Enterprise Rent-A-Car review: Failure to honor reservation. Fraud? ( 1 comment)

I am sharing a complaint regarding the refusal of a confirmed, prepaid reservation at the Enterprise Madrid Airport location today.

I reserved a vehicle for our Spain holiday months in advance and confirmed that reservation the day before pickup (I am an Enterprise Plus member), We arrived at the Madrid Airport location today as scheduled, on time, with a valid U.S. driver's license in hand.

The branch manager refused to honor the reservation, insisting that an International Driving Permit (IDP) was required and that there was no way to obtain one in Spain. I contacted Enterprise customer service on the spot, and was told directly that a valid U.S. license was all that was required — but that customer service had no ability to compel the Madrid Airport agents to honor the booking. This left us stranded with no vehicle and no recourse.

I want to be explicit about the inconsistency at the heart of this complaint: nowhere in my original reservation, my confirmation email, or my member profile was any IDP requirement disclosed. This is not a minor omission — it directly contradicts Enterprise's own published Spain Renter Requirements, which state that for non-EU citizens, an international driving licence is only required if the licence is not written in the Latin alphabet. A U.S. driver's license is in the Latin alphabet. By Enterprise's written terms, I met every documented requirement. I have also held an International Driving Permit in the past when traveling to Europe and was never once asked to produce it — so this requirement, even if it has some basis in local traffic law, was never communicated to me despite six months of reservation and confirmation touchpoints.

After being turned away, my family and I spent the next two hours at the airport scrambling to secure alternative transportation, as every other agency was nearly sold out due to this week's total solar eclipse. We ultimately had to book a replacement vehicle at approximately two and a half times the cost of our original Enterprise reservation. As a result, we did not arrive at our destination until six hours later than planned, losing meaningful vacation time on a trip that was planned months in advance.

Given the timing — a documented surge in regional demand due to the eclipse, combined with a denial based on an undisclosed and contractually contradicted requirement — I am deeply concerned that this was not simple incompetence but a deliberate decision to cancel a lower-priced, long-confirmed reservation in order to resell that vehicle at a substantially higher walk-up rate. At absolute best, this reflects a serious failure of the Madrid location to operate consistently with Enterprise's own published policies. At worst, it is a bait-and-switch at the direct expense of a loyal, decade-long Enterprise Plus member.

I am requesting the following:

1. A full refund of any amount charged or held for the original Madrid reservation, including any Enterprise Plus points used.
2. Reimbursement of the price difference between my original reservation and the replacement vehicle I was forced to book at the airport.
3. Compensation for the six hours of lost vacation time and the disruption to our trip.
4. A written explanation from Enterprise as to why this requirement was never disclosed at booking or confirmation, and why the Madrid branch acted in direct contradiction to Enterprise's own published Spain policy.

This is an egregious failure on the part of Enterprise customer service, who have failed to assist in any way and have proved themselves an untrustworthy and potentially dishonest vendor. Avoid as I will in the future.

View 0 more photos