AVIS Costa Rica Recensioni 25

Don't get scammed!!!

I booked with Avis through QEEQ with the belief that AVIS is a reputable brand. After booking, I read countless reviews about people being scammed by AVIS at SJO and LIR in Costa Rica, so I came fully prepared: international driver’s license, printed voucher, Visa insurance letter and policy, and I even videoed the car at pickup and drop-off.

It didn’t matter.

I booked a full-size/premium SUV for $698.75 USD and was given a Nissan X-Trail instead, a lower-class vehicle, while being told it was “equivalent.” It isn’t. No price adjustment was offered.

The final bill came to $1,136.78 USD, over $400 more than booked—with charges that don’t resemble the original agreement at all. I was told at pickup that it would be corrected at drop-off. It wasn’t.

At drop-off, they refused to provide proper documentation. The inspection just said “All Good”, no signature, no name, no receipt. The agent wouldn’t even identify themselves.

The damage deposit is still being held by Avis (not Visa), despite their terms stating it should be released after return with no damage. Instead, they later claimed it takes 15–30 days, contradicting their own agreement.

Avis Costa Rica operates as a franchise, so AVIS International has no authority over them and they've become a fraudulent operation consistently scamming tourists, ignoring booking contracts, adding extra erroneous fees, refusing to release the credit card holds, refusing proper documentation, refusing to follow their own terms and agreements that they provide you with and there is zero recourse.

Don't get scammed. Book elsewhere, AVIS will be more expensive and far more stressful than elsewhere.

Despite due diligence when renting cars, Avis at San Jose, Costa Rica are operating fraudulently.

DO NOT RENT FROM THEM OR DOCUMENT EVRYTHING

I signed off on incident for a $100 1"x4" piece of trim that was missing on return, just popped off on a pothole probably. A drivers side mat was noticed to be missing after we left. They tried to charge me for that but I insisted it wasn't documented either way and why would I steal a mat and he told me verbally I wouldn't be responsible. I had him sign "ok" on the inspection sheet and closed out the rental.
While we were still there waiting for the shuttle, they ran my card three more times without my consent charging me another $400 on top of the $100 I paid and charged me for the mat that wasn't responisble for. When I reached out they said the small plastic clip was $500! (It's listed as $25 on the supplier website).
They only have the signed off report for $100 but fighting to get the money back has been four days of hell with Avis saying they are complying with their signed documents and Chase agreeing. I've had to push back on Chase heavily since they just reversed the charge even though I pointed out that Avis' paperwork is for an agreed $100 - not $500.
Be careful out there!

Horrible staff, cars are very dirty, unsafe sometimes, bald tires, if something happens or car breaks down, no help for hours or even a whole day. They literally scam you for the charges.

I would walk before renting from this place again if there were no other options. Total lack of communication - don’t answer the phone or return emails. Charged me twice for a $1000 deposit which was a total surprise by the way. Played dumb and gave me another number to call that nobody answered. Had to dispute the charges through my credit card company. Do not rent from this place. I’ve used Avis the US plenty of times in the past, but never again thanks to this debacle. I’ve used Vamos and Alamo in Costa Rica - both did a great job, so fortunately there are better options.

What a rude and an obnoxious company. They are the worst. They charged us extra insurance despite the fact we had paid for it. The. We had to wait 30 minutes as the car was not ready. The staff and managers are extremely rude and arrogant. If there was a 0 on this site I would give them that as a 1 is not worth it. Avoid them

Returned the rental car that experienced a scuff on the lower front bumper while in valet. I was charged $904. for a hazy area that could have easily been removed with a buffer. I challenged the repair process and exorbtant cost with the manager. Here is the reponse I received:

Why not buff out the spot: We always paint
Why is painting cost so high: Costa Rica is expensive
Why do you care, you have insurance
And finally, the manager never looked at the car, he
just told the agent how much to charge
This is a locally owner franchisee using the Avis brand to rip off tourists. Out of 19 reviews, 18 are 1 star, and 1 3 star. I did not check the reviews before renting. If you have a similar experience complain to the Costa Rica Dept of Tourism, Avis Corporate, contest the charge on your credit card and write a review. This business should not exist under its current ownership.

