Review Insights · App Store
Budget - Car Rental
Avis Budget Group · 62,578 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
62,578 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 66 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"budget"
27 negative reviews mention this · 41% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No cars at midnight after making reservation. Desk staff was very rude and said we would gave to weigh over an hour for our car. We had a reservation and let them know we were coming in late. Customer service was horrific. They said they were Budget franchise. I will never book again" - Ryvonnemilo
2
"reservation"
21 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No cars at midnight after making reservation. Desk staff was very rude and said we would gave to weigh over an hour for our car. We had a reservation and let them know we were coming in late. Customer service was horrific. They said they were Budget franchise. I will never book again" - Ryvonnemilo
3
"rental"
17 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It’s always something. My kid and I travel for hockey pretty frequently like once a month and I typically go through budget. I use my debit card and pay the extra fee/deposite. Well we get to Dallas and present my debit card and ID. I am then told the type of car…" - ZachCris0712
4
"customer"
13 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No cars at midnight after making reservation. Desk staff was very rude and said we would gave to weigh over an hour for our car. We had a reservation and let them know we were coming in late. Customer service was horrific. They said they were Budget franchise. I will never book again" - Ryvonnemilo
5
"service"
12 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No cars at midnight after making reservation. Desk staff was very rude and said we would gave to weigh over an hour for our car. We had a reservation and let them know we were coming in late. Customer service was horrific. They said they were Budget franchise. I will never book again" - Ryvonnemilo
6
"cancel"
10 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It’s always something. My kid and I travel for hockey pretty frequently like once a month and I typically go through budget. I use my debit card and pay the extra fee/deposite. Well we get to Dallas and present my debit card and ID. I am then told the type of car…" - ZachCris0712
7
"customer service"
9 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No cars at midnight after making reservation. Desk staff was very rude and said we would gave to weigh over an hour for our car. We had a reservation and let them know we were coming in late. Customer service was horrific. They said they were Budget franchise. I will never book again" - Ryvonnemilo
8
"rent"
9 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It’s always something. My kid and I travel for hockey pretty frequently like once a month and I typically go through budget. I use my debit card and pay the extra fee/deposite. Well we get to Dallas and present my debit card and ID. I am then told the type of car…" - ZachCris0712
9
"cars"
8 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No cars at midnight after making reservation. Desk staff was very rude and said we would gave to weigh over an hour for our car. We had a reservation and let them know we were coming in late. Customer service was horrific. They said they were Budget franchise. I will never book again" - Ryvonnemilo
10
"give"
8 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It’s always something. My kid and I travel for hockey pretty frequently like once a month and I typically go through budget. I use my debit card and pay the extra fee/deposite. Well we get to Dallas and present my debit card and ID. I am then told the type of car…" - ZachCris0712
11
"horrible"
8 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Horrible service. Rude and long wait" - Gambler317
12
"doesn"
8 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t load current rental. This app is still so buggy. It doesn’t load current rentals. Wont show history and doesn’t load receipts. Basics for an app that’s tracking rental history." - Afro.Samurai
📋 All 66 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
下载后根本打不开，闪退
下载后根本打不开，闪退
No cars at midnight after making reservation
Desk staff was very rude and said we would gave to weigh over an hour for our car. We had a reservation and let them know we were coming in late. Customer service was horrific. They said they were Budget franchise. I will never book again
It’s always something
My kid and I travel for hockey pretty frequently like once a month and I typically go through budget. I use my debit card and pay the extra fee/deposite. Well we get to Dallas and present my debit card and ID. I am then told the type of car requires a credit card. I didn’t bring a credit card with me… I asked to use my mom’s credit card and that is not acceptable either. Also because I reserved the car in my online account the reservation could not be switch to my mom who has the same last name…. If we want the same car I reserved under a new reservation with my moms name we it would be an additional $300 +…… At no point was budget willing to take my money help me navigate the situation or notice I rent from you all of the time and maybe give me a break. What in the customer relations business plan is this. Budget is now off of my list for rental car companies. I will also leave a review within other avenues. I am canceling my reservation as Enterprise was willing to help me even though I have never rented from them. Thanks
Bogus fees
I returned the car full and was charged a gas fee. The return had more fuel than when i left: miles to empty on pickup was 283 miles when i returned miles to empty were 330+ and showing full.
I was charged a change of facility fee, the car was brought to where i picked it up. There was a $40+ surcharge. There was a fee for changing my reservation. No detail explanation. There were $62 in non taxable fees which included some of the above, but not sure for what. BUDGET NEEDS TO BE MORE TRANSPARENT. The final cost was more than the agent quoted when i made the change to add one day. Oh, and the check in was long.
