The lady working at the counter when we picked up the car was rude af!! We just got off the airplane, used the bus to come over here after waiting in the cold for the bus to come, it's thanksgiving week, and paid for the car beforehand. But you want to have attitude with us for what? Insane honestly. Regardless of that encounter, we used the car, returned the car, and never thought about it again. But customer service guys! Do better please. Especially during the holidays. We were the only ones there, no one else behind us, and asking questions bugged the agent. read more

Budget is one of the worse car rental company out there. Lines are ridiculously long, and the agents are fu@king slow. They walk back forth from one station to another after they take clients info. I will never use these guys again. read more

Lien was abosultly amazing first class service all the way I will def coming back to this location for this amazing service

The worst place to rent a car from run as fast as you can the person in charge Cheryl.Keyes will call the police the moment you ask questions I filled out a questionnaire from budget and got this response and the funny thing is my wife was in line not me because I can't stand in line for 2.5 hours Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your recent experience. We appreciate your feedback since it helps us improve our service and your rental experience. I deeply regret that we were not able to meet your expectations regarding your previous rental. For some reason you have the story incorrect and as I mentioned when talking to the line, we will not tolerate customers stoking the lines and causing a scene. We have too many customers causing scenes and coming across threatening. And yes, the police were called, way too many horrible situations happening, I'm not going to allow any harm to customers and or my employees, period. Have a good evening. Good news or bad, comments from Budget customers help us to evaluate our services and if necessary, change to meet your expectations. Sincerely, Cheryl Budget, Operations Manager Cheryl.Keyes@avisbudget.com read more

Why have 2 clerks with a huge line to register to pick up cars? The work load should be apparent with number of car rentals right? Why have text messages the day prior to expedite check out when it clearly doesn't matter? Why tell patrons to go to an express tent to pick up cars when you have no cars! Does this sound like good business practices? No it doesn't. The car was fine when I did eventually get a car. SeaTac Budget car rental. 6/25. read more

Worst rental experience ever!! If you are returning from a cruise (or on a morning when a cruise ship returns) DON'T RENT HERE (this location or downtown on 5th Ave)!! Spare yourself!! Here's the "play by play": -Prepaid for a rental to pick up at 10am on Saturday, July 12 at the 5th Ave location. Was scheduled to return it at the airport at 8pm the following day. -Showed up, line was literally a block long. After 3 hours waiting, half of the line was finally told the location did not have enough cars, even for those of us who pre-booked and prepaid. -We were given two options: (1) leave and wait for a call 3 hours later, when they would have more cars (where were we supposed to go with 4 luggages?!), or (2) take a taxi/Lyft/Uber to the airport, where we could get a car immediately AND be reimbursed for the ride there. -We took option 2 and took a $77 Lyft to the airport. When we arrived, we learned that we were LIED TO!! (1) There's no such reimbursement option. And (2) the airport location could not simply transfer our reservation without additional fees (i.e., they wanted to charge us the airport rate, although we had prepaid and it wasn't our fault that this location did not have a car for us). -One of the managers at the airport was rude and implied that he couldn't offer us anything at all but a bill. His coworker called me over and promised to make an adjustment. We left with a car for the same amount we prepaid. He also said he'd try to get us some money from a higher-up for the taxi and would call me back the next day. He never called, and I never received the $77. -The car from this location turned out to be a LEMON! I had to have the car towed back the next morning using my AAA because it started overheating and the check engine light came on. Mind you, the car was pretty new and only had 1,200 miles on it. Yes, you read the mileage correctly. -Once we towed the car back to the airport location, we were given a replacement and guess what? A BILL!! The manager (Marie Larson) had one of her employees *supposedly* reopen the account for the car I returned in order to provide a new one, but something must've gone wrong and I ended up being charged $256.77 for having a car for 2 hours. That was on top of the $154.43 I had prepaid, plus $77 for a Lyft from this location to the one in the airport. - At the end of the day, I paid $488.44 to do NOTHING!!! Due to all of the issues, my mom and I weren't able to spend a day traveling around Seattle. Instead, we spent hours simply trying to get a reliable car that we prebooked and prepaid for. -I am still fighting Budget for my money back. It's criminal. Never again will I rent from them. Worst customer service EVER!! -I see other reviews saying that they were wrongfully charged hundreds of dollars, too. This seems like a fraudulent scam and I hope everyone reports them to the Better Business Bureau. If I could give 0 stars, I would! read more

