Guerin

I have difficulty understanding all these negative reviews after my two, recent, excellent experiences with Guerin.

1.Lisbon to Faro drop off.

Excellent, brand new car. Very honest rates. Friendly people at the counter and smooth return.

The 300 euro reserved on my card for fuel, was released in no time after I returned the car with full fuel.

2. Faro to Faro drop off

This airport pick up was also smooth and with no complaints whatsoever.
The 300 euro reserved on my card for fuel, was released in no time after I returned the car with full fuel.

3. Golden tip.

This tip is regarding the extra CDW insurance one can opt for, to reduce the franchise to 0 euro.

If you are booking through an intermediate website such as Auto Europe or Rental cars.Com etc, NEVER take CDW insurance with those intermediate companies but always take it when picking up the car, in the office of the company which you are renting from.

WHY?

If you take a CDW insurance with an intermediate rental company, the Hertz or Guerin or whatever company, will STILL block the full CDW amount on your card.

In case of damage or an accident, they WILL use the reserved amount on your card to pay for the damage.
Then it will be up to you to recover this amount from the intermediate rental company where you took out the extra insurance…. Good luck. Without Police papers etc, you will have a hard recovering that money.

Now, if you take out the extra CDW insurance on the spot, paying directly to the rental company, they will NOT block a large amount of money on your card ( no need because you are fully insured with them) and if you return the car to them, there will be no problem or discussion in case of damage, because THEY insured you, not an intermediate company.

This golden tip saved me a lot of hassle in the past and always gives me peace of mind.
I almost refrained from renting with them because of the bad reviews here but I am glad I proceeded nevertheless.

Also don't forget, out of 10 happy customers, about 2 may write a positive review, where as out of 10 unhappy customers, about 9 will write a negative review.

Will rent again with them for sure.

Axel B.

We collected our car from Lisbon Airport on 8 June 2020. Staff were efficient and friendly. Drove it to the Algarve. We dropped the car off after 2 weeks at Faro. Efficient and again friendly. We got our deposit back no problem. Would definitely use again and recommend to friends and family.

Very, very good experience with Guerin Porto, staff very nice, no pressure to buy additional insurance. The car was better than I booked, clean and good conditon. The day after return, deposit on my credit card was unlocked. I recommend and will definitely come back here!

Falta de rigor na entrega de viaturas.
Falta de higiene e cumprimento das regras "Clean and Safe".
Apresenta莽茫o de pesadas contas, para o cliente pagar danos existentes e incompet锚ncia de certos funcion谩rios.
Existindo alternativas no mercado, n茫o voltarei a usar os seus servi莽os. Deixou-me uma impress茫o de m谩-f茅, como se trata-se de um esquema duvidoso.

Company to avoid

Lack of rigor in vehicle delivery.
Lack of hygiene and compliance with the "Clean and Safe" rules.
Presentation of heavy bills, for the client to pay for existing damages and incompetence of certain employees.
With alternatives on the market, I will not be using your services again. It left me with an impression of bad faith, as if it is a dubious scheme.

I picked up the car at Porto Z Industrial. The staff was very polite and efficient, taking no more than 15 minutes for the whole process. Although the booking was made to return the car to the same spot, I was offered the flexibility to return it to Porto Airport, which helped a lot. The car was very clean and in good condition. I made a small mistake on the narrow and curved road in the Douro Valley and scratched the entire right side of the car. Because I purchased full insurance, I didn't need to pay anything. The drop off process took only 5 minutes and I was on the shuttle bus to the airport after another 5 minutes. Couldn't expect a smoother process. Overall I was very satisfied with their service.

I wanted to leave my review which is different from other reviews. I am not affiliated with this company in any way, this is my honest opinion as a customer.

I actually had an amazing experience with Guerin. I booked an automatic car from guerin alfragide, I arrived late and the office was already closed (please note that Alfragide office closes at 1pm), I called them and explained the situation that I cannot wait until tomorrow, so they called their AIrport branch and got me a replacement car there.

Please note that I paid for full insurance coverage. I think this is important with this company.

After reading all the scary stories here I started taking pictures of all the scratches on the car, to which they told me that it's not needed since I have full coverage. I took pictures anyway just in case.

Well immediatly after 1 hour I scratched the side of the car coming out of Ikea parking, and later in the week on my way on highway a stone flew into my windscreen and I had a crack which was growing a bit until the last day.

