Don't tell people you have a car and then tell them when you come down to the office at 11am to pick up said car that you don't have it, there's a 50/50 chance you won't have it by 2pm or probably by the end of the day at all and suggest I just sit and wait all day in your office. You left me stranded in Santa Cruz while my car was in the shop. BTW it's not the first time you said you had a car when you didn't! My repair shop spoke with you on the phone and you told them you had a car, your website said you had a car and based on that the shop arranged an Uber for me to your location. Enterprise doesn't even get the most basic rule of business. Supply and demand. I have always rented from Enterprise but will never do so again especially in Santa Cruz. I don't believe you care about improving your service but here is my review anyway. read more

Car reserved 2 weeks in advance and they had no cars when I went to pick it up. Office worker was very nice but also on the phone dealing with another customer whose trip was ruined with a recalled rental car. I reserved with them because of their high customer service rating. Never again. Going back to enterprise in Santa Cruz. read more

Held a reservation with Avis Santa Cruz, Avis reconfirmed a couple of days ago, on the day of pick, one and half hour before pick up they called to tell us they do not have a car for us! Be aware of their shoddy service. read more

Great staff treat you like family and best deal in town. Car was very clean in and out and thanks too all the staff was my pleasure too meet these nice people read more

Under new management now, service is Outstanding under Steven's management. To those who left a bad review from past (2024 or earlier) I encourage you to try this place again. Steven is working so hard to make the customers happy , even finding ways around system's limitations. read more

Reserved a car here after Enterprise said they had nothing for me. The person at Avis was very friendly and accommodating when I went to pick up my rental. He made sure I was satisfied with the vehicle I was offered and answered all my questions. Never made me feel rushed. I am definitely coming back here the next time I need a rental car in Santa Cruz! read more

The best customer service, felt like renting from a family or close friend. Small business and not corporate like the others. I know that's not for everyone but renting a car shouldn't be so impersonal. Both staff members had perfect customer service drive. read more

Steven (could be Stephen) but however you spell his name he was the kindest person and the best example of customer service in any industry, let alone the rental car business. My story was needing to extend my EV car a day over the holidays. The 800 number told me if I could get to a counter it would be a better price., and I was far from the San Jose airport where I rented. He had already closed 2 hours earlier, but was on premises getting cable installed so didn't even mention he was closed when I walked right in. He helped me and was so professional, caring and just a nice human being. That's rare these days. I wish I could give all my car rental business to this location just because he was such a stellar person. Thanks for your care! read more

This location has top notch customer service and are very friendly. They even saved us $140 when we needed help extending our rental! Highly recommend read more

Excellent Service. Manish the manager was able to accommodate me with an beautiful new SUV, at a competitive price, when my "guaranteed" reservation at another company fell thru. Manish was knowledgeable, professional, courteous and patient. He extended my reservation several times to accommodate me. I originally thought I would have it for 4 days and I kept it for two weeks. I was very pleased he could help me like that. Avis at 630 Ocean Street is highly recommend! read more

Aloha, I travel between Kona and Santa Cruz frequently and always make my arrangements with Manish. His work ethic and attention to detail make this business my go to. "It is often so difficult to make arrangements for these sorts of things in life. To have it be such a pleasant experience between friends is actually rare and incredible." Your Pal, Roy read more

I called them after Enterprise left me stranded, they were able to get me a vehicle, and gave me a discount since there price was a little higher than Enterprise quoted me. I am very grateful for their service, I wish they had pick-up service, even just locally, but since the other company is unreliable I will continue to use them. read more

I used this location for 3 times in the last 5 years, all experiences were good. My most recent rental was in July 2021 for a one way trip from Santa Cruz to LA area. I learned that this location was under new ownership. The new owner was super friendly, helpful, and took great care of us when the car we reserved was not available. read more

Called this morning about a rental car - guy answered the phone and quoted something a lot higher than what was online. I mentioned as much and the guy snapped "well I'm not online"... uh, ok. Just looking to clarify if I ought to book online instead if it's going to be a $50+ price difference. Mentioned online had a 30% discount for first time users. He snips back "it's UP TO" 30% off. You'll probably get like 5%." Alright... so I said ok well it's looking cheaper online so can I just book online and come pick it up? He basically tells me fine and hangs up, no "goodbye" or "thanks for calling". I reluctantly called back to clarify about the midsize car he said was available and the lady who answered this time says nope, only have SUVs. It's gone. Really? In less than 2 minutes? On phone service alone, def not going to be using Avis in the future. read more

