing my face.
Second. You can imagine when we reached the depot I complained vehemently about the delay & the driver. The staff there were completely disinterested. The delay got "this is Spain" the aggressive attitude got a non committal shrug and " if you want to complain then complain"
Third. They flatly refused to accept our AXA excess insurance cover. When I insisted they said "ok but if you get the car damaged where there's no one to accept liability (say in a supermarket car park) don't expect us to give you any paperwork to make a claim" Also told me if we broke down without taking their cover & we broke down they would charge us 250€ to recover THEIR car! My wife who is diabetic was tired & upset & we reluctantly parted with 168€ for their cover - which was less than if we'd broken down & been charged for recovery. Absolute blackmail.
Fourth. It's a good job we did take the cover. The car was collected in the dark. Obviously we had their cover but had we not we would have driven a car away with what we discovered in daylight, to have extensive damage to a rear passenger door. There was no mention of this on the paperwork supplied. Draw your own conclusions as to what would have happened had we returned the car without their cover.
Will definitely not be using Drivalia again.

I would definitely recommend Drivalia but book direct! If you book direct you know exactly what you are paying for and they have more flexibility to upgrade your car or include a 2nd driver and you don't have to leave a huge credit card deposit.
We booked through Auto Europe and despite me paying close attention to insurance and paying £218 for what we thought was car hire and fully inclusive insurance was only 3rd party insurance, so feeling very ripped off!
Gerardo advised if we had booked direct the cost would have been €265 fully comp so we basically paid a further €262 euro's to top up to fully comprehensive for 2 weeks hire in August (A minor scratch can cost €300 if you're only 3rd party so it wasn't worth the risk) not sure if we've been ripped off but Gerardo seemed genuine and helpful enough.
I was a little apprehensive about the car hire location being off-site as previously used Record onsite and had over a 2 hour wait but I would definitely do this again, the shuttle bus was waiting and the transfer was literally 5 minutes away in a very modern, clean minibus. Reception was well staffed, effiicient and english was widely spoken. Roadside assistance was included and a direct number to contact the office should we need to unlike the booking agents.
Car was excellent, we had a brand new Micra, very clean and clearly looked after.
I hope you find this review helpful!
Thank you Drivalia

Esperienza allucinante con due operatori di drivalia a Palma di Maiorca Spagna. Si sono rifiutati di consegnarmi l'auto pur avendo tutto in regola, come sempre quando viaggio, e sono stato in tutto il mondo, ma mai ho trovato personaggi simili, Carlota è il suo ignobile viscido manager. State alla larga se potete.tutti i clienti presenti si lamentavano per qualcosa.con tutte le compagnie serie che ci sono (e sono veramente tante) volevano farmi fare una assicurazione a tutti i costi alla modica cifra di 350 euro quando ne avevo già fatta una al momento della prenotazione, ma non la riconoscevano. Alle mie rimostranza hanno cominciato a dire che noi Italiani siamo incivili e gridiamo per cui non ci avrebbero dato la macchina.tra l'altro regolarmente pagata in anticipo. Mi trovavo lì con mia figlia e ci siamo ritrovati in una situazione veramente allucinante, sperduti in un piazzale senza nessuna assistenza e senza saper cosa fare. Ovviamente si sono fatti forza meschinamente e ignobilmente del fatto di essere a casa loro e della difficoltà di comprendere la lingua. Si sono trattenuti anche la somma pagata, una vera e propria vile estorsione/truffa. Auguro a questi due ignobili esseri di trovarsi qualora venissero in Italia nella mia stessa situazione. Non ho parole per commentare due individui del genere che si sono approfittati del fatto che fossi in una situazione di minorata difesa essendo all'estero. Davvero mai esperita in nessun altra parte del mondo una tale ignobile viltà. Auguro a questi due trogloditi di spendere i miei soldi rubati in cerotti e bende. Pagherei tre volte tanto per poter avere l'onore di accoglierli a Milano e mostrargli la vera accoglienza calorosa che si meritano due simili viscidi ignobili personaggi