Worst experience renting a car ever. Got to Budget from La Guardia via shuttle (no problems). Got in line only to hear from other customers that the wait is 1 1/2 hour. Everyone in line had either reservations or Fast Break. Finally got to, sadly, the slowest clerk, he took a minimum of another 30 minutes to process the paperwork. Directed to go to the space number. Wrong space. Go back into office. Assigned another car and went to the space. Wrong car. Back to the office. They ended up giving us a Toyota RAV4. The best part was returning the car. Simple and easy. read more

Budget - Wait line at Budget with reservations or Fast Break. 1 1/2 hour wait minimum. No reservations = 2 hour minimum wait. - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

Absolutely the worst budget I have ever been to. Thanksgiving week and only 1 person working. No Fastbreak!!!!! The shuttle runs once an hour!!!! Terrible budget corporate should fire the management here and start over. read more

Update: they charged for me $557 for Etoll charges!! I called and they said it was for 62 toll roads!!! Wtf. I rented the car for one week and never even entered ONE toll road! BEWARE. Check your credit card your statements daily after. This place is a dump!! They're crooks and I've reported them. read more

You need more help! Lines out the door as well as inside. Terribly slow. I finally made it inside the building-there is 1 Fastbreak line and 3 regular lines. The regular lines have the same people at the counter for at least 15 min. WE WERE THERE FOR OVER 2 HOURS! read more

I wish I had read other reviews before using this company. Worst rental experience ever. Long lines (2.5 hours) to pick-up reserved car. The cost ended up 3 times the estimate. Customer service was unhelpful and inept. read more

One of the absolutely worst car rental locations. Slow, no Fast Break honored (unless there is no line, which defeats the entire purpose of having a fast line and prepaid), poor quality vehicles. Second time renting from here, second experience is worse than first time. Zero stars if I could. Never again. read more

Budget - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

3 hour wait in line for the car I prepaid for. Manager Andrea was in over their head, didn't direct employees, talked openly at the desk about giving up and going home. Was clearly overwhelmed on a very busy day. Being busy wasn't anyone's fault, but this place is poorly run. All Individual employees had no hustle, just chatting. Each individual interaction took at least 20 minutes, some over an hour. Each of them was nice although pretty sarcastic about the wait time because there wasn't much they could do without proper management. read more

This is seriously the worst rental spot. They leave you waiting for hours and then give your vehicle away to another customer after you've already paid and been told to wait outside in the below freezing weather. My family of 7 waited outside during the am into the afternoon. Do not choose this place. Not unless you want this to happen to you, rude unhelpful workers too. Serious disorganization, they need to fire everyone or at the very least re train them. Another thing, the website will claim rental cars are available and allow you to reserve cars (you along with about 200 other people) and you guys will end up waiting in line for hours being told there are no cars available and the reservations weren't accurate. Just pick somewhere else. read more

It's easy to get to from the airport, but short and simple--this company needs to update itself at Laguardia. You're at Laguardia for God's sake. Everything should be automated by now. I waited in line for over an hour for a car I had already paid for and showed my license for, and I still had to wait in line. There are other car rentals where you just scan your phone or go up to a window, and the car is already assigned, and you just go get in it. Then they tried to give me a van just for my daughter and myself, who would be traveling from there to upper Long Island and then all the way up to Hartford, Connecticut. No way was I going to drive a van for that. So I get a car that has not phone jack, but a cigarette lighter. I can't remember the year, but it wasn't old. Who smokes anymore, and were these the bottom-of-the-line make and model with no phone jack? I had to stop at a gas station and buy one of those cigarette lighter phone adapters. I don't need to post pictures because you can see there are already tons of pictures of people waiting in line at this Budget. read more

Very disorganized & confusing . Clear where we are to leave the rental car & $300 if the key isn't inside. But where & how do we get our rental checked back in? Where do we get on the shuttle? It was two shuttles and one hour to get from Budget to Terminal B. read more

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Oh boy, where do I start. Fly into LGA on 6/20/25. Waited in line for almost 2 hours (YES, 2 HOURS) to get to the counter to rent the car. Then I had to wait another 45 minutes for them to bring me the car. What a mess. They need to invest in some software so people can do the paperwork online and grab the keys and go! It took me longer to rent a car than to fly. On the return the lot was so packed there was no place to return the car. I just left it in the lot and got to the shuttle bus. Hopefully there will be no problems. I highly recommend you pay the $20 more a day and go with Enterprise. That is my usual company but I thought I would save some money UGH! On a good note, I met some nice people while in line. read more