The individual where I picked the car was of NO HELP.. I needed a GPS.. & he told me "we don't have any of those" seriously??? You're a CAR RENTAL shop in a TOURIST town.. NO NAVIGATION ??? WOW. Then he was "too busy" to do the walk around the car & had to practically be dragged outside even though we were his ONLY CUSTOMERS.. & now I can see why.. must be that other people know him well enough not to bother with his over priced rentals ( you can get the same car style in San Jose for half the price read more

Caution. I prepaid this reservation that I tried to cancel 1 week in advance and was charged a $50 cancellation fee. This had nothing to do with the dealer in Santa Cruz but with the company itself. read more

I had such an easy time getting a car totally last minute. No hidden fees. Just a great experience. Car was very nice. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience. They are definitely a hidden gem here in Santa Cruz. read more

I had a great experience exchanging the car at this location. I visited them couple of weeks ago. The owner who was at the reception was very quick and helped with the exchange in a hassle free manner. read more

Have rented here at least half a dozen times over the years, due to price and convenience. As others have stated, the owner, Rick, is pretty quiet - won't respond to small talk or seem terribly interested in why you are there . I do not know if he is gruff or humorless or is burnt out or just doesn't talk much, but he has always been professional, anyway, and gets me on the road. I have been consistently happy with the cars and service - and the prices are often better than Enterprise or Hertz. When other places are cheaper, I go there. read more

Super quick and straightforward. No sales gimmicks or pushing for additional purchases or upgrades. We made a reservation the same morning and picked up the car within an hour. The total time at Avis Rent A Car was maybe 5 minutes. Love the friendly staff too! Very much small & family-owned business vibes. read more

caution do not rent scam alert scam alert, i was taken for 500.00$ yesterday 5/20/21. i ordered my car over the phone, and pre-paid. no car, scammers do not rent avis scam alert scam alert scam alert scam alert scam alert.. read more

Yea I am slightly bias because I have a friend who works here.. but seriously these folks are awesome. I have never had a problem renting a car with them and they always have what I want (a 24 hour rental of some type of van or sedan depending on the field trip with my students). The family who owns the place are a pleasure and totally down to earth unlike some uppity folks at other car rental places around here...its a small location right next to jack in the crack (if you blink you will miss the drive way into their lot) read more

I got a very good support on exchanging the car in the middle of the road trip in California after windshield cracked. Santa Cruz branch staff was very helpful and quickly got me on the road. It was nice having a good support place in PCH. read more

I've had a great experience here in the past (a year ago) -- car was impeccable, everything was ready for me when I went to pick it up, hassle free drop off etc. I'm about to go over there and rent again, so I just looked it up here out of curiosity, expecting a 5 star yelp average. Totally perplexed to find a 3.0 average and this extreme range: it's either 5 star experiences (like mine) or a bunch of all-caps screaming cautionary tales. Trying to figure out why, I noticed that the negative reviews seem to mostly come from a long time ago so I sincerely hope it's a matter of old management. I'll update this after my upcoming experience to see if I can confirm the 5 stars they earned back in 2021 or if I have to adjust. Anyhow, it always baffles me whenever a place has such a diametrically opposed bunch of experiences. It's like us yelpers are either completely schizo/giant inconsistent babies, or businesses really do change overnight--which I kinda doubt cuz it's hard to change an entire org. My moneys on us being giant adult babies "wah wah I got charged for being late" kinda babies. We shall see! Hope I'm not literally setting myself up to get very disappointed! read more

I needed to extend my rental and had to re-do the rental agreement thru Costco. If I tried to extend it they would charge $200 more over the 2 week period. I tried to call in the morning to see if I could just have them extend and not have me come in to sign paperwork. I was getting a little frustrated because no one was answering the phone and I was getting sent to the national Avis line which was no help. Low and behold Rick saw that he had missed a couple of calls and called me back. I was completely shocked that he called me and was able to help. Since I was an Avis Preferred member he was able to ok over the phone and I avoided a drive from Watsonville to do the renewal. Thank you Rick for giving me a couple of hours back today. Just what I needed when looking for a darn new car. read more

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES RENT FROM THIS AVIS! Of course i can't speak for all the Avis renters but this one on Ocean is HORRIBLE! I don't mean the place itself, but the douche owner, Rick. He was such an effing dick, not taking you serious and pretty much condescending. First of all, he lied about using a debit card at any renter, which by the way if you take yourself down the street to Enterprise, will allow you to use a debit card. Secondly, and most importantly, he was just plain antisocial, with little interest in the customer and and just plain rude, answering my questions with attitude and little or no concern. My suggestion, go to Enterprise. If you're a UCSC student you get a discount and you can also use your debit card, something advantageous for students. Also, the customer service is platinum compared to the douche at Avis. read more

