Beware of Budget overbooking jeeps in high season.

Myheart'sinSTJ · Post by **Myheart'sinSTJ** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:02 pm

I was on island last month and I was to pick up my jeep from the airport at Budget upon arrival. The night before I confirmed my reservation and thought I was all set. My flight arrived about 15 minutes late, I ran to the Budget counter to get my paper work done before picking up my luggage (I was traveling solo). I was shocked when they told me they did not have any jeeps available, they could not come up with an answer as to why so I had to settle for a car or end up taking a taxi anyplace I wanted to go on island. I did not feel safe traveling in the car especially when I met a safari taxi on the second switchback past Trunk and he was on my side, scary stuff! So just a word to the wise, think twice before renting from Budget, they do not deliver on their promises.

Pia · Post by **Pia** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:07 pm

Unfortunately Budget on STT is known for this.

Pia

FinsUp · Post by **FinsUp** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:40 pm

What a way to take the wind out of your sails as you start your vacation!!

Budget did the same to us the first year with 3 boys 4 1/2, 3 and 18 mos!!! Not a great experience at all..since then we have used Amalie Car Rental and it has been wonderful

Teresa_Rae · Post by **Teresa_Rae** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:49 pm

We have rented from Budget on STT for 9 out of our 10 trips and I think this most recent time will be our last. And it's not just the high season, we've only traveled to STJ in the low season.

It's only been the last few years that we've started having problems with them, but on our last 4 trips or so we have had to wait a long time for our Jeep because they didn't have any available. The last thing you're in the mood for after a long travel day is to stand around and wait in the airport for hours, not knowing if you'll ever get a Jeep.

One of the times we had our then 17 month old daughter with us, and after getting her up 6 hours early to make our flight, then missing her nap because she wouldn't sleep on the plane, having to wait 90 minutes for a Jeep was just about more than we could take.

Then on our last trip we waited a couple hours for our Jeep, which caused us to miss the car ferries we wanted, and we had to scramble to make the last car barge. We always shop on STT to save money, and because of Budget we had to buy all of our groceries on STJ.

The first time this happened, they just upgraded us to a nicer Jeep, so it was not a big deal. But this last time several people were given the nicer Jeeps that they had reserved as we waited, and we were told that an upgrade was not an option.

Xislandgirl · Post by **Xislandgirl** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:43 pm

If I had to wait a long time to get my reserved jeep, I would certainly not rent from them again. There are plenty of companies that get great reviews.

jake · Post by **jake** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 10:06 pm

I had an opposite issue; I reserved an SUV, Ford Escape. After checking in, I was told "oh, you know that's a 2 door soft top jeep". I said no, I reserved an SUV. Of course they just happened to have one ready, for a $20/day up charge.
Never again.

loverotties · Post by **loverotties** » Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:25 am

We rented from Budget in Oct. after a week stay in STJ . They met us at the STT ferry & took us to their Sapphire Beach location . We rented a 2 door jeep but they had none so we got a 4 door for the same price . Seems this happens a lot at Budget . . . . .

Myheart'sinSTJ · Post by **Myheart'sinSTJ** » Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:40 am

Xislandgirl wrote:If I had to wait a long time to get my reserved jeep, I would certainly not rent from them again. There are plenty of companies that get great reviews.

Lesson learned for me, like Xislandgirl said, there are enough private companies that get great reviews, I have used Discount and Dependable before and never had any issues with them, good service

.

BillVT · Post by **BillVT** » Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:30 pm

We have always rented from the Suttons, but when our best friend got layed low by Parkinsons we thought instead of putting him through the torture of getting in and out of taxis and waiting for ferries, we would rent on STT and take the barge. We sent our apologies to the Suttons and reserved with Budget. Same story as above, the Jeep Liberty was not available but they could put us into a Wrangler. Four of us, luggage and a disabled man. Since no one other than me wanted to back onto the car barge, my wife caught a cab to Red Hook and I drove my friends to the car barge.

Here's how it was explained to me. You make your reservation on the national Budget reservation system. On the mainland, if an agency in one town gets overbooked they simply call an agency in a near by town or city and they drive or truck vehicles over to cover the shortage and vice versa. But if you have an agency on an island ... Well, you get it. So the best thing to do is to rent from a local agency that knows how many vehicles they have and pay just that little more, knowing that you have a vehicle waiting for you. Plus your money is staying in the local economy and not adding to the salary or bonus of an executive who could really care less if you had to wait hours for your car.

usvi-on-line