See all

I'm usually not too concerned with rental car reviews as they seem to mostly be negative especially at the more budget friendly rental companies. Well, we should have paid more attention to the reviews for this location. We arrived late on a Thursday night at SEA and made our way to the rental car facility. We got in line for budget. At first there were 3 people working the counter, but within a few minutes one left never to reemerge. This left two people and probably about 20 people in line. After what felt like an hour, someone put a sign in front of budget that said they were closed and go to Avis to rent. Well, I went and stood in line at Avis while my sister stayed in line at Budget to see who could get help first. There were only two people ahead of me, but it took about 20-30 minutes. My line ended up moving quicker so my sister came over and we completed our rental at Avis. The person was friendly enough, but had trouble finding our reservation at first. It took. few minutes, it seems he was not in the right system. I also don't want to be upsold when we already had a minivan rental. With so many people making reservations, I will never understand why they don't adequately staff. Waiting over an hour is absurd. I felt terrible for the families with small children who were so tired and the parents had to wait for an eternity to get their rental. These companies need to care more about customer service. read more

Long lines and not the vehicle I paid for We came in on a flight around 9pm and when we got to the line it was long. They even split it up between the budget and Avis rental windows but it was still a long wait. Then halfway through waiting they informed us they were short 200 rental cars. We ended up getting a minivan. read more

Budget Car Rental - Rental - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Unconfirmed rates 30 minutes of bs at counter @ SeaTac Very much BS and it's still churning No solution 40 minutes read more

Do yourself a favor and don't book with these people.. I dont care if they're 50$, 100$, whatever less expensive. This is bottom of the barrel bs. They need so much help it's not even funny. The employees don't care but I can't blame them because their employer doesn't either. If you book with them.. good luck. CHECK FOR DAMAGE BEFORE LEAVING... they love handing out poorly maintained, undocumented damaged vehicles. read more

See all

DONT RENT FROM BUDGET. They make things very difficult. First off when booking a car it takes a long time over the phone. More so than most places I've rented at the last 30 years of my time renting cars. Secondly if you book over the phone and prepay they don't reimburse you if you return it early. Being that this is a rental while the car is in the shop I wasn't certain how long I'd need it. So I told them I'd go a few days at a time. The first time I extended it they took my info and things went okay. The second time it took THIRTY-FIVE minutes on the phone being out on hold over and over to do something that most places can easily do. The third time went a quicker but neither time did anyone mention that that would be the last time they could extend it. So when I called to extend for just a single day because I'd have a loner from the shop finally they said they couldn't extend it because I only got three. Which is fine, but mention that. Never once was it mentioned. They said I have to drive back to the airport to renew it. Well I'm at work so I can't do that. And they don't take calls there. They said if I don't turn it in today they will charge a late fee. So my hands are tied. Clearly they do this on purpose to make more money. Guess I'm stuck paying a late fee. read more

Employee lied to me about damage on vehicle being accounted for by previous renter. Know I am being charged $179 for repairs I am not responsible for. Worst customer service experience from start to finish. I will be using only Enterprise going forward. read more

