Pros:
Nothing- I’ll never use National again, or Rentacars.comCons:
I made the reservation to pick up the car at OGG in Maui. The reservation kicked me over to pick up at the airport in West Maui, without my knowledge. When I discovered this three days before my trip, I tried to call and remedy the situation. No cars were available at OGG, which I understand, due to low inventory. The real clincher was when I told the National office in West Maui that I wouldn’t be able to pick up for an hour later than originally planned, due to now having to take an expensive Uber to get there after landing. They told me I was out of luck since the office closes at 5pm. I was basically screwed. I had to make a new reservation at Avis (last minute) for $800 more, which pretty much ruined my vacation.Super fast and easy! Guy who checked us in was nice and helpful.
Easy pick up and drops off car was new and clean!
O dropped off at a different location and they put the wrong address on the rental agreement for drop off. I went to the location on the agreement and the place was closed. When I tried to call to get the correct address, the employee gave me the same wrong address and told me to just drive around and look for it. She was not at the location and said she wasn’t familiar with it, but also couldn’t transfer me to anyone who worked there.
This rental location purports to be for the JHM airport, but in fact is located a 10 minute drive away. They provided a ride from the JHM airport to the car rental location on arrival, but on departure, the departing flight was too early, so I had to take and pay for a taxi to the airport after dropping off the car. How can you claim to be a car rental location for an airport if you can't even get there during scheduled flights? Awful.
National rental at the Kahului Airport was a very pleasant experience. The place is easily accessible from the terminal - either a 3 minute walk or a breezy tram ride to the new, clean facility. Finding the National desk was also easy. Once inside, the counter person was very pleasant and quickly helped me work through an unforeseen issue. She was cheerful, professional and made me feel welcome. The man at the car lot asked me how many in my party, and whether our luggage was a little or a lot. He directed us to the better-fitting SUV still in the same car class, but really a more efficient vehicle for our needs. The car was clean, got good fuel economy and had bells and whistles, like car connect which made the map feature on my phone safer to observe, all of which made the trip super easy. I would definitely use National again, particularly because of the customer service (and the price was not nearly as nose-bleed as I expected).
