GoldCar Rental review: Hidden fees

My father and I both rented a car and chose the Key and Go option. Unfortunately, the machine downstairs wasn’t working and there was a very long queue. We decided to go upstairs to try there instead. Because the trip from downstairs to upstairs took some time, we arrived at the machine at 23:02 — just 2 minutes “late.”

We went inside, where there was literally no one else waiting, and the woman at the counter immediately snapped at us to take a ticket before she would help us — very strange given there was no one else around.

After filling in the necessary details, she told us we had to pay a penalty because we were 4 minutes late. Both my father and I were charged €40 each. While this amount may not be massive, the principle is the issue: paying over €1750 for two cars and then being fined €40 over a 4-minute delay — which wasn’t even our fault — is completely unacceptable.

I followed up via email, but nothing was done about the fact that the downstairs machine wasn’t working. There was no help or compensation offered.

Well, this was our first and definitely our last time renting with Goldcar.