Rental cars in California: How is availability lately?

[ryels]

Not sure if any of you have rented a car in California in the past 6 months or so, but just curious how bad the car shortage has been recently?

In May we're flying to San Francisco to spend a couple days then renting a car and hitting a couple National Parks then making our way to Anaheim to finish our trip at DL for 4 days. The thing that worries me is that I've been reading horror stories about the rental car shortage and people getting calls from rental car companies a day or two before their reservations notifying them that they ran out of cars.

Granted, sometimes these things are exaggerated, but when I go to make car reservations for the very same day/same company as my reservation, it says no more cars are available. It worries me that my reservation might not get honored at the last minute. I might be worried about nothing, but this was certainly not a thing before 2020!

I realize that SFO's car rental situation could be very different that at LAX or SNA, but has anyone had luck renting a car in California recently? Apart from the absurd prices, any trouble with having reservations canceled or places running out of cars?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pluto468]

I've been able to book rentals in SNA and LAX with no problem. Our trip is in early May.

 

[chezcurrie]

We had no issues in Dec 2021 at LAX

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I've been able to book rentals in SNA and LAX with no problem. Our trip is in early May.

If you didn’t pay for your rental in advance, you are not guaranteed a car. Same with hotel rooms, you can have a reservation and still show up to an overbooked hotel that doesn’t have a room for you. That being said, it seems like the rental car shortage has gotten better here, at least.