This was just an absolute shite show! We got in late at night and took the bus to the car rental facility. When we got there, there was only one person working and one person walking around fixing signs. There was a line of about 10 people in front of us and within minutes, probably another 20 behind us. Someone mentioned you could also go to Dollar to rent so we had two people in our party and split up to wait in the lines as did a few others. It was over an hour wait! I could not believe how much time they spent trying to upsell with lines that long at 1am. The other line ended up being faster (still at an hour) I think the other line would have been another 20 minutes or so. Completely unacceptable. It was ridiculous! You know how many reservations you have. Come on! And why try to upsell? I already had a 7 passenger SUV, I didn't need anything larger or better. Such a waste of time and a disgrace when lines are that long. Hire more people, pay them more, or treat them better because something must be wrong to have no one working at that large of an international airport! I would not use them again! read more

Horrible timing and horrible staff Our flight landed at 2pm and we arrived at the Budget location around 2:30 only to find the worst line imaginable. 2 HOURS later the line finally started moving and people finally started getting their cars. There were no workers at the desks and all the available workers were just sitting on their phones on the AVIS side doing nothing. Everybody in line had previously tried to ask why the line was not moving, why there were no workers, and what was going on only to be faced with negative comments from the employees and no explanation. It was not until one lady finally got an answer from the staff: "there's something wrong downstairs so the manager is there" Not the best explanation but better than nothing BUDGET: WAYS TO IMPROVE 1. Train your staff better. If there was an issue downstairs, there is no need for ALL the staff and managers to abandon the front desks and leave customers alone. (You could lose business if people think you're closed due to lack of staff presence) 2. If the situation is SO severe where all staff are called down and no longer working the front, SEND SOMEONE OUT to tell your customers why there is a delay and how long to wait. (You will have better reviews and better service) It took a solid 25-30 minutes for staff to retrieve a car key... read more

Budget Car Rental - One staff in the picture. Yes he is behind the counter. NO he is not helping customers - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Do not ever use this piece of shit company. Clerks aren't there half the time. We got a $300 overcharge, and the dude couldn't explain why. A huge waste of your time, especially if you're trying to save money. read more

Budget Car Rental - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Shady Business Practices & Hidden Charges Avoid Budget Rental Car at Seattle-Tacoma Airport at all costs! If I could give zero stars, I would. I booked my rental online declining all optional insurances. At pickup, I declined them again--yet somehow, surprise, they appeared on my final bill charging me an extra $530 than originally agreed upon. When I disputed the charges, I was met with dismissive and unhelpful customer service, acting as if I had agreed to these fees. Apparently, Budget operates knowing that not all customers will check their rental agreement until it's too late. This is not just an oversight; it's an intentional scam designed to bilk customers for as much as they can get away with. If you enjoy being overcharged and fighting fraudulent fees after your trip, Budget is the perfect choice. Otherwise, save yourself the headache and rent from literally anyone else. read more

Standing in a line of about 50 people at Seattle airporTy, there are two people waiting on customers. I have a tour Planned and will not be there on time and will lose $150.00 because of Budget's incompetence. Don't ever rent from Budget. if I could give them zero stars, I would read more

We thought we'll just pick up the car and we'll be on our but no! The line is way too long just to pick up your car. Service iş too slow. Not using this company ever. read more

If I could score less than 1 star I would. We reserved an SUV at 3. They had nothing. Could only offer us an EV. After waiting and checking back several times the guy offered for us to speak to the manager. Her name was Cheryl Keyes and she is, by far, the worst manager I have ever encountered. We were there on a work trip and had a meeting at 5. She said that wasn't her problem. She's the manager of the car rental location. Hate to tell you, but it is your problem. She offered to cancel the reservation for us, as did her staff, yet she denied it. Her staff offered an upgrade at a cost. When I asked her about it, she said that was 4 tiers above what I reserved, using her hands to show me the tiers. When I asked her if she would split the cost of the update, she put up her hand and said she was done and walked away. SHE WALKED AWAY and went in the back, never to be seen from again. Needless to say, we were late for our meeting. Never again, Budget. Worst customer service we have ever experienced. read more

