They couldn't care less about customer service. You are forced to their insurance even when you show proof you are covered by your own. If I wasn't stuck for a car, I'd have never used them. Also, I was denied a ride back to my car repair place. Manager claimed it was for security reasons. She also said she never heard of any company doing that. Heard of Enterprise? Never ever again. read more

DO NOT GET A RENTAL CAR HERE! This place is so bad, I decided to create a Yelp account and give a bad review. Long wait for shuttle and at desk. Forced you into buying insurance. $200 deposit and poor customer service. read more

Read these reviews! This is also my worst rental car experience. I waited at the airport location for over 45 minutes. Other transports (Enterprise, Avis, etc. We're Then the check in process took another 30 minutes. These people do NOT care about customer service. WORST RENTAL EXPERIENCE EVER! read more

no thanks. our flight was delayed and we arrived at 8. they close early on saturdays. all other rental car companies were still running - but not them. read more

I will tell you up front that my company chose to rent from Advantage because it was a couple of bucks cheaper. I will also tell you that I would NEVER personally rent from this completely inept company. Yeah, yeah, Hertz owns them and they rent cars too, but that's where the similarity to Hertz stops. Here's the breakdown: - Stood outside O'Hare waiting for pickup while Advantage vans drove by in the far lane. Angry Advantage customer next to me finally asked a competing van's driver what the hell to do, then we were directed across the street to the Hilton pickup area - Took 15-20 minutes to drive all the way up Mannheim Rd in hot, crowded bus, stood in REALLY long line waiting forever, finally checked in by totally rude and indifferent jerk of a clerk. - Reservation was for a full-size, none available (no surprise), no upgrade offered (also no surprise), asked for an upgrade, tersely told "NO" even though there were plenty of large cars available (surprised), ended up with a little SUV that was OK at best... Lucky to get all our luggage in it - Was told to take the paperwork outside, check the car for dents, then come back in, wait in line again, then give them the paperwork (It must be nice to have the customers do all the work) - Returning the car involved-- you guessed it-- doing it myself, writing the mileage down, walking inside, waiting in line, etc - The only real upside of this company is the return driver in the minivan was friendly and got us to ORD fast, so he earned them 1 star Ultimately, there is no "advantage" to renting from Advantage... My advice is spend the money and go somewhere else, where they give a damn read more

Very disappointed. We waited 45 minutes for a shuttle and when we tried to call for help, no one answered our calls. A very unfriendly woman named Cassandra assigned us a car. Upon sitting in it, we smelt vomit immediately and looked around to find it in the back seat and all over the seat belt. She exchanged us for another car and when inquiring to see about a discount we had for our poor experience, she said, "discount for what?" Will not rent from advantage again. read more

The company did contact me following both my email and my original posting and provided a refund on the difference between my original contracted rate and what I paid at the referral car rental agency. I was happy they were responsive. read more

$50 per day on Expedia. Small car. Rented for 3 days (and 2 hours) Total when I dropped off the car $496.07. They refunded $100 of the $200 deposit that was taken at the time of pickup. So the total for this three day rental was $394.77. I had refueled before I got there so gas wasn't part of the fees. Or tolls. When I asked why it was so high they said, "Airport fees". read more

WARNING DO NOT RENT FROM THEM THEY ADD EXTRA CHARGES NOT AUTHORIZED TO YOUR CLOSE OUT BILL... 2170 Mannheim Rd Des Plaines,IL 60018 Very UNHAPPY with final result, we were told by the counter clerk that we can return car filled or they can fill it, was told by clerk their gas was 8 cents cheaper. When we returned car we had only use 1/4 of gas we were charged for a full tank of gas. I should had read all reviews before booking never again. We usually book with Hertz the only reason we booked with Advantage was because that who Justfly had on their list. NEVER AGAIN WILL WE BOOK OR RECOMMEND ADVANTAGE RENTACAR...WARNING!!!! STOP AND READ!!!!! read more

Please try to avoid if you got a chance, they probably offer a better quote online, but that isn't what you actually pay in store! The sole purpose here is asking more money from your pocket. The rude staff would try to trick you by secretly adding stuff into your bill, which is very unfriendly for me as a youth driver. I ended up paying a lot more than my quote. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE place. read more

