National Car Rental in Downtown Los Angeles
 

Why is there no National in DTLA? Seems like a glaring omission. There are plenty of Enterprise locations there. I can't think of another alpha city that has no city center location from National.

Just at a glance, National does not appear to have any local (read: non-airport/FBO) locations in the LA area, it's not just DTLA neglect. From a corporate holdings perspective, it's probably just considered needlessly duplicative considering Enterprise's fairly extensive coverage across the Southland (and Emerald Club members can still earn free days renting from Enterprise, so what do we care?)

We care for 4 reasons:

1) It's a different (worse) customer experience with Enterprise.

2) One-ways, both long distance as well as from airport to home and vice versa, instead of a taxi.

3) If you live far away from the airport, especially if the area has a lot of very heavy traffic or poor mass transit, picking up and/or returning can be a real pain.

4) Corporate rates and conditions that may only cover one brand but not the other.

In the Bay Area all Nationals locations are in airports (SFO, OAK, SJC). I thought that was their default.

never mind, multiple locations in downtown

If it isn't clear, I'm being a bit flippant (National is my primary, and I'm based in Los Angeles). I get why we care, but at the same time their LA strategy is pretty well established - cover the airports, and leave the rest to a subsidiary better positioned to handle the rest. The issue with LA is that adding a DTLA location is a drop in the bucket given all of the sprawl (DTLA is just as useless as LAX from Beverly Hills, for example) - Enterprise's extensive neighborhood model just works better than National's typical 1-2 city center location model here. If they are planning to do anything, I'd imagine they might dual-list a few Enterprise locations as "also servicing National Car Rental". Yes, this is a different approach than Avis and Hertz (who, for lack of a comparable local brand in their stable, uses their corporate brand for their local locations), but from the company's perspective... I've a lot of trouble seeing why making the investment in a downtown location makes sense barring a market change (such as the local downtown booming).

As far as corporate rates, Enterprise and National are getting quite a bit more integrated on that front - while there are still corporate rates that only cover one and not the other, newer agreements (at least, that I've seen in the past year) cover both by default. That argument may be a moot point soon enough.

Thanks for making me post a real answer :P

@s0ssos: National has three SF City locations, though I'm not sure if those are Drive Alliance-serviced by either Enterprise or Alamo, as I don't drive in SF if at all avoidable.

They are actual National-branded neighborhood stores, with the same issues as their counterparts in Manhattan. Minimal storage, overwhelming weekend demand and heavy usage from people who don't own cars, and really targeting those who can't or won't go to the airport. The threads about Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Chicago, Seattle, and SF National all sound alike.

There is a location in Anaheim.

The one in Brooklyn isn't as bad. Actually the rates are pretty good there sometimes. Found rates for a full size for under $60 a day for shorter rentals

There is also Redwood City and Livermore as local branches.

That's not even LA County! It's also still there (at least in part, if not entirely) due to Alamo's status as the official Car Rental Partner of Disney Parks and Resorts - the value proposition is totally different from a stand-alone downtown location.

I'd actually really kill to see the revenue split between National and Alamo at that shared location, if anyone wants to slide in my PMs with that info :P

Eh it doesn't cost much more to just add national signage and have some employees there. You still are paying the lease and the cars can just be shared between both. All of the local locations that I have seen with the exception of few enterprise locations are all Enterprise/National or Alamo/National

Oh I know, I'm just curious if the National's brand presence is a real value-add (if it were more than, say, 15% of the business that's worth knowing!)

Agreed that the marginal cost of making it a shared location is negligible. I'm just being a nerd now.

I use an Enterprise location in DTLA fairly often. As a corporate National customer there tends to be less "Enterprise BS" from the employees there. You still sometimes have to wait behind kettles in line and you never get a car with a full tank of gas...

There's a couple of Alamo locations in metro Atlanta that also take reservations from National. No National signage anywhere and they barely know what Emerald club is. Best thing I've used them for is as a drop off or pick point for one way rentals. They are usually somewhat confused when I rent with an SUV with a free day, as 95% of their reservations are Alamo, and the National reservations they do get usually don't involve free days.

Okay, I would settle for a Century City/Culver City/Santa Monica/Beverly Hills/Glendale/Pasadena National location, as well.