nordictat2

Going on a month long road trip next year and starting it from Denver.
Can someone who has rented from the DEN location recommend which car hire companies to use and who to avoid?

We're hoping to rent a full size SUV so I want to keep an eye on prices and at the moment Dollar is the cheapest but not too fond of them as we have had mostly bad experiences with them (at least on the East Coast)!

AutoSlash

Avoid Payless at all costs (from pretty much any location). All the major companies are pretty good but generally they (roughly) fall into 3 tiers:

Premium Brands: Hertz, Avis, National
Middle Tier Brands: Enterprise, Alamo, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty
Deep Discount Brands: Fox, Advantage, EZ
Avoid: Payless

You can have a fantastic experience at any of the above brands, but your experience is likely to be better with the higher-end brands. There really isn't anything unique in Denver in our experience, and it tends to track similarly to brand reputation in other locations. That said, it's also possible to find people who have had issues with every brand above if you look hard enough.

Hope this helps!

jackal

IME, at DEN, for some reason, they all kinda suck equally. Not sure what it is about the Denver airport that seems to attract incompetent management, but they all seem to (at one time or another) have long waits for shuttles, long lines, run out of cars, erroneously overcharging and not being willing to fix it, bad customer service, aggressive damage claims, etc. And this has been the case with everyone from Avis to Dollar.

So, I wouldn't favor or avoid any specific company there as being good or bad, though the advice above breaking down the brands is still generally true.

nordictat2

Thanks for the replies.

We never use Payless ans it will continue to stay rhat way.
As we live in Europe...we usually have all the inc. etc included in our rate so that is not an issue but car condition/choice and customer service is important to us.

I will just hold off for a bit and see if Alamo or Hertz comes up with some good offers I guess.

randix

Agree. I have had more issues of the kind you describe, out of DEN than any other city I've ever rented in... I've not a clue why. Hold my breath every time I go there, which anymore, is not very frequently.

TRRed

I have not rented from SilverCar at DIA but have heard some positive comments. As of a few months ago, they ran out of the Canopy parking area, so you take a Canopy shuttle to get there. Sometimes Canopy shuttles are great and sometimes they are slow to arrive or pretty full. The pickup area is a covered but open area, so a cold wind can make the wait feel much longer than it is. You are inside a large garage when you pick up your car. If your rental is one-way, you'd need to make sure that there is a SilverCar at your destination and that they would allow a one-way rental.

There is no Sixt at DIA that I am aware of, but if there were I would group them with those companies that AutoSlash has in his/her premium brand category.

AutoSlash

Sixt is a bit of a mixed bag. In Europe, they definitely position themselves as the premium brand. Here in the US, though, they seem to be schizophrenic: they stock and advertise premium German makes, but they compete on price with the middle value brand tier and their facilities are relatively substandard in many places (off-airport, double shuttle required, etc.). Their customer service levels are also relatively poor; while the rental experience itself is getting better (more consistent, less pushy with sales, etc.) as Sixt terminates franchises and reopens as corporate in many locations across the US, their post-rental email/phone support for problems leaves much to be desired (possibly a cultural thing). They have a long way to go here, at least, before we'd put them in the Top Tier bracket.

ginmqi

I've had a horrible experience with Fox at LAX, just to add to this anecdote. Huge line, under-staffed, and 1 of them was late for their shift, causing massive lines. The LCAR was a Toyota Avalon....you definitely get what you pay for.

National at DEN have great selection if you join the emerald club and can pick some nice cars from the aisle it seems.