CAR RENTAL REVIEWS ON DRIVALIA AT HEATHROW AIRPORT, LHR

The older male staff members were fairly standard, not very enthusiastic but still polite. The vehicle inspection was thorough.

I waited in line for 2 hours. This was my most frustrating car rental experience, completely tricked by the London Devila car rental company. I underestimated the speed of the London Underground and the airport express, and even worse, the efficiency of the rental company. There were only 2-3 people ahead of me, but by the time it was my turn, over 2 hours had passed. A man dressed in a suit and tie, looking different from the other staff, attended to me. He told me my reservation had expired, as bookings were only held for 1 hour. I had to make a new rental at a rate of £140, and he said I had no other choice because the original booking was non-refundable and there were no other rental companies nearby. They said they only had expensive automatic cars available. As I had no evidence to prove I arrived within the 1-hour window, I couldn't reinstate my original booking. Left with no choice, I negotiated and rented a car for 2 days at £82. While discussing the issue with the platform, the woman behind me said she had also arrived late and had booked an automatic car online, but she wasn't good at driving manual cars. After completing my paperwork, I saw she had already picked up her car. This indicates that there were indeed other automatic cars available. This rental experience made the reservation meaningless—not only did I not get the car I booked, but I was forced to rent on-site at double the price, feeling like I was being taken advantage of in a bad situation.

Small company with affordable prices. The store is located inside the Sheraton Skyline Hotel, without a signboard. You can take a free bus from Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, and 3 bus station to get there. Upon returning the car, they provided a ride to the departure terminal, and the service was pretty good. I had reserved a Ford Mondeo estate but got a Toyota AUIS hybrid instead. Although it's slightly smaller than the Mondeo, it was still sufficient. The mileage was 3000 miles on the odometer, so it was a very new car. I opted for the prepaid full tank option, which cost over 86 pounds. It turned out to be a rip-off because even running the tank empty only required a refill of 45 pounds. I strongly advise against getting the prepaid full tank option. I accidentally scratched the left front wheel and the wheel rim during roadside parking. They said it needed to be replaced when I returned the car, and I was charged 420 pounds including service fees and taxes. Fortunately, I had purchased the supplementary full insurance recommended by QEEQ in China, and I was fully reimbursed. I highly recommend this as it's much more cost-effective than buying full insurance abroad.

Good

Easy to locate and convenient transportation. Overall, the service was average. They kept pushing local British insurance, which was extremely expensive. When I presented my comprehensive domestic car insurance, their attitude immediately changed.

Very satisfied. Just be sure to check if there are any warning indicators on the vehicle's dashboard during the rental period, and address them before returning the car; otherwise, there might be additional charges later. This was not mentioned during pickup.

This company is incredibly frustrating. They couldn't provide a car and blamed the agent. When we had a three-way call with the agent, they admitted it was due to overbooking on their part. Their attitude was disgusting and they didn't even apologize. This is the worst car rental company ever.

We took a bus from the airport and were charged £13.6 for two people. We reserved a Volvo XC60, but we got a Mazda X5. Not sure if it’s in the same class, but it seemed like a rip-off to me. The car pickup process was very inefficient, especially during the short winter days in London. We spent nearly half an hour at the counter just to get the car, and it cost almost £19,000 for 22 days.

Car only had 1/4 of a tank petrol. Car provided was a Peugeot 3008, not a volvo xc60 as advertised.

Convenient and good value for money.

Not good, too many mileage restrictions. Even after purchasing unlimited mileage, there were still charges at the end. The car was in very poor condition, with no air conditioning, and the key remote was broken, often failing to lock the car. This was the worst car rental experience I've had abroad. They didn't provide a full tank of gas at pickup but charged for a full tank at return. Extremely poor service. Another rental company I used for this trip did not have these issues.

Reasonable prices, very convenient procedures.

Direct shuttle service available

There is mandatory insurance upselling. The company's staff said the rental fee is low, so insurance must be upsold.

I paid in full to rent a car for a month, but they said they didn't have the car because I arrived two hours late???!!! Unbelievable!!! I rented a car for a month (Ford Mondeo) and fully paid the rental fee. I was supposed to pick up the car at 8 AM as scheduled online, but my flight was delayed, so I arrived at 10:10 AM at the car rental company (Drivalia). The staff on-site said that since I was more than two hours late, the car I rented had been given to someone else. They asked for an extra £1,400 to rent another car of the same model (Renault Arkana). I requested an equivalent or slightly lower category car, but the staff said there were no other cars available. I had to call the rental platform's customer service for help. After a brief conversation with the on-site staff, the customer service told me I could either not take the car and request a refund, which was not guaranteed, or pay the extra fee to take the car. Being unfamiliar with the area and having no other options, I reluctantly paid the extra fee. The whole trip was affected by this experience.