CAR RENTAL REVIEWS ON BUDGET IN HAWAII - HAWAII ISLAND

Terrible experience! I booked a Ford Explorer, which is a 4WD off-road vehicle, but I ended up with a 2WD SUV. I don't remember the exact model, but it was some Nissan SUV with poor performance. The car couldn't even climb a hill properly despite flooring the gas pedal, failing to outperform a small old sedan. Since a 2WD vehicle isn't allowed to go up to the Mauna Kea summit, we had to cancel our trip. The main reason we booked the expensive 4WD Ford Explorer was to go up the mountain. If I had known I'd end up with a 2WD SUV, I would have just booked the cheapest Ford Fiesta. We wasted thousands of dollars for nothing. The store staff had an extremely poor attitude. First, they offered us an upgrade to a 4WD for an extra $70 per day! I had already paid for a 4WD, but they gave me a 2WD instead, which is ridiculous! When we showed no interest in upgrading, they aggressively pushed third-party insurance, claiming it's legally required when we said we didn't want it. When we ignored this, their attitude turned extremely bad. We never had such a bad rental experience in Oahu or Maui. It greatly affected our travel mood! This happened at the Budget store near Kona Airport on the Big Island.

Excellent service

This is my second time using Zuzuche, so I'm quite familiar with it. The location is very convenient, right across from the airport. I ended up with a Nissan X-Trail, which was easy to drive. The car was in good condition with low mileage, just under 3000 km. An SUV is more reliable for the island since some sections are bumpy compared to a sedan. Although SUVs consume more fuel, it was stable. Drove 600 miles in 4 days and refueled 3 times. Pickup and drop-off both happened at the same place, and the process was efficient and quick. You only need your driver's license, credit card, and passport—no need for a translation or reservation slip. For returning the car, they just checked the mileage and fuel level. No upselling, which was great, and no mention of prohibited areas. No extra driver charges, but the primary driver is responsible in case of any incident.

No particularly good experience

Poor communication, arrogant attitude, and difficult to negotiate even reasonable requests.

They added extra insurance despite my refusal, claiming it was included in the package and that I didn’t need to pay more. After picking up the car, I reviewed the bill and found an extra charge of nearly $300! When I went back to dispute, they cancelled my order without a refund! Eventually, I rented from Alamo, whose service and vehicle conditions were much better than Budget. I've permanently blacklisted Budget and Avis! I hope the rental car platform can help me get my money back!

Waited in line for over 20 minutes. Even though I had full insurance, they still tried to sell me additional insurance. The staff drove the car up front for pickup, which was convenient. Returning the car was also simple. The car was in good condition with an initial mileage of 22,500 miles. There are many gas stations near Hilo Airport.

Very convenient

The car rental company just bluntly told me that the model I reserved was not available and kept pushing me to pay more for an upgrade. Very dissatisfied.

Good

It was very crowded.

Aside from some upselling, he offered an upgrade to a bigger SUV, which was the only notable thing.

Terrible

The service attitude was good, but they kept recommending insurance, which was annoying!

Convenient

The staff's attitude wasn't great.

Unreasonable insurance charges!

There are many people renting from Budget, and the queue can be quite long. No one speaks Chinese, which can be a bit challenging for us since our English is not very good. Luckily, all our orders and requirements were already on the Zuzuche website, so the staff just needed to confirm the order. Returning the car was easy; a staff member came over, scanned the car, and printed a receipt.

The staff were not very friendly.

Convenient pick-up and drop-off with no additional insurance charges.