This place is a scam. I booked a car rental here for a week. When I arrived and went to get my car they said I needed to purchase CDW for $345 unless I could produce a letter from my credit card company. I told them I had a chase sapphire card which includes CDW. They said only a letter from the card company would suffice. They also said that everyone shows up without the letter and is forced to purchase CDW even if their card covers it. Complained to Avis and they refused to do anything about it. Total rip off.

I booked a vehicle with Avis Costa Rica on 26 October 2025.

On 12 December 2025 I confirmed with Avis Costa Rica via WhatsApp, if the vehicle is indeed all wheel drive (AWD). I know the Nissan Patrol (that I booked) but wanted to make sure it is AWD or 4x4 as the roads we intended to drive were quite bad last time we were in Costa Rica and we needed a large vehicle for all our luggage. They confirmed the vehicle is AWD.

When we collected the vehicle they told us they do not have the vehicle that we booked and could only give us a Nissan X-Trail. It was also AWD or 4x4 but a lot smaller and the biggest problem was that it did not have a spare wheel. On top of that, they initially tried to charge me more than the booked price for an inferior vehicle. When I picked that up, I queried it and they deducted 400US$, which I reluctantly accepted. I complained about the fact that the car does not have a spare wheel and told the AVIS agent that we will be driving dirt roads and this will not be good for us. He told me they do not have other vehicles, and I have to take it or leave it. They could only offer a double cab pic-up but our luggage would have been outside as the bin was not covered. This did not work for us, so we took the car, not knowing where else to go and what to do.

The vehicle was initially fine until we got a puncture in a very remote area on a dirt road on 13 January 2026 early in the morning – before 7h00. We tried to fix it with the pump and fluid that was supplied but it did not last as the cut in the tyre was too big.

We contacted Avis and they told us to contact the insurance. The insurance did not come and change the wheel. They took the vehicle and arranged to have us dropped off at our accommodation.

We were then stuck without a vehicle. Avis Costa Rica did not answer any of our calls and initially also not our WhatsApp messages. Eventually they sent us the following message at 17h48 on 13 January 2026:

“Sorry, we don´t have availability of cars at the moment, we are checking to provide you with one as soon as we can
Also, we only can provide you with a taxi to the place that you are staying like this morning”

We sent numerous messages after that, to both numbers that we had from Avis in Costa Rica, but neither of them returned our messages after the above message. We also tried calling but the calls were not answered.

We told them that we have to be out of our current accommodation on the 15th of January 2026 and we had to pay for transport on the 14th and for an excursion that we did not have on the 13th as we could not get to it – all because they did not give us the vehicle that we booked and they did not communicate at all with us.

We have to assume that after getting no communication from Avis to remedy the situation that we were left with having to find our own why out from where we were at that moment, which was very remote and ended up costing us a lot of additional money.

We communicated this with Avis, but only got a message back from them 2 days later. They offered a small reduction on the rental what was far less than what we had lost due to the fact that we were not provided with a replacement vehicle. We found all totally unacceptable! The lack of communication was the worst. At least they should have had the decency to let us know we are on our own and have to make our own plans to get away from where we were.

I have been an Avis Preferred member for many years and have used Avis numerous times in South Africa and also in Europe. I have never had such a terrible experience with any rental company.

HIDDEN FEES!
I have been renting cars in Costa Rica for several years now and have always used my American Express to cover out of country insurance on rentals.
Avis does not accept and forces you to pay unrealistic ‘mandatory insurance ‘. Had to pay an extra $500 from original quote. Terrible business practice.
I will continue to ONLY use Alamo and Enterprise. They are straight forward with no hidden fees. I always receive a very clean car with exceptional service.
Lesson learned!