Zero stars! Returned car days ago and still haven't closed it out. Lost and found is a joke as well. No way to contact location to resolve anything. Will not be using them anymore read more

Just a quick story about how Budget Car Rental nearly ruined months of planning and a surprise birthday gift. My family of four lives in Tennessee and were making plans to attend a wedding in Connecticut. The flight had us arriving at LaGuardia in NYC. I happen to be a Yankees baseball fan and my teenage son likes the Cubs. By sheer coincidence the Cubs were playing at Yankee stadium on the date we were to arrive. The plan was to fly in, rent a car to drive to the game, then continue to Connecticut for the rest of the trip. It was designed to be a surprise birthday gift for my son. We never told him about the game, we were just going to let him figure it out as we drove up to the stadium. Plane tickets and baseball tickets were purchased, a parking pass was purchased, and the car was reserved from Budget on May 7. On July 12 our plane landed a little after 9am. The game was not supposed to start until 1:30 pm. This gave us about 4 hours to get from the airport to Budget then make the drive to Yankee stadium. It should have been a piece of cake seeing as how we meticulously planned this out. We got on the Budget shuttle and arrived at your office to see a line literally out the door and wrapped around the corner. Still, with over three hours to spare we were not concerned. About an hour later we made it to the door only to see that we were still nowhere near the front of the line. We waited and waited in the line and finally got close enough to the counter to hear other customers talk about there being no cars. I approached a representative and found this to be true. There were no cars, they were being handed out only as previous rentals were being returned. It sure would have been nice to know about this when we arrived. As a reminder, we reserved a car several weeks in advance. I told a representative about our reservation and the baseball plans and was told there was nothing that could be done. At this point it was clearly obvious that if we were to wait in this line, we would not make it to the game. My wife and I got on our phones and scrambled to find alternative transportation. Unfortunately, my son overheard some of this and figured out what was going on - Surprise Ruined. At this point there were little options. We ended up getting a Lyft from your parking lot to Yankee Stadium. I checked the parking pass I had purchased only to find that it could not be cancelled. We arrived at Yankee Stadium to find that we could not bring our luggage in. Of course the original plan was to leave it in our rented vehicle. We found a storage location where we could keep the luggage. The nearest place was about a mile from the stadium. Picture the four of us, on foot, hauling all our luggage through the not so clean streets of The Bronx in July heat, what fun. We opted to get another Lyft to get back to the stadium since the game was underway at this point. Finally, we are in our seats watching what was left of the game. I however, could not enjoy the game because I had to figure out how to get my family and our luggage to our final destination in Connecticut. After the game we got to take our mile walk again, at least this time we didn't have the luggage weighing us down. We got yet another Lyft to take us to the train station. The train slowly took us to the nearest stop to our destination where, luckily, a family member was able to meet us. We still needed a rental car for our time in Connecticut so the following morning we went to one of your competitors and got one in about 10 minutes. What is the purpose of reserving a vehicle in advance if the reservation is ignored? Regardless of that, don't you think it may benefit people to know that there are no vehicles ready for customers before they wait in line? Seems like the shuttle driver could have said something before we even got there. Maybe someone could have come out and let us and all the other people waiting outside know what was happening. That would have saved us hours. This was one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever been a part of. You can be sure that I will never consider or recommend Budget ever again. What should have been one of the best days of our year turned into a ridiculous waste of time and money. In case you are curious: Parking pass I could not return - $43.20 Lyft fees - $104.12 Luggage storage - $67.42 Train tickets - $60.00 Feel free to cut me a check for $274.74. At least it wasn't a total loss for my son's birthday, his Cubbies got the win. Donny Johns read more

This was the worst rental car experience I've ever had in my 2 decades of renting. For starters, I have fast track on my account and I had to wait on the line with about nine people ahead of me. First car I was assigned with was filthy, and I had to get switched to another car. I specifically chose a certain class of vehicle and was given exactly what I didn't want a small SUV, in their eyes it was an upgrade but I preferred a full size car. I returned the vehicle earlier than the time it was due and there was no one outside to accept the vehicle. I walked inside and the person at the desk told me to leave the keys in the car. Today four days later I check my credit card statement and I have a pending charge for $747. I was expecting to see the refund of $250 which was a deposit. I called customer service and they let me know that the checkout mileage was never added. This is because no one was there to take the car. The person at the desk could have simply did the checkout, but he did not. There were many people just leaving the keys in the car per his instruction. I'm now told I have to wait 5 to 7 days to find out what's going on and a correct charge. This is super impactful because I have other things to take care of and now I have this pending charge hanging over my head. I will never use this rental location again!!! read more

