Car Hire in South Aegean

The representative was 15 minutes late opening up, our reservation was at 8, he did get there until 8:15 then took a while to get settled and get his computer up and running. Then he told us since we didn’t get the insurance through them, 1,000 euro would be charged to my cc as a deposit or I could sign up for the 24.50 euro insurance. No where was that stated when we reserved through Kayak/Sixt. My cc has insurance included but I did not want a hold of 1,000 euro for up to 30 days, so I felt I had to get their insurance. There was supposed to be someone outside to review everything with us and the car but no one was there, after waiting another 10 minutes we got in the car and left. We only had the car for a day in Santorini so did not want to waste time waiting on the rental agency to get their act together. All other rental agencies were up and running before 8, so I doubt in the future I would use Sixt again at the Santorini location.

I preferred Europcar in Mykonos as it is an international company with many branches, reliable and I had positive experience earlier in other Europcar branches. However, this branche in Mykonos.. First of all, they do not offer any full insurance. and the car provided had countless scratches, one back light broken, holes on the back of the car. I initially refused to sign the damage document and take the car, and asked to get another car. They denied my request and said this is the only car available, although there were at least 20 cars (I understand they may be reserved) available at the branch. While I was discussing with my wife if we should accept the car or not, I noticed that I already got an e-mail from them with the title "your signed copy of vehicle condition". I DID NOT SIGN ANYTHING at that moment. When I asked what does this mean? they told me they have a lot of clients, they have to move on with the procedure. I insisted that I don't want to take over a car with countless damages, impossible to note every single damage. And as they do not offer full insurance, I was afraid that I will be in a situation that I will be unfairly charged for previously existing damage. They assured me that they will not charge for damage unless there is a significant damage in the car (whatever that means). As we already lost over an hour of our vacation under the sun, we made a full video of the car and not so happily took the car. Oh, I also have to mention that they have a "like for like" fuel policy like all these local cheap car rentals have, where you always end up gifting some fuel to the company not to deal with them for 1 liter of gas. In the end, everything went well, I did not have any damage, I was not charged for any damage. However, this is really unnecesarry stress. Next time I would use a company which offers full insurance, decent cars, and decent staff who can spare their time to care about the problems of the cars that they provide. And definitely do not created "signed" reports before you sign them!

Everything went smoothly with no issues.

Always a rip off, I forget every few years then do it again and get fleeced. Why can’t the cost I pay for car hire be the final cost ever? €10 cleaning fee on drop off? Really? Surely that’s part of the service… it’s like renting a hotel room then having to pay the cleaners after… stupid! You’ve definitely factored in cleaning to your price already but then sting customers for it again. Excess of over £800… ridiculous. Forces customers to buy insurance, and boom another £50 gone. no information given about pick up of car at airport, no signs no nothing, just a van outside with a small Europcar label on it, rubbish! All on all it would probably work out cheaper for me to get a private driver to take me around for my entire trip than do this again, shameful and nothing ever changes!

Rude agent at airport counter, rent a UTV from the town stores, a lot more fun in Mykonos + easier go places

Thankfully, the counter agent appropriately recommended an upgrade from what I had selected online and gave good reasoning. The manual transmission gasoline vehicle I had requested would have been ok, but for that location, she recommended what I learned was the ideal vehicle: a more powerful electric (no gas charge!) automatic (hydrostatic?) transmission vehicle--perfect for those driving conditions. Thank you, ma'am, for making our visit to and travels around Mykonos much better!