Budget Car Rental

Be aware if in a bind the Arlington VA rental office may push an unwanted rental on you and even lie about availability of reserved car if you are not returning it to that location. This happened to me when we were stranded due to weather issued at Reagan Airport.

Made a reservation in advance.. got tons of messages and emails about their perks and suggestions for extras I already said I didn’t need.. only to be told 2 hours prior to picking up that they’re out of cars so there’s no time for plan b

Price was right. But, gas was 3/4 full when picked up. First screen after ignition was on said it needed oil change. Driving was noisy.

Very very bad staff. Didn’t get the car I booked. Was standing at their office with the family and all my luggage for a trip I had planned 6 months in advance. They told me they didn’t have the car I requested and gave me an alternate which was smaller and the only option they gave me was to either take it or leave it or call corporate!!! I wouldn’t have had a problem with a smaller car but the only reason I booked a bigger one was because I knew I needed the cargo space.

Constant bad experiences with this location. Even if you book a car week in advance, there is no guarantee you will get it. They claim to call you to notify about the unavailability but there's never a voicemail. I even tried booking a truck and i was just transferred to another location 10 miles away and had to go there on my expense. On top of this, the guy at the store is very unapologetic with this inconveniences. Any question is answered with I cant do anything, call customer service, etc. I don't feel like booking any more budget cars from this location.

Worst customer service ever. Showed up 45 minutes before "reserved" time. Was told to come back because car was not available. Came back 45 minutes later - did not have the SUV reserved - but gave us a minivan that was in the lot we had parked behind an hour earlier. Fuel tank not full, car was not clean. Do not rent from here

Made a reservation. Got a confirmation. Arrived at location - No cars available. Why no cars - overbooked. Why can’t get one of the dozen on the lot - they’re reserved ?!. So why do you honor other reservations and not mine? - they were made earlier. Any advice? Go to the airport they *might* have a car. Calling corporate - why is this happening? “Cars sometimes break”…. The answer from the location. “Corporate routinely overbooks”…. Tried the website - one can still book a car EVENTHOUGH the location has none . Have a good day if you’re on with budget.

Booked a car a week in advance just for them to call me the morning of my pickup to say they were sold out. Went to rebook at another location and this one was of course still taking same day reservations.

Reserved a truck. Showed up and they said corporate had moved my reservation to a location in dc and they didn’t have any trucks available. No one contacted me ahead of time. Useless.

Wasted my time, wasted money getting there in a cab, made me late. The saleswoman wouldn't acknowledge the scratches & paint chips on the car I was renting and I didn't want to take the chance they would blame me for them when I returned it as other reviewers have warned about so ended up cancelling the rental rather than be forced into paying an extra $30+ per day for the damage insurance. Huge waste of time. Been renting from Avis at the same location for years; they both just lost my business. Update 22 May 2021: Above review was from early 2020. Failing to read my own earlier review, I tried this place again renting from Budget, which is in the same location as the Avis & under the same management a week ago. Upon my on-time return of the car, they billed me $50 more than my reservation quote and it took significant time to get that resolved. I am now renting here once more having apparently still not learned my lesson and have been waiting outside for 25 minutes just to get in the door to get the keys to the rental car I reserved. The line behind me to get in is several customers deep so their wait times will be even longer than mine. In both of these most recent visits, the employees have been generally polite and courteous, just overwhelmed, perhaps in part because the place is consistently understaffed. So I can confirm that even post-pandemic this place is still shockingly bad at the car rental business.