Budget Car Rental Ireland Reviews

As always your staff in cork airport are friendly and very helpful professional at all times.Will be using you again when I need to hire car.will be recommending to friends and acquaintances

Efficient pick up and drop off from Drumcondra office and definitely recommend the Toyota hybrid.

Very efficient and helpful staff. Great car and I will definitely use them again on my many trips to visit my parents.

Staff very friendly and efficient. We had a lovely new car which was very comfortable. Thank you 😊

Staff member at the pick up desk was friendly and helpful. We were unhappy with the clutch on the first car offered and an alternative was offered immediately. An administrative issue regarding the age of the extra driver was resolved by Head Office in Ireland very efficiently- again staff were helpful and easy to deal with. Return of vehicle was similar - a relaxed and helpful approach from staff made the process easy and straightforward. Came away with a very positive view of the company.

Friendly, fast and professional experience from start to finish.

Easy pickup and even easier drop off seamless service from start to finish. Friendly staff, great shuttle service at Dublin airport. Absolutely stress free car hire. 5 star service all round

The worst ever. Absolute garbage. Customer service non-existant. I hope y'all rot in hell and cease to exist eventually.

I have used this company several times but my recent experience has made me look at alternatives. The car I was given was badly scratched and not is great condition, I took a video upon collection and drop off to prove I wasn't responsible. I overpaid for my rental as I booked it online a few weeks in advance and I'm still waiting for a refund, several email exchanges telling me it's been processed, four weeks later still not received my money back, just not good enough. It was more expensive than expected, the pick up drop off in Galway is a real nuisance, quite a walk with your luggage to the car park, usually pouring with rain, not ideal.

My cousin and I recently hired a car at Dublin airport to drive to a small village in the Midlands to visit family. We are two careful drivers in our 50s who barely used the car for the three days we stayed with relatives. To then be charged for nearly 3,000 euros of damage was a complete shock and can only be classed as fraudulent activity. Apparently there are dents and damage all over the car, including in the rear seats which is interesting as nobody sat in the back of the car at any point. The invoice we have been sent is a complete joke and we will be seeking legal advice on next steps. I only wish we had read the reviews on here before hiring with this company. If you enjoy being ripped off then hire with Budget

Please avoid this ripoff company. I had a car for 3 days that I prepaid fully. It cost me €154. I was supposed to return the car Sunday evening, but due to weather circumstances, half of the city and near by roads were flooded, the rest of the roads were completely clogged. I called the agency 2 hours before return to let them know that I’ve been stuck and all roads are flooded. The lade on the phone Said nothing but “ok”. I called 3 more times, telling them that I’m still stuck and there is no way of getting to the airport. Again, I was told “ok”. I returned the car some 75min later. The lady at the hatch at the airport and nice and smiling and said everything is fine, the weather is extremely bad and not to worry. I have not received any invoice at all, but they took €205.50 from my credit card. No invoice, just money taken off my credit card. I called Budget and the man that told me it’s a standard procedure, because I failed to return the car on time. 3 days car rental = 153€, extra charge for a day €205.50. For 75min delay because all near by roads were flooded. This is how they treat their customers. I made a mistake by going to this low-class company, that only one wants to rip you off. Pre covid, I used to be a regular at Hertz - always greeted with a smile, always upwelling but in a nice way, but at more than a reasonable price, much better than online price, literally an offer you couldn’t refuse. If I had a car for the weekend and collected it at 3pm on Friday, I was always told to return it “by the end of the day” on Sunday, which literally means before the close (midnight) Hertz may be a little pricier, but you ALWAYS get what you pay for! And their staff are fantastic! At least at Cork Airport. I have always been treater with nothing but a respect and dignity by Hertz staff. Unfortunately by Budget/Avis you’ll be treated like a dirt. It’s how they roll. AVOID THEM!

