Best Car Rental Company at MCO?

[mcvixen]

Thank you for that info. I've just changed my reservation to Dollar - exact same price for exact same type of car.

 

[dakcp2001]

Glad to help! One less hassle to worry about, and I think Dollar is right in the terminal too.

 

[MFLetou]

Dollar and Thrifty are the same company--literally. Same ownership, same management, etc. They branded a little bit differently.

Truly, anybody who makes a blanket statement about this company or that company is leading you down the wrong path. Perhaps you can generalize about certain traits, or notice a pattern of something happening more often with one company than another, but so much just depends on the particular CSR you are dealing with at the time, what time of day it is, how busy it is, what their inventory is like at that moment, etc.

Nationally, most frequent travelers rate Hertz as the best--and also most expensive. At MCO, Hertz is offsite, which in my book negates whatever advantage it might have. Plus, I've had lousy experiences with Hertz, too. Generally, a lot of people like National because of Emerald Club. However, at MCO, Alamo (the sister company) has the same policies--you can pick your own car. They share employees and vehicles (the back end). So, what's really the difference?

It might help to learn the ownership groups...basically, Hertz is Hertz but now owns Advantage, Avis and Budget are the same company, Dollar and Thrifty, same company, and National and Alamo, same company.

Honestly, I'd go with whatever is cheapest and works best for you and not worry about it. Personally, the most important criteria beyond price is choice--I like to choose which car I get--so National or Alamo are at the top of my list, and indeed I'm going with Alamo which now happens also tbe the cheapest.