We have somewhere to be and we've been 40 minutes waiting for our car. They had to "go get our car" even though we had booked a time. If you don't want to hang out at the rental car area, choose another. Avis and budget are the ones with insane lines and waits. I have used dollar and sixt here and it's been great, fast, and easy. Then they "upgraded" us to a Tesla. We've wasted too much time to even ask them To give us the Mach e we rented. Nobody wants to drive a Tesla right now. They are embarrassing and absolutely not an upgrade. read more

Do not rent from these scammers. We landed at 12:30 am and when we got to the rental car facility the line was ridiculously long. Some guy was telling us that they don't have any cars available. It's a SCAM! I was getting frustrated waiting in line. They were not helping customers out. The workers just talking amongst themselves. I asked to speak to a manager, but no manager available. Then everyone just went in the back room to hide and left all of us standing in line without any information. By the time we got to the counter it was 2:30 am. The Asian lady pretended to help us but in reality she's scamming us. We had a compact car reserved but there was only an suv left and it's going to cost more. At that time we just wanted to get out of there. We were so tired that I didn't questioned the contract anymore. Just give us a car. When we got to the parking lot to pick up our cars. There's a bunch of cars and suv. Cars were available all this time. It's just another way to scam you. When we saw our rental. It was filthy and dirty. They didn't bother washing the exterior. At least they vacuumed the interior. Damages all over the body. I had to clean the windows because it wasn't safe. The lady told us we can return it at 2:45 am but the contract says 2:20 am. Another way to scam you. On returning the car I complained to the manager about the extra charges and how filthy the car was. He was nice enough to remove some of the extra charges. I asked for a new contract with the new total price. Please look somewhere else to rent a car. Turo is another option. This place is a SCAM!! read more

Poor staffing. Way too few staff-- and remember, almost everyone reserves ahead and they know what their demand will be. They are CHOOSING to let lines grow to be 100 people long read more

So another update. I asked them to reconsider their stance on the cleanliness of the vehicle. They said we were charged extra for "animal hair". Apparently, they think that 4 adults in a Kia Nitro with luggage for a 12 day trip still leaves enough room for a pet. Our pets stayed home in Texas. We had no animals so the check in person either does not have experience with pets or is blind. They refuse to give back the $125 that they charged for pet hair. It sure must be nice to be able to make something up just to make more money. This is a crooked company of thieves. read more

Horrendous Car Rental Experience - Avoid at All Costs! I recently rented a car from Budget Car Rental, and it was an absolute nightmare from start to finish. Over the course of my rental, I was given three different cars, each with significant issues that made my experience incredibly stressful and inconvenient. First Car: Issue: The car started smoking after 20 min of driving!!! Impact: I had to return the car to Budget. When I did, Javred from Seattle Airport was extremely unprofessional and rude. He yelled at me, saying they were closing in 15 minutes (at 11:30 pm!) and that I needed to go to the Avis line to fix "MY" problem. I told him Budget gave me a problem by giving me a car with a problem. Javred refused to help, claiming he was tired and ready to go home. Then Javred had the nerve to lecture me about empathy. Seriously! Isn't that the career choice he made? He gets paid to do a job and is refusing to do it. To make matters worse, the guy in the garage who took the smoking car told me that they are always like that and Budget hires whoever and doesn't care. Clearly! I thought to myself this is the first and last time I use Budget!! Should've reserved early to get a car with National - lesson learned. (see video attached). Second Car: The second car they gave me had a mismatched wheel. I had three identical tires and one different tire/rim because the car had a problem, so they took a tire from another car and gave it to me. Impact: This would have made driving extremely unsafe. (see pictures attached) Third Car: The third car had gaps in the windows, causing persistent wind noise and cold air to come into the car. Impact: This made driving very uncomfortably cold in Seattle weather. Additionally, the gaps made the car feel less secure and poorly maintained. The constant noise and cold severely impacted my trip plans, as I had to cut my drives short and spend extra time finding ways to stay warm and comfortable. Customer Service: Professionalism: The customer service was shockingly unprofessional. Each time I reported an issue, I was met with indifference and a lack of urgency. The staff seemed more interested in passing the blame than actually resolving the problems. Response Time: The response time was abysmal. I had to wait for them to figure out a replacement car which severely disrupted my schedule. Resolution: There was no genuine effort to resolve the issues or compensate for the inconvenience caused. I felt completely disregarded as a customer. Overall, this experience was a complete disaster. I strongly advise anyone considering this company to look elsewhere. The cars are unreliable, and the customer service is atrocious. Save yourself the headache and choose a more reliable and customer-focused rental service. read more