I normally use Enterprise; but when I booked my airline ticket through JustFly.com, they offered what seemed like a great rate for just over a week - just over $500. BEWARE! My final charge exceeded $1,000. They have sneaky charges, a signing mechanism that use acronyms that are misleading, and don't allow you to see the full details (and when asked, say "it's just the basic contract - it's not an extra", up-selling nonstop from the moment you walk in the door, and only after you've signed a mysteriously small space that doesn't reflect the actual document are you provided the entire contract to read. And when questioned about charges that are more than twice the original contract, lied to about a "refund" that will be applied when the car is returne read more

AWFUL. This is the worst car rental experience I have ever had. Dirty shuttle. Lack of customer service. Long wait times with people who essentially ignore you. Zero assistance with bags getting on and off the shuttle. As I write this, we were sitting on a shuttle waiting to go to the airport to return home and the drive just got off and didn't say anything to us. We waited for 15 min for him to return to the shuttle and take us! Any other car rental place would be better than this. read more

The attendant gave me crap because I wasn't parked directly in front of the sign. I drove into the lot and parked where the arrows state RETURN RENTALS. He came out and said "no not here, you see that sign park in front over there." Then he came over and said, "i said park right in front of the sign this is not the front." This is the 2nd time that one of their customer service reps has been condescending. Just that alone will keep me away from this place. read more

Advantage Rent A Car - Car Rental Near Me - Des Plaines, Illinois

Alright, the location is VERY far from O'Hare and probably shouldn't be considered an O'Hare location. But I had very good shuttle service to and from the airport. And I actually had no problem with the entire experience, especially for the price. That is, until a month later when I received an additional $26.25 credit card charge for one $1.50 missed toll!! I actually brought my I-PASS with me, but I somehow missed ONE toll (transponder may have been in a bad spot) during my 6 day rental. Not only was I charged for the $1.50 toll plus $4.75 for their daily admin fee (which I would've been okay with), but I was also charged for EVERY DAY OF MY RENTAL (max at $24.75) even though I was using my I-PASS the whole time. So one $1.50 missed toll cost me $26.25. I cannot stress enough--BEWARE OF PLATEPASS SERVICE!! It is such a scam that I cannot believe it's legal!!!!!! Hertz and Advantage both use this service and it's deplorable. read more

This was the WORST rental experience I've ever had. Here are the many things wrong with them 1) The shuttle is supposed to run every 15 mins. I waited for at least 30 mins before the Advantage shuttle showed up. Meanwhile the shuttles for the other rental companies came through at least twice. 2) I couldn't actually rent because they have this mind boggling policy that you need proof of car insurance to rent if you live within 65 miles. To have proof of insurance would imply that I have a car and if I had a car, I wouldn't NEED a rental car... What idiot came up with that policy..? I went over to enterprise and had a car within 10 mins. read more

I wanted a cheap car rental in Chicago from O'Hare and that's what I got. Here's my experience: - I made a reservation online about a week in advance and got 10% off for Prepaying - highly recommend this. Actually paid *less* than I expected when I got my final bill - I got to drive a 2015 Hyundai Elantra, which was just what I needed. Plenty of space for 3 grown dudes and their luggage without being cramped. Getting 40 MPG was nice too. - Just say no when they ask for all the optional add-on charges. Easy. - Used my credit card (Amex) for insurance so I didn't have to pay for theirs. - Cheapest rental car service for my 4 1/2 day trip. - ONLY downside was the slow shuttle service to the airport at O'Hare. I saw several shuttles come for Avis, Hertz, Enterprise, etc. but for the hundred bucks I saved I was fine waiting 10 extra minutes. if you want a cheap car rental and are fine saying no a few times, go with Advantage. read more

Rented a van $80/d $3.59/prepaid fuel charge $36 for additional driver Facility charge $8x#days License fee $1.25 x#days read more

If I could give this company 0 stars, I would!! DO NOT rent from this company!!!!! We waited over 30 minutes at the airport for the shuttle to arrive - watching at least 3-4 shuttles pass by from EVERY other company (including smaller companies like Ace and National). We called their 800 number and were told where to wait and that the shuttles come every 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes later we called again and were given the local number. We called there, they assured us the shuttle would be there in two minutes - it was about 10 minutes before it finally arrived. AND it didn't pull up where we were told it would pull up. So we had to run over to where it was in order to avoid being left behind. EVERYONE on the shuttle was equally aggravated and had called multiple times and been told, over and over, that the shuttle would arrive in two minutes. When we dropped the car off after our trip, they processed it at the curb and printed out a receipt right away - the only aspect of the experience that went as it should have. But then we were told that the shuttle would arrive in five minutes - but it was more like 15. AND they said the reason it was late was because there was a lot of traffic. Car rental company at 5pm on a weekday near O'Hare Airport - why are they caught off-guard by rush hour traffic??? One more thing - they are NOT located close to the airport. Given the traffic, it took nearly 25 minutes to get from the rental place back to O'Hare. BUYER BEWARE - saving a few bucks DID NOT make this experience worth it. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!! read more