I was charged a change of facility fee, the car was brought to where i picked it up. There was a $40+ surcharge. There was a fee for changing my reservation. No detail explanation. There were $62 in non taxable fees which included some of the above, but not sure for what. BUDGET NEEDS TO BE MORE TRANSPARENT. The final cost was more than the agent quoted when i made the change to add one day. Oh, and the check in was long.
Horrible service
Rude and long wait
Car Not Available For Fast Break Pickup
I went to the Budget Car desk at IAH and your employee told me there were no cars available for Fast Break customers and that I would have to get in line. The line was at least 100 people and only two clerks were at the desks. We had a deadline to meet, and waiting in line to get a car for at least one or two hours would have made us late for our appointment. Please refund me my $203.00.
Over Charged On Gas
I have been a Budget patron for over 15 years, and I love them up until this day on today! I rented a vehicle in April (Easter Weekend), and I pre-paid for gas since gas is very high right now. I was charged $62.71 for "fuel purchase option" on my receipt; cool no problem, I'm good with that until today when my credit card was charged $74.28 (net charges???)! When I contacted Budget, the agent said it was for gas/fuel! After being on the phone with him for over 40min, going back and forth about the charge of what is on my FINAL RECEIPT and the additional charge of fuel/gas ($74.28), he, Budget, still insist that it is a fuel charge or either the tax! Okay which one is it? At this point I see that they are NOT going to fix the issue so I'm out of an additional $74.28 for gas ($136.99 in total)!!!
This is unbelievable and a scam on Budget's part. Never again will I rent from them. I will go to their competitor's.
Census - General
This is unbelievable and a scam on Budget's part. Never again will I rent from them. I will go to their competitor's.
Census - General
Bogus cancellation fee
Charged me a $50 cancellation fee when I canceled over a month in advance
Patient Travel price quintupled after booking
After being booked by the Mayo Clinic’s patient travel services, I added all of my bookings onto my apps. The Budget booking increased from $242 to nearly $1,200. I called customer service, assuming it was an error, and was told that my information wasn’t fully entered and that the prices are subject to change.
Will never rent from budget
Applied for fast break 90 minute line anyways.
Doesn’t load current rental
This app is still so buggy. It doesn’t load current rentals. Wont show history and doesn’t load receipts. Basics for an app that’s tracking rental history.
Helpless
Agent was helpless on adding an additional driver. Booked my weekly rental with another company.
St
Failed to give me the vehicle I reserved and refused to discount for my troubles.
Mileage?
I can’t find anywhere in the site if a reservation has unlimited mileage.
Broken, buggy
Fast break add a card functionality doesn’t work. Try harder y’all
Never use
Had to cancel reservation since there were no cars available even though I had a reservation
Unfair cancellation fee
I canceled my reservation three weeks prior to my visit and I was charged a $50 cancellation fee, which is completely unfair since I canceled so far in advance. Be very careful when you book with BUDGET.
Bait and switch
Entering my info and reading the disclosures. Logs me out. Need to reenter same info a minute later. Same car, same everything…price goes up $25 sixty seconds later. Really slimy way to do business.
Can’t open app
The app will not let you advance after putting in your info, such as DOB, etc. So I can’t sign up for Fastbreak. Very buggy and needs to be fixed. I have iPhone 16e with latest iOS update.
Bait and switch
It said unlimited miles, I prepay, then it shows 300 miles for entire rental. Cancelled within 5 minutes after speaking with customer chat, lost $50. Not happy. Wont use budget ever again.
So many hoops
Takes forever to start an account and get started. You’ve been warned.
Rude changed reservations for more money
I will never rent from this establishment ever again I reserved a suv to fit 6 people and 7 pieces of luggage and they tried to give me a small suv that only fit one piece of luggage but they would upgrade me for a $110 more. That is unacceptable and embarrassing
Sort options limited
Can’t sort or specify vehicle by drivetrain. In other words, you can’t select all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive if that is a requirement for you. Other rental companies offer this. Come on.
Shameful
Made a reservation 3 months in advance. I get called a week before to tell me there is a problem. How? I did this 3 months ago? Not yesterday, not 3 hours. To say service was poor would be a compliment. This was just a shame. Do better Budget. We will NEVER be back
Doesn’t Make Sense
I paid for a rental to pick up the next day. The rental company at the location had 0 cars available. I tried to cancel with Budget, they said I went through another channel Taiwan business services, tried calling them, they wanted to sell me medical equipment. Unbelievable, now being forced to dispute charge with credit card company. 0 cars available
Horrible company
I had an absolutely terrible experience with Budget at MCO Airport, and I would strongly advise others to avoid this location.