Budget Car Rental - robbing peter to...smh! - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

See all

Customer service at pick up and return lacking. Reserved a cargo van. At pick up told no cargo vans available. Lot was full of them. Given a cube van. More of a moving truck if you ask me. Not a van. Not comfortable. Not quite. A moving blanket had been left in the truck. We neither asked for nor needed a blanket. Counter guy "did you fold the blanket?" Did I fold it? Whatta you mean. I guess I've grown accustomed to the service at Enterprise. Unpleasant. Hey we got the move finished . read more

Worst rental ever, they serve both Avis and Budget from same counter; and it's always crowded; you will loose one hour waiting in line. Look at the photo, budget is closed Systems are dam slow from dinosaur age, just a single print takes over 40 seconds Absolutely nightmare read more

Budget Car Rental - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

We flew into SEA TAC on 9/18/24 and landed at 1pm and had a Budget reservation. Arrived to the rental car area around 1:45pm to an extremely long line.. maybe 70 people in line at least. It took a total of THREE HOURS to wait in line and get our car. This was completely unacceptable. I asked the concessions stand employee if there is a line here often and she said it happens everyday. What a waste of our time and day! And horrible start to our vacation. The one star is for the kind and patient Budget employee who assisted us. But I will never rent Budget or Avis from this location again and recommend the same for others. read more

DO NOT USE BUDGET IT IS A SCAM!!! I made the original reservation for $60 with all the coverage for the vehicle plus the miles. It ended up being $250. Something happened on budgets end where they didn't put my mileage and the first customer service representative I talked to was the most condescending person I have ever spoke with to the point where I asked him to stop speaking so I can explain. He said I could call back and speak with someone else when I asked to speak to management needless to say I will be putting in a more formal complaint. Oh and the next representative saw the mistake and fixed it immediately. They accidentally charged me $338 on what was supposed to be $250. I hope the first person I talked to has the day he deserves. DO NOT USE BUDGET ITS A SCAM. read more

There is like a 2 hour wait. The other rentals are empty. Some are sold out unless you have a reservation.

I think they hire people from the Dmv! We waited for over two hours at 9am in the morning. The employees kept leaving the desk to go over to Avis? Who is running this place? They shouldn't be in charge of calling Bingo at the old folks home. Good lord, someone please fire management & get all new staff. read more

I don't care what price you're quoted, go with another company. This line is longer than Disneyland!! TWO people taking info, 50+ in line, crazy. read more

Budget Car Rental - Budget - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

There's nothing Fast about the FastBreak. First waited for two buses at SeaTac to RCF then We were directed to go down to the garage for FASTBREAK only to find the window closed and a HUGE LINE because they were combined with the AVIS Advantage members and had only ONE agent working. Went back up to the regular lobby which actually had a shorter line and four agents, but two actually left work with a line of more than 30 people waiting. We took more than 2 hrs to get our car. The agents had to walk to the other side each time to use the radio to check on availability of a car. Since we waited so long it was past midnight so I heard the agent tell some people your reservation was for yesterday. Um, YEAH!!! I wish the manager rolled up her sleeves and helped customers instead of chit chatting. read more

at SEA/TAC. booked through expedia for a Tesla. torturously slow counter; understaffed. it turns out this Budget doesn't even HAVE any Teslas! some BS story about the rampant vandalism in Seattle. went with a standard gas-powered for even MORE $$ per day. the first one they tried to fob off on us had a mangled front license plate which told the tale on the not-quite-fully repaired front bumper. buh bye. read more

