Help! Sanford airport car rentals close early!!!

[mlshields]

Hi everyone!

My family and I (6 total) will be arriving into Sanford/Orlando airport at 9pm. Every car rental at this airport will be closed by then. Hertz says that they will guarentee a car will be waiting for you (they say they will meet every flight if a reservation is made) but their prices are Outrageous!!! We are playing with the idea of either 1) renting a car from there and driving to MCO to drop it off and get a different car from a different company. 2) Take a taxi/car service from Sanford to MCO.

Any suggestions? Anyone run into this problem before?

Thanks for your help,

Lauren

 

[safetymom]

I would check with the rental agencies to see what the drop off charge is. That may alter your money figuring as to what is cheaper.

 

[MulanMom]

mlshields...check the hours for each of the rental agencies. I was surprised to find Dollar open most nights until 8:45pm. Prior to finding that out, my plan was to get the local numbers for the rental car companies at Sanford airport and call directly to make the reservation. They will stay open when a flight is coming in. Prior to calling, I would check the website to see what kind of car and rate you can get for that day...so you know what a good/bad rate may be.

Hope this helps!

 

[Hawkeye314]

Don't panic.

All of the on-site agencies stay open to meet the planes. I got in with my family late (9-10pm) one night and National/Alamo stayed open for me. Book your resv. online and put in different times if you have to. Then call the local office and make sure they put down what night you will be arriving. We id this with National and I called the day befoe the fight to confirm everything and they had me down on the calendar.

I'll admit to a few nervous moments when I got off the plane and walked to the building but they were, indeed, open and very nice.

I dropped off before they opened and had no problem sliding the keys and contract into their drop off box.

Just make sure to call the local office and confirm everything.