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!! I rented from this company purposefully to try to keep my business local and with a small business owner. Too bad I didn't yelp it first! HORRIBLE, very rude people. I showed up right at 12.30, after calling to say I was on my way to return my car, and just arriving at the end of the 30 minute window you get, panting and excited that I made it. The extremely rude owner slowly checked me in, taking five more minutes, then charged me the $30 hour fee! In the meantime, she lied and told me it was out of her control. So I called Avis right then and there, and they said that it was her purview, not theirs. They could do nothing and she should NOT be charging me that fee, it was unreasonable. At that point, she said she'd "split" it with me and I said that this was unacceptable on principle. Then because I told her I still didn't think this was fair, she took back the offer and told me to get out of her store! So yet another lie. What the hell?! I will NEVER rent from them again and have disputed the $30 charge. I've spoken with Avis, and they have assured me that there is nothing they can do about the charge, but that she has every opportunity to take it off. It is at her discretion. Rick is also, as others have stated, rather rude and gruff. But his wife is MUCH worse. read more

I rented a Prius for one day, just to go from my hotel across the street to the boardwalk, 1.4 miles away, then to dinner less than a mile away. I probably drove a total of 5 miles. I just didn't want the hassle of getting cabs back and forth. When I returned the car (early) I was asked if I filled up the tank. I said no, because I hadn't driven more than 5 miles, and it probably wouldn't take any more gas. He said "Well, you'll have to go fill it up or I'll have to charge you $14.00 for gas." I said I wasn't going to do that for obvious reasons. He still charged me the $14.00! That should've been waived under the circumstances. That sort of lack of customer service will be not be forgotten by me. read more

Rented from them long enough to write a review. The owners have employees, yet we have only seen and worked with one fellow who was extremely kind and helpful. with our first rental, We showed up about 15 minutes before they opened and parked in the Jack In The Box parking lot and waited. About 5 times the owners would drive the back alley of Jack In The Box and Avis just watching the place...odd. When they opened we asked the guy helping us what that was about...he said yea, they do it all the time when someone else is working, they just drive by and watch...(wtf????) The second time we rented from them, we got the owner= the husband or whatever he is. He has zero personality and sounds extremely burnt out. Seems like he is irritated to answer questions and can get you on the road in less then 10 minutes, to both peoples advantage. This last time we rented we got him again and he told my fiance he would have to place a hold on our cc for $200.00 bucks.... Not sure why so after my fiance came home with the car and the info I called and he said it was a debit/credit card and its standard procedure. The problem is they had NEVER done that before! He acted irritated that I even called. Told him we wouldn't be renting from them again. When we returned the car my fiance made sure the gas was OVER the fill line, but the next day our bank account showed they took 17.32 higher then they were supposed to. My fiance went down there and the owner told him the gas wasn't full- HA! My guy told him the reading on the car said 362 miles to empty and we made sure we returned it and it said 462 miles till empty. He said he would send it to corporate, that was yesterday, so I will be calling and confirming they will be issuing a credit back to our bank. Ya know, I probably could have let the 17.32 go if the owner wasn't such a douche. There are too many car rental places to be an a** to people and to try and cheat them? It's on! read more

No idea what all the bad reviews are about. I've used this place many, many times and they're always reliable, prompt, efficient, and fairly priced.... Seems like most of the complaints here are from people who have rarely or never rented cars before. Do a little bit of research, set up a profile on avis.com (get a "Wizard number"), make your bookings online, and all will be well. Have fun! read more

Car I rented had damaged paint and looked horrible. Smelled like an ashtray. I had to keep the car longer than anticipated and let Rick know about it, but Avis kept calling me telling me the car was overdue. Poor experience. I won't be using them again, even though they were cheapest from Costco. read more

I rented a car for one week and extended at the last minute took one phone call - everything went smoothly, no hassles and friendly exchange. read more

The worst car rental experience I have ever had! I've rented cars all over the world and this was by far the worst costumer service I've ever received. I rented a ford focus for one day. I picked it up in Lake Tahoe and drove it to the Santa Cruz Avis location where they were already closed at 2:00pm. There was no drop box or any information available on site at the makeshift mobile home they use as the office. There is nowhere to park either. I returned the car the following day one at 11am due to their opening time of 10am. Again very strange operating hours for a rental car company. The employee stated that I will have to pay for an extra day because I returned the car one hour later then the allotted time I was given. I explained that I tried dropping off the car at 3pm the day before but they were already closed with no drop box. This didn't matter. I called costumer service and they told me there was nothing they could do either. I will NEVER EVER rent another automobile from this company again and neither should you! read more

I second what those before me have said. The owner is rude, anti-social, and not helpful unless pressed to explain. They charge your debit card on the spot, even if it has a VISA/MC logo and can be used elsewhere as a credit card. It about killed the owner to answer my questions about this policy. read more

Save yourself time and money go somewhere else TERRIABLE SEVICE you don't need to throw your money away.

