Return a car when closed
 

I am renting a car in Ithaca in a couple of weeks, and after finishing the reservation, I saw that the ITH station doesn't open until 9AM on Sundays. My flight LEAVES at 9AM on Sunday. Is there a mechanism for me to return the car at around 8AM on Sunday when they are closed?

Thanks!

I can't say specifically for ITH, but I have returned them locally when the office was closed - they close at noon Sat and reopen Mon at 7:00 am. There's a metal dropbox in the lot where you leave the keys. You get your receipt off the website.

I've also returned an Avis car at the CLE rental center when it was closed (something like between 2 and 5 am). There, the security guard takes the keys. Again, you get your receipt from the Avis website.

You can always call Avis to be sure.

I've been to many smaller airports and they all have a drop box for your keys. They also mail me the receipt, but like Bama said, you can get it online or from email.

A note though... if anyone rents from an off-airport location, be sure they have a drop box if you're leaving it when the site is not open. I've used 4 or 5 local sites that do not have drop boxes and make you return the car only when they're open. Come to think of it, most of these locations that I've encountered are in Sears' parking lots.

I was recently told by Avis Chairman's Preferred agent that if the online reservation system accepts your drop off time when it's outside of regular hours that there is a method of dropping it off when the office is closed. I don't know how fail safe this is, but that's what she said...

thanks
 

Ok....thanks for the tips.

I finally got through to the Avis ITH desk (after several days of trying but the phone kept giving me the national number).

They do have a metal drop-box there, and they said to also fill out the white sleeve that the rental info comes in so they can figure out what to charge me. (Put the gas level, mileage, etc.) Why do I have to write that stuff? Are they just going to believe me when I write that I have left the car with a full tank?

They'll believe you & charge you. However, if they go to clean the car & it's not a full tank of gas, they'll amend the total to charge you the appropriate amount.

Several times I've had a car & when I go in to the desk and give the agent my mileage (small apts), they say that's less than when I rented it. They'll page someone in the parking lot to verify I'm right. The person before me must have inverted some numbers or something. No biggie b/c most all non-1 way rentals are unlimited mileage.

You could use the drop box but the return TIME will be when they open NOT when you droped it.

Sholey,
That's a good point to add. It never crossed my mind when posting b/c 99% of my rentals are for business & I don't care when they process it b/c it goes immediately to the expense report.

I absolutely disgree. I have had multiple local rentals that end on Sunday when my local Avis office is closed. I return the car Sunday, drop the keys in the dropbox (there is a label on the box stating Nothing but keys, please) and the receipt I pull off Avis.com the following day always reflects the scheduled return date and time. That said, YMMV.

This has been my experience as well when a location is closed. I have even returned it early to a closed location and got credit for that. I always fill in the return time on the paperwork when I do that.

One other thing I would add is a change to the terms and conditions that occurred last year. The renter is responsible for the vehicle until an Avis agent closes out the rental. If you return the car when the station is closed and somebody damages the vehicle after you returned it, but before the Avis rep inspects it, you are liable for those damages.