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    Thrifty Rent A Car

    3.0 (4 reviews)

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    Enterprise Rent-A-Car

    Enterprise Rent-A-Car

    3.8(62 reviews)
    0.1 mi

    Waited 45 minutes in line to get told they did not have any cars. I had 1 reserved. They done the…read moresame thing to at least 2 other people. All they had was a big truck. I had a small car reserved not a huge truck. I'm beyond pissed to say this least.

    Enterprise did a great job! When we arrived in Des Moines,…read morewe needed wheels to get us around Cue Enterprise, and our enterprising agent! We've been loyal customers of Enterprise for quite some time, and this trip reminded us why we are. Showing up with our reservation in hand made things fast and easy. The gate agent punched in our codes and reservations came right up, and the keys were handed right over. The car was located out in a lot right outside the door, so it was fast to get there. No shuttles needed. The car exceeded expectations. It was a newer car, with some extra little features that were nice. It was large enough, and roomy enough. The agent gave the option of either getting charged extra for refilling the fuel or letting us know that we should really get that taken care of. Dropping off the car at the end was fast and easy- we followed the signs, until we pulled right in line, and some gal jumped in the car, looked things over, took the keys and wished us bon voyage! Overall, we couldn't have asked for an easier car rental experience. We were happy all the way around with the level of service and the quality of the car rental. Five stars!

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    Enterprise Rent-A-Car
    Enterprise Rent-A-Car
    Enterprise Rent-A-Car

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    Budget Car and Truck Rental

    Budget Car and Truck Rental

    1.5(31 reviews)
    0.1 mi

    Renter BEWARE, young blond man at the Counter. As a Fast…read moreBreak Member, arrived in the afternoon - informed no cars were ready, he would call my name when my car was ready- no problem. 15 minutes later, my name was called - keys handed to me and told what stall the car was parked. I returned the car the next evening and was told my receipt will be emailed to me. NEVER until this experience with Budget had this occurred; - Late night, when the office was closed, review my email invoice. - I was charged almost double of what was quoted. Yes, double. My flight the next morning was too early as no one was at the desk at 5am. I called Budget to ask about the extra charges; 1) "Accepted" insurance coverage 2) Additional charges not clearly explained. The Agent was patient and kind. I informed her I did not receive any paper documents when the car was ready, only handed keys. She placed me on hold to research all the additional charges. I was told I was upgraded two levels in car rental the reason the additional charges, along with added coverage. The Agent was very kind, understanding that I was never informed of the vehicle upgrade, and also accepted that I did not ask for additional coverage. My profile indicates I do not want additional coverage, she kindly credited all the upcharges. If you happen to get the young blond man, do not trust any actions. MAKE SURE YOU GET DOCUMENTS, review the Rental - you may be getting extra charges you did NOT want. When you return the car, ask for the Receipt to double check your charges. The One Star rating is actually a 10 star for the Agent that took care of the excessive charges, the desk agent got a BIG MINUS rating. BEWARE! I will still use Budget for my Rentals, will just make sure I review everything now.

    We flew into DSM August 7th and our flight had been delayed twice. My husband called to be sure…read moresomeone would be at the Budget office due to delays and they assured them they would. We got in at 3 am and there was no one there. There was a sign on the counter, we took a pic, that said open from 8 am to last flight, they had our flight number. Basically they left us stranded. My husband tried to call Budget and no one answered. We had to call an uber, $80, and my husband had to uber back the next morning to get the car, another $34. I prepaid and because I did, they would not adjust pricing, said there was nothing they could do because I prepaid. Why am I penalized for that?! I'll never do that again. So, because we had the car for 3 days and 2 hours they said 2 hours is a whole day, no adjustment. To add insult to injury, we filled the car up before we returned it and then was charged $66.38 for gas service option. I have called customer service twice and they said they can possibly comp us $50 for the uber, that we needed to call them and let them know before we got the uber, we did call at 3 am and no one answered. And, they said they possibly will waive the $66.38 gas service option. I emailed customer service the $80 uber receipt and the fuel receipt. They did waive the $66.38 gas service option but didn't comp us the $50 they said they would for the uber. Basically : 1) Service person at desk lied to my husband that someone would be there. 2) If you prepay Budget will literally do nothing to adjust or help you, basically they have your money and too bad for you that something went wrong, oh well. 3) Make sure you look at this gas service option, my husband doesn't remember even signing it and we weren't provide a copy. Plus he was exhausted coming back to pick up the car after getting in late and trying to figure out what to do. Budget's customer service last year was good, seems they have gone way downhill.