I just moved from the Silicon Valley but I always rent from Avis for my business trips so even after reading the reviews I thought to at least give it a shot, after all I'm renting a car not trying to make friends, so after making my reservation online for an intermediate car, my wife dropped me off. I noticed Rick (based on online reviews I knew it was him) outside cleaning a nice BMW Z4 convertible which I assumed was his, so when I went inside then he came in and greeted me with a good morning. I told him I had a reservation and gave him my printout. I happened to mention that it was a nice car and perfect for the weather (referring to his BMW) and he said if I wanted to wait 10 minutes, that I could take it. I asked if it would be the same rate as my reservation and he said yes! Heck yes I'll take a new BMW Z4 hardtop convertible instead of a crappy Chevy! After a 10 minute wait after he washed it, he handed me the keys and I was on my way. I did have to figure out how the top came down (trunk partition had to be in a specific spot) and how to use the steering wheel tilt and cruise control since it's different than my cars but after that I enjoyed a 4+ hour trip with the top down with the sun on my face. When I returned it this morning, I filled it up with gas and when I walked in the office he asked me by name how the car was and if I filled it up. That and a have a great weekend exchange and I had my receipt and on my way. Easy, smooth, professional, and pleasant! So as a new renter to this location, I had a prejudgment on the owner Rick based on some of the reviews on here but I went in anyways expecting a gruff, non chatty, burnt out man, and I didn't get any of that. I was more than satisfied and won't hesitate in renting from here! read more

i love the people there, friendly nice and helpful. but they don't have exotic car there in this beach town. bummer. one odd thing is that there is n one picking up the phone on Sunday *during* their business hours. hate it. read more

They've always had a car for me on fairly short notice. It's a little jarring if you're used to other car rental agencies: they don't do a walk-around with you for damage, there is little or no small talk or explanation unless you press for it. That said, they've never cheated me that I know about, the cars are good, and the mileage is unlimited. If you call, you'll almost always be forwarded to the Avis national phone bank, because there's usually only one guy on duty and he doesn't answer the phone. read more

Judy was so helpful and accomodating to my last minute need. They stay open till 2 pm on Sunday, too

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE EVER!!! HANDS DOWN! I called Avis in Santa Cruz and reserved an SUV. I also reserved a 4 pm pickup time. The representative informed me that they did do pickup for anyone within a 5 mile radius. He checked my address, confirmed I was within the 5 mile radius and confirmed the pickup time. He never mentioned that he wasn't actually at the location and had no idea whether they did pickups. On the day of my reservation I received a message from the Santa Cruz location advising me that I had failed to show up for my 12 pm reservation. When I called back and told him that I had reserved a 4 pm pickup (It's 3:45 at this point and I need to be someplace before 5 and I have no ride), but I am informed that he is "a one man show," and no one can pick me up. He maintained that it wasn't his fault and all that was in the system was the 12 pm, so too bad so sad. HE NEVER APOLOGIZED ONCE AND I HAD TO DEMAND COMPENSATION. He gave me credit for the Uber ride, which was super expensive because the only thing I could get in 15 minutes was Uber Black. When I returned the vehicle, they claimed a sand grain size chip in the windshield was my fault and I would have to contact my insurance to take care of it. When I tried to discuss it with her, she made it clear that they "are not Avis." So, even though there is an Avis sign out front, all the paperwork says Avis, you call Avis for the reservation, nothing is their fault or responsibility because they "are not Avis." She told me they weren't Avis so many times I wanted to shoot myself in the head. I told her about my experience at pickup and she repeated so many times that it wasn't their fault because when they can't get to the phone the call rolls over to some corporate office and THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO TELL YOU THEY'RE NOT PHYSICALLY AT THE LOCATION. At least that's what the lady at the location told me. SHE ALSO REFUSED TO APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT HAPPENED. She told me I had to call customer service, which I just did. They told me that they can't guarantee that any location does pickup and it is the customer's responsibility to call the location and find out if they do pickups. He told me it wasn't their fault, it was mine. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON WOULD SAY "I'm sorry this happened. What can I do to help?" How hard is that? read more