Rental Cars

With holiday travel season upon us some of us will be picking up rental cars. Where have you had the best luck in the past? Do you have a place that always keeps you coming back? Positive and negative experiences?

I will say I'm not one to have a rental car go-to. I will shop around individual companies and then also search the pricelines, etc.

My only negative experience has been with a Hertz location in Erlanger. I had rented a compact car for an almost 20 hour drive and since it was just my wife and I going we did not need much space and it made more sense to save on fuel. I showed up and they had a big SUV with third row seating and all and was all kinds of excited to only charge me the compact car price. I was not happy as it was going to cut mpg by more than 50%.

Long story short they rush through cleaning a smaller car for me to take and when we get in it smells like cig smoke. Mention it to the salesman who says, "just make sure it doesn't come back smelling like smoke." I had to do everything short of take the pen from him and write the not myself to get him to include it in the notes and avoid a charge for me when it came back smelling like smoke I did not create.

The process for returning the car was long, drawn out and miserable.

Bottom line is that I will probably never be back at that location. haha

I have a corporate account with Enterprise. I've had relatively good luck with them, though one time my Hyundai Santa Fe or equivalent ended up being a Jeep Patriot. I had no time to wait for them to correct it, so I took the proffered discount and we made due.

Avis gives me an Amazon Prime discount.

I've always rented from Thrifty/Dollar on Loomis Road near CVG and have not had any problems. (Acquired by Hertz in 2012)

I've always rented from Thrifty/Dollar on Loomis Road near CVG and have not had any problems. (Acquired by Hertz in 2012)

I've done both of those as well. As a matter of fact, the best places I've been to overall have been out there on Loomis Rd. I generally pay ahead and it is a very quick in and out process. Same with drop off.

I generally use Avis, and don't usually have any issues.

Members of Costco can use the website to get a rental with a great discount.