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    Budget Car and Truck Rental - Very dirty, uncleaned vehicle

    Very dirty, uncleaned vehicle

    Budget Car and Truck Rental
    Budget Car and Truck Rental

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    Enterprise Rent-A-Car

    Enterprise Rent-A-Car

    3.8(18 reviews)
    4.2 mi

    Booked a car through Priceline for June 7th-14th and paid in full. We thought everything was fine,…read moreboy were we wrong. We received the confirmation code in an email but called to confirm the vehicle. The global Enterprise said the price was $400 more and the vehicle we wanted was not available and he cancelled our reservation. He stated if we wanted another vehicle for our trip it would be the higher price and they would refund my money, over $725, in 3-10 business days. But if we cancel it I will not get a refund. We canceled in the same day and the booking was supposed to be cancelled free of charge in the first 48 hours. Then called Priceline and they said they would refund it but will 7-12 business days. Took less than 7 minutes to take it. I will NEVER use Enterprise again!

    After being screwed over with our months long reservation with budget for vacation we were forced…read moreto book with enterprise. I'll be honest, they are never my choice. Always the worst company to work with. Well, called and to my surprise so accommodating and found what we needed and it would be ready in an hour. Amazing, vacation is not ruined. We can still hit the road! Get to enterprise and they say oh we have you down for 5pm. I said ok, well we were told it's ready now. Then she says they don't have a vehicle till tomorrow. Excuse me!? That's not what we were told. She's checking and guess what? No SUV we need in ALL of Des Moines. Sure. Sure. Then we are told calls are outsourced and they don't know the inventory. It's at this point I lose it. I don't want to get into it all but, let's say I told them their customer service system needs a massive overhaul. No wonder they have such high competition now. Long story short, we couldn't travel with the family without the SUV. Vacation planned for 5 months ruined and canceled. Thank you Budget and Enterprise. I've made sure you both received bad reviews and all my friends and family know to never rent from you again.

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    Enterprise Rent-A-Car
    Enterprise Rent-A-Car
    Enterprise Rent-A-Car

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    Alamo Rent A Car

    Alamo Rent A Car

    2.6(24 reviews)
    0.0 mi

    Solid, budget oriented rental car company. Shares booth at DSM with sister company National…read more Employees at DSM are always friendly, regardless of rental car company, and Alamo is no exception. I've had issues at other Alamo locations in the past, so the company is never my first choice, but they often pop up as a provider of cheap prepaid rentals (Hotwire). No problems in DSM and a great value purchased this way. All DSM rental car companies are conveniently located by the baggage claim.

    We filled up the gas tank across the street at Casey's just before returning the car. Upon pulling…read moreinto the Alamo return lot, a lady was hurriedly ushering us into the parking spot as if we suddenly forgot how to drive. The moment my husband got out of the car, she jumped in right next to me while I'm still trying to gather my items and starts turning on the car and collecting all her data for the return. At this moment while she was invading my space, she would have noticed that we had a full tank of gas. When we landed for our layover, we were ecstatic to notice a $60 charge for gasoline! On top of this charge, we were also taxed a convenience fee since they had to pretend to fill the tank with gas. After spending our layover calling Alamo, we were able to have the gas refunded, but the guy on the phone was unable to refund or explain the reasoning for the other fee. More phone calls for us to make in the middle of stressful travel. The new shuttle experience at the DSM Airport is also a disaster & don't expect to find anyone running the Alamo desk, you'll wait 20 minutes to even speak with anyone when you arrive to pick up your car. Highly suggest not renting with Alamo, but if you do have to, take pictures, keep receipts and keep an eye out for their scams.

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    Alamo Rent A Car
    Alamo Rent A Car
    Alamo Rent A Car

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    Great Western Car Rental

    Great Western Car Rental

    2.5(2 reviews)
    1.2 mi

    Recently, I was in need of renting a car and none of the local & airport well-known car rentals had…read moreany cars available to rent. (Despite Des Moines being a small town, the city's hotel and car rental industry is surprisingly busy during the week, so if you're a local and find yourself in need of a last minute car rental, this is probably your best bet) I searched for local car rentals online and found this company. Its independently owned, and the owners were pretty easy to work with. They're professional and courteous, and their rental rates are fairly affordable. A compact car rental rate was about half the price of the big-namers, and on top of that - they don't tack on the extra charge if you happen to be under 25 years old like the larger companies do - which is a huge factor in cost if you're under 25 and in a bind to rent a car. The biggest difference aside from that is you'll probably see is that the cars are 1 - 2 yrs old and they dont offer unlimited miles.

    Because of a Yelp recommendation we rented a car from Great Western. The price was about $5 per day…read moreless than the "big boys". Their location is 10 minutes from the airport, no shuttle service. They will shuttle you back to the airport, on request in the car you had rented, however for the extra bucks next time I'll rent from an airport vendor. The owner is a nice guy, helpful and sincere. They are just too far off the "easy" access to and from the airport.

    Thrifty Rent A Car - carrental - Updated June 2026

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