Warning About Dollar Rent a Car in Lower Manhattan
 

This is more of a warning than a rant. My son and I reserved a car at the Dollar Rent a Car on South End Avenue in Manhattan. I called the night before to confirm and all seemed to be in order. We get to Dollar at our correct time and we see three customers ahead of us all visibly upset. Guess what, no cars! For any of us or any of the four customers behind us. And the guy behind the counter had no idea when any would be available. I almost missed my nephew's wedding! By some miracle we got a car after about an hour and half. Many of the other customers had left and rented at Newark airport. Just a warning if you rent at this venue. No more Dollar Rent a Car for me. A dollar is about all this business is worth.

This happens fairly frequently in Manhattan on summer or holiday weekends.

Don't know why this particular office ran out on that date, but your best bet is to start calling other agencies and see if you can get a car there. Or you might be waiting quite a few hours.

Generally the problem is that people who have cars do not return them when they are supposed to - or end up returning them to other offices.

As NYT noted, this unfortunate situation has happened to me also on more than one occasion.

I think it's an industry problem--not just a Dollar-Lower-Manhattan problem.

I would not have gotten a car at the mid-town Thrifty location last May if I had not been the first customer in line one day last May, and Hertz in Madrid tried to get me to take an SUV when it didn't have the small car I had reserved.

HTtY

I agree, this happens, and it shouldn't, and it's a royal pain when it does, but it's an industry weak spot: they rely on other people to return cars when and where they say they will. I wish it were as simple as avoiding that location, or that company, but it can happen anywhere, any time.

I've see that happen at LAX, in downtown San Francisco, an other places - and none were Dollar.

This literally could have happened to you w/ any rental agency at any time.

Nothing at all unique to Dollar nor that location.

The only defenses I have figured out are:

Use the largest location you can find (esp airports) - since they are least likely to run out of cars completely

Avoid renting on the eve/first day of a holiday weekend - rent either a day earlier or a day later

I think nytraveler's advice is very sound, and NewBe's explanation is accurate.

Happened to us at LAX on a Friday afternoon. Ended up waiting 30 minutes in the parking lot for the next vehicle in our class to become available. Aggravating for sure and we weren't the only ones waiting.

Thanks, everyone. I thought that this was a unique problem in this location.