We just got back from a great trip to San Francisco and Mendocino (report to follow). The trip was almost spoiled by our car rental agency in San Francisco, however. We had reserved a minivan months in advance through Avis (which my husband supposedly has "preferred" status with). We were to pick up the van at the Fish. Wharf location on Monday at 10 am and return it the following Saturday to the airport. We had spent the weekend in S.F. and were driving up the coast with our three kids.

When we got to the car rental agency, after waiting in line for 45 minutes we were told they did not have our minivan, and in fact were out of cars except for a two seater convertible. I went next door to Hertz, but they couldn't help either. We asked if there were any cars large enough at the airport or in nearby towns, but there weren't. I'm not sure what the point of making a reservation is if they don't honor it. We were not the only ones having this problem.

Eventually, a suburu hatchback came in, but we could not fit our luggage in the back (our kids are adults).

We thought we were going to be stuck in S.F. for another night, but after 3 1/2 hours, a Ford SUV came in that we could take. They gave us a $100 discount, although we discovered the tank was not full when we left with it. We hated the SUV (never driven one before), but were lucky to get it.

Not sure what the moral of this story is, other than maybe it's better to pick up cars at the airport, although they were out too. (Or don't travel in large groups requiring special vehicles!)

From Seinfeld:

Jerry: I don't understand. Do you have my reservation?
Rental Car Agent: We have your reservation, we just ran out of cars.
Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
Rental Car Agent: I think I know why we have reservations.
Jerry: I don't think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.

your story is not unique to SF. Problem is people keep their cars longer than the original reservation and once that happens the whole system can get out of whack pretty easy. Especially at an in-town rental where I assume they have less inventory than the airport.

I had forgotten that Seinfeld episode! Funny!

We've rented in S.F. before with no problems, but not in the summer, and didn't need a minivan (one less kid). And like you said, the smaller location is probably not a good idea if you need a big car, although the airport didn't have any either (at least not by the time we checked there).

Not long ago, a friend came to visit and showed up at our house in a Crown Victoria, I think - some gianormous sedan, anyway. She had reserved a compact car, but the rental place at SFO didn't have anything else. The thing was huge. We actually had to climb INTO the trunk to retrieve her luggage - LOL.

Just a few weeks ago, I went to pick up a car at the airport Alamo in San Diego at 10 pm.

I'd reserved a compact for the weekend, but at first I was given an intermediate "free upgrade". I was okay with that, until I realized the whole windshield was cracked across the middle.

Then David tried to pawn a HUGE Cadillac off on me...no chance! I couldn't even pull into a pull in parking stall in the lot without two tries (not to mention the gas guzzler issue).

It took me another hour of waiting, and another defective car (no keys!) to finally get a mid-size.

I really felt bad for the family with several little kids that had just arrived from the East coast. They had reserved a minivan months in advance for their multi-week road trip to the Grand Canyon.

David kept insisting they take another one of the monster Cadillac sedans.... His favorite line was "it's my dream car". After about an hour, an SUV was produced. It didn't please them but they took it. At first he was even going to charge them the same rate too, until I told them that SUVs should be cheaper than minivans.

I wrote Alamo to complain, but haven't heard back from them...

Looks like Avis was in the negative for 2006:

http://tinyurl.com/2p59b6

Enterprise is, I believe, a privately owned company, but it has been rising fast.

It does certain things that the other rental agencies don't or seldom do:

- rent to those under 21

- pick you up and drop you off for free

- have oversized vans for moving large items

- move their employees around to give them good experience

- pay their employees well

- recruit college graduates, who are trained to be polite and to handle problems

I've just had a major problem with a rental car from Enterprise and was treated extremely well.

buckminster: I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience. Ranks up there with my bad experience with Advantage Car Rental. Summer time is especially bad for getting rental cars. It's usually better to call the day before to confirm and also to pick cars up early - the later in the day, the less certainty of getting the car you want.

Hope you'll come back to San Francisco and Mendocino again soon!