TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Europcar Beware

Don’t do it…. Honestly folks, walk away.

We have been coming to SXM for 15+ years. We are the most easy-going couple who hardly ever post negative reviews. Not so today….

We booked a car at Europcar through an online car rental search engine. We reserved a Hyundai Accent (or equivalent) with an automatic transmission. When we arrived in SXM, the Europcar lot was pretty much empty. They had our registration but no cars. We were offered our choice of two vehicles with standard transmissions. I can drive a standard but that’s not the point.

The car we were given was a Chevrolet Spark. When we said it wasn’t equivalent to a Hyundai Accent, the agent shrugged his shoulders and said “it’s got 4 doors.” The car was well dented and scratched – even the roof was dented. It looked like it had been rolled or was hurricane damaged. In several places tape and stickers were used to conceal holes in the body. The air conditioning was marginal at best. Quite often the car would pop out of gear on hills – scary for sure. The car would have been pride of the fleet for Rent-A-Wreck. It had a spare tire which was flat. They filled it but we had to ask them to add a jack and wrench.

The agent said that they didn’t have any other cars available and that maybe Monday we could swap it out. When we drove past the car lot several times it was always empty.

There were several other people who came in the Europcar office after us - also with rental reservations. One was sitting on the curb in tears as she couldn’t drive a standard.

When we returned the car prior to flying home, a customer at the counter was being forced to buy collision insurance even though he protested that the credit card he used to rent the car covered that. If he didn’t take out the additional insurance, he was told he couldn’t rent the car. No ethics here…

Bottom line on Europcar? Never again…….

And you are not the first poster here to have problems with this agency. Hope you had a good trip otherwise.

Issues with Europcar extend far beyond St. Maarten from my experiences. Situations where the price you were quoted was not the price charged when you arrived have also been reported with this company. Tried to rent a car from them for a week in Mallorca, Spain and when I tried to lock-in a daily rate of $69 per day for a mid-size car it came back at $309 per day! Obviously, we never completed the reservation and went with another company (Hertz) that was much more trustworthy. Best to look elsewhere, IMO.

We had no problems with our reservation from Europcar. When we arrived for out 4 week stay, my husband realized he had made the reservation for the following day. It was the beginning of the regatta, and all of their cars were booked. After a short delay, they offered us a Jeep that we could swap the next day. It was a wreck, but it drove and got us to out resort. It was OUR fault, after all, and we were grateful to have transportation. Next day, switch, and off we went in a Nissan Versa. No extra insurance was insisted, nor none taken. Our niece came a week later and also had a good experience with them.

Wow, sounds terrible. Canceling our reservation with them. Thanks!!!

I would recommend TTOL Sponsors. We personally endorse Kenny's car rental. Decent cars, great service, very simple pickup and return.

I must say, however, we have used Europcar in Mallorca, and several other places in Europe and have had good luck. They almost always try to upsell you, but we have just politely said "no thanks", and been on our way. We have also used them in St. Barts several times without any issues. When we were in Mallorca last year, we had damage to our vehicle and Europcar sent us all of the required paperwork promptly so that we could file a claim with Visa. I'm thinking this may be a problem with the local Europcar franchise? In any case, we have rebooked with Hertz, a little more expensive, but well worth it.

Hertz sxm is great.

Rented from them for eight weeks Feb.- Mar. Had a very nice Versa, booked in advance and had no problems at check in or at return.
Did not get pressured to take extra insurance and the price was way below any other company that I check prior to making the reservation
back in Sept. and that included advertisers on this sight.

Used Europcar for our week in March. The vehicle was pretty beat up but most I’ve rented on the island were. None of the advertisers here came close to the price and I didn’t have any issue with Europcar at all.

We used Europcar last november and did not have any issue with them ! Nice Versa, good service, great price with even the third party insurance included ! We have a reservation in two weeks with them , I'll be back to tell you about it ! Also used them in Martinique and and in France and no problems either !

You can't go wrong with Kenny's. Great prices & great service from a great guy!

Just returned from SXM - rented with Europcar for the first time. Their price for 16 days was about half of anyone else. The Versa was not in the best shape but did the job. No pressure to take extra insurance. Would use them again.

I find it difficult to feel sympathy when I read posts like this...I suppose people use various rental agencies for various reasons BUT I can't ever remember seeing a bad review about Michael Unity and his rental cars. I DO remember Michael helping out renters even when they had rented the car from someone else.
Seems like a no brainer to me....

jimnjudy--I seriously take issue with your post. Regardless of who 'your guy' is, you have no sympathy for someone, just because they didn't use 'your guy'??

There are certain things that people are told NOT to do, over and over. Like don't leave your bags in your car on the way from the airport to your hotel and leave the car. So if someone would post here that they left their bags, their laptop and two I-phones and most of their cash in their car and it got taken, I would probably think to myself "well, you dummy! You got what you deserved!". But I probably wouldn't say it..

I have had to rent a car post Irma since my car was damaged in the hurricane. That being said it was years since I rented a car and I have to tell you I have had terrible experiences renting cars. One time I was quoted a price at the airport and when brought to the office the manager of the car rental agency gave me such a runaround I told him bring me back to the airport.