Car Rental Houston

Poorly staffed

Pros: The car was fine!

Cons: They were poorly staffed, staff couldn’t work the computer program, the line was very long and it took about 45 minutes to finally get the car! Plus they charged an extra $200 “security deposit” to my credit card because “too many people aren’t returning cars on time”. Will cheer to check in with my credit card to be sure it’s refunded!

Cons: very bad customer service, auto cancel my rental without my agreement, try to scam my rent money

Cons: Wait to get a car. Extra hours originally listed on reservation at $8/hr was $15/hr at checkout - not their problem they said. Car not ready for another half hour. Check-in took another extended time. Not enough people to check car. Totally third class operation

Pros: Cost and convenience

Cons: Vehicle was not well maintained; Steering was sloppy and vibration and noise at 70MPH was concerning Advised staff at vehicle drop-off

Fraud

Pros: Never picked up the car.

Cons: I cancelled this car before I rented one for less with budget and was still charged the full amount.

Weather cancellation not allowed

Pros: That they had a car available

Cons: That after severe weather in Dallas that delayed the flight past the point of the rental company closing, they would not cancel or credit per the Advantage person I called. First and last for me.

Gave away my car

Cons: Despite my calling multiple times to confirm the reservation, Alamo oversold all their cars. Why even make a reservation if they won’t honor it?

Pros: Drop off was very easy.

Cons: Pick up was annoying. Extra cost for second driver not expected. Used a different company the year before and it was not an extra expense. Service was mediocre. Will use a different company next year.

Car was dirty

Pros: Good gas mileage, car had modern amenities.

Cons: Car was dirty. Mud was caked on various surfaces.

Cons: Locations

No car

Pros: The Avis location that DID have a car was helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly.

Cons: The Avis location where I was supposed to pick up my car claimed to have tried to call me to say no car was available but there was no record on my phone to back it up. I had to go to another location to get a car and the original price was no longer valid. I paid 33% more than expected.

Cons: Car had strong cigarette smell and was not clean, garbage inside, had to spend time cleaning it.

Drop-off -- no one there

Pros: lots of signs telling me where to find the return area.

Cons: No one was in the drop-off lanes to guide me into the line -- no one met me to check me out -- i had to walk across the garage to find one checkin agent, while others (3-4) with their red vests on where sitting in a van in the middle of the garage, relaxing.

Sold out but didn't let me know

Cons: Although I received a confirmation e-mail and called Avis to confirm my booking, I was unable to pick up a car when I arrived at Avis, the service representative said: "I would have called you to tell you your reservation was canceled, but my phone is not working". Horrible costumer service. Avis offered no assistance to find another rental car.

Overpriced and dirty

Pros: Pickup and return was easy

Cons: Car was far more expensive than the estimate and it was very dirty with some dark sticky liquid all over the steering wheel, roof liner, doors and seats. Gross.

Horrible experience

Pros: Nothing

Cons: Spent 2 hours to pick up the car. Downgraded my reservation from luxury to premium while charging higher than the reservation initial cost.

Late pickup wait

Cons: Our flight was delayed and the Budget counter was closed and we had to wait 35 minutes at the Avis counter, and didn’t get to our son’s house until 1:45 am

Van not ever there

Pros: When we got the van it was great, but took forever to find me a vehicle even though we had a reservation.

Cons: No car ready.

Terrible service

Pros: Nothing.

Cons: The waiting line was long because the staff was slow and after I got to the front desk, I had terrible service.

Dollar Rental Was Fine, Kayak Wasn't

Pros: The Dollar Rental location that I ultimately used near the Medical Center in Houston was fine. Service was attentive and relatively quick.

Cons: Kayak originally sent me to a Dollar Rental location at Hobby airport, which required a round-trip-ticket for me to pay using a debit card. Kayak also, in my opinion misled me into believing that I would be uninsured and at risk if I did not buy their insurance coverage in advance. What's worse, the insurance probably didn't even apply given that I had to go with a difference auto than was originally assigned to me. Needless to say, I won't be using Kayak again... or recommending it to others.

