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April 2024 by Jack Cooper
Great service. Excellent vehicle. Knowledgeable staff. Our two week stay was perfect thanks to our Jeep Wrangler upgrade. Sure we looked super touristy, but had a great time in Hawaii. Thanks for the Jeep!
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April 2024 by darla lorenzen
I placed my reservation and received a fee of just over $500.00, at pick up I was charged over $900.00!The vehicle is dirty and all scraped up on all side, what a joke!Enterprise is a much better deal and their cars are prestine.
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April 2024 by Anthony de Sam Lazaro
Our experience with Budget - all three times that we have rented from them in Kona - was that they were understaffed, had an elaborate system for getting the vehicle ensuring that the wait time was about 90 minutes when other providers - including AVIS - got you out in less than 10 minutes. The car, itself, was good though dirty. I spent another 20 minutes or so cleaning the windows and mirrors before the vehicle was made drivable.
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April 2024 by real cdt
Update4/5/24: The budget agent responsible for monitoring this review platform has conducted further investigation into my rental case. They have now concluded that the charge in question should not have been applied. As a result, they have assured me that a full refund will be issued to my credit card within the next 5 business days.In light of this resolution, I upgraded my review to a 3-star rating. This adjustment better reflects my experience with Kona Budget, highlighting the disappointment with the initial service while also recognizing the commendable efforts of the online customer service team.Original review 4/2/24: The Big Island offers a stunning backdrop for vacationing, yet my experience with this Budget car rental company proved to be needlessly challenging. Despite reserving a full-size car for a week, the first vehicle provided—a dated Dodge Charger—had a malfunctioning passenger side window panel, rendering it impossible to close fully. Despite my immediate attempt to contact the office, no one answered the phone. Roadside assistance demanded an upfront payment of $700 before addressing the issue. Eventually, through Costco customer service, a replacement was arranged, but the second car—a Kia Sorento—had a faulty trunk that could not open properly.Upon returning the car, the onsite agent remained silent. However, upon reaching Kona airport, I received an email claiming I owed $101.83, without explanation. Despite multiple attempts to contact the company, no one responded to my calls or messages. After two days, a Budget agent who monitor this review site reached out for further details, only to later cite the charge as $78 for fuel plus taxes. This charge was baffling as I had just refueled the car moments before returning it, with the gas station a mere 0.2 miles from the office. The onsite agent made no mention of any fuel issues upon inspection during the return process.This entire experience has been extremely disappointing. I still hold out hope for an explanation and will update this review accordingly if one is provided.
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April 2024 by Mackenzie Gudimani
I had no issues with the vehicle itself or the return process.The shuttles came fairly often, every few minutes or so and there was constantly 2-3 that came around at a time.I will say, I waited in line for roughly 45 minutes to pick up the car, which was kind of annoying when all I wanted to do after traveling was get to our accommodations, which was almost 2 hours away, but we managed.The three star review is for lack of staff at the counter and the guy dropping the vehicle off to us didn't check with us on the car at all. Just drove up, got out and went to the back. Not checking the car with us, making sure we were the correct renters or anything of that nature, which I was used to at other rental companies.
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April 2024 by Hanna B
Longest lines of all the car rentals place. Would not recommend. Plan 1-2 hours of standing in line.
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April 2024 by Tony Zielinski
The Sahara Jeep I rented wasn't functionally bad and most everything worked as expected. Shortly after I left the lot the "Change Oil" light came on. Normally not a big deal but each time I started the jeep I was reminded that the oil required a change. I also noticed that when I needed to use my wipers from rain, the dash lights dimmed to the point I couldn't see the navigational screen so when you are relying on the GPS that was a little nerving. I ultimately figured out that the dimmer switch has to be set to its brightest setting in order for the dash to stay lit (not sure why). The bigger issue I had was reading other previous reviews of renters being charged an extra cleaning fee because of sand and dirt in the cars rented, so the next morning (during the day-light hours) I noticed the jeep was pretty dirty from a previous renter that must have had children or messy people in the back because melted chocolate and chip crumbs were on the back seat and beneath the seat. I was instructed to take pictures of these items so I could show that I rented the vehicle in this condition and with time stamped pictures I could fight any additional cleaning charges. So just be careful when renting any vehicles in Kona. This all said, while exploring the big island for the week we stayed, I had no other major issues. But I could see other car renters taking cars (not 4 wheel drive vehicles) in places that clearly should not be driven on, so I can also see car rental companies having to deal with abusive renters. I will rent from Budget again, but you just want to cover your bases so you are not wrongly overcharged.
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April 2024 by Bill Nash
Staff that assisted us in getting the car were unfriendly and unhelpful. They acted annoyed that we were there and even more so when we asked questions.The car was just fine and so was the drop off staff.
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April 2024 by lisa fox
We have always had good experiences with Budget until Kona, HI last week. We use Fastbreak, and that worked OK, not as smoothly as Maui. But the car was a huge problem. Although the interior was clean, the windshield was so filthy, we had difficulty seeing through it. The wiper fluid was empty, when we filled it, the wipers were old and worst of all the low tire light came on. Tire pressures on a Kia Soul were 52, 24, 49, 44 which explains why the car wouldn’t hold the road. When we gave up a day of vacation to take it back, we found that there was a counter space dedicated solely to customers exchanging vehicles- Really? If it is so common as to warrant one employee shouldn’t there be better attention paid to the condition of the cars being sent out? Very unhappy
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April 2024 by Vaibhav Diwan
The deals seem decent and the service was quick.
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April 2024 by Jack Boykin
Car was great had some slight damaged to rear bumper. Otherwise I was satisfied with car and service.
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April 2024 by Michael White
Bad experience. Wait time was totally unacceptable.
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March 2024 by Tamara Hays
There was a wait at the check in counter, but staff was friendly and efficient once we got to the counter. Car was clean and drop off was easy.
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March 2024 by Benjamin Burrows
Avoid them at all costs, there are plenty of other rental companies at this airport!Not only did it take over an hour to get my car, with only about 8 people in line ahead of me and 4 people working the desk, but when I checked the car back in they had no record of it in their electronic system. Finally the sales associate charged me the wrong price initially and did not cancel the transaction properly so there is a thousand dollar hold sitting on my credit card that I am spending hours trying to get removed, even after I have paid them the full amount for my rental which I returned a week ago.
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March 2024 by John Diehl
Vehicle, a Chevy Camaro convertible had dents in the door, convertible top did not work found that out a couple days into the rental, appears to have transmission issues jerked when accelerating on any type of Hill.