This AVIS office = Budget Office, my review is for the Budget side but it's all the same.
Made the reservation online and pre-paid. When we arrived at the office, there was a long line. As I prepaid, I thought it would not be that bad. How wrong I was! After 10 minutes, I found the line barely moved. So I sent the rest of my family back to the hotel. After 1 hour, the line moved about 1 meters. I started counting how many minutes fore them to process one customer - 15 minutes. I was talking with a newly-wed couple from Britain whose friends gave a gift of spa treatment and lunch at Napa at noon - they too had reserved and paid for a car online. They ended up canceling the Spa and lunch. I started to wonder if we could go to Pebble Beach as it was almost 1 pm. After almost 3 hours, it was my turn to get a car. The guy probably felt bad, so he asked the garage guy to get a "cool" car. I made sure that the car had the XM Radio, which I had paid for.
We got Mini Cooper Countryman, which was surprisingly comfy for 4 adults. As my nephew has Mini, I did not have to get lost with Mini operations. BUT we could not find XM - no matter what. I had my son call Budget, who said that we should return to the rental office. We were already 30 miles south of SF, and it was already about 3pm thanks to the 3-hour wait. And the car was not iPod ready. So all our option was the radio.
The car ran great, and it was fuel efficient. We kept it for two days, and returned it. At the counter, the same guy took care of the return. I told him that there was no XM. He insisted that there was, and told me to come with him. He sounded so sure and sounded condescending as if to say "you must be stupid." So we went back to the Mini, and the guy spent 5 minutes to find XM radio. And he could not find it either.
Why did it have to take 3 hours to get a car when you had reserved and prepaid online? Every day, we saw a long long line in every rental car place in San Francisco. So the problem is not unique to this place.
If you are thinking about renting a car in San Francisco in the summer, get it at the airport and find a cheap parking lot/garage as time can be more precious during the vacaton than money. read more