I was charged $150 for a rental car that I never even picked up. My flight with United Airlines was delayed, and during that same timeframe Budget was experiencing internet/system maintenance issues. Because of this, I was unable to cancel or modify my reservation. Despite these circumstances being completely out of my control, I was still charged-completely unreasonable.
To make matters worse, the staff at the MCO counter were rude, dismissive, and unwilling to help. There was no attempt to understand the situation or provide any level of customer service. I was treated like an inconvenience rather than a paying customer.
This entire experience was frustrating, unprofessional, and honestly felt predatory. Charging customers under these conditions while providing such poor service is unacceptable.
I will never use Budget again, and I will be actively discouraging my family and friends from doing so as well. There are far better rental companies that actually value their customers.
Avoid this location if you care about fair treatment and basic professionalism.
I was charged $150 for a rental car that I never even picked up. My flight with United Airlines was delayed, and during that same timeframe Budget was experiencing internet/system maintenance issues. Because of this, I was unable to cancel or modify my reservation. Despite these circumstances being completely out of my control, I was still charged-completely unreasonable.
To make matters worse, the staff at the MCO counter were rude, dismissive, and unwilling to help. There was no attempt to understand the situation or provide any level of customer service. I was treated like an inconvenience rather than a paying customer.
This entire experience was frustrating, unprofessional, and honestly felt predatory. Charging customers under these conditions while providing such poor service is unacceptable.
I will never use Budget again, and I will be actively discouraging my family and friends from doing so as well. There are far better rental companies that actually value their customers.
Avoid this location if you care about fair treatment and basic professionalism.
Cancellation fee is BS
I will never book with Budget again, I had to cancel my trip and they charge me $50, that is ridiculous.
Cancellation Fee
Would have booked elsewhere if I was aware of $50 cancellation fee.
Terrible online booking
They claim you can book online and prepay then ask for a security deposit after they accept the online payment. Only you can’t pay using 2 different cards and when you cancel they charge you 50 dollars mind you it was only 48 hours later! What an absolute joke!
Horrible Customer Service
I reserved a car because my flight was severely delayed and it is now 530 AM and I am trying to get home. I have to be at work in 2.5 hours and they refuse to rent to me even though I am a fast break customer and have a credit card on file and have been an exclusive budget customer for 17 years of business travel. The employee refuses to try and find another option for me.
Price Gouging
We booked a Budget car rental through Costco travels, which was great. Our Costco account is under my husband’s and my name. My flight got canceled, but my husband’s did not. I called Budget to add his name to the reservation and they said we had to go through Costco. His name is on the Costco travel but Budget would not let my husband pick up the car/use our reservation last night. They charged him $170 for a different car for one night. In response I canceled our entire Budget car reservation (9 days) and went with a different car company. :)
Don’t ever pre-pay
If you choose to pre-pay and then need to cancel, Budget charges a $50 “processing fee” be no penalty if you don’t pre-pay. The thought of being penalized for pre-paying is the most ridiculous business practice I’ve seen in a while. I attempted to have the fee recovered but their auto bot in the online chat just kept repeating the same thing. Budget needs to treat their customers better.
Unable to use the app when I need to
I rarely write app reviews but this was such an egregious offense that I felt I must leave my feedback for the developers.
I downloaded this Budget app before my international flight. I logged in before leaving and all of my rental information was there, ready for me when I arrived at my destination.
After landing in the foreign country and collecting my bags, I opened the Budget app as I walked to the rental counter. Instead of displaying my rental details, the Budget app presented me with a blocking modal screen that informed me that an app update was available. However, there was no way to dismiss this blocking message. The only option available was to download the updated app from the App Store, which I could not do doing over my cellular connection on international roaming.
It is absolutely absurd to block the use of the app until an update can be downloaded. I wasn’t even using a very old version of it anyway, I had downloaded this one 2 days prior.
Developers: provide a way to allow use of the Budget app even if there is an update available. As it stands now the app is completely useless when this situation arises.
I downloaded this Budget app before my international flight. I logged in before leaving and all of my rental information was there, ready for me when I arrived at my destination.
After landing in the foreign country and collecting my bags, I opened the Budget app as I walked to the rental counter. Instead of displaying my rental details, the Budget app presented me with a blocking modal screen that informed me that an app update was available. However, there was no way to dismiss this blocking message. The only option available was to download the updated app from the App Store, which I could not do doing over my cellular connection on international roaming.
It is absolutely absurd to block the use of the app until an update can be downloaded. I wasn’t even using a very old version of it anyway, I had downloaded this one 2 days prior.
