I do not recommend renting from this location. Rent at your own risk! I reserved a mini-van from this Avis Berkeley Location, MONTHS in advance. I was supposed to pick up the car in at 12pm on May 16, 2026. I had to move from Berkeley to Los Angeles to I needed a mini-van. That's the entire reason I reserved this van several months in advance. Guess what. The very night before I was supposed to pick up my car, someone from this Avis Berkeley location named Wayne left me a voicemail. He didn't even have the decency to call me, he just sent me a voicemail that says that they were going to unilaterally cancel my reservation the night before because they didn't have the mini-van. Unprofessional and ridiculous. Guess what. May 16 is graduation weekend for many schools in the Bay Area, so everything is sold out, so I had to get to the airport and end up paying 3X the cost for a last minute rental because of these guys. DO NOT RENT FROM THIS LOCATION UNLESS YOU WANT TO RISK THE RESERVATION BEING CANCELLED LAST SECOND. Lousy business practices. read more

Avis Budget Car Rental - This is proof that I had reserved this and they unprofessionally unilaterally canceled my reservation the night before. Unprofessional. - Car Rental Near Me - Berkeley, California

I do not recommend this car rental establishment. I booked my car three months in advance got here and there were no cars in the lot. No car to offer me so that I can go about my day. This is such an unprofessional establishment, especially when I have my day structured out the way that I needed to go, and there's no leeway not even a single car to offer me so that I can go about my day. I do not recommend this establishment for car rental. They will give your car away and not even care. No phone call no heads up to warn the customer that they don't have a vehicle for them. Thank you so much for throwing a wrench in my plans!! I will never ever again go outside of real professional car rental establishment these little cheap old places are no good! You can save the automated apology. I don't care to hear it! I will never come back to this company no matter where I am!!! read more

I heard that this branch of the business is under new management a while ago, and fortunately, he's amazing! Tim and Wayne are wonderful and definitely know what they're doing and seem to be very hardworking! 10/10 experience, would certainly come back again for rentals and I highly recommend!! read more

Please save yourself the stress of renting from this fraudulent operation. I'll be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. If you do rent from here, be prepared for bogus charges, and to dispute them with your credit card company. I rented a car for a week and used it a handful of times. There were never any other passengers or animals in the car, just some luggage in the backseat. When I returned the car I was told "there was a dog in the car, and you will be charged". I said that there had not been a dog in the car. He said "Yes, there was a dog in the car". I told him that if there were any hairs in the car, they must have been there when I picked it up. He refused to acknowledge this possibility, instead insisting that I was lying and had a dog in the backseat. We went back and forth a few more times before I realized that it was completely futile. He said I could go home and clean the car myself, if I preferred that to a $250 charge. Feeling I had no choice, I did this, which seriously disrupted my work day and created a lot of stress. I called Avis and after a 45-minute wait, they told me that during pick-up I should have carefully inspected the interior of the car before leaving the lot with it. I told the customer service representative that I assume the state of the car when I receive it reflects their standard of cleanliness, and it's not my job to inspect or question it unless I have a problem with it, which I didn't. If they expect customers to examine the interior of the car, this should be stated clearly when they have you inspect the exterior for damage. Even if I had inspected the interior, a few stray hairs in the back would not have registered for me as a problem, and I certainly wouldn't have thought that I would be held responsible for it upon return. In every other rental car experience I have had in my life, a small amount of dirt, dust and hair has been considered the result of normal usage and I have never been charged for what I assume is their routine cleaning in between rentals. Ever. The experience at this location was astonishing to me - both the arrogant behavior of the manager, and the absurd gaslighting from customer service. I can't fathom why Avis would continue with this behavior when there have been such widespread complaints about it. In the end, after I cleaned the car, he said I wouldn't be charged, but I'm not so sure this is the end of it. They seem willing to fabricate excuses for charging their customers, and the manager seems to delight in making people upset. Given how drastically this deviates from the norm of car rentals, I believe this all amounts to fraud. Since the corporation evidently doesn't care, all I can do is warn others! read more

I rent cars frequently from Avis. As a preferred member I am very satisfied with this location. The staff Tim and Wayne are very kind and funny, they're great employees and they've made my experience wonderful every time, I definitely will be back read more

I attempted to return my vehicle but I was unable to because the system was down. I called Avis headquarters to ask for a fee waiver for the day which they granted. Today I brought the vehicle back and presented the gentlemen( owner in the picture) with the claim number for the fee waiver and he became irate. Not only was he irate he did not honor the adjustment and he told me in the future he will make sure he gives me the highest rate. As I was trying to explain to him that yesterday was a major inconvenience because I took off work he yelled at me and said stop talking to me I don't care and I don't need your business. I'm not clear why he took a 45 dollars discount so offensively but I am clear that I will never come again due to such poor customer service and his irate behavior. read more

