Avis Car Hire - Bristol Airport

Nice clean good quality cars available. Very helpful staff & low wait times. The new hire car area is only a short free bus ride from the airport & is a great improvement on the old portacabins that the agencies used before. A good experience all around.

Never again. Lots of added on fees to pay when you arrive.
Arrived 30 minutes early and they would not release the car.
I have used other car rental companies at this airport and never had a problem before.

I rented a van a few months ago for business use and had a fantastic service so when I need to rent another I thought of no one else apart from Avis at Bristol Airport. I hired a van from Thursday till Monday for £111 and paid online. I then paid £200 deposit when I picked it up. I needed the van for another day so called up Avis and asked how much it will cost to keep the van until Tuesday and the gentleman on the phone told me £41.16 so I went ahead to keep it for another 24 hours. I returned the van on time on Tuesday morning and I was told they can see no damage and I have received my £200 deposit back. Now they are trying to charge me £291 for the extra day. I have tried calling but I'm left waiting in a queue for over an hour. Luckily payment hasn't gone through and it won't be as I'm not paying £291 to hire a van for a day. They will have the phone recording with the guy saying it will cost £41.16 for the extra day. I will like to point out that staff at this location are very polite and helpful. This is to do with the people higher up and not necessarily the location.

I rented a car around a month ago and promptly lost the customer service email so I’ll write here instead. I found the service provided by both Nick on the desk at Bristol airport, and the guy I returned the car to to be exceptional. Nick was efficient, friendly and also gave me a great upgrade on the car I had. I’ll keep Avis as my first choice next time.

Whatever you do, don't book with Avis at Bristol airport.
They charged me double what I pre-paid for my Avis online car rental booking by adding excess insurance and other mysterious 'extras'. They will smile at you as they do it too!
(When collecting the car, the Avis agent told me excess insurance would cost £20, but he actually charged an additional £59 to my credit card)

I complained within a week or so when I realised I'd been charged £59 instead of the £20 their agent (Chris) had told me it would cost. In response, they said it's £20 per day. Would have been nice to know this at the time as I would certainly NOT have taken their 'excess insurance' at nearly £60 for a 2-day car hire.

When I emailed them to complain (after they'd emailed me for customer feedback, ironically) they said they'd look into it. Some days later the woman responsible for Avis customer satisfaction at Bristol Airport responded and told me to complain to customer services via the Avis website instead.

So, in a nutshell: a truly unpleasant car rental, customer service and complaints handing experience.. Never to be repeated. I thought Avis were a trustworthy car rental company, which is why I booked directly with them in the first place.

I'll never book with Avis again in the UK or any country as a result of this atrocious car rental and complaints handling experience.

My advice with car rental in UK - book with Europcar or Enterprise for better customer service.

From my experience to date with these two companies, there are no heavy-handed excess insurance selling practices, no extras being mis-sold or mysterious 'extras' added to your bill that you're not clearly made aware of by their service agents when collecting your rental car.

Both companies are reasonably priced and you'll not only save yourself money in the end, but also a lot of disappointment, frustration, unpleasantness and hassle.

Had to go here for vehicle exchange as Mercedes a class (picked up from LHR) got faulty engine. I booked this particular class of cars as when I booked the a-class or VW polo were advertised. However, I got MG car as an exchange!! Horrible!!

I don’t expect an upgrade but I also expect (after they gave me a faulty car and I had to waste 1.5 hour one-way to go in to swap) to receive at least the same make. Have Avis heard of time value for money? I don’t feel like I’ve been treated or compensated correctly for all my hassle.

I’ve emailed both LHR and preferred earlier in the week and received no response.

Charge for repairs and petrol totalling over £700! There was NO damage and we filled the car up before returning. No email, no call, just straight up charged my card. TERRIBLE SERVICE with no explanation. I have phoned 3 times to speak to customer service and the phone either goes dead or i'm left listening to music for 25+ minutes. I feel incredibly let down and disappointed by AVIS

We needed a car to take a flight in Gatwick after our Bristol flight was cancelled. Very easy and clear online booking process. Our agent Nick was super friendly, offered us the standard extras but was understanding/not pushy when we declined a few and the cost breakdown, location of the vehicle etc. was explained very clearly and efficiently to us. We dropped the vehicle overnight in Gatwick and received an email next day first thing in the morning confirming that all was fine (a relief for us as we'd had serious problems with Europcar staff in Luton a few years ago!).

Very happy with the overall very smooth experience, thank you!