Budget - I dropped off the vehicle 4 days ago and it still says it's open! - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

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I have no words for how slow the service here is. If you have 2 hours to waste waiting in a line (rain or shine) this is the place to go! Walking to your destination is probably a better option. Literally choose anywhere else to rent a car. read more

Budget - Line out the door and hasn't moved in 40 mins - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

Absolutely one of the worst experiences ever. 1 solitary person working the line, renters who seem to have never rented a car before and each couple requires 15 minutes of coaching about the add ons they should buy. Abysmal customer service, like renting something from the DMV read more

Budget - 1 person working the line and 1 in fast break and an angry mob - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

One of the worst car rental companies. Only thing that went smooth was the shuttle bus to and from the airport. Once we arrived at the location there was a line wrapped around the building. It took me 2 hours to pick up a rental car I rented via online even though I had fast break. Once I got the vehicle it was extremely dirty and had little to no brakes. I decided to go back inside and request another car. The second car was okay mechanically but was never cleaned from the prior renter. It even had the renter's agreement inside from the previous renter. Never again would I used Budget. read more

I reserved a car rental in advance through Budget and I'm traumatized from this experience to do it again. We waited outside in the shuttle bus area and saw so many other shuttle buses come by but it took about 45 minutes before we saw one from Budget. We thought that was the worst of our problems but unfortunately it wasn't. When we arrived at Budget we saw a long line out the door to the pickup desk. It took about an hour and a half for us to reach the counter. We were already tired from our plane ride so it was uncomfortable waiting in such a small cramped space for such a long duration. We had also rented a toddler car seat but the one that we received was missing shoulder straps and was extremely dirty. There was the sticky goop inside both the cup holders that we could not scrub out with the wipes we brought with us. We also couldn't adjust the straps so our toddler had to sit in it for the duration of the trip with it pressed tightly against her. We also couldn't find anyone to help us when we were dropping the car off and it made us nervous because the instructions were to drop the car off with the keys inside, but there were also signs mentioning a heavy fine if the keys were missing. However, anyone could just take the keys from the car and walk off... read more

It's like a living version of purgatory, but more hellish. Plan to get there at least 45 minutes early because there's always a line and they're never in a rush. You get what you pay for... read more

No such thing as customer service! Counter representatives are rude, nasty, and lacking any knowledge of their field or what customer service actually is. I'd give it zero stars but it won't let me. Do NOT go here. Aside from the hours of operation there is nothing good about this location. Paid for a luxury vehicle in advance and they didn't have one. Okay no big deal just refund the difference. They refused to do that. They REFUSED to talk to the budget customer service rep on the phone (they told me to call so I could amend my reservation and phone rep asked to speak with them about inventory). Really what is the point of taking a reservation if you can't hold it? And why am I bothering with using budget after all this? read more

The employees who work here are wonderful. Kind and patient especially given what they have to deal with. Unfortunately my review is low because all three times I have come here it's easily an hour wait or more just to get to the counter. This location needs more staff. This morning there's only one guy at the counter and 20 people in line. Definitely not using Budget near us anymore. read more

Budget - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

Was registered as a FastBreak customer, and unfortunately the manager at the location stated I wasn't and rudely proceeded to ignore me. I waited over an hour to get a car. Guess what I was able to reach customer service and they said I was definitely a member, and in their words "the manager doesn't know what he is doing" My issue is he along with the person who booked my car were absolutely RUDE.. I certainly willnot be using Budget or any of its affiliates again. read more

Beware of renting from Budget when flying out of LaGuardia! Unlike other car rentals I've experienced, Budget does not open until 6:00 am and does not provide a shuttle to airport until that time, leaving you at their mercy and arriving at the airport behind schedule. Additionally, there is no clear direction when returning the rental. I won't rent from them again. read more

There are no complaints about the employees, but my frequent visits to rent a car have been frustrating. The shortage of employees or some other reason has made it difficult to get a car quickly even having Fastbreak membership . I have to stand in long lines to get my car, and the waiting period can be anywhere between 45 minutes to two hours. read more

Budget - Long waiting lines - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

It was a great customer service very nice and helpful car was ready and we were on the way in no time

Run from here as fast as you can!! The line is out the door and wrapped around the parking lot with one employee at the rental counter. What a joke! Budget shame on you!! read more

Budget - Horrible lines - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

we should've checked the reviews before booking here. we arrived and there are just under 100 people in line and only 2 people working there counter. the estimated wait is 1.5 hours. fortunately we don't have any commitments today, but shame on Budget for addressing this. it clearly is part of how they do business. read more

