St. Louis Car Hire

Pros: The staff tried up upsell services on pick up and drop off. I regret the pressure they applied.

Cons: They need to stick to the Kayak reservation.

Pros: After waiting for one agent processing over 30 people in line, another agent showed up and the entire experience took nearly 2 hours to get checked in for a reserved car.

Cons: I will never use that service again. Also, when the car was ready, I noticed the tank was only 3/4 full and there was no chance I was going back to say anything about it.

Pros: Drop off was fairly easy.

Cons: Car was obviously not cleaned after the last user dropped it off. Smelled strongly of curry and had food stains all over the car. I ended up cleaning it myself with some wet wipes. The outside of the car was also dirty and muddy but it was raining so I didn't care all that much.

The vehicle was fine, Budget’s service was terrible!

Pros: Car was clean, late model, ran well, no issues with the vehicle.

Cons: The employee morale at the St Louis Airport Budget is terrible! Not one “hello” or smiling face during the entire car rental experience - both renting and returning. Things started at the airport with the Budget shuttle driver yelling at an elderly customer who was having difficulty boarding the shuttle. When we arrived at the service counter(shared with Avis rental car), we were met with a long line, we have no issues waiting in line, but since the counter is shared with Avis rentals it was confusing to figure out which side to go...as it turned out, there’s only one line, but a simple sign or a door greeter would have been nice as many other customers were just as confused as we were. When we finally made it through the line and approached the service counter, I was checked in by a “Manager” who already looked annoyed, he mumbled every word he spoke and got visabily angry with me as I kept asking him to repeat himself. He didn’t have a speech impediment, I just couldn’t hear him speaking to me over the other customers and representatives. He whispered something to the representative sitting next to him while he could not find my reservation, at one point he handed me back my Govt. CC and ID and told me someone else whould finish helping me as he was going to take his break. I finally got the rental vehicle which ended being $110 more than the quoted price, I called the 1-800 number to try to figure out the price difference but gave up after being transferred several times, I had already taken possession of the vehicle, so I had my doubts they would be able to do anything about the price anyway. On return of the vehicle, we were once again met with a confusing experience, there was a rental return sign pointing to several lanes already full of returned vehicles, I had to weave my way through several lanes until I thought I found the right space, I stepped out of the vehicle and waited for an attendant to check the vehicle back in. After not being acknowledged for several minutes, I walked across the lot to ask another attendant what to do, he suggested that I just leave the vehicle and I would get my receipt emailed to me. I’m familiar with the car rental process at airports, I travel frequently for both work and pleasure. I’ve never had such a poor rental experience previously. This appears to be an employee morale problem much larger than a few disgruntled workers.

Cons: Line at pickup counter very long. Not enough cars available so had to wait for staff to clean cars coming in. A car was available in a more expensive class but Budget wouldn't rent it to me for the same price. I feel, given the long wait, that they should have rented whichever cars were available.