Dollar Car Rental - Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport — Local services in Erlanger

First of all, DO NOT go to where the booking/confirmation email tells you (3286 Loomis Rd). The correct address for GPS 3057 Terminal Dr, Hebron, KY 41048! They really should make the address to go to more clear, so I went to a weird dead-end address right off the bat due to a very vague confirmation/manage booking email from Rentalcars.com. You have to go INTO the airport to the rental car area to get your car!

The name Dollar Car Rental should be taken into account when booking! It's a budget rental service, so don't expect white-glove service!

Pros:

-Easy to get a hold of someone via the 1800 number. Surprisingly somebody answered quickly and was able to tell me where to go since the email confirmation had very vague information on where to actually go. -It IS very cheap. A standard economy two-day rental, which included me dropping off the car in another state, cost me less than 100 bucks! -They don't push their insurance down your throat and surprisingly, the rate I was quoted online using a 3rd party comparison site (Rentalcars.com), was the price I paid. It's sad that this is how our expectations have been degraded in this day of lack luster customer service! -Somewhat straightforward. Expect to pay the price quoted PLUS a deposit of roughly $200 for a credit card and $500 for a debit card (this requires very limited criteria, don't expect to be able to use one! I didn't qualify. This is industry-standard however. At the time of this review I have not returned my car so hopefully it's returned without incident. I'll update! -Re-fueling options include pre-pay, and market-price lock-in rates ($5.55 as of 7/4) , or fill up yourself upon return -The car I received from the basic economy was a very basic, stripped-down, featureless Chevy Spark. It was clean and issue free, so no complaints.

Cons -I happened to luck out with my wait time. I walked in between flights and was the only one at the counter. Unfortunately, the lady was very new or not properly trained and the check-in process was extremely slow. From walk-up to leaving with my keys took roughly 30/40 minutes and she had to re-do the process 3/4 times. I believe she was putting in the wrong 4 digits of my card over and over again. I don't blame her, I blame lack of management/staffing issues. She was apologetic for the delay, but the line growing behind me wasn't a fan. I wouldn't have been so happy if I was waiting! -Finding the car is very confusing. You get the information, then go upstairs and wander around until you find the number. The lady didn't really explain how you find your car except to go upstairs and it'll be waiting. I spent about an additional 15 minutes looking for my car, turns out she wrong the number down wrong. Somebody wearing a green vest eventually asked me if I needed help. I have no idea if he worked for CVG Airport or the car rental. It was nice for him to ask, but he wasn't very helpful! -Check the tires! My tire pressure was super inconsistent and all over the place. One tire was 56, the others low 50s, and one was 34 PSI. Uneven tires = cars that don't want to go straight!

Verdict: Very cheap, somewhat straightforward with pricing and policies, and gets the job done. Expect additional wait times and poorly trained employees/little help. If you want excellent service, pay the extra money and go with a bigger...

FIRST AND LAST TIME. NEVER AGAIN AND WILL TELL FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF OUR WORST CAR RENTAL EXPERIENCE EVER!! Where to start, let's start at the beginning. The car was rented by a mother-in-law as a graduation gift for a graduation vacation. We knew that upon arrival, there would be taxes and other fees due. We were prepared to pay this on our card or cash. Dollar say they can't do that they need card used (mother in laws). We could not use ours and unable to use mother-in-law card. Kinda understood this and asked if it could be canceled, and we would rent on our card they said they could not do that. After an hour of this back and forth, we ended up booking a second rental, and in hopes the other would get canceled. The car that was supplied had 40,000 + miles, and the passenger front rim was scared up pretty bad. When we started driving the passenger front wheel area, you could hear a large popping noise when turning slowly. And had a small vibration. I question it safety and depenablelity.

When we returned the car, the barricade entrentance to Dollar was up and 5 cars waiting. At 4 a.m., when Dollar was to open, nothing happened. One car was able to get someone (security) on the phone, and they told us to go to valet parking. All 6 of us go there and were told we could not drop off cars there. The car that was on phone with security finely had Dollar on the phone and was told to go back to return.

Our group of 6 cars go back to return and now more cars in line to drop off but can't. All this took an hour of all customers' time, and some had flights at 5:15. As we all plus more cars at barricade waiting and trying to drop the rental security, the manager finely showed up and directed everyone to pull to the side of deck and leave cars there. NEVER USING DOLLAR AGAIN!!!. I will say the manager did what he could do and was very present to deal with everyone's complete frustration in trying to get the cars...

Never again. Reserving through the website was a bit of a chore. We ended up reserving a “premium sedan”. I don’t know about you but a Nissan Maxima is hardly premium. The one we got had a wavy windshield, fer cryin’ out loud. Our car was a 2022. I was expecting a Chrysler 300 or similar, not a dinky low slung distorted windshield thing. What’s worse, our flight did not arrive until late and we had to wait until 6 a.m. before we could get the car. To be fair, all of the other companies had also closed except for “E”, but they had to turn away about a half dozen people who had reservations because they had no more cars. Anyway, one sign at the Cincinnati Dollar Car desk said to wait there and another said to go upstairs. When the desk agent finally came out she wouldn’t talk to anyone and just slooooooooowly wiped down the entire desk and computer and ignored everyone. We went to the garage and the agent there was quite brusque and acted like she was hating the world. There was no help finding our little fake premium scruntmobile. Eventually we loaded up and the agent at the booth also acted like he was hating the world. All in all Dollar online or customer no-service or one of the airport signs had them closing at 10 p.m., one at midnight., the airport telling us the car rental agencies stayed until all flights were in, yada yada blah blah. Get yer shoot together. The company was difficult, the website was misleading, the vehicle we reserved was a disappointment, and the staff we encountered surly and indifferent....