When I brought the car back they confirmed that I will not need to pay anything for these damages and authorised to return my deposit, only leaving 70鈧?deposit for Via Verde which will be evaluated within next 3 months

So all in all I had wonderful smooth experience

They blocked my deposit for a month. Meanwhile they charged the credit card with additional 200 鈧?without expalantion. CarDelMar who was our agent told that according to Guerin we bought additional cover what was not true, and he washed his hands of that case. They don鈥檛 answer our mails. Once you give them the credit card they can do anything. So our 140 鈧?hire turned into 340 鈧?for 4 days. You should avoid Guerin if you don鈥檛 want to be robbed.

I rented through Enterprise but found out this really means Guerin in Portugal. I can confirm the other awful reviews they've received. I felt I was straight forward scammed. I was charged extra for 'switching on the transponder for toll roads' – why isn't it always on? Plus using a debit card, plus a huge excess for the tinniest scuff mark that was already there anyway. This companies business model works on quoting a very low price and then making their money on all the hidden extras. Definitely avoid!!

I first had to pay twice the amount until I showed an Email of my online quotation.
Then the lady at the desk suddenly became rude to me and told me to relax even though I was very calm. She insisted I paid the full insurance but I only wanted to have the additional glass protection and knowing that the car comes standard with third party, fire and theft insurance as standard. After having a chat for 10 minutes the final amount they could offer me was still 20 euro higher but I agreed with it just so I could leave their office. The deposit was significantly higher than I was quoted for. I also paid a fuel deposit for 75 euro. When we arrived at the car it was clear it had damage on the front and 3 of the wheels, bigger than their damage indicator. The lady didn鈥檛 take notes so I told her to do so. I was informed that these were already in their 鈥渟ystem鈥? I started taking pictures of the damage and looked for any form of damage on the car and only now the personnel started to take notes on my rental contract in regards of the damage.
When I returned the car the personnel had difficulties finding the damages in their 鈥渟ystem鈥?so I offered to show evidence. Suddenly there was no problem anymore. Overall the car was pleasant to drive.

Do not use… still waiting for money owed from last august. Cant get in touch with anyone absolute joke of a company

When you think these kind of car hire companies would be out of business already…think twice.
Typical insurance scammer. They advertise for a low price on comparison websites we all use and of course you book with them. If you, like me, have already car excess insurance from a third part company, you're not buying any overpriced additional insurance from the car hire company.
Booked a car for a weekend in December in the Algarve with them. Arrived to Faro airport at late evening. Picked the car up at the airport at night time. I was assured by the person at the desk the car had no damage and because it was night time all you can do is look for any major damage visible at poor night lighting, making it impossible to detect any existing scratches or minor dents. You can't take any pics or videos to make sure you have evidence of the initial state of the car and even if you do, you can't detect any minor existing damages at night time.
I had no issues with the car during my 4 days rental, and that I know for sure. When returning the car guess what? The person doing the car return checks went straight for the scratches I could not detect during my rental even at day light. How impressively efficient. Almost like they knew already where it was exactly… And guess what again… because you did not buy additional insurance with them to reduce your excess to zero, you obviously have to pay for damages you are not responsible for.

Kinda of using you as the middleman for insurance fraud but with you taking all the risk. Profitable little business, innit?

I rented a car from Lissabon and returned it in Porto. Even if we rented the car in Austria and we had a voucher which stated that we need to pay at the location 65 eur plus tax , when we arrived in Porto the Guerin employee wanted to charge us 150 eur. After we managed to pay the amount which was on our voucher they brought the car and we left. 3 days later when we arrived in Porto they claimed that the car had an inside truck cover which was not there anymore.
We told them that the car had not inside truck cover and they said ok, just sign.
3 days later we received an Email stating that they kept 275 eur from our deposit for the cover. We wrote them but never got a reply back. Moreover the invoice that we received was a general invoice and was written on it 鈥淥thers鈥?and the cost of the cover. We asked the original bill of the cover ( because we checked at Peugeot and such a cover costs 130 Eur) but they completely ignored our Emails.
The worst car renting experience ever and I will never recommend it!

Booked a car in Faro and returned full of fuel. They do not repay your deposit!!!

Avoid this company at all costs as they are a scam operation.

Check the reviews on google about them

I used Guerin in Maderia. I had a good experience hiring with them, the process to get the car was quick, even though I had to refuse their offer to add on additional insurance upon my third party insurance.
The car that I received was old and had quite a lot of kms on it. The return was also straight forward.

