Budget Car Rental, St. Louis MO

Absolutely AWFUL. This particular Budget is TERRIBLE. I made a reservation DAYS AHEAD then travel hours to St Louis only to find they canceled my reservation and never even called or messaged me to tell me. ITS NOT EVWN CANCELED IN THE SYSTEM! They waited until I was stranded in a town across the country. WHAT INCOMPETENT managers! You were too scared to let me know? Total losers.

I've always had a good experience since I began renting from Budget. I'm a Fastbreak member and I like that program. The reason I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5 right now, is based off my return experience at the STL Lambert location. I had no issues when I initially arrived to pick up the car. The staff was great, friendly, easy pickup process. Drop off was easy too, and the shuttles were waiting to return to the airport.

However, when I received my email with the final bill, I noticed there was an extra charge for fuel. I was really confused, because I had just filled up the gas tank at the closest gas station to that car rental location. And yes, the fill line on the gas gauge was at the very top, right where it should have been after filling up a gas tank.

I looked more closely at the bill and saw a charge for 1.5 gallons of fuel, with a charge of 13.99. That seems a little steep for 1.5 gallons of gas, but also it seems rather nit picky to even look for the smallest amount of gas missing that way. When I filled the tank, I waited for the pump to automatically shutoff, the way many people do. When I got back in the car, I checked the gas gauge to make sure it read full, and it did.

After seeing the bill, I called customer service and explained to them what I saw. The agent was really good about working with me and corrected the bill right away.

I've rented many cars in the past, from Budget as well as other companies, and I've never had this happen before. I'm not sure if there is a new policy change to where Budget has become more strict, but this experience sounds like nickel-and-diming.

Overall, my experiences with Budget have been good and I intend to continue using this company. If this is a policy change, please let me know.

Had a nearly 4 hour wait, they lost keys, the place was filthy. They ending up charging extra for made up charges. Workers had no sense of urgency or care for anyone's time. They had people going out into the busy parking lot to stand and wait for vehicles. Once the vehicle was received it was dirty and had not been cleaned. Found a used, she wee, yeah.that was thing. All in all, cheaper went out the window when it was returned. Like I said plenty of extra charges.

Will be sticking with a more enterprising company from now on.

Despite having Fastbreack I have to go to the counter there. The past 3 times, they did not have the car I reserved. I did get something to drive, though, so that was a plus. The staff get it done but look harried and stressed. There's something wrong with the system at stl.

This was one of the worst experiences of my life. First the bus dropped me at the preferred customer booth. So I stand in line only to be told I need to cross the parking lot with my bags. Once making it to the main building, I was greeted with a line so long it spilled outside of the building. Long story short, I was there over 2 hours just to get a car. The shameful thing is that there were 10 representative stations and only 2 agents working. Later there were 3 agents. This tells me loud and clear that Avis doesn't respect my time. Everyone in the line had reservations so they knew in advance that there would be a rush at that time. Why wouldn't they have more agents working? Or does Avis not wish to pay their agents overtime at the expense of their customers? Shame on Avis.

This was a TERRIBLE experience. Poorly run operation, where customers waited for up to 7 hours in line to receive a confirmed rental. When the car was received, it was damaged, dirty, and didn't even have a full tank of gas. I do not recommend Budget or Avis based upon my last rental with them. This is not the only time they've given a subpar vehicle, but it was the worst experience I've had in nearly 30 years of renting vehicles.

I waited in line for almost 2 hours. There were 3 employees assisting customers and 1 supervisor watching. Your employees had no sense of urgency while assisting customers. The minimum time to assist a customer was at least 15 minutes. One employee spent at least 45 minutes assisting 1 customer. I watched one of your employees walk over to the vending machine, casually make a selection, then disappear for 10 minutes, he did this numerous times during my wait. The phrase that best describes your employees attitude is "I work for Budget and I don't care". The vehicle I reserved was not available. I will never rent another from Budget, you have lost a customer for life.

Rental sign-up took a long time. The interior reeked of cigarette smoke. The rear carpet did not look as if it had been vacuumed. The inside of the windshield was foggy and not clean. Paperwork from a previous renter was left in the car.

The shuttle took over 45 minutes to pick me up from the St. Louis Airport to take me to the rental office. Then I waited in line for over an hour as at least 10 customer service agents sat at the counter checking their cell phones, taking breaks and basically ignoring the long line of customers waiting in line. It was like I was in the twilight zone. No one was doing anything. I was late to my engagement given these delays. The compact car I reserved months in advance was not available and I was charged for an upgrade which I found to be completely unprofessional and unacceptable. I will actually be requesting a full refund.