Avis Budget Car Rental - The owner (pictured). Very DISRESPECTFUL. The customer service I received today was terrible. - Car Rental Near Me - Berkeley, California

This Budget/Avis location on Kittredge in downtown Berkeley has some negative reviews but we had a good experience here. They gave us a fantastic free upgrade that made our trip more comfortable. We were only going to have the car for a couple days but then decided to stay away longer so I called the toll-free number and got the rental extended. The phone connection wasn't too good so I agreed quickly with the agent and got the OK to keep the car longer. Upon returning the car to Berkeley, I realized that I had misunderstood a couple of things that made the bill quite a bit higher, but the gentleman there at the Kittridge office very kindly fixed it so the extra charges came off. The car was very good for our trip and we got great service from the folks running the Berkeley office. read more

The only reason I've EVER rented from this Avis is because it's directly across the street from my coworking space. It has, in my 10 rental experiences there, NEVER been a pleasant experience. The Owner/Franchisee has uniformly been standoffish. Not once do I remember him saying to me, "thank you for your business" or "how are you" or "have a good day." Today I had an experience that broke the camel's back, and I will NEVER rent here again. I'd rather go to Enterprise even though it's a 5-minute walk extra. It's just not worth it to interact with this owner, who cares ZERO about customer service or satisfaction. My rental agreement said I "rented" it at 3:58pm. Actually I didn't get in the car until at least 4:10pm. I returned the car at 4:30pm the next day. the owner said he will charge me $41 because I'm 3 minutes past the grace period of 29 minutes. he said that's the rule and wouldn't budge. That is pure nickel and diming when I'm someone who has rented at least 10 times before. I don't know how much power AVIS has over franchisees, but if there's nothing that they will do, then I will NEVER rent from any Avis again. read more

I rented a mini van for a week, and was happy with the van I got. Unfortunately, the windshield washer fluid was empty, so I had to fill it myself. Upon return, the guy told me the car was too dirty and had dog hair in it, so he was going to charge me an additional cleaning fee. I don't have a dog, and no animal was in the van for the duration of my rental. Further, I had removed all trash from the car, and what remained was the normal dirt from going in and out of the van for a week. I rent cars from various companies about 5-10 times per year (for about the past 18+ years) and have never encountered this. To prevent a hefty cleaning fee (advertised as up to $250), I took the van home to run my vacuum through it. No discount was offered for refilling the washer fluid. Will not return to this location. read more

Beyond our expectations!!! We booked our car by calling them an hour before pickup. The price that was offered to us was about $70-100 cheaper than any other place I've been looking over the web or over the phone. The office was very clean and the agents were very charming n professional. A senior citizen next to me was dropping off her car just before closing and said she didn't have time to fill up the tank. The agent have her the option to go and fill up the tank and the office will stay open extra 10-15 min until she comes back... So she saves money! We rented a Toyota 4runner. The car was clean inside n out, excellent condition, n super comfy for long road trip. I was going to drop off the car in a different location by midnight but wasn't sure if I could make it in time. The agent suggested I extend my return time to the maximum time that I still may receive the same price. Thank you for such a great service, affordable price, and information on how to save money and stay safe. read more

We rented a car from this location (2000 Kittredge Street, Berkeley) for 11 days to drive down the California coast. No issues with the pickup and we were even offered an upgrade at no additional cost. The location is clean and the service was friendly. The car was clean and there were no issues for the time we had it. I would rent from this location again if needed. read more

I rented a car from this location thru Autoeurope, including all insurances. The people at the station (a couple of Indian or Pakistani descent) were courteous when I picked the car up, they even gave me a choice of models. But when I brought the car back, the man sat in it to read the odometer and immediately asked me, if the car had smelled of smoke when I rented it. It did not, although there was a smell I attributed to cleaning materials and "new car". The car smelled the same when I brought it back. I am a nonsmoker for 40 years and did not even light a match in that car. He insisted though that it smelled of smoke and threatened me with a $250 fine. He called his wife, who -of course- confirmed his opinion. I was by myself, so it was 2 against one. We had a lenghty and unfriendly discussion, after which he lowered the "fine" to $54. Plus, he charged me $23 for being 25 minutes late. This has never happened to me, renting cars from all kinds of companies. I strongly recommend you stay away from this Budget/Avis location and rent elsewhere. These people obviously do not understand customer satisfaction or return business. read more