FYI- there's rarely anyone at the Avis desk at ITH even during regular business hours.

Not to hit you when you're down, but your first mistake was flying US-imp-AIR-d-WAYS into ITH in the first place. Always fly into SYR, where the rental car counters are open until 1am.

If you're lucky, Avis might give you a voucher for a free day. But I don't htink you should expect much else, if their official hours were until 5pm.