My husband and I rented a car at National recently. The journey that lead us there was not a pleasant one, but we were happy with the service we received and would recommend National for car rentals.
We were in Toronto during the time when there were protesters (opposing the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia) blocking the rail lines near Belleville, ON. We were supposed to go back to Ottawa by train, but all trains between Toronto and Ottawa were cancelled because of the protests (it was early on in the protests, so cancellations were made day by day, later on, cancellations were made farther in advance). We had to get back to Ottawa that day. Same day airfare was exorbitant. We learned of our cancellation at 8am, by that time all Greyhound buses departing Toronto for Ottawa that day were sold out. Our only choice was to rent a car and drive back ourselves. Fortunately, the weather was clear.
We initially went to the National Car Rental location on Wellington St, since it was the closest to our hotel. When we arrived, the lady there told us that they had no cars! Their entire fleet was rented and out. We asked her if she could check the Billy Bishop Airport location, which she did and told us they had cars. We then asked her to reserve a car for us, which she did and wrote down the reservation number for us. Then we hightailed it to Billy Bishop. When we arrived, the place was packed with customers. It's a small kiosk in the middle of a parking lot.
The man serving us was friendly and efficient. We explained to him what had happened at the Wellington St location and he found our reservation and processed the rental. It was a Sunday and most of their locations in Ottawa closed early. We had to work on Monday and didn't want to worry about having to return the rental in the morning, so we opted to return the car the same day to the only location in Ottawa opened late on Sunday: the Ottawa Airport location. I'm pretty sure you pay a premium to pick up and drop off at airports, and to drop off in a different city because it cost us around $265 for the same day rental (I think it's only like $50 for same day car rentals at other locations as long as you bring it back to the same place). Oh well, we were just happy to find a way home that wasn't going to cost us close to $1000 (the going rate for airfare that day).
The process was quick and easy. Although we did not receive the rental agreement by email like they said we would. We only received something from National after we had returned the car to the drop off location. The Billy Bishop Airport location is completely paperless, so everything is digital there.
Anyway, the car was in good condition. Although this location at Billy Bishop Airport does not have any water, so they cannot clean the outside of the car. Winters in Canada means dirty cars covered in salt, so the outside of the car was kind of dirty. Something to keep in mind if you are picking up a car here in the winter. Also since it's a small kiosk, if there are a lot of customers, you will be standing outside while waiting in line, also something to think about in the winters, lol.
We received a courtesy voicemail and email from the Assistant Branch Manager the day after to follow up on our experience, which I thought was nice.
Overall, we had a very good experience with National. We would rent from them again. read more