0 stars. Worst rental experience ever. Watch out for hidden fees. The guy at the counter insisted we needed the toll option for $11/day. Good thing I told him no because we didn't go through any tolls. Requested a carseat. Even though it was wrapped in plastic, it was filthy so we had to ask for another one. Ended up getting charged more than what I was supposed to when we returned our car. Called customer service and she was rude. Avoid Budget if you can. read more

Rent in the Clowns You know when you research places and see the low reviews but figure, "Naw, they can't be that bad." Well, this is one of those places that you should most definitely believe the bad reviews--because they really are that bad. I'm not sure if their popularity is due to the fact that one can book a car through both Costco® Travel and Amazon.com®, but they desperately need help taming their almost never-ending lines for people picking up their rentals--and before we play the bullshit let's blame it on The Covids© staffing shortages excuse card, I'll have you know this isn't the first time this has happened with Budget. In fact, this appears to be a play right out of their customer service manual. The two good thing I will say about them are that they are a little bit less expensive than other places, but be prepared to pay for that savings with time. Secondly, they did have the car (Toyota® Prius©) I wanted ready for me; I was worried with higher gas prices they'd have a run on them, but I'd actually booked this car out months ago. read more

Budget Car Rental - Fml... - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Waited in line for 2 hours. Was told the car I rented was not available and they could put me in a Dodge charger. I didn't want a charger but I accepted. Upon walking to the dodge charger, they had given it to another person. We complained and received a Toyota Corolla which was the original vehicle requested. We were told there were none left when there were at least 5 in a row waiting to be taken. This service is unacceptable. Its garbage. We were told we would receive a refund if returned early. We returned early and no refund was provided. Still fighting with corporate for that refund. I'm not sure any other rental service is better, but Budget is awful. read more

What a joke. Forty-five minutes in line inside. Another 20 in line in garage waiting for person to get your car, an SUV. Person then doesn't have said car because the only SUVs around have BC plates, and he says that could be a problem. Luckily, an SUV came in after washing. Get in and wait 25 minutes to get out of garage. On return, traffic is so congested that getting to airport 2 hours 30 minutes early might not be enough. So, we can't get to a gas station to refill car. About 35 minutes to get to rental car center. Drop car. No one is around to say, "You're good." Finally have to leave it and take a picture to verify I left it. Bus back to airport takes 35 minutes. End up getting to gate just prior to boarding. Get bill from Budget, and they slap a $167 extra charge for the fuel. Seems wrong considering there were no warnings about the endless clogs in the system when we picked up the car. Anyway, we used maybe 10 gallons of gas, so $16 per gallon is a pretty good bit of price gouging. Needless to say, I am deleting my Budget account. Never will use this company again. read more

Wow just wow. I travel to Seattle often and rent cars every time. I can with my family with 2 young kids and ran into this nightmare. The line wrapped around 3 times and spilled 15 feet into the hall way. 2-3 out of 15 kiosks is working. Never will I chance renting here again. read more

Budget Car Rental - Car Rental Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Super long line. They had a lady passing out waters to people waiting in line which was considerate but only have 1.5 employees working the front since 1 is constantly leaving read more

3 hours. It took over 3 hours to get a car. Rumors of them running out of cars was common during those 3 hours. After reading the reviews it seems this isn't a singular issue but a common one. Budget needs to a better job here. The employees can only do so much. I have never worked for a rental car company so I don't know what the issue is here. It was horrible. We were also told to take EV's instead of regular cars and if we didn't we would have to wait. It was ridiculous and such a disappointing experience. If I could give Zero stars, If i could. If you can Uber to another rental car location. Maybe you'll have better luck. read more