I did this in June, and all told, it was pretty awesome. Here is how it went down for me.

I had a Hertz Rental for Wednesday, at 11:00 AM. I called the Central Reservations on Tuesday, and said that I was going to pick up the car more like 2:00 PM on Wednesday. The Reservation Agent said that should be fine.

I arrived at the Parking lot in Manhattan right about 2:00 PM. There was a lot attendant booth, where I was directed inside to a Hertz check in Kiosk. This was AWESOME. Pick up a phone, get an agent in Oklahoma, full video conference. He checks me in, goes through the normal processes, I decline all the fuel, damage, etc. He ask me to hold up my Drivers license to the camera and he visually checked it, my picture, and me. He also had me scan the bar code. 10 minutes or less all the paper work spits out, and the guy on the phone tells me to give it to the lot attendant. This was better and faster than most airport pickups I have ever done.

I give the paper work to the lot attendant, he looks at it, and says, "we dont have your car, we just sent it back like a half hour ago". I am like... UHH, now what. He says that my reservation was for 11:00 and they only keep the cars for an hour, they dont have room in the lot to keep them.

This is important. They dont have room to keep the cars. I had never been to Manhattan before, and this was my third day there. I totally got it. They don't have room to keep the cars. Be on time for your pickup. Never mind what the people on the 800 number say, BE ON TIME FOR YOUR RESERVATION.

The lot attendant ( not a Hertz employee) made a couple calls. I could not get my car back, but I could call this (local) dispatch number and they would help me out. Dispatch did help. I had 2 options. Wait for them to bring me a car, which would be anytime from 15 minutes to 4 hours, or go to this other location about a mile away and they would give me a car.

I of course chose to go to the other location. Pro tip. Take the subway, that was a long walk.

I get to the other location, and it was a bit confusing. The guy behind the counter was on his second day, and according to the Hertz computers I already had a car. He got his manager, they called dispatch, and within about 30 minutes I had a car.

Many people at this point would be screaming and ranting on Yelp on how Hertz sucked, etc, etc. How the agent told me I didn't have to change my reservation, etc, etc. I am not pissed at Hertz. I think they did a GREAT job, there is no way an 800 number customer service agent from Podunk Iowa could know about Manhattan kiosk rentals. Overall Hertz was great to me, the situation was resolved quickly, I got my car, and a local dispatch person fixed it for me. It could have been much worse, and I was the one who schedule the pick up for 11 and showed up at 2.

I took the car, it had about 3/4 of a tank of Gas, and got the heck out of New York to go to the in-laws for dinner. Yawn. On the way back I missed the toll ticket, and went through a fast pass lane. Pro tip, when its time to pay the toll, if you missed getting a ticket, go to the booth and tell them. They charge you $20ish, but the booth attended told me that if I had just tried to skip through, I would have got an $85 dollar fine.

Now the lot I was supposed to return the car to closed at 11:00 PM. Pay Attention to the return time. You must have the car back by the time the lot closes. If you don't, you get the late fee from Hertz, the extra day charges, and the joy of trying to park the car overnight in Manhattan. So we come rolling into the lot at 10:55 just as the guy is closing up. There is now just under a half a tank of gas in the car and I park in front of the booth. We get out, and get our stuff and a guy comes out of the booth. "Hertz return?" he ask? I say yeah and tell him the keys are in the car. Ok, have a good night he says, shuffling back into his booth.

I was a little concerned. This was NOTHING like any rental car return I have ever done. I was kinda afraid that Hertz was never going to see the car again and I was going to have a $25,000 Charge for a Ford Fusion on my Credit Card. Never mind the fact that I didn't put any gas in it. We walked back to our hotel, wondering if that car was going to go screaming past, a la Ferris Bueller.

I promptly decided that I was still on vacation, and that if the car ended up in the East River, I would deal with it when I got home. When we did get home, I saw that we were only charged for the days rental, no extra gas charge, or anything.

Moral of the story. Pick up your car on time, don't even think about upgrades, return the car on time, and don't worry about trying to fuel up, just return the car, and if they charge you $7 a gallon its worth it, cause finding a gas station in Manhattan is a lost cause.