Thetownend.com

Does anyone have any experience with hiring a car at Lisbon airport? Who to aviod?
Thanks.

Yeah, I hired a car there a year or two ago. I pre-booked with one of the bigger companies though. Was simple enough.

Hired a car in Faro last summer and the prices had pretty much doubled on the year before, think this was also the case in Spain. We booked up early and shopped around but struggled to find anything less than around £200 more than the previous year.

Hired through Auto Europe express, picking up at Lisbon airport a couple of years ago. Bought a damage excess policy through Auto Europe to avoid the need for the heftier Hire Co insurance. It works so that you cough up initially and then get a erfund of tha from Auto Europe. I was then missold / pressured into getting the Guerin insurance at the airport by the rep - he completely misrepresented how the Auto Europe policy worked alongside theirs, saying that i wouldn't be covered for x, y and z. As we were in a rush and didn't have time to read the small print, I took his word for it after he reiterated more than once how it 'worked'.

Once I erad the terms alongside each other it was clear he had misled me. It took me 6 months to get them to refund it as a 'goodwill' gesture on their part. Schoolboy error on my part in the first place, but worth knowing. 

The funny thing about Lisbon is that you get offered loads of skunk and hash off ransoms in the street.

The strip in Albufeira is the worst/best I've seen for this. I had my 8 year son with a few years ago and was asked if I wanted drugs or had any to sell at least a dozen times just walking along the strip. Along with the gypsies It wasn't the most relaxing place to be with a family.

Picked up hire cars at Lisbon a few times. Due to do it again at the beginning of June. We always book in advance via moneysupermarket.com. At most only ever have to pay a few quid deposit the balance on pick up. Do the same when we've flown in to Faro, Porto or various in Spain. I'll have a look who we've booked with and let you know.

never hired out of faro and i don't travel in europe anymore on business but....my advice is to always check that you can pick up the car from the airport and not off some off site industrial unit where you need a shuttle bus......never worth the saving.