Picking up the rental car was a terrible experience. I flew in to SFO around 5pm on Thursday and was one of the first people in line at Budget. I had already checked in online, but still had to wait in line. There were 5 people working at Avis and 1 at Budget. The Budget employee walked off for 15 minutes, popped his head in to see the growing line (from 20 to about 50 people) and walked away again. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he was taking his employee break, but there should have been more coverage, especially because Avis had so many people who refused to help the Budget customers (my understanding is they’re the same company now). After waiting 45 minutes, the checkout was quick (aside from the Budget employee trying to upsale me on everything). I eventually found my car in the parking garage and it looked like it had not been vacuumed or cleaned since the last customer. I usually book with Enterprise, but they were fully booked. You can do online check-ins instead of waiting in line, and their employees are always friendly. I will not book with Budget again.
Waited 3 hours to pick up car in San Francisco with no apologies from staff.
I tried to change my reservation before traveling to SFO but couldn’t. Then when I arrived at the counter, the line of customers waiting was shockingly long. One woman was in tears after having waited in line only to be told that since she had a reservation, she was in the wrong line and needed to go downstairs instead. Once there, she found a line just as long as the one upstairs. Poor communication. Poor execution. I rented from Hertz instead. I will never book through kayak again.
This rating is for the rental car pickup in Denver. The staff was quite unconcerned about the long line of people waiting to pick up cars. They basically ignored us and concerned themselves with their computer screens. The staff numbered about 8 people but only 3-4 decided that they would wait on any customers. There were at least 25 customers in line. After waiting at least 45 minutes we finally got waited on. And then, when I finally got the car issued, it was entirely unclear what I was to do next, but I was dismissed to go outside. I was told that I was issued a “black Traverse”. After looking around and waiting in the freezing cold, I eventually found a light gray Traverse with the matching number. Needless to say I was not pleased.
1. I was disappointed at Kayak. I've been using for over 10 years. This was the first time when the car rental price quoted ended up not including airport fees etc. It's always been all-inclusive. This 'Qeeq' company quoted prices without fees. 2. I had paid a bit extra for an electric vehicle, but they told me they ran out. 3. Terrible lines to pick up, almost 1.5 hours, even though I had added my driver's license images before. And once I had the reservation, there was no way to add their 'fast track' plan so I could pick it up. 4. After waiting on that line, there was ANOTHER line we had to wait for in order to pick up our car. I've never seen this; they usually give you the key and tell you to either pick up a car, or go to a specific car. And the person who was manning that line was almost intentionally slow-moving, with zero regard to the fact that all of us had waited so long. So I'm disappointed both at Kayak (for the first time) and Budget.
Picking the car up took 3 hours in SFO, which is beyond unacceptable.