I went with Avis beacuse it says it is located at the airport in Liberia. It is not. You have to try to figure that out, once you do you have to find their shuttle and take it over to their location. Then they make you take the insurance. So I ended up paying double the orginal quote

This rental was a total scam! At no time was there any mention of required liability insurance ($230) that turned out to be even more expensive than the car rental ($130) itself. At that point we had already been shuttled away from the airport and had no other options, so we were held hostage to paying. Had we known this upfront we would have never rented a car, so I'll be disputing the crazy insurance charge with Amex. In talking to locals, car insurance in Costa Rica is very inexpensive ($100/mo), yet they charged us to what amounted to $900/mo and didn't even disclose our coverage limits beyond the statement, "required minimums". Here in the US required minimums don't cover squat in the event of an accident with injuries, so essentially we had no coverage.

My friends and I have been going to Costa Rica for over 20 years. We rent cars every time.
On our last trip we rented a vehicle from Avis at the Liberia Airport.
This is the first time that we were cheated and mislead. This company and the employees there are no good.

They are scammers and bold faced liars—- don’t sign for WTC, RSN or anything else they tell you is required

Take and READ these reviews seriously. DO NOT RENT FROM AVIS!!!!! PERIOD! End of story

Don't book with them!!!! If I could give this review zero stars I would. If you want to enjoy your trip, and not deal with cars that are in bad shape and suvs that struggle to go up mountain roads and aggressive staff. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT book with them. They really ruined our Costa Rica experience. Alexander apparently has been working there for many years yet his demeanor and passive aggressive attitude was uncalled for. He told us to not call them if anything happens because we declined the optional charges he was trying to swindle us to buy. And then on return, not only did Ronnie not believe us, he was very aggressive and speaking in a manner that we were at fault. They 100% overcharged. They will not care about you nor about giving customers a good a service. Listen to the reviews, they've been through helll because of this company and came back to tell you not to book with them so you don't have to experience the same fate we did.

I want to share my extremely disappointing experience with Avis, specifically with the car rental agency at San Jose International Airport in Costa Rica.
Back in January, I had reserved a 4x4 SUV for 9 days with Avis. Upon arrival, not only was the service agent unpleasant, but he also claimed that my reservation was for a 4x2 SUV, not a 4x4, which forced me to pay an exorbitant additional fee to get the vehicle I had initially reserved.

On top of that, I was coerced into purchasing additional insurance despite having comprehensive coverage with Europ Assistance, covering all necessary aspects of car insurance. Additionally, my Avis Preferred status was completely disregarded, which is simply unacceptable.
The total extra cost of my rental amounted to $304.89, a significant amount that I had to pay due to dubious business practices and appalling customer service.

It is unacceptable for Avis to take advantage of customers in this manner by imposing unjustified additional fees and disregarding earned benefits. As a savvy traveler, I cannot recommend Avis due to this appalling experience.

I urge Avis to seriously review its business practices and address this situation by granting a refund for the unjustified additional fees I had to bear.
I implore all fellow travelers to be vigilant in their dealings with Avis and consider other car rental options to avoid the hassle and unjustified fees.

Avis did not inform me about the following policies:
1. They require a letter from your credit card company stating they will be responsible in the event of an accident in order to rent a car. The mandatory government insurance is also required
2. Avis holds an additional $1000 US deposit for 30 days when you rent a car.
3. Avis insists on you signing documents which have not been completed and refuses to give you a copy.

Our experience with Avis was absolutely horrible and every client (dozens) we encountered both getting the car and bringing it back was like “I can’t believe what a scam this place is.” They are dishonest about charges, outright lied to us about multiple things, and have horrible customer service. Rent from literally anyone else.

The car rental company was a mixed bag for me. The folks there were super nice, which was a plus. But man, everything took forever, and all their paperwork was in Spanish, which threw me off a bit. Also, they were pretty keen on pushing extra insurance I didn't really need right from the start. While there were some good vibes from the staff, these downsides were kind of a bummer.

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! Surrounded by 4 salesmen, threatened and bullied when no other customers were around. They refused to take us to the airport. Charged me $200 for nothing. I recorded everything on my phone. Contacted Avis 3 times when I returned back to the states...NEVER received a response back or an apology.