Developers: provide a way to allow use of the Budget app even if there is an update available. As it stands now the app is completely useless when this situation arises.
STAY FAR AWAY FROM
Horrible. They dont have cars but let you reserve them and don’t notify you until you go try and pick the car up.
Very confusing app
Don’t even try to figure out fast break
Spam Notifications
Do not use the permission I gave you to notify me about my current rental to send me spam.
Reservation
Online app failed to confirm reservation or provide a confirmation number. Rebooked not aware of of booking assessed a 50 dollar cancellation fee. I’m
Ridiculous fees
$50 cancellation fee, really???
Poor
Customer service is not helpful. Price is fluctuate 100% depending on who you’re talking to and what platform you’re on website is very clunky. I wish there was a competitor.
The most horrible customer service
If you ever need to reach a real
Customer service agent in a timely manner forget about it. Of everything is smooth maybe you won’t have an issue, but the day that you do you will regret picking Avis/ budget. Hours on the phone with different agents and got nowhere. I will never use this company again after this experience. Good luck to anyone that does.
Customer service agent in a timely manner forget about it. Of everything is smooth maybe you won’t have an issue, but the day that you do you will regret picking Avis/ budget. Hours on the phone with different agents and got nowhere. I will never use this company again after this experience. Good luck to anyone that does.
Easy Fix gone bad
Trying to change drop off location, because it states on the website that you can drop a car at any budget location as long as it’s a advanced of 24 hours so you don’t occur the $45 fee. So when I typed in not one not to but three different locations it says I cannot read that address. So I called the number provided and first customer representative hung up on me and the second couldn’t find any locations in Coral Gables, Florida, and now I am having to cancel the reservation and try it on my own without any help. I rent 12 to 15 times a year with budget, but between the added fuel charges that you have to watch out for and these kinds of problems it makes it difficult to be loyal.
Horrible customer service
The lady was so rude
Need to make it easier
No one was able to give me a receipt. The phone agent told me that I could only get it from a counter but they too couldn't locate my receipt or account number.
I’m refundable early vehicle return
On February 19, I rented a vehicle through Budget with a scheduled return date of March 1. The total charge was $493.00 and some cents. However, after months of vehicle issues, my personal car was unexpectedly repaired sooner than anticipated, and I returned the rental on February 21-after approximately 2½ days, not even three full days.
At the time of return, I was explicitly told that the difference would be refunded. I returned the vehicle in proper condition and well within policy expectations. Despite this, I am now being informed that no refund will be issued and that Budget intends to keep the entire amount.
This is deeply disappointing and feels dishonest, especially given the assurances made at the time of return and my history as a frequent and responsible renter. Retaining the full amount for a rental that was returned early is not reasonable, nor does it reflect the level of service I would expect from you all.
I am deeply deeply dissatisfied!
At the time of return, I was explicitly told that the difference would be refunded. I returned the vehicle in proper condition and well within policy expectations. Despite this, I am now being informed that no refund will be issued and that Budget intends to keep the entire amount.
This is deeply disappointing and feels dishonest, especially given the assurances made at the time of return and my history as a frequent and responsible renter. Retaining the full amount for a rental that was returned early is not reasonable, nor does it reflect the level of service I would expect from you all.
I am deeply deeply dissatisfied!
The worst
I’d give them no stars if I could they took my money and cancelled my reservation and is refusing to immediately put it back . When it shouldn’t have been taken if you didn’t approve the reservation
Cancel fee
I’m a return customer of many yearly and you guys continue to abuse well Paying customers with fees. I’m leaving to hertz for good.
Buyer beware
Budget did not honor my reservstion when I chose pay at counter option. They gave my car away to someone else in Aruba without informing me.
Very bad
Doesn’t accept we license give bad error messages. Doesn’t add reservation to profile. All in all this one of the worst apps.
App won’t open anymore
I’ve tried several different channels to report the issue, but none of them actually give me an option for an app technical issue. App won’t open on my iPhone 15 pro iOS 26.2.1. It just tries to do a visual unlock scan and gets stuck in a loop doing that. Tried closing and reopening, still does the same thing. From what I remember it did this a while back too. Doesn’t do this on any of my other apps.
Scam
Attempting to book a Budget reservation utilizing a 3 day credit given for a horrible booking experience this Summer. Transferred to a third party without consent. Realizing this booking was now through MyDreamMemory and fraud we attempted to cancel the reservation and were met with constant road blocks. Any fees encountered by this unfortunate dituation are fraudulent and will be disputed.
+ 16 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
90%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
9%
Negative (1-2★)