Budget Rent-A-Car

• stefan johnson★★★★★11 months ago

  Picked up a rental last Wednesday. When I got in the car and turned it on, it said needs oil change on the dash board. Told the person at the counter, and ge said you take it to a local car shop, get oil changed and they would bill budget. Really??? Was on the phone for 2 hours with customer service about this. Finally they agreed we could switch cars, and would refund us one days rental fee for our time and trouble. The counter person had said there wasnt any others available in the size we need. But when we went back, there was one. Still haven't seen this the refund. And it looked like it hadn't been cleaned.

• Cheri Bales★★★★★4 months ago

  Budget Corporate Claims Smoke Free Fleet! LOLOLOLOL. Not only is it NOT smoke free, when they rent you a stinky vehicle (they-know-it-is-stinky-because-they-spritz-some -Ozium-in-the-car-when-you-complain stinky), forcing me to either put down all the windows or drive with no air or heat (the cabin filter and air filters were saturated with smoke). Pensacola Airport, Feb. 2026. I had to leave the windows down overnight just to tolerate the short morning drive. My friend, with a severe smoke allergy, couldn't even ride in the car. Multiple calls and requests for restitution resulted in a silent $42 credit (base rate for 1 day) and no further communications from them. If they lied about their main marketing campaign claim (smoke free fleet) what else aren't they telling you?? I can see this one little review won't carry much weight since so many of the review are bad, but I want to issue a stark warning to those with smoke allergies who think they are getting a "clean" car. You. Are. Not. Don't do it. Rent from someone who knows how to clean a car at the very least. Misleading ads, Ozium, and a quick wave goodbye is obviously Budget's method. I don't even want a credit from them. I won't rent again. Buyer Beware. In case there is any question of the validity of this review, the receipt, with a note from the check-out agent shows that even THEY thought the car had a "smoke smell."

• Susanna Dzejachok★★★★★a month ago

  Staff member Austin was excellent. He had good knowledge about the cars, was courteous, respectful, efficient, did a great job explaining the categories of car, and selecting a car with the features I was hoping to get. The car was clean and well maintained.

• Jon Peer★★★★★4 months ago

  Avoid. So my first experience with Budget was decent (April 2024), waited in line, got the keys, went out and got the car. Downside was, these non smoking cars we're clearly hot boxed by the prior renter and Budget failed to air that out. Gentleman at the counter suggested a spray that could be picked up at the grocery store and he's comp me back that amount. Spray took around 80% of the smell out but it was still there after we aired it out and 10 days of travel. Overall, 4 stars. But I didn't want to drag Budget on this one encounter, things happen. Second time around was just a week and a half ago (March 2026) when I went to pick up the car I reserved. I had booked this vehicle over 6 weeks in advance and even paid in full at the time of booking. I received the email stating that "your vehicle has been booked" and then almost weekly emails after that remining me of add-ons that they had or that my trip was upcoming, no issues, right? Wrong. I arrived just after 8AM to get my vehicle that was reserved (their words, not mine) to be told that the old thing they had available was a mini-van vs the full size SUV that we needed. We own a mini-van, it was not the size we wanted for this upcoming travel. Told him to hold a second just to confirm that we did not want the van and in the 5 minutes it took me to make a call, he sent it out with someone else. Now they have zero vehicles available and he said that I could wait until around noon until their pickup/cleaning crew might have something else come in. Not what I rented, just something else without any detail as to what it could be. At this point, what should have been a 10 minute pick up has turned into 45 minutes of waiting, dealing with the gentleman at the counter, and searching for any other possibilities for a day of rental pick up but there was nothing. So I told him to just cancel my reservation because clearly they were not interested in trying to help at all beyond the simple scope of, "nothing here." When he looked at my reservation, he could not do anything because I paid in full and directed me to call their customer service to process the refund. Yay! Just what I wanted to add to the first day of travel, calling customer service to get a refund for a service that they failed to provide. After a 15 minute chat with customer service, the reservation was cancelled but here we are, over 10 days after, and the refund has still not hit my account. Funny how taking the money out is instant but reversing that takes business days. At Budget, they told me that "You reserve the price, not the car, so it's not guaranteed." I don't know if that applies for all vehicle rental places or just Budget/Avis but I have never had an issue with Hertz and only issues with Budget.

• Sarah Kennedy★★★★★4 months ago

  I reserved a premium suv for my family of 6 for our spring break trip to Florida months in advance. I went to pick it up the day before departure and Budget did not have the vehicle. The manager was unhelpful and offered me a smaller vehicle or a 12 passenger van, neither of which were practical. This experience made me scramble to find a way to get my family to Florida the day before departure. We ended up going to Grand Rapids and renting from a different agency. I would never rent from Budget in Kalamazoo again and wish I had read the other negative reviews beforehand.

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