Oh no! What the heck is going on here!? I have rented vehicles around the country for work and personal and this was like I was in a Seinfeld episode. Surreal. Reserved thru Costco travel as usual. Arrived with my daughter at 12:05pm and left at 1:30pm with only 8 people in front of me. So what did I experience? 3 staff overworked. They tried their best. Then in the middle of the rush, with around 25 people in line, one staff left and never came back. No separate line for the express rental. These renters were called up in front of people waiting for up to an hour causing many angry comments and arguments Renters that didn't have documents or license or credit card info ready. Then demanding different cars once they saw theirs and going to front of line. Double booking same car to two different renters, again both coming back to front of line and delaying other renters Cars that were not clean, smelled, and one renter came back saying the tire had a bubble in the side wall Staff should have announced to renters in line to use app to pre enter license and credit card info to speed up process. This location needs a manager. The Manager on Duty sign had no name! No leadership. Not enough staff to clean and turn around vehicles quickly. Oh my. What a horrible experience read more

Made reservations and pre booked online but ended up waiting about 1 hr to finalize my reservation at the facility. The gentleman that helped me was not friendly. I get it, you're short staff and busy. Smile, laugh a little to make the client experience better after a long wait! There was a sign that read (can't remember the exact verbiage) "experience staffing issues, be kind to the ones that showed up"this should also apply to the employees that are representing Budget! Be kind to your customers.... Next: I was provided a vehicle that was for smokers. Was never offered a non smoking vehicle. Didn't go back due to the potential wait time. So overall not a good experience. I like to look at everything in a positive matter but I also believe sharing a bad experience may trigger a change in policy/process. read more

I've rented here twice and the pickup process has been a disaster both times. If you value your time, DO NOT rent here!

They didn't have the car seats that I reserved weeks in advance, and they didn't bother to inform me until I was inside with my two young kids. The staff and managers couldn't have been more apathetic and insisted that all was well since they weren't going to charge me. They actually told me to reach out to other rental car companies to figure it out. Seems like a simple solution until you consider I have no way to get my family to any of those locations at 8 PM and it's a holiday so everyone is booked. I then am blessed with more than $600 in toll charges that I can't dispute on my credit card (thanks AMEX) for roads in New Jersey and around manhattan when we were on Long Island the entire time. Budget's resolution to that...call the toll company. They leave their customers high and dry and then charge you for the pleasure with no recourse to dispute whatsoever. Avoid this company at all costs read more

No sense of urgency. They're taking they're sweet old walking Mary time. I genuinely do not fucking get it.

Great place to rent from price wise. The management team has done a good job making the pick up process more efficient.

Waited over 3+ hours in the heat. Will be filing a formal complaint with the BBB. There was no air conditioning. Staff only took people in fast break line, and wasn't even checking if they actually were. read more

Terrible experience Terrible experience. We had to pay extra because we supposedly brought our car in late while we were 1.5h early. We also had to pay an extra 226 euros because the car was dirty? The car was cleaner than when we picked it up. Also, our car was full of damage which was not a problem for us initially but looked at now we had better have been difficult too. Now waiting to see what the complaint will give but I lost my money I think. Also I never got invoice, they just rip it from my visa. We booked through booking. 1 Tip: never take Budget/Avis, pure scam. read more