I have used Guerin for over ten years, if you have an issue their customer relations department is a joke, they never reply to emails, I have sent them six

Had doubts about renting a car via Guerin due to bad rates but, luckily, decided to rent anyhow. we rented cheapest, 5 doors, gasoline VW Polo in September 2019, in the center of Lisbon.
service was very fast, staff was very kind and friendly, car was just as described on the outside, clean and tidy, but much stronger then expected. staff showed me some damages on the car.

I came early in the morning so there was no line and waiting.
I had no problems with returning the car nor was there a big line in the office (around 6.30 pm).

definitely would recommend and will rent again via this company. luckily I didn't mind unfortunate and bad experiences and tried my luck due to tight budget

Rented a car June 2019 from this company (Faro Airport)
Staff were very friendly straight forward, and were extremely helpful when we were trying to input info into sat nav, they didn鈥檛 leave us until we had sorted it,
This was very much appreciated .
On return once again straight forward, very friendly lady who dealt with paperwork.

Extreme long cues, never ever again

No issues at all with the service. Clean and relatively new car. I would use again.

Spend 3 hours at the airport to pick up my car. It was a scandal – worst service I have experienced in the 14 years I have rented cars in Lisboa!

A little bit of wait at counter but overall a great experience. They answered all my questions.

I arrived in Porto for the first time in my life in Portugal.

The first Portugese person I have met was the lady at the counter of Guerin rental cars.

I don't know her name anymore, but she is sonewhere in the 40's and she was very rude.

She was agressive, rude and tried to make me scared because she tols me I am not insured. I showed her that I was insures but she told me again that I was not insured.

I showed her my reservation but she still denied that I am not insured. On top of that she claimed that if I don't take her insurance, that I have to pay 3000 Euro on every single damage that I made.

THIS IS NOT TRUE!!

She made this one up. I asked her.. really?? 3000 Euro for every single scratch of other damage? She said yes.

I asked her that if I alsohave to pay 3000 Euro if I got a flat tire. She told me no. If I got a flat tire I had to pay 1000 Euro's.

1400 Euro's for a flat tire?

She told me yes, because if I got a flat tire, they have to change ALL tires.

THIS IS TOTALLY NOT TRUE!!

When she was making me afraid of her lies I started to record every scratch wirh my GoPro because the car was already full of scrathes, dents, broken grill, damaged wheels, and a broken window.

The lady did not like it that I was recording all the damages.

I did not take her insurance because I was insured!

After bringing the car back there was no problem.

The lady that checked my car after bringing it back was very polite and very friendly.

My first impression of Portugal was a very very very very bad impression and I was mad and irritated the whole day because of the lady at the check-in.

I travel all around the world and I rented cars all around the world and I never had a bad experience like this. The lady really wanted to scare me and she really scared me. She was not listening at all what I was saying and everything I said was not true and her communication with me was very sarcastic. It was HORRIBLE.

I have a YouTube channel and I review my travels and this part of my travel here in Portugal will also be mentioned on my video's.

I would advise people not to rent a car at Guerin because there is a big chance that you get helped by this lady.

When we returned the car to Guerin Caldas da Rainha Portugal we were treated like criminals. Like most people we re-fuelled the car at a fuel station close to the car hire office to be told by the girl on reception that it wasn't full enough. Even when we produced a receipt her supervisor insisted that the car wasn't full enough and in essence that we were lieing. We took it back to the garage and the attendant managed to get 1 Euro of fuel in it, the fuel gage didn't move and we returned again to the office and explained that the fuel gage was clearly faulty, no apology just begrudge acceptance.

We take our Motorhome to Portugal regularly and always hire a car to travel around in, we have used Guerin Caldas da Rainha a number of times never again

Beware.

Guerin didn鈥檛 give me a spare tyre or puncture kit with my rental car in Lisbon and therefore when a tyre got punctured in the A22 near Faro the car had to be towed, as I had no spare and no way of fixing the puncture. It sounds ridiculous to have to tow a car because of a puncture but not being able to fix it left no other option.

Guerin then notified me two weeks later that they had 鈥渄etected new damage鈥?to the tyre and unilaterally charged me 鈧?15 from my security deposit and wrote to notify me of their charge. Guerin did not produce any invoices or statements to show any cost incurred by it, and in any case this would have been avoided if they had provided a spare tyre or puncture kit. I am attempting to reverse this and will update this review with results.

Update: I have formally written twice on the matter to Guerin and have received no response, now applying to the European Car Rental Conciliation Service.

The car that was given to us was different from what we reserved and be aware of the extra charges. Personally will never use this company again.