Beware! Worst car rental company ever. I went to Advantage/E-Z rent a car in Chicago O'Hare. I reserved to pick up a Toyota Rav4. They gave me a Subaru Outback. I was okay with it since I only needed the car for a few hours. I came in to pick up the car around 10 am. Prior to the getting the car, spoke to the clerk at the kiosk and gave me the keys and my car was at number 47. He instructed me to inspect the car and let his co-workers there know if I see in any damage that was over 2 inches. I proceeded to go get my car and inspected the car. I noticed some scuffs and scratches that was over 2 inches but was minor. Stood there and look around for assistance but no one around. Didn't think too much about it so I took off with the car. I returned the car around 3 pm at the same area I borrow the car. This time there was actually someone to help me. As she was inspecting my car, she found 2 supposedly cracks (size of a dust) on the windshield. YES, literally size of a dust. Of course it blends in with the dust on the window but this lady was able to take the time to wipe off the dust and found the supposedly crack on the windshield. So the lady who helped me and Carmine the manager made me sign this incident report. Because I have to catch the airport, I sign the incident report. So shady and sketchy. It's really bad way to do business. I am on vacation and supposedly having a good time. Thanks to E-Z rent a car, I went up upset and disappointed. I felt harassed and bully by these people. This is the worst car rental experience ever! read more

See all

It seems there policy is changed or is random, they may not rent you a vehicle, if you do not have a personal car insurance. They need your personal insurance policy number, EVEN IF YOU BUY ALL INSURANCE FROM THEM. I do not own a car, so i went there to rent a vehicle, and they refused to rent it out to me as I do not have personal insurance policy. They said the RULES HAVE CHANGED since last 2 months and they need personal insurance policy number on file. After that I went to Enterprise and they rent me out, no questions asked. FYI, I have been renting out from HERTZ AND ENTERPRISE no problems at all for last 4 years. read more

They don't allow local renters if you don't already have insurance, nor do they inform you of that in an obvious way. (Reserved from a third party site online.) When I asked if I could purchase any type of insurance for an additional fee, they said there was no way I could rent a car from them. Had to do a day of rental from a different company at an incredible cost. (Don't worry if you live 65 miles out of Chicago though?) The gentleman at the counter told me to read the fine print. Touché. I'll be sure to avoid Advantage Rent A Car and their fine print in the future. Seriously though, no option to even purchase any type of insurance while there...? read more

We just had a great experience with this car rental company at O'Hare International Airport. When we arrived, there was no line. We rented a new, clean Toyota Sienna for 11 days that was problem free. When we returned the vehicle, again there was no line. O'Hare has a great shuttle system now with a brand new building and large buses for all rental companies. It was an great experience and we'll definitely use Advantage again. Workers were polite and helpful and we had zero hidden fees on our bill. read more

I am echoing what you have already heard - long waits, charging too much for gas, and late charges for false toll fees. It is infuriating to be scammed. if you use them and use toll roads, YOU MUST GET ALL RECEIPTS. Otherwise, you can't fight the charges when they come. It's a convenient scam for them. Customer service is off site and there is no onsite phone number. I've been shuffled around a bunch, on hold for more than an hour and no resolution. I WILL NOT use this company again. I suggest you do the same. read more

Can I just say WOW what poor customer service! My husband is a loyal hertz guy but this trip to Chicago we decided to use advantage instead. Well never again. We drop the car off and first there is no one to greet us or check the car in she is sitting inside the check in booth not moving. Finally we get another employee to get her out of the booth and check us in. She slowly walks up to the car as if we are putting her out by pulling up. She checks car in and mumbles you will have a receipt in your mail. No common courtesy such as did you have a good trip? Were you pleased with the car? Nope nothing. Then I ask her nicely where do we pick up the shuttle and very curt and rude she responds right were you came in well that was 8 days ago and the new ohare drop off is unfamiliar to us. I am sorry but your company needs to hire better employees and reward the ones who do a good job for you. Totally disappointed . read more