Got charged for pet hair and dirt, but we are deathly allergic and germaphobes. TL;DR warning... Went to go pick up a 1-day rental on 9/12/20 around noon. The line is always longer on weekends around this time, however, was able to get a rental within an acceptable amount of time (~1hr). During my wait, a Fleet Associate even came out announcing to the handful of renters waiting, that majority of the vehicles were from Labor Day weekend and they are taking longer than usual as they are trying to ensure cleanliness, sanitation, and the disposal of the various trash, wrappers, gummy bears, and whatnot (some people clapped, cheered, and chuckled). Fast forward a little, picked up the fam, and embarked on our journey from NYC to New Haven, CT. Now that the rush had calmed, we noticed that the gas was already at half tank (must not have been full when we got it) and the oil indicator is at 0% life. That's odd. Decided to call Customer Care and was advised to locate the closest Budget to swap out the car for another vehicle. We are already running a little behind to get to a surprise birthday party, but decided for the sake of safety, turned the car around and headed back to LGA Budget. After specifying the issue to the front counter, they said their apologizes and this should not have happened. Yea, yea... we're reasonable folks, things happen, it's understandable. By now, the lines have died down and there's maybe 2 parties waiting for their rentals. Surely, we thought we would get our car quickly since this was clearly a mistake on LGA Budget. WRONG. Waited another hour before we got our car. By this point, it's close to 4PM. Oh hey, it's mister gummy bear man that's pulling up and handing us off our replacement vehicle. *Car approaches closer*. What is this? The car was wet all over and water is still dripping from every each cervices of the vehicle. Whatever *shrugs*. Must be clean with this display. WRONG AGAIN. Why the charades? Load up the car anyways despite how filthy it was, covered in pet hair and dirt. At this point and at this hour, we decide f' it, we need to get going. Fast Forward, all is well, we make it to New Haven and back to NYC and everything worked out. Fast forward again, and it's a few weeks after our rental, we get a letter in the mail stating, "Unfortunately, as we processed the vehicle that you returned to the Budget location at LAGUARDIA AIRPORT, 88-08 23RD AVENUE on 09/13/2020, we discovered DIRT in the Animal Hair of the car...The credit card you used for this rental will be billed $250.00 for the required cleaning service. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this fee, please contact a member of our Customer Care team at 1-866-673-7869. Sincerely, Nora Henry Budget Operations Team" HOLY F'!! This must be a taste of what those wrongly convicted prisoners of Innocence Project must feel. I call Customer Care, which I spoke to a Veronica, and she was able to document and put in an appeal for us (in great detail I must add). Within a few minutes, I get a response "The Budget location manager where you rented the vehicle may have already sent you a letter with an explanation and their contact information...After careful review of our records, we find that the location has provided documentation of the condition of the vehicle at return, which you can find attached in this email. Based on this information, we find that the charges are valid and no adjustment is due. Luis M Representative |Customer Service". That is going on here. Did they even review? I mean this was minutes after speaking with Veronica. I don't even see any of the aforementioned contact information for the LGA Budget location manager. I replied to Luis, asking to clarify, no response thus far. I call Customer Care back the next day, spoke to a Paul, and provide both my case # and concerns. Paul was very professional, read over the notes, and informed me that he had put a stoppage to the $250 cleaning fee charge. Thank you Paul. I wanted to voice my option, so I asked Paul if I could be connected with LGA Budget location manager, since every time I call the number listed (718) 478-4628, it's directing me to a corporate line rather than the location itself. Paul was able to connect me with the location manager's line, but informed me that it may be answered by a VM. Sure enough, Mr. Pena, the LGA Budget location manager has a full mailbox and cannot accept any more voice messages. Shocking. read more

Budget - Always voice your complaint right in the beginning. You're not being fair to yourself otherwise. - Car Rental Near Me - East Elmhurst, New York

Car return service not existent and overcharged on my credit card for non existent reasons. Returned car to after hour drop off location and they logged time 10 hours later and charged an extra day. Charged some unspecified "products". Agreed price $79 including everything for one day, they charged $180 on my credit card. Also the agent at car pick up was rude. Don't use this rental car location. read more

If I could give it a ZERO I would. Extremely slow shuttle took 40 minutes to come. No one staffing the Fast Break desk. Took over an hour. Filthy grounds with garbage overflowing. DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET AT LAGUARDIA. Pay more for another company- it will be well worth it! read more

If I could give zero stars I would. When we arrived the line was wrapped around the building and it was about an 1-1.5 hour wait time. While we waited we noticed several mistakes that budget was making. 1. One woman had been waiting over 30 minutes, after waiting in the 1.5 hour line, for her car to be dropped off to her and then she realized that another woman, separate from her party, had been given the exact same car as her. 2. A man left the counter with instructions to go get his car in row X. 5 minutes later he comes back in and says, "there is no car in spot X." 3. A man came in up to the counter and bipassed the line since he had signed up for fast break (a program only available if you rent through budget and not a third party). He was given instructions that the keys were in the car and the car was parked in spot X and to go ahead and pick it up. He came back up to the counter about 5 minutes later and said "the keys are not there." The man who was getting cars for people was an older guy who could give no Fs about hurrying for customers. There were SEVERAL families there with small kiddos just waiting and waiting and this employee was taking his sweet time. This circus unfolded in front of our eyes and we vowed never to rent from budget again. 2 pros: drop off was incredibly easy. Our car was ready for us in about 10-15 minutes after waiting in line. read more

Do you enjoy waiting on lines for an hour? Then this is the place for you. This place DOES NOT MOVE QUICKLY. I DO NOT RECOMMEND. It is insane, for a company in NY, how slow this line moves. I haven't seen lines like this since people shopped in Sears. Zero urgency. 10/10 do NOT recommend. read more