KONA AIRPORT CAR RENTAL REVIEWS

Overall it's fine, but paying fines is quite inconvenient.

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.

Only three customers, but waited for over an hour!

Like: The car looks great and with lots of new features. Handling was very good. Great car for the value.

Like: Great

Like: Everything
Dislike: 30+ min wait for car pickup.

Both pickup and return were very quick

The car allocated by the rental company was too small, forcing me to spend more money to switch to a Jeep Wrangler.

Very convenient

It was incredibly convenient and excellent! QEEQ is a must for international travel.

Convenient pickup. Frequent airport shuttle service.

Average

We arrived half an hour early that day, and they told us we had to wait until the time on the order to get the car. Then they informed us that the Jeep Wrangler we booked was not available, and we could either switch to a Dodge or wait until someone returned a car. What?! Shouldn't the rental company consider the turnover rate of their cars when placing orders? So we waited for nearly an hour and had several discussions before we finally got our car. Moreover, it felt like the staff were somewhat discriminatory towards Chinese people. Several foreigners next to us also arrived early, and they got their cars immediately with smiles, while we were treated as if we owed them money. Anyway, considering we eventually got the car, we decided to not pursue it further.

Good service. The lady at the return point was especially enthusiastic.

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

Very helpful counter staff at the Herz agency. Staff for the drop off was also friendly and helpful.

Excellent service

Like: Great Staff. Friendly and efficient. great car. easy in pick up and return.
Dislike: nothing

The service was very professional.

The staff at the counter used hard sell methods to try and force / convince me to buy additional liability insurance. The staff lied directly to my face claiming I would have ZERO liability insurance if I don't get Liability Insurance Supplemental (LSI). As the name already implies LSI is additional (supplemental) insurance. This is optional because the rental company is already required by state law to ensure at least minimum required liability insurance. This would have added additional 40% to my total rental cost !! I had to vigorously refuse several times until the counter staff reluctantly -- and still insisting I would be at extreme risk without any liability insurance -- gave in and finally let me leave. Apart from this rude and quite threatening behavior, the vehicle was also in rather poor condition: - very high mileage (over 33,000 miles) and dirty interior - vehicle tire maintenance warning active from start of rental, so clearly the required checks and repairs were not performed during vehicle return processing - I literally had to demand that staff at vehicle handover join me in inspecting the vehicle to record any existing damage. I will NEVER AGAIN rent from this company.