Can anyone tell me how Dollar Car Rental in the Orlando Airport is. We will be arriving at 11:00 PM on Saturday night, June 30 and leaving at 10:00 AM the following Saturday. Will I be waiting forever to get my car and how early should I get to the airport to drop it off?

I've had trouble with Dollar before. They're cheap for a reason. The windshield on my car was cracked, and the car was basically a mess. Of course, they tried to blame me for the windshield, even though I had indicated on the form before leaving the lot that it was already cracked. It took them a very long time to back down from this.

I've had very good experience with National. Both rates and service are good.

Tom,

Have you considered Alamo? I just returned two days ago from an Orlando trip and my friends and I rented a car (2001 Mitsubishi Galant) at Alamo for a week for $160, including tax. The only drawback for you might be you have to take a shuttle from the airport to the Alamo rental office. But it's a short 10-minute ride away.

Sandi

Tom-We rented from Dollar and they tried the same stuff as the above poster. And, Alamo is just as bad or worse. I would spend a little more and go with National, Hertz or Avis. Cheaper is not always better.

We rented a van from Dollar on-site at the Orlando airport in Mid-March with our flight coming in Saturday night at 9:30 PM, & leaving a week later at 9:00 AM. We have tried several different car rental agencies over the years; maybe we were lucky, but we walked right up to the counter, got a VERY good rate (Booked reservation 2 months in advance), had a new, good vehicle, only took a few minutes to return. Depending on where you're staying, the drive in good traffic to Kissimee, for example, took us about 20 minutes. If you allow for traffic, accidents, etc. I would want to GET to the airport at least an hour before your flight leaves, in case of snafus or just to relax a little.

Dollar Car Rental is the worse. We rented from them and had a late flight arriving in Orlando at 10Pm. Dollar did not have our car that was guaranteed by credit card. They did not even tell us there was a problem until I finally asked after standing in line for an hour. They offered to give us two compact cars and return the next day for our minivan. We couldn't have gotten all our luggage and family into two compacts. We were not the only frustrated, extremely tired people there that night. We wasted a whole day sleeping after getting to our hotel at 1pm. We use National and have always had good service no matter we have traveled using their rental agency. Just great service, great people to help. In fact the night we had the trouble with Dollar it was a National attendant who helped us. Don't chance it with Dollar they are not reliable.

We rented from Dollar in Boston (not Orlando) and had a nightmare. One tyre was bald and as a result we skidded off the road into the central reservation, during which time the car flipped over twice. We were amazingly lucky that our fall was cushioned by snow and escaped with little damage to us (or Dollar's concern - the car). The worst part was that they were not even apologetic about the state of the tyre, describing it as 'marginal'. All in all, I just traet it as a lucky escape - I now spend the extra $ and use Avis or Hertz.

I can't comment on Dollar, but I can comment on Alamo, which some people are recommending. I've had horrible experiences with Alamo and so have quite a number of others. There was a lengthy thread on this a few months ago which I contributed to.

I have not rented from Dollar in Orlando but have rented from them in about five different cities and all of my experiences have been satisfactory. Frankly, I don't expect much from any car rental company so when the price is right, they are nice to me and nothing goes wrong, I am satisfied. In your case, I would focus on the comments from the people who have rented from Dollar in Orlando because each location appears independently run no matter what agency you choose and experiences can vary widely.

I just returned from a 10-day trip to Orlando where we rented a full-sized car from Dollar. I got a really good deal on the rate ($113/wk), but the lines were long during registration--approximately 1 hour. The first car I got I returned because of smell coming from the trunk. The replacement car was just fine. We probably put in close to 1,000 miles on that thing driving to Clearwater (Tampa area--2 hrs) and Miami (4 hours). When I returned the car, I didn't encounter any of the issues listed on the forum. It was pretty quick and easy (less than 5 minuts processing time). This could have been due to the fact that I had a small box of kids juice left over from vacation. Instead of throwing it away, I offered it to the Dollar check out lady who commented that her kids loved that particular brand of juice. Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with the total experience, although the beginning process could have been better.

I've rented from them too, once in Orlando, and had no problem at all. They even gave me a promotional 15-minute phone card which, come to think of it, I never used. I think they gave me a Mazda Protege, and the car was in good shape, clean and ran perfectly.

Alot of it must depend where you rent from. I've never had a problem with Alamo in Florida either but Alamo at Newark Airport is another story altogether.