I know there is no EA or ES at DSM, but I'm wondering what kind car I can expect as an ES with a full size reservation. I'll be picking up on a Thursday afternoon.

You can most likely expect either an Impala or a Grand Prix. Don't know what the premium line up is though.

Late last year those were the choices I've had there.

I got a Nissan Sentra with __47K___ miles on it and the tires look like they have been through all 47K of those miles. Today DSM is in a blizzard - this car is just adding to the safety issues.

Yes, I'm a Emerald Exec and did question the counter guy but he said they don't do upgrades. Its yet another of these dang Licensee operators that thinks the Emerald program is optional. (not that all licensees are bad but several of them are)

DSM appears to now offer unlimited miles, and somewhat more reasonable one-way rates.

First (and probably last) rental from National at DSM.

I did not expect an Aisle, but a car would have been nice! 7/12 at 4:30 PM Plane was 30 minuites late, but all of us had to wait on cars because they were being "cleaned" I was "upgraded" to a Ford Explorer that has seen better days. If that's "cleaned" I would have hated to see dirty. The last drivers "leftover" food was still in the car!

None of the other agencies seemed to have this wait so when I return I will try one of them.

Does anyone have any more recent experience at this location? There are a handful of reviews on Yelp and they don't seem promising. After being quite disappointed with licensee National locations I'd rather not deal with another bad one.

I just rented from the National counter at DSM. Needless to say, I was a little more than disappointing. Due to my company, I get instant 'executive' status, and usually pay for one price, and get an upgrade. To get an SUV they were going to charge me an additional $30 a day. I realize that there is no Emerald here, but come on. It was very confusing as well. The agent kept switching terms and asking if it was ok. I was like 'woah, woah'. I ended up with a Sonata that has over 10K miles on it, and hasn't been washed in a good while. Thankfully the satellite works well.

I had a slightly better experience back in May. I'm exec elite and they offered me a Equinox but I wanted a sedan for the fuel efficiency and I got a Camry SE with 6k miles on it. The car was very clean.

Having to use the counter rather than ES was a bit annoying because I waited about 10 minutes in line.

I wonder if it would be worth giving Enterprise a try here?

Has anyone noticed if any of the rental companies use kiosks to process rentals (Enterprise claims to). I can use any company I want and my main concerns are to use a company that isn't going to try to hose me on something, and ease of check out and return.

Some updates and notes for DSM. I've been coming out to Iowa (CID is the other location I frequent) almost weekly since August and have rented with National exclusively.

• Regardless of your status, if you're Emerald Club, they'll generally give you some leeway. Just ask what's available and they'll usually be nice about it.
• They offer "upgrades" with minivans. Every, single, time. During the farm progress show (50K+ travelers), I got stuck with one.
• They have a small lot (approx. 10-20 cars), but the offsite lot is massive (100+). That's why they charge for on the spot SUV upgrades, they have to pull one over from the lot.
• They always have a Camaro sitting there looking pretty and unwanted.
• Surprisingly, the selection here rarely includes the crap fleet vehicles (Impala Fleet or Captiva). I've only ever seen the NMY Impalas and Malibus, which is why I mistakenly accepted the one fleet version I got. And promptly returned it the next day for a Chrysler 200. I was driving to Cedar Rapids, and like hell was I going without Bluetooth at 23MPG.

Here are the cars I've received so far. All reservations were for midsize rates (corporate policy).

• 2014 Toyota Camry w/ 4.5K miles
• 2015 VW Passat Wolfsburg w/ 50~ miles (I had to peel off plastic wrap)
• 2014 Toyota Sienna w/ 10K miles
• 2015 Chrysler 200 w/ 2K miles
• 2014 Nissan Altima w/ 4K miles
• 2014 Chevy Impala Fleet Edition w/ 10K miles (swapped for the following)
• 2015 Chrysler 200 w/ 5K miles

Perhaps you got the lone fleet Impala if you were going one-way to corporate CID, if that was the only corporate car midsize or larger at franchise DSM that day?

It wasn't a one way, as the Cedar Rapids trip was just a day trip that National didn't know about when picking up the car.

They offered a Fusion, Sonata, Malibu, and the Impala. I simply made the mistake of thinking it was the consumer variant.

Looks like you've been doing alright. Have there been long line-ups to get a car? We are in there on Friday morning and I've got an Enterprise vehicle booked. I just want simplicity of getting in and out of there--no hassles or waits. I could just as easily switch over to National if it looks like it will be decent.

Thanks for the update...

They rarely if ever have lines. Typically, Alamo/National agents will serve either customers waiting. Unfortunately, the Enterprise counter is spun off from the rest of the Alliance, but they also have at least two reps at any given time.

Even if I wait, it's never for more than 5 minutes. You should be fine on Friday, since all the business travelers will be gone and Des Moines isn't exactly a weekend hotspot.

From deplaning to getting in the rental car takes me on average less than 10 minutes.

I ended up renting from Enterprise but looking at how things are set up it seems like renting from National, Alamo, or Enterprise would be a very similar experience. All three counters are side by side, but the Enterprise one is separate. Both National and Alamo had short lines, and Enterprise did not so we were in and out quicker than if we had rented from the others.

On return, we were waved into a line where the guy was servicing all three. He just wanted to know who we had rented from. Otherwise, just like renting from National.

We didn't look too closely at the National selections, but from what I recollect there were mostly Altimas and Chrysler 200s. There was also one mid-sized SUV that might have been an Envoy. Interestingly, both Enterprise and National had primarily out of state registered vehicles. We counted around 20 before we saw on with Iowa plates.