On 5/16/19 went to the Advantage Chicago OHare location to pick up RESERVED minivan to move my daughter home from college. Was informed all minivans and larger vehicles had been given out. Was offered a compact car instead. I asked what could be done; was told "They could do nothing" and other rental companies might have a same-day rental minivan. I asked what would happen if I was there with 5 children off a flight for vacation. Told same answer because "They had no minivans; nothing they could do". Staff was not rude just matter of fact. Apparently this is Advantage's normal business practice. Never will I reserve a car from them again- BEWARE. Advantage responded via Yelp. Sent this email: Hello, I would like to understand Advantage's business practice regarding reservations. I also am concerned that Expedia is allowing reservations for Advantage which possibly will not be honored. I forwent other companies in my planning because I had a reservation with Advantage. Never did I think it was possible for a company to just say "sorry" and now it would be my problem to solve- last minute at whatever rate and car I could find. The staff at Ohare were absolutely unconcerned that we were left in a lurch with no sizable transportation for moving our daughter- obviously a compact car would not work. Why would anyone take that risk? Your company needs to be transparent regarding their reservation policy. So what is the policy? According to Ohare staff it is "Sorry, we have no cars. There is nothing we can do." Thanks, ---- read more

i wish i could give 0. terrible company stay away. they charged me upfront and the car was not available. after 2 hours they gave me one fitly, i had go home and clean the vehicle. we were 7 people ready to leave for Florida, all packed, but we had to delay the trip of 6 hours. it doesn't finish here, we returned the car one day early and they charged us 2 hours delay and all the extra charge they applied for 10 days instead of 9. customer service is terrible if there is any, they don't care at all about their customers. read more

The lady checking us in took advantage of a group of vulnerable women in town for a funeral. She flat out lied to us about the fuel charges and how much we would end up owing. We got charged for the full tank even though we didn't use anywhere near that much fuel. We also paid a premium against local gas charges because she assured us gas was cheaper there. Since we were trying to make it to the funeral, we thought we asked all the right questions, but, when we got the bill, we had a lot of surprises. To make matters worse, the customer service call center is not particularly interested in offering customer service and only in making threats. I hope no one uses this company. read more

Horrible customer service shady practice a lot of hidden fees they will charge you after returning a car. I paid cash for the tolls yet because the last person left the box open it's my fault. read more

This shouldn't be an airport location, it's miles past the other car rental agencies (Hertz, Budget etc) The first car we were given stunk like cigarette smoke, so we went back inside and were given another car. The 7 am to 10 pm hours could be extended. Some employees were incredibly pleasant, some were the complete opposite. Waiting for the shuttle twice was also annoying, why would they be in the same place as every other car rental agency? read more

**Update - got a phone call the next day by the company who then said - "Ok we will refund the 2 days, but there are taxes due that Hotwire did not collect for." I told him, he was wrong. I had my Hotwire paper and the contract with Advantage - both of which show the taxes and the correct amount. Then his "computer" suddenly shut down and he said he would have to call me back... SHADY. I am an atttorney and I am thinking strongly of filing a class action suit because I am not sure how this many people can be overbilled incorrectly. Very strange. I think they are counting on foreigners who leave the US and cannot fix the bill or others who do not keep their paperwork. SHADY!! SHADY!! SHADY!! Very shady car rental company. I booked the car on hotwire, paid in full. It was a simple one day rental - pre-paid. I returned it on time, full of gas, not damaged. Attendant processed the car in, inspected it, and said we were good to go. Next month, I had an $85.00 charge on my credit card - no communication - just the charge. When I called, the rental place said "Oh, you kept the car an extra 2 days." CRAZY - I have never had that happen before. When you call them, you end up at a call center in Orlando Florida. They take a "report" and will get back to you. WTH?? In addition, after I rented from them I started getting calls from "resort vacations" in Orlando, FL on my work cell phone I gave for the rental. Hmm.. Oh, and FYI - this rental place is no where near O'hare, like the others are on Bessie Coleman Drive - this one is located in some desolate location not very close. read more