Pros: Small car.

Cons: 500+dollars for about 27 hours.

Started off horrible, but ended okay

Pros: Customer service and ease of dropping off the car.

Cons: We booked the rental through kayak over a month before we needed the vehicle. The day prior to our pick up date we received a confirmation email. Upon arrival to the rental place, we were told that the location permanently closed the week before we arrived.

Pros: Car was OK but seats were too low.

Cons: The lady who received us when we returned the car was unable to give us a receipt so I had to go to the office to receive one. She tried to give me a receipt for $22 which was totally incorrect. Also, I was told to spend $25 to pre-pay tolls which proved to be unnecessary as we never went through a toll. I had told the guy at the desk that we were going to Sugar Land. Does Dollar pocket the unused $25?

Enterprise at IAH can't do much if you rented car at another location

Pros: The initial drop off was quick.

Cons: The person who checked our car was not wearing a uniform (others were, however) and was carrying a bottle of water, so we were temporarily confused why another renter was seemingly waving at us to pull up. She was polite, but as was explained inside, cannot give any receipt or correct any issues if the car is rented at another Enterprise location. Apparently, Enterprise locations are independently owned (??) and I was told by the IAH desk that "we are a private company and not like the other, publicly-traded rental companies." I will stick to those "other, publicly-traded car rental companies" in the future due to my overall experience (more to do with pick-up than the drop-off.)

Helpful yet difficult

Pros: The free upgrade after a difficult checkout

Cons: Told in the email I could use a debit card and then told that a credit card was required and couldn't get the car. Spent 3 hours trying to check out

Cons: Center was closed and never been notified

Cons: Arriving to the agency there was no car available even though I booked it ahead of time. No one was eager to help or reimburse for the rental

Not so easy rent a car

Pros: The car was clean

Cons: Customer service was so slow. I just want my car, I don’t want to talk for half an hour. Took forever to get the paper work done on the computer. Also,required a $200 deposit which was a first for me when renting cars. Angry car person when I returned the car. This business will not survive with this level of service

Rentet Beware

Cons: False advertising galore! Dont assume that if you pay in advance that they will have a vehicle for you. And they will try to keep your money anyway

Cons: My car had a really weird smell which will no go away. It was really gross smell. The car was really dirty

Cons: They wanted to chaege me an extra 200 dollars because "the TEXAS LAW" REQUIRED ANOTHER insurance

Computer issues

Cons: Computer issues that couldn't be resolved so I was unable to purchase insurance at quoted price at counter and couldn't purchase online as Discover card wasn't accepted online. Took an hour to get rental car even though I was the only one there. I had to insist on getting rental price reserved online.

Pick up took one hour

Pros: Clean car, drop off was easy. Pick up was understaffed and took forever so it was miserable.

Cons: Pickup. So understaffed. Huge wait. Sad tourists.

Terrible experience

Cons: Pickup was scheduled to midnoon. Because I got to the pickup location fifty minutes after noon, I was told my reservation was canceled and that there was no car available anymore. I was not offered a lift to drop me off at home. Accompanied by a friend of mine, I returned to the Hertz branch and was told that they don't charge credit cards, thus I had to get my money back from the third party where I had made the reservation (Kayak). We called Kayak and we were told that Kayak didn't charge my credit card and that Hertz had the responsibility of giving me back the amount charged in my credit card. So, after some time of misunderstandings I was offered a car that had just been returned by another client. I felt humiliated and helpless. I didn't feel welcome at that Hertz branch, and it waas like I was causing nuisance to those Hertz employess at that branch. Terrible experience. I have been in USA six times, but that was the first time that I had a unpleasant experience with car rental.

Cons: When we got there to pick up the car they wanted to put a hold on our credit card which was fine but there was some sort of problem with the credit card. They made us wait over an hour then ran the same credit card again with no problem

Cons: Our rental smelled foul.

Pros: The car only.

listed as "in terminal" on kayak. in reality it is shuttle with the re

Pros: friendly staff

Cons: false advertising of "in terminal". I had to go back to the counter and wait in line again upon dropoff.

