Budget Car Rental — Local services in Dania Beach

I’ve rented with Budget several times in the past and never had any issues, which is why I chose them again for our recent vacation. Unfortunately, this experience was a major letdown.

After a red-eye flight and two long days, we arrived to pick up our reserved car. The young woman at the counter barely acknowledged us, speaking only to ask for my husband’s license and credit card. We stood there in awkward silence as she repeatedly inserted the card, saying nothing the entire time. Normally, a customer-facing screen displays the rental details so you can review and confirm everything. This screen, however, kept flashing and disappearing before we could read it.

I finally asked if there was a problem, and she simply said it was an issue with her computer. Still, no updates and no clarification. When she asked about adding insurance, I mentioned we thought we had already included it in the reservation. After some unclear back-and-forth, she eventually said it was liability insurance, which we declined since we’re covered through our own policy.

After several more minutes of silence, she handed us a paper with the car space number. That was it. No confirmation of the rental details, no walk-through. When I asked about confirming the terms, she dismissively said, “Well, nothing changed.” But from our side, we hadn’t seen anything yet, so how could we know?

That’s when things really went downhill. She seemed visibly irritated that we wanted to verify the rental details. Eventually, she brought up the contract for my husband to sign, and we walked away. As we were leaving, my husband asked me where to go next. I responded, “I don’t know—she didn’t say.” At that point, she yelled across the area, “I DID tell you, you just didn’t hear,” and continued ranting. It was extremely rude and unprofessional. I replied, “Well, aren’t you polite,” and walked away.

Management seriously needs to review the video of this interaction. This was a terrible representation of your company. As a customer, wanting to confirm the details of what you're signing is not unreasonable and certainly shouldn’t be met with hostility.

To top it off, our reservation was for a "Kia Soul or similar," which we expected to be a small SUV or crossover. Instead, we were given a Nissan Sentra. When I asked a very kind garage attendant (I believe his name was Alejandro) why, he explained that they consider the Kia Soul a compact car. While we were disappointed, we didn’t want to deal with the front desk agent (I believe her name was Ishar or Istar) again, so we let it go.

We had another reservation with Budget coming up, but we’ve decided to cancel it. I want to be clear: this was the first time I’ve had an experience like this with Budget, so I won’t say this reflects the entire company. But it was enough to push us to take our business elsewhere. No customer should be treated poorly for simply asking questions or seeking clarity.

Oh, and did I mention, the car looked dirty on the outside; however, at least the inside was clean so it was not worth waiting...

Is two hours too long to wait in order to get a rental car? After you have already pre-paid for one online? If not, then Budget is for you!

(I reached the line at 6:15PM, It is now 7:30 as I write this and I am not even halfway through.)

Other nonsense includes, but is not limited to:

a line called "fastbreak members" with no other information, UNTIL, you reach the front of that line, a tiny sign with tiny text at the counter telling you that you cannot have signed up for fastbreak on the same day and also you must book the rental through the fastbreak app

Something called "precheck" which you can do while you wait in line, which includes entering a bunch of information like your license and credit card into your phone, which are already in the app, and then it telling you that your pickup time had already passed. No really? And why can I not just do this through the app?

Reservations made through third parties do not permanently show up in their fastbreak app. You must enter the reservation number each time. Meaning you enter the reservation number, you see your reservation, you close and open it again, and it's gone. you get to hunt through your email again for your reservation number. Useless!

Why do I never learn my lesson?! I thought I was saving money, and getting a deal... and this is the result. Was it worth it Alex? Was the two hours you wasted worth that $50 in "savings"

I can't wait to see what other surprises are in store for me when I reach the counter! I will be sure to update the review.

update: I got to the counter at exactly the 2 hour mark around 8:20PM. The lady at the counter was nice.

There were a total of 2 people at any given time helping customers, out of a total of 6 stations, despite the 2 hour long line of people.

The car was fine. It had minor damage and a cigarette burn/hole in the seat which could not be seen in the dark garage. I fully expected to be charged for this, but to my surprise, I was not.

Unfortunately, I will not be renting from Budget again if I can help it. I understand I booked and prepaid for the reservation from a third party site, but that in no way justifies a 2 hour long wait.

If you don't mind waiting for 2 hours to get a rental car, in order to save $50, then perhaps this trade-off...

I was going to wait until I returned the vehicle to write this review, but I'm so displeased with the service that we've received. First, my family of 4 was given a Chevy Malibu that was unsafe to drive. The car shook uncontrollably when accelerating. It was very late, a holiday, so we drove the vehicle to where we were staying for the night with plans to return it the next business day. We returned the vehicle and notified the agent that we needed an exchange because the car needed repair and was not safe to drive. We were given another Hyundai Suv with a crack that was spreading in the windshield. Took this vehicle back immediately and were given a VW Tiguan which has been fine as it is brand new. Unfortunately, my wallet and charger were left in the original vehicle. We returned within 2 hrs to retrieve the wallet from the original Chevy rental that we told them needed repair, and they had ALREADY RENTED IT OUT AGAIN!!! We were in disbelief in the complete disregard for the safety of their customers. From there, we were given a form with a Budget lost and found website where we were told to file a claim for our lost items and watch for posts of found items. We were told we could come back in if we saw items that could be ours listed as found, but we had to file that claim first. We went back to the airport 3 days later since we saw a number of found wallets listed on the website. Only to be told that we needed to file a claim with "Avis" because they are the ones who handle all of the lost and found for Budget. We went to the Avis desk where we were told that the only way we can get our things back was for us to be called and set up an appointment to be given back our property. We called the numbers provided and were put on hold, transferred, and then hung up on or sent to voicemail a number of times. This has been a frustrating experience and definitely negatively affected our trip. I'm shocked at the level of disregard for customers safety in the condition of the vehicles as well as lack of concern for travelling customers that left items in...