I don’t like posting bad reviews but posting so management can help improve things. Twice I have been to this location and it’s at least a two hour wait to get a car. Cars not ready, systems not working just overall a frustrating experience. Depending on line some people report up to 3-4 hour wait times. Unacceptable after traveling all day to deal with this awful location.

I was charged $100 gas fee for not returning full. Both gas gages said full+, and yet I got charged. I filled the car the morning I returned it, drove about 5 miles after filling, so it wasn't empty. Am requesting a return of my money by Budget, and will not use them again.

Very bad experiece renting from Budget St. Louis Airport. Staff was very careless and not cooperative and so the supervisor. If I own this place, I would replace with good staff. They take 10 mins break after each customer. Spent 10-15 mins for just enetering license and credit card info. Very bad attitude of such a big company.

I arrived in St. Louis MO for a funeral service but I was met with excellent service at Budget Rental Car from start to finish. Great customer service from the agent Ms. Shay. Her personable demeanor made me feel like a valued person and not just another number. The return crew were great as well while working in the rain. I will return to Budget when I return to St. Louis. Job well done!

On arriving the lot and counter signage was out of date sending us to an outside closed counter. Next, when it was our turn to receive
our rental it went pretty smoothly. The car's interior had not been cleaned and there were nasty spots on the back seat. The rear driver side door would not open from inside the car.the car's prompt for an oil change came on the second day of our rental, I called in and was told to just take the car to any Budget national office for service. I declined to spend that morning of my trip having the car serviced and requested for Budget to arrange for a change of vehicles at my hotel. I was told to just drive the car we were in and don't worry about the service prompt, that it was just a reminder and everything would be fine. Other than that, the car handled great and was a perfect choice and our counter agent was great.

Arrived at 7: 00pm and stood in line outside for 2.5 HOURS through a thunder/lightning /hail storm! We pre checked and still had to stand in the horrific line just so the clerks could see our ID and print paperwork. They were extremely slow! By the time we got our vehicle there was nothing open for dinner and we were so hungry from traveling from Alaska. We would never recommend this budget location to anyone we like!

Terrible; waited ~15 min for the shuttle at the airport; am a "FastBreak" customer but waited another ~20 min for a car in a line with other "FastBreak" and Avis "Preferred" customers; car smelled like pee and smoke; waited another ~20 for the shuttle back to the airport; absolutely pathetic performance.

I had to wait three hours in line to pick up my car- I was on time for my reservation. Apparently Budget was understaffed AND overbooked their cars. This is what we were told by the staff at the ticket counter. See photos for lack of staff and line extending outside the building. Also pictured, no cars in the lot for these people to pick up. When you got to the front of the line, you had to wait for someone to drop a care off, get cleaned, then you could check out. What a joke. This should be illegal. We did not receive any notification that they were behind like you would for a flight. I ended up having to cancel our plans for that evening because we left hours later than expected.
On top of that the sunroof shade would not close. The sunroof was huge in the minivan- about 5 ft long and the sun beating in on our 5 hour drive was uncomfortable and distracting. I was offered $50 off an $1100 transaction. Ridiculous. I would never recommend renting from them.

Took over an hour to get a car because there were none clean to rent. Four office workers standing around waiting for cleaners to clean cars. Employees need to be trained to do multiple tasks instead of making an entire lobby full of people wait while they stand around. Team work does not exist and customers had to wait exorbitant times because of it.

True Story: July 7,2023.10 a.m.
- 2 hr 10 minute wait in line that goes all the way out into the parking lot and starts to snake.
- Finally make it to counter. Ridiculously long check in, considering I ALREADY COMPLETED PRECHECK ONLINE.
- Given midsized car that I ordered.
- QR Code won't let me out of the gate. Attendant says the desk rented me a car on the DO NOT RENT list. Have to go back in.
- Return to same desk clerk. Wait for him to finish with previous customer. He checks me into new car.
- While driving to the gate I think to look down at paperwork. Not my name on the paperwork.
- BACK to the counter where. Desk clerk has gone on break. It was a helluvabreak, because I waited for 30 minutes, staring at empty chair before another desk clerk finally assigned me a third car.
- Paperwork finally correct. Pull off lot. Notice that there's only half a tank of gas and the low tire pressure light is on.
- And By The Way: Manager on Duty. COULD. NOT. CARE. LESS. You'll get more empathy from a wounded honey badger.

Hour long line to pick up rental vehicle at Budget facility. Fast Break members can skip this but you have to drag your bags outside several hundred yards to a separate building in the back corner of the parking lot. Shuttle does not drop off there!