Car rental- good or bad rental companies?

[Mother2two]

Good evening all.

Renting a car seems the best thing to do at this point.

I’m booking my car rental, and I’ve always gone through Enterprise. I’ve noticed a bunch of companies I’ve never used. Who should I avoid and why? Who have you had luck with? Ever had issues with them overbooking? Had that happen recently with Enterprise, but I made the cut thankfully.

My hotel doesn’t offer a bus or shuttle for anything with the airport or WDW.

Thanks for the help!

Christina

 

[TPG0235]

Renting a car from an airport is always a crapshoot, but I NEVER stray from the majors; Budget, Avis, Enterprise, Alamo... and ALWAYS avoid the smaller, offsite places; SixT, Easirent, Fox, Payless. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. If you are savy enough with your phone, do the online check-in to avoid the counter lines. Did that last trip as I was waiting in the line, got the confirmation, walk over to the parking lot kiosk, showed my "paperwork" and was on my way. We rented a car for one night. Used it to get from the airport to grocery shopping, then to SSR. The next morning while the family was at the waterpark, I returned the car to the Disney Car Care center and as advertised, they gave me a ride back to the resort. We used Mears to get to the airport on the way home.

 

[EACarlson]

Personally, I would only consider the 10 companies that have cars on site at MCO. In order of preference of those ten:
Hertz
National
Avis
Sixt
Enterprise
Budget
Alamo
Payless
Dollar
Thrifty

I would not consider either of the bottom two unless they were half the other companies. Payless is the only one on the list I haven't used. I will directly contradict the PP that said to avoid Sixt as a smaller offsite place, not only does Sixt have cars on site, they are a highly reputable company from Europe that is starting to make inroads in the US market. Hence why I have them directly behind the big 3. I have PC status with Hertz, otherwise I would go National above Hertz.
Dollar and Thrifty both have recent anecdotes of employees hard selling insurance to the point of demanding to see your personal insurance policy with a ridiculous limit or they tell you that you have to agree to theirs. Which of course generates them a nice commission and is very illegal.

 

[kimmar067]

In my experience:

Alamo - best
Budget - WORST

I just booked a vehicle last night through Alamo for a trip to Orlando in a few weeks, after researching pricing for similar cars and Alamo was the best. I have an account through them so I always get an upgrade. On the other side of the coin, in 2017 we had a destination family reunion in Puerto Rico, where 3 of our family members [including me] rented through Budget and got MANY hidden fees, poor service, and undue wait times. Seven years later and we had to go to the Orlando area for a family member that had passed away and had no choice but to utilize Budget once again, thinking that debacle was a one-time thing, but NO. Same crappy service, same exorbitant fees, yada, yada, yada. Never again!

 

[LadybugsMum]

I've had good experiences with Hertz, Alamo and Avis. I have not tried Budget due to the long lines (like hours long) and then running out of cars. I don't know if that's an issue anymore, but I am not willing to risk it. I will not do any of the super cheap option nor any that are offsite.

 

[reddog21]

Avis has always been my goto

 

[_19disnA]

Always had good luck with Avis and agree as others have said, you get what you pay for. If you are a member of Avis' club, you skip any lines and go directly to your car. (I think all of the big name brands offer the same perk). A BIG timesaver but hard to quantify in dollars/cents.

To me renting a car is a commodity so the daily price is only part of what to consider. Many of the brands you never heard of will try to stick with needless extras fees/charges or haggle about needing to buy their 'insurance'. Reputable major brands don't operate that way. Also check where the actual rental location is. At some airports, the major brands are at the airport why those other off brands are at some remote location. Be sure to check their hours of operations. Many older threads about car renting where you can read what others have actually experienced.

 

[easyas123]

I rent in MCO once or twice a year (and from other locations a few times a year) and use Enterprise with no problem, and have been doing so for several years and never had a issue.

 

[jimmymc]

A few suggestions:

Start with places located physically inside the airport with a skip the counter option. Lines get long at MCO. Alamo, Avis, and Hertz have it, not sure about the others.

Second piece of advice is to check reviews online. they'll typically be pretty bad, but they'll at least let you filter out scams from the typical rental car headaches. Hertz has a 3.4/5 on Google, but that's good enough for car rentals. Dollar has a 2.6, which I would not rent from.

And finally, check Turo. It will take some extra time picking up and dropping off the car, but you can save a lot of money this way while selecting the exact car you want. Just make sure the owner has plenty of good reviews.

 

[Mother2two]

Thanks for all the great information!

How does skip the counter work if you aren’t paying before you get the car?

 

[Herding_Cats]

Thanks for all the great information!

How does skip the counter work if you aren’t paying before you get the car?

If you're booking through something like costco travel, where you don't pay until you pick up the car, this is done through the online checking system where you add your drivers license info, credit card info, etc.

Make sure you have made your "rewards" profile through whichever company before you book the car through a 3rd party.

I feel like it's also worth noting that historically, in order to skip the counter with Budget, you have to have rented with them previously and visited the counter. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but I can tell you that they have always had the longest line when we are going through the rental car floor to get to the exit, and we had to wait in line for nearly 2 hours one year (booked through undercovertourist where we could not add a confirmation # to skip the counter) but we also saved like $600.





Also look into the visitor toll pass for using toll roads. It's really quick and easy to register for before you leave on your trip, and takes less than 5min to grab on your way to the parking garage and add the car license plate information once you get to your car.

 

[_19disnA]

I believe the first time you rent with any company, you have to go to desk to show you have a valid driver's license and they will input various information to have on file. On subsequent rentals, if you are part of their 'club', you can go directly to your car.

I always make my reservations online ahead of time and pay with my credit card at that time. When renting at a popular destination, it is good to have an advance reservation in the unlikely event all of their cars have already been reserved.

 

[thestartrader]

I've used Alamo and Avis in recent years and they've been a mixed bag. Very dependent on where I was picking up the cars. Alamo from MCO a few years back was smooth though.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

I don't have good luck with Budget so we personally stay clear from them. We use Alamo and their pre-check program; so we go straight from our plane to our car which is really nice.