phouchg

Scored a great rate for a weekly rental in August with Budget at McCarran, but now I am concerned about the consistently horrible online reviews I am seeing on Yelp, Google reviews etc about this location. What is your experience there? I am fastbreak but I read that the fastbreak counter closes at 11pm when my flight arrives at 1115pm. Is this true? I have read of hour-long waits at the counter after midnight. Seriously considering cancelling this reservation.

thanks
Phouchg

AutoSlash

Why don't you just make a backup reservation at a second company so you're covered either way? You can make the backup for say 2AM and then just cancel if you are able get in/out quickly with Budget and take advantage of the lower rate. It's almost never a problem to pick up an hour or two early, and by making it a bit later, it still gives you a window to cancel it and not have it end up being a no-show (which is always considerate).

randix

Admittedly I've never "gone to the counter" at Budget in LAS at midnight, but gotta think that an hour long wait at the counter at that hour would be very unusual (the 24 hr life in Vegas is grossly exaggerated). Never had a problem with Budget in LAS, there are plenty of car rental companies in Vegas where the risk and likelihood of problems is 500% higher than Budget. As for Yelp, Google, etc, online reviews sadly are in a race for the bottom, not a great place unfortunately to get a credible reading. Do what autoslash recommends and make a 2nd reservation elsewhere as a backup if that gives you peace of mind, but I suspect you'll be fine...

Mike Rivers

A couple of years ago I had a Budget car that I rented at LAX and returned at LAS - it was a significantly lower rate for a "one way" than any of the other companies that I looked at. When I returned the car, the agent walked around and around it, and walked around again, and again, and pointed to a little ding about the size of a dime on the rear bumper. She said "you damaged the car and you'll have to go inside and fill out an accident report." I don't know whether or not it was there when I took the car out, but she insisted that, small as it was, it was damage.

I filled out the paperwork and ended up missing my flight due to a pile-up at security. I got re-booked promptly, so that was OK. A couple of weeks later, I got a bill from Budget for the repair, about $36! I called my insurance agent who never heard of such a small repair ever billed to a customer, but he said that there was no point in fighting it, that the rental companies always win. So I paid it and haven't rented a car from Budget since.

As far as on-line review go, there are a lot of rentals, a lot of cranky people, and a few bad apples. It's hard to say whether you'll have a problem or not. But if the deal is too good to be true, as was the case with my recent Thrifty rental I posted about here, it probably is. And if this picky lady is still checking in cars, you'd better look it over with a fine tooth comb before driving off the lot, and maybe take photos of the common ding spots - bumpers and doors - stuff that happens to our own cars and we don't worry about.

s0ssos

I hate those agents, and the companies that put pressure on their employees to do such things (I presume employees don't do it cause they are "thorough"). There should be a list of those agencies so I know what to avoid. It is worth paying much much more to avoid that, for me.

randix

it would be a major mistake to extrapolate one experience at one location to the entire brand. particularly, when you are dealing with the majors in the industry. makes total sense when one location is the source of lots of complaints, to focus in on that location; makes no sense when you extrapolate that conclusion at the same agency elsewhere. one does no favors by making that leap of logic and telling the world "avoid XXX".

I pretty much rent cars full time, and have since 2001, and have encountered plenty of bad apples, many of whom I've publicized here on Flyertalk. but telling someone that some a$$hole in LAS at Budget screwed me, and therefore you should avoid Budget at PWM, makes zero sense.

Unfortunately, most folks and yes I am generalizing, take their own negative experience and spread it as wide as they can possibly make it, to get maximum payback...

there are of course exceptions, I do find that fox and payless give me a high probability of having a headache across their locations, but not always--i have had some incredibly positive experiences by employees at some of their locations, even payless in SFO; but it is the exception not the rule. hertz, avis, budget, thrifty, alamo, etc give me an occasional problem, but no way would i generalize that limited experience at all locations.

s0ssos

I mean locations. The name of the agency does not mean much. Avis in Puerto Rico, for example, will not be the same as at LAX

AutoSlash

Can we quote you on that?
#truth

phouchg

I have a second reservation at a neighborhood branch of a major company for the next morning that I can uber to from my hotel. Still able to return it straight to LAS before my flight, so that's nice. So that is the backup plan.