Rigged to get more of your money. So even if you get insurance beforehand from another company, you still have to commit €2000 on your credit card. Who has €2000 laying around on their credit card? Plus they only accept one credit card for the €2000 deposit AND €120 fuel deposit AND the outstanding amount for the rental. How is that right? So if you haven’t used your credit card all month and happen to have enough left on your limit to pay for the above, you are good to go. Hopefully you won’t need your credit card during your stay. Otherwise the only way out is to find another car rental company, or buy their insurance for €40 per day !! I won’t be using Budget again - the competition run a similar scam but better rates.

Managed to sort.out an issue with a cracked windscreen that had put a dampner on our holiday. We thought we had full insurance, but we're told we didn't. Turns out it was a simple mistake, which is fine. However, I've learned some valuable lessons to always take lots of pictures of the car before taking off so you can prove the condition of the car, and to confirm cover, as it must be different between budget car rental operations in different countries. I've had very good experience with budget in NZ. They go as far as taking pictures of the car for the renter so there is no doubt. Might be something to consider?

Beware of this company which insists on possession of a Credit Card in order to make the pre-authorision for insurance. They stated at the desk at Shannon that a Debit Card cannot be used for pre-authorisation and insisted that I therefore must take out the €33 per day full insurance.....more than doubling the price of the four day rental. I reluctantly agreed as I had no option. Luckily..it was only four days or could have cost me many hundreds. Turns out...that is just Budget's business policy so they can be more sure that they'll get their money in the event of a claim ....not an actual statement of banking fact in Ireland even though the desk staff very much presented it that way. I later checked the fine print of the agreement and it does say that a pre-authorisation will be done against my "credit card" but the term is used in a very generic way that to virtually everybody would take to just mean "plastic card". Nowhere does it state that this cannot be a Debit Card. Such a fact that can more than double the rental cost when the customer is in no position to decline should be made very prominent with a warning at the time of booking. I had already paid for third party world wide car rental insurance so doubly infuriating. When I returned the car I did have a quick word with the competition in the next booth and they stated that they happily accept both Debit and Credit cards for insurance pre-authorisation. Wish I'd had the presence of mind to cancel on the spot and move to the competition. If you have a credit card...then all well and good. But if not...best to shop around carefully.

Rented a car from Belfast City Airport, only one person serving at the desk with around 8/9 people in the queue. On the day of the cars return unfortunately we couldn't locate a fuel station on our route back to the airport to fill the car up so we had to leave it without a full tank. Bear in mind though it was just under 3/4 full and it was a small car, a Corsa. I was horrified when a week later they charged me over £60 for the missing fuel for just over a 1/4 of a tank. I have emailed the company on two occasions asking them for a breakdown of this charge but have had no response, not even an acknowledgement. Please be mindful of such rip offs when renting a car from this company.

What a joke! Firstly your customer service at Dublin T1 was absolutely horrendous. To have my 33 year old son nearly in tears after being away from home for 3 years and then asked for 3 times the amount he booked online.... DON'T ADVERTISE ON A THIRD PARTY WEBSITE IF CANNOT HONOR THAT PRICE. You need to train your staff to read the people they are dealing with....being passive aggressive is definitely not the way...might learn from the Hertz staff who are far superior!!! Do better!!!!

We hired a vehicle using Carjet booking reference CJT-48973897. The car was booked for Dublin airport pick up and premium was paid at Carjet for the same. However, Budget airport staff refuse to honour the agreement and we were driven to a remote location to pick up the car. The original Carjet was booked in my spouse's name. However, Budget airport staff insisted that the agreement be moved my name since my credit card was been used. The car was poorly maintained and ran out of Adblue. And we spend 1-2 hours trying to find the garage and spend €50/- for the top-up. I did expect car hire companies at least top up Ad blue. There is no procedure for refund although I was assured on telephone. My agreement clearly states airport returns. However, Budget cars sent an email that return at remote location. That means I have to spend additional 2 hours for the returns to a remote location.

Budget in Cork: very nice experience, people at the desk were very friendly and for once, in my experience with car rentals, they did their best to help us.