The car is cheap but the shuttle that picks you up from the airport to take you to the car, takes FOREVER!!! I stood there for over 20 min! Then it pulled up in the wrong spot to drop people off and then was just going to leave! I had to chase him down and waive at him!! Every other car rental place had shuttles going by every 3 minutes so I'll definitely go with someone else next time that I'm in a hurry read more

Had no issues at all. Check out and check in Process was extremely easy and fast. Vehicle was in great condition and the staff was really nice read more

Service was great as it relates to moving us in and out really quick. My only suggestion would to more welcoming and more interactive with your customers. read more

Advantage Rent A Car - Car Rental Near Me - Des Plaines, Illinois

Terrible experience. Paid $185 for 1.5 day rental. STAY AWAY!! Short Version: Took a trip to Chicago. Had to make changes to reservation due to snow and flight cancellation. Every Advantage person I interacted with was rude, tried to screw me, and couldn't do basic math. Long Version: - I booked a 3-day car (via Kayak) for $130 - Had to change my trip to 1-day for personal reasons. The phone rep said I can't change the reservation. I can only make a new reservation and call back to cancel the 1st one. - So I booked a new 1-day reservation (via Kayak) for $40 and called back. The rep then said I would be charged $50 to cancel the 1st reservation because I didn't book the 2nd reservation using the advantage website. The only way to cancel the 1st reservation for free is to book a 3rd reservation using advantage website (really???!!!!!!). I was pissed but took the $50 hit. - Then during my trip, my return flight got cancelled (due to snow) so I had to extend my car reservation by 6 hours. - The phone rep said it would cost additional $90 to extend by 6 hours. I was pissed but had no choice. And then the rep said "ok I'm now going to charge your card $135". I spent next 5 mins trying to make sure she does NOT charge me another $135 since I had already paid for the first day. - In the end, I paid $185 for a 1.5 day rentals (45 for renting the car, 50 for cancelling 1st reservation, 90 for extending by 6 hours) This is my 2nd time renting with them and the 2nd time I got screwed. I WILL NEVER USE ADVANTAGE AGAIN! AND YOU SHOULD STAY AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET SCREWED! DON'T BE LURED BY THEIR PUBLISHED LOW PRICES! Judging by my experience and the other reviews here, I'd say that this company is looking to screw it's customers at every turn...makes business sense I guess...but terrible for the customer and terrible in the long run. read more

Horrible! Paid $112 for a car for one day. The offer online looked good of $56, not after all their fee's and bs. Plus the woman at the front desk was not your friendliest. It was snowing this morning and they could not even clean the car off for me. Save your money and go to Hertz, Enterprise, etc. the only positive was the shuttle guy, i believe his name is Fernando. Cheers! You were very friendly at 7am. read more

Wish I would have read these reviews before renting. The phone customer service is horrible and they charged me 50$ for a 2$ toll. Really? I will never rent from this petty company again. read more

Completely horrible company. Reserved a car, only to show up and be told that I had to present proof of liability insurance at the counter. Who carries their car insurance card with them while traveling?? There was absolutely no help from customer service agent, who couldn't even answer me why I had to present this information, beyond "it's a new company policy" and I was forced to cancel my reservation and lose lots of time figuring out what to do with a different company. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM read more

Booked online. Total was $264 for the week. Got to the office for pick up. Cost went up to $400 for the week. I did not get the car I wanted. They gave me an SUV when I reserved an economy. I asked to be down graded to the economy to cut the cost. They told me the price stays the same. Sorry. When I returned the SUV at 7:30pm the shuttle was not running! They said they close at 8 on Saturday and the shuttles stop. Again it was 7:30. Had to cab it to the airport at the cost of $20. Very disappointed. Never again. read more

Trust the reviews! It's low rating for a reason. Just horrible up selling, unclear billing.

After paying for an upgraded vehicle, 45 minutes into my route a service tire system message appeared. Given that I was driving on the expressway and an hour away from the rental car place, I proceeded to contact customer service, where the service rep suggested that I stop at a gas station and put air in the tires. Since I was heading to the hospital for a family emergency (the reason for my last minute accommodations), the last thing I really needed was to worry about a rental car or putting air in tires. So I returned the rental from advantage early and rented a car from a more reputable company. The cars at Advantage ORD are not maintained, outdated and have a high number of miles on them for rental cars. I travel often for business and pleasure and although the price may be cheaper, your peace of mind is worth going elsewhere. read more