I do agree that every company can have a bad day, and people can have a bad experience. And I also know that bad reviews are easier to write than good reviews. The fact that the Budget station at McCarran has 289 1* reviews out of 371 possible reviews on Yelp suggests that this isn't just a few bad apples. Long lines, aggressive upselling, cars in poor condition - yeah it happens with all companies, but this is suggestive of consistent poor service. So I may just cancel it anyway.

thanks

AutoSlash

I always take Yelp reviews of rental car companies with a large rock of salt. Avis and Hertz (two of the three "premium" brands) don't fare all that much better:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/hertz-rent-a-car-las-vegas-23
https://www.yelp.com/biz/avis-rent-a...port-las-vegas

Either that, or simply all (or the vast majority, anyway) of rental car companies at McCarran suck. Actually, I wouldn't put that out of the realm of possibility.

Mike Rivers

You may be right about that. The whole rental experience in Las Vegas is, to me, more annoying than at any other airports where I've rented cars. It's a pretty long haul from the airport to the main car rental facility, and with all the construction that's been going on around there for the past couple of years, getting back there to return a car is difficult. My last rental car there had a GPS in it, so just for fun I tried using it to get back to the rental building. No way! After being led into a couple of dead ends, I went the way I knew, but I can imagine a first-timer driving around in circles trying to return a rental car using a GPS that they might have paid a few bucks a day extra for.

Once when I used an off-lot rental agency, it was more than an hour between getting off the plane and driving away in the rental car. And when I returned it, they tried to get me for a tiny dent in one door, but the agent let me off. The car was full of dents.

tatterdema

Not sure about Budget, but my sister had a car at Dollar in LAS for an arrival at midnight. Their computers were rolling over the day or something like that and it was a 2 hour wait. Dollar Express was not open.

randix

Personally, I've never had an issue with Budget in LAS, but then I never go to the counter, always use Fastbreak. When I arrive at the rental car center and see the almost always long line to the Budget counter, I have this overwhelming desire to go to each person in the line, and ask, "why the hell are you standing in line?" But then my sanity returns, I close my eyes, and just go get my car and leave...

storewanderer

LAS is a Budget Licensee and it was previously somehow affiliated with Budget Licensee at LAX but I believe Budget Licensee at LAX has since become a corporate Budget location and corporate Budget is now overseeing the LAS Licensee as well as the SAN Licensee. Just about every time I go to LAS, I rent with Budget. I have had a couple of scattered issues but nothing that I would say is too far out of line.

Most recently, I had some kind of issue with them at the Fastbreak Booth in getting my vehicle. I forget the specifics but I think it had something to do with people returning cars being sent to the Fastbreak booth to fill out damage reports, an observation that led me to do a major inspection on the vehicle they assigned me which led to me needing to get a damage form filled out, then the rate on the contract not matching my reservation, then them voiding it out and doing it over again and having to do a new damage form due to the new rental agreement number, and maybe then some other issue.

I was e-mailed a survey after the rental and gave them pretty bad remarks and someone at the licensee called me and apologized, and mailed me a voucher (had a Las Vegas postmark on it) good for a free day at any Budget location. So it does appear they care to some extent.

I saw others getting hassled over vehicle damage at the return area last time I was there, so I strongly suggest if you rent from Budget licensee as LAS you do a full vehicle inspection and you get a damage form and you retain it after your rental in case anything comes up.

Another time I rented from Budget LAS, somehow while the coupon I used was applied to the contract, when I returned the car, and got the final receipt (returned at the agreed upon time), the coupon discount was missing. I had to go back to the booth and show them the original contract and that time they made a prompt adjustment and issued me a new receipt.

Jeff050

I rent fairly regularly from other Budget locations around the US & my experiences at the LAS Budget is that they are by far the worst location to rent. Your much better offer going with Uber unless you have no other option. The terrible reviews on Yelp I have either seen personally (extremely long lines at ANY time, it doesn't have to be late at night), or have experienced myself; questionable damage claims, online coupons that never seem to show up on the final receipt, dirty cars, indifferent staff that are only trained to maximize revenue. They are also the only location I have encountered that refuses to take Budget Bucks. The Yelp reviews are not out of line at all or an aberration from my experience. When half of them start "... if I could only leave zero stars" ... that should tell you the place has serious issues.