Drop off schedule

Cons: Told agent I'd be dropping off at 4pm on Saturday where I picking up, and when I returned to location, they were closed. Call Payless number on bill at main office, and he hung up on me and said it was my fault.

Bad experience

Cons: I reserved a car for 11pm on Jan 25 and my plane arrived at Hobby at 10:40pm. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at the curb at 10:50, I did not see any shuttle busses for the next hour. When I called Payless, I realized that they closed at 11pm. If I knew they closed at that time, I would have used another rental agency.

Left me stranded in the city

Cons: I booked an economy class vehicle with Payless. When I arrived to pick it up, the employee at the front desk told me that he could not give me an economy class car, since there was only one available, and that he would have to charge me $9 extra a day for a midsize vehicle. I insisted on getting the economy class vehicle, but he swiped my card the wrong way, and told me it was getting rejected. He did the same for my 3 other cards. I called the card company, and they were not receiving any transaction requests. He refused to swipe my card twice, citing company policy. Ultimately, this left me stranded at the airport without a vehicle, and it took me more than 4 hours to find an alternate form of transportation. Please stay away from this location!

Rental requirements

Pros: Unable to rent at location due to restrictions requiring round trip ticket. Christmas ruined.

Pros: Car attendant and manager very helpful and kind...thanks!

Cons: Counter staff rude, inept, and inconsiderate. I just wanted to rent a car. Had to ask for manager to do her job, he came and we had no problems. Will not be back because of counter staff attitude.

Scam Artists

Pros: The gentleman at the Thrifty in Houston Hobby airport was very kind and helpful. He even realized when he noticed that we'd brought our own wheelchair, that getting into the transport van would be difficult for me,.. so he brought around an SUV, and personally drove us to the airport and helped off load the baggage.

Cons: Being lied to. A potential scam of over $3,000.

Pros: The car was nice and clean and it worked very well. It was a Malibu and the navigation system that synced with my iPhone worked really well. The staff was helpful.

Cons: We wanted to pay cash at the end of the rental and it was so difficult, we opted not to do it. The experience was not nice. We believed we had prepaid tolls for about $60, and then we got a charge of $12 per day, which was way higher thant the $60 we were expecting. Also, what is a recovery fee and why were we charged one. That kind of hidden fee is really annoying and makes me not want to rent from Thrifty again.

Dishonest & cheap

Cons: They lied to me about the cost of the toll tag and insurance options to try and upsell me.

Didn’t have the vehicle I reserved

Pros: Friendly staff

Cons: It took over an hour before they informed me that they didn’t have what I wanted. I don’t mind that they didn’t have it, but a lot of my day was wasted waiting to find that out.

Cons: The $59 "confirmed" reservation turned out to be $75 at the Thrifty counter in the terminal -- "take it or leave it "-- and Thrifty blamed United Airlines ("they do this all the time) for "low-balling" the fees. Been renting for decades, this is a first. Fortunately, I kept a paper trail (always do) -- and am turning it over to the Consumer Protection section of the Office of the Attorney General, Commonwealth of Virginia, to see what they think about this "bait and switch" scheme.

Kayak's quoted rate more than tripled

Cons: I decided to book through Kayak because you quoted a better rate than National. My plane was delayed by 2.5 hours and when I got to the airport, the kayak rate was more than triple what was on the reservation and I was told"Kayak does that some times if you are late!" I had booked a back up reservation with National and that one was not jacked up, so I went with that. Waste of time

Booked car not available

Cons: Although I had a confirmation the booked car wasn't available nor could they offer an alternative. Ended up renting with a different agency

Car wasn't available

Cons: I had specifically booked a convertible, and it was not available when I arrived for pick up

Confirmed Reservaion Does Not Mean Confirmed

Pros: Pretty much nothing because, even though I had a confirmed reservation, the vehicle I reserved was not available. Guess I can be thankful they called to let me know to not even bother to come out to pick it up.

Cons: I guess being baited with the idea that the rental company would pawn me off to another automobile once I got there...