I recommend to anyone travelling to Alicante (and possibly other Spanish holiday resorts) this season to hire a larger than economy/compact class car. There seems to be a severe shortage of vehicles at most if not all car hire companies there and many reservations are simply cancelled without offering alternative. We've been warned in advance by our friends staying in Malaga sooner this summer and ordered a mid-size car which we got at EuropCar. We spoke to others in the line and their economy class cars were actually more expensive. I've heard that the car hire companies in Spain expected poor season and also have problems with bank-financing their new vehicles. Our EuropCar experience was good and I dare to say better than of those hiring from other companies. We also didn't have problems with communicating in English with the staff.