Closest car rental co. to LAX

[PrincessIM]

Does anyone know what the closest car rental company to LAX is? Any recommendations as to which company to use?

 

[brenda1966]

I'm not sure it matters how close you are. They are right in the area and they have shuttles that take you back and forth to the airport.

I will tell you to avoid Budget on Saturdays during the summer. They overbook horribly and expect you to stand in 2 hour lines to wait for a car that isn't even there. I will never rent from Budget out of LAX again.

 

[SnowWhite12]

We got the best price with Enterprise. Used our entertainment book coupon. They are all extremely busy on Saturdays. DH stood in line for about 30 minutes. But returning the car is a breeze, and then the shuttle takes you to the airport.

 

[PrincessIM]

Yikes! I can't believe you both had to wait that long. We were going to go with the Disneyland Express but for a little bit more we thought we could rent a car to avoid waiting around for the shuttle. We're arriving on a Friday and leaving on a Wednesday.

 

[brenda1966]

30 minutes sounds like a dream compared to the 2 hours I waited to only find out they didn't have my car and I had to wait longer for them to finally give me a "free upgrade" to some giant vehicle I never wanted.

People who had places to be were getting very irate. The people working at budget just glared at us and said "this is how it is in summer". One poor person had come from another rental place that had no line, but when he got to the desk he realized his reservation wasn't with them, it was with Budget and took a taxi over to budget. If I hadn't already paid for my car (courtesy of hotwire) I would have tried to find another place.

Avoid BUDGET! This time I'll be getting a car from Avis. We get in very early in the morning so I don't expect to find much of a line at all.

 

[brenda1966]

I should add that renting a car to avoid having to wait for the shuttle doesn't seem like a big time saver to me. Even if there isn't much of a line at the rental place, you still have to wait for a shuttle to get there, then you have to do the paperwork there which seems to take longer than it should. Then you have to find your way to the highway. LOL.

If I didn't need the car for anything else, I'd probably to Disney express.

Renting a car out of LAX is also pricey. They add on a lot of "fees" due to it being at the airport.

 

[ironpig70]

i don't know who or what is the best or who to avoid. but being in the rental business for the last 6 plus years(equipment rentals) i will tell everybody to avoid friday thru monday. they are either preparing for the weekend, in the weekend or coming off the weekend all all hugely busy. and lastly most book to the limit and all it takes is that one car not coming back on time to cause a huge domino type of collapse that throws the whole place into chaos.


if you are going from the airport to disneyland and then back to the airport then take a shuttle. now if you are going from the airport to the parks for several days then seeing so cal and then back to the airport then i'd suggest the suttle and have a car dropped at the hotel and then drop at the airport.


i wish that lax did like orlando did. when we flew in we went into a parking structure. take a left from "x, y and z" car companies and a right for "a,b and c". then go down the aisle for your car type ie compact, suv, van. all the keys where in the car. there was a paper in there to mark damage. then you drove out of the structure and the gate attendant did all the paperwork in mere minutes. it's the only time i've seen it and it was awsome and convient to say the least.

 

[obithar2]

Reading this is scaring me. We have always flown into Orlando, and it is so easy! We have a car booked through Dollar - does anyone have any experience with them? We are touring So Cal so we need a car, but we are going to Disney at first. I didn't realize they would drop a car off for us. How do we go about booking that?

 

[nullo]

I've used Dollar out of LAX before (they're usually cheapest). The shuttle trip to the office wasn't bad--probably took about ten minutes from the time I got to the shuttle stop to drop-off at the rental office. The wait for the car was on the long side, though, about forty-five minutes for only six or eight people ahead of me. If you have kids they might go a little nuts. Turning the car in was super easy--once I found the place again. My husband and I are hitting Disneyland on May 18, and decided to go ahead and rent through Dollar again, so...there's that. Good luck, and have a great trip!

 

[PrincessIM]

Still debating. It doesn't sound like I'll be saving much time especially if there's a line up at the rental office. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with Alamo?