I am writing this detailed account, since I believe that Budget Ireland needs to review its operating procedures. This will critically improve the experience of both the customers and its personnel. The problems we noticed and their suggested solutions are mentioned in the points below. 1. PROBLEM: DOCUMENTS. At the time of rent we were assured that a copy of the contract was emailed to our email address but it never arrived (and is not in spam). Moreover, the car contained no documents, whatsoever. We note that this was different from the replacement car (see below), which contained the usage instructions and a log of car inspection which was done as it left the Budget office. We note that neither car contained any proof of the owner of the vehicle. We also had no way to prove that we actually rented the car. SUGGESTED PROCEDURE AMENDMENTS. Given the problems with emails and sketchy web connectivity in remote parts of Ireland the customers need to receive a 1-page printed document with the essential details of their renting agreement when renting the vehicle. We agree with green policies, but in this case, it is just an unjustified excuse. 2. PROBLEM: AVAILABILITY OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT. After morning rental and visiting some smaller places the car lost all power just before the town of Mullingar. It was a clear and obvious case of a clutch failure. So we were in the middle of the road on a the hottest day of this summer. The usual procedure anywhere in continental Europe, US or Australia (in our experience) is to put up a safety jacket and put up the warning triangle. Unfortunately the car had neither of these, and not even a basic first-aid kit. SUGGESTED PROCEDURE AMENDMENTS. We note that safety jacket, warning triangle and first aid kit are obligatory items in the civilised world, simply because they save lives. To much of our surprise, we learned this is not the case in Ireland. Technically, this is not a problem of Budget. No laws are broken but Budget is sending a very strong signal to its customers in the sense that the safety of customers is not a priority. 3. PROBLEM: KNOWLEDGE ON PROCEDURES AT THE BUDGET EMERGENCY LINE. With the car broken at the edge of the road and us perched on the sun we called Budget and then the RSA. The initial call to Budget helpline was made at 14:04, and the call to RSA a few minutes later. The lady at Budget gave us partially wrong information. She said we need to call RSA (correct) and that they will then take us to the budget office at Knock airport (wrong) where they for sure have a replacement car for us and that we will then be able to continue our journey. This information is wrong on several accounts: (i) RSA role is just to remove the car from the road to a nearby safe spot and not to drive it to some Budget office. (ii) The office at Knock airport is closed on Sunday evening. (iii) Knock airport is actually not in a direction we were heading. It is also considerably further from our breaking spot than the Budget office at the airport of Dublin. SUGGESTED PROCEDURE AMENDMENTS. Your clerks need to know the procedure of car towing, they need to know the opening hours of your offices. 4. PROBLEM: RESPONSIVENESS OF THE BUDGET EMERGENCY LINE. At the time of the initial call to Budget we did not realise we were actually were lucky. When we were left sitting on the road for hours we tried to reach them about 10 times but the phone just rang without response in about 80% of the cases. SUGGESTED PROCEDURE AMENDMENTS. You need to understand that a lack of response is the worst thing which can happen to your customers. If your operators are busy with other calls this is no excuse. Anywhere in the business world it is customary to call back and to put such a promise on the automatic response machine. These kind of phones are common since 1990, so perhaps Budget Ireland could acquire such a 30-year old technology. This also avoids critical errors: it is annoying that your operator needs to lose time and ask every customer for the phone number when the phone can simply log the calls. Moreover, if these logs were done automatically the Budget truck driver who at the end of the day brought us the replacement vehicle would not be given a wrong phone number. Finally we got the replacement car around 9pm. A really long day, apparently the hottest of this summer, largely spent on the side of the road. The suggested amendments are done in good faith. I hope that it can help companies as Budget, which rise or fall on the trust of their customers and not only by the profit they make.

I rented a car on a 3rd party sites, paid for insurance only to be told it wouldn't cover their car at the desk. After a long flight, home to bury my mother....a car cost me $600 for two days. This is extortionate.... I will NEVER use this company again. I will also be putting in a formal complaint. I used Europecar at Christmas, so wished I had of used them now. I will be going further with this. Preying on tired travellers who just want to get to their destination. So disappointed.