My personal experience with rental cars is that they are pricey, basic, and limited.
Pricey
I feel that they are very expensive to use. Recently, I rented an SUV, and it was very expensive. I reserved my rental, and when I went to pick it up, it was smaller than I had expected. Renting for one week, was costly, and I had to pay a premium at the counter even though I had reserved my rental. Oddly, I had been billed multiple times for the one vehicle! I learned this when I arrived home from my travel and checked my credit card statement. The Customer Service Representative was helpful, and adjusted my bill. It was fortunate for me that I used a Credit Card rather than a Debit Card for the purchase.
Basic
I don’t normally drive cars with the “bare-bones” level of options. That bothers me, and affects the way I feel when I travel. I am self proclaimed “Car Guy”, so I expect that a nice car will be loaded with nice creature comforts, and amenities that the average rental car, might not have. I like my cars clean, well-appointed, and functioning properly. Any less than that would be uncivilized. Moreover, they advertise vehicles by size category, i.e. ,”Premium Luxury Full Sized SUV, such as, Jeep Grand Cherokee or Ford Explorer”. I would prefer to actually pick the vehicle I am going to drive: Make, Color, and Appointments.
Limited
Services are limited, compared to some time in the recent past. For example, Enterprise rent a car’ s slogan was, “We’ll pick you up”. So, once my vehicle had to be dropped off at the repair shop, and Enterprise, picked me up from my home with a new rental car! Recently, however, a similar thing happened: My car broke down, I went to a hotel, over a weekend, and Enterprise was closed. When I inquired during a Monday morning, I learned that they also no longer pick you up. They actually suggested that I get an Uber, to pick up my rental from them.
Often there is a shortage of vehicles in a given area. If there’s a shortage of the vehicle you want or no available vehicles to rent at all, how do you get to venues, while you are traveling?
Please post your responses to this travel question so we can discuss it, and perhaps, flesh out a better course of action, when we travel. Does your approach differ if you are taking a flight, versus travel by train or bus? Let us know!
