Hiring a car at Barcelona Airport

What this means for your booking

• A month is not four times a week. The median week here is €287 and the median month €1687 — worse per day, which is why back-to-back rentals often beat one long booking on hires of 40 days or more.
• Airport or town desk? We have not measured which is cheaper yet, so we won't guess. We are measuring it now and will publish the numbers. See every pick-up point here.

Getting to the car

If you land late. 51% of the suppliers we priced shut by 22:00, and the typical desk closes at 22:00. A delayed flight is the difference between collecting your car and paying for a night you did not plan. Measured across 740 offers that publish their desk hours; a supplier that does not publish them is not counted as open.

Not every supplier here hands you the keys in the terminal. Across 38 searches, this is how collection splits:

• Free shuttle service 45%
• In terminal 38%
• Meet & Greet 10%
• Car rental center 10%

Budget time for a shuttle. 45% of suppliers here are off-airport, which is usually why they are cheaper. It is a real cost in minutes at both ends, and worth weighing against the saving.

29 suppliers appeared here across our searches, at several separate pick-up points. See which is nearest you and what each costs.

The fine print, measured

These conditions vary more between airports than most people expect. We measure each of them everywhere we sweep: deposits · debit cards · second-driver fees · desk hours.

Deposit banding, as the suppliers classify it themselves: low deposit 34% · average deposit 27% · deposit-free option available 15% · no deposit 10% · low deposit option available 7% · high deposit 7%.

What each supplier actually costs here

29 suppliers appeared in our searches. These are the ones you are most likely to be offered — chosen by how often they came up, then ordered by what they really cost, which is rarely the same order as the advertised price.

Prices are for a one-week hire. Mixing rental lengths would make the column meaningless — a fee charged once per rental is a very different share of a week than of a month — so this table is built from week-long searches only.

Deposits vary far more than prices. Thrifty holds €1,500 on the main driver's card against Malco Rent a Car's €100. It is released after you return the car, but it has to fit.

"With 2nd driver" is the advertised rental plus that supplier's additional-driver fee — our definition of the total, and the only one we rank on. Full cover is quoted separately and never added in: many travellers hold annual excess insurance or rely on a card, and folding in an assumed purchase is precisely the trick this site exists to expose. Medians across 38 searches; a supplier that does not publish a fee is not counted as free. How we measure this.

What a rental costs at Barcelona Airport

Per day, from the searches we have run here. Cheapest found is the single cheapest car, at the price shown when booking (it appears once enough searches record it; the deposit and any desk charges are on each car in the search). Low end: only 1 car in 10 costs less than this. Middle is the typical car. + second driver and + full cover add each car's own quoted fee and DiscoverCars' Full Coverage price - only cars that quote them count, never as free; those rows appear as searches record them (from 27 September). The rental price only: a second driver, cover and fuel come on top, and prices move daily, so check your own dates.

How customers rate each supplier at Barcelona Airport

DiscoverCars customers' scores for each supplier's desk here, out of 10 - only suppliers with at least 30 local reviews. Scores under 6.5 are marked. The slowest pick-ups come first.

Source: DiscoverCars customer reviews of each supplier at this location, as shown with every search; medians across our searches. Scores change as new reviews come in.

Barcelona Airport against other airports

Across the 34 airports we measure, a second driver is cheapest at Tenerife Airport South (typically €7) and dearest at Kos Airport (€240). All second-driver fees.