18. March 2026
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Car Rental Review – Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG) – Mercedes GLE 350d

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG)

Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG)
4.5

Rating

 4.5/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very friendly staff
  • Great car (upgrade)
  • Smooth processes and short walking distances

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Narrow garage
  • Hertz Austria blocks deposit for Gold Members

For a weekend trip to Tyrol, my wife and I flew to Salzburg Airport (SZG) and took a rental car from there. For the booking in August 2021, I opted for Hertz, which is overall my preferred car rental company. After the positive experience with another Austrian outlet at Graz Airport (GRZ), I was looking forward to a smooth rental. However, the car rental came with some surprises. Here is my review.

 

Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG) – The Rental

We had a three day rental in August 2021. The car I booked was a Ford Focus, which had a rental fee of 145.36 EUR for all three days (Thursday evening to Sunday evening) with the basic insurance. I am covered against rental car damages by my credit card. On top of that, as our flight from Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) was rather late, there was an evening rental surcharge of some 30 Euro. Due to my Five Star status at Hertz, we received a complimentary upgrade – which was quite amazing: they gave us the Mercedes GLE 350d.

 

Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG) – The Rental Office

As all at-terminal car rentals at Salzburg Airport (SZG) are located in a separate building. You need to walk across a small parking lot, the walkway is covered. All rental offices are in the rather small room. From there, you just need to take an elevator down to the parking garage, where the cars are located.

 

Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG) – Receiving The Car

Apart from that I had to mentally deal with the surprising upgrade, the rental process was really smooth and friendly. Renting the car took less than five minutes. Of course, my Hertz account helps a lot as most of the necessary data is available. Checking the car took likely more time than renting it – I just did not want to miss a damage in that very special case. Getting the car out of the garage was a bit of challenging – the size of the GLE is about the maximum you should put into this parking garage. Like at the Graz rental, Hertz Austria blocks the deposit (based on the Ford Focus rental) on your credit card, even as a Gold Member.

 

Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG) – Returning The Car

The routes to the car rental garage are well signed. Again, the ramp down to the parking garage was a bit of challenging. The return process was very smooth – we had the same client manager as at rental. After a nice chat, we took the short walk to the terminal.

 

The Car – Mercedes GLE 350d

Touchpads at both sides of the steering wheel, an amazing cockpit display, which is even able to display navigation directions into a live view camera – the Mercedes GLE 350d was truly a great upgrade. We did have some uphill and downhill routes – the car felt just perfect for that. Some of the “comfort” the car offers is maybe a bit too much – I don’t need the Mercedes star to be projected on the ground when I exit the car, for example. The 360 degree view was very helpful, I would even say, absolutely necessary – parking the car into rather narrow lots without that would have been quite a challenge. The car had a mileage of some 4,000 kms.

The car included the toll sticker for the Austrian motorways, of course – and as we booked a Ford Focus via Hertz, there was no issue about crossing the border to Germany as well (which was very convenient for our trip). Great car – but as the (Austrian) price for it is some 100k Euro – I would still rather not add it to my thoughts when buying a new one.

 

Hertz Salzburg Airport (SZG) – My View

The unexpected upgrade of course made the rental very memorable – but this should of course just take a subordinate role. The rental went really well. The staff was super-friendly. The parking garage is a challenge and blocking a deposit for Hertz Gold members is rather uncommon – that’s all on the not-positive side. I really enjoyed our rental in Salzburg.

 

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