pokee

I will be flying into Tampa International Airport in June and I got a decent rate with Budget. I've been researching online to see how the rental car pick-up works at TPA (shuttle?) and it's rather confusing. From what I can tell, rental car counters are on-site and then all rental cars (for all 'on-site' rental car companies) are housed in their long term parking lot. Have I assumed this correctly, or is there a shuttle to another location to pick up cars?

With this set-up, you would think they would often have issues with inventory - since off-site locations have more space to house a large fleet. Anyone find it difficult to rent at TPA for this reason?

I am flying in on United (which is a 'blue' airline - although, I am not really sure what that means!). It appears that the rental counters are near baggage claim, but I read that the Landside building is undergoing major renos to accommodate more international flights, so I am curious what the state of the airport is at the moment?