National Car Rental

HEADS UP, change drop off location and expect to pay 3x to 4x the normal rental. Even after being a loyal customer for over 20 years.
All you are is a commodity with National Car Rental.
Pretty much a loosing situation for all, right National???

We rent from National about ten times a year, often at SFO. Being Emerald Elite we enjoy good selection of relatively low mileage cars most of the time, but not always. SFO often has periods of low availability, but the staff at those times is very helpful. One slight problem we encounter is at times we rent for six weeks, and National has a policy to terminate the rental in 30 days. I wish they had an automatic process to extend the rental to the original scheduled rental period. Last time it has taken me nearly thirty minutes of trying to find the right contact information, but once that is in hand it moved fast. Overall we like the choice of cars and the quality of their performance.

Our recent experience renting at National’s SFO desk for a weekend was superb. The plain-​Jane vehicle we had reserved was not ready for us when we arrived, so we were upgraded — to a luxury SUV — and had no delays. Return was quick and courteous too. All in all, unexpectedly good service, especially considering we’re just commoners, not Emerald Aisle members.

Long lines and no cars at SFO National Car Rental… yet again. I had to wait an hour for a car — and I am their highest tier customer. Horrible service. In the words of Seinfeld: You know how to take the reservation. You just don’t know how to keep the reservation!

Just got to SFO at 10pm on a Monday and National has about 60 people in a line waiting on cars. They don’t have any cars available… wtf. National is telling us it will be an hour wait. You guys failed miserable on Jan 11 2016.
Jan 13 — I upgraded nationals rating to 3stars from 1 after they contacted me about my experience. The staff worked hard to help us but better planning needs to be considered so lack of car inventory does not happen again at SFO.

Usually have a great experience with National. We rented the week after Christmas and there were literally no cars in the Emerald Club (or Executive) aisle. We had to wait until one pulled up. So we weren’t able to pick our car, we got whatever pulled up first. That was a drawback.
Another huge issue was that we reserved a toddler safety seat and after a bunch of back and forth and waiting, we were finally told they had none. What was most annoying to me was that the manager on duty offered me no solutions at all. Maybe someone should go buy one?
We opted for a booster seat finally, which was actually too small for our child. Ugh.
The car itself was fine, no issues there.
One good note is that upon returning the vehicle, I told that manager on duty and he comp’d the booster seat cost. That was very nice. He said they are getting the seats stolen, which is a problem.
They obviously need to work on that inventory. If I don’t have the seat, I can’t rent the car!

National at LAX has THE WORST courtesy shuttle service schedule.
Either wait at the curb for 30 minutes, or get a real service experience at another provider.
These folks are ALWAYS AWFUL!

It is so easy to rent with National. I’m an Executive Elite member since I travel every week. I’ve rented from all the rental car companies and National’s cars are the newest with the lowest miles. I walk directly to the lot and bypass the counter, the agent directs me to the rows of cars I can pick from, I see one I like, get in and I’m off to my meetings. If only the Airtrain from SFO to the rental car center was that fast!

National offers great service since you can sign up and bypass their check in counter. However upon my arrival at the San Francisco airport, there was no one to greet me and my party once we arrived at the car lot to pick up our car. We wandered around with bags in tow. Finally we spotted someone who rudely told us that the cars were not ready. We asked for assistance and she pointed us in the direction of a worker who walked passed our party. She made is seem as if it were our fault that we did not get assistance with locating a proper level car. Eventually we found a car and went on our way. The car was fine. The airport could have a bit better signage for the return location.

The car was so filthy and gross inside.
The seats had crumbs from food all over it.
There were old dried leaves in the trunk.
There were stains on the seat so gross I didn’t want to put my luggage on it.
They obviously only clean the outside of the car because they are trying to turn the car around quickly
Yuck

Came over to the National side after a horrendous experience with/​Fox at both SFO and DEN locations (read my review of Fox at SFO for both a laugh and a cry).
I forgot that I am an Emerald Club member. So my co-​hort and I bolted from the Fox line to no line at National, went through the formalities, picked our own car, and went on our way. From start to finish, it took a total of seven minutes: check-​in at desk to driving out.

I rent with National Car at SFO almost weekly (National SJC the other weeks). I am an Emerald Elite member so I have the luxury of not standing in lines and just walking directly out to the cars. Customer service is great, the people are nice, friendly and trustworthy. Once my wallet, with a few hundred dollars in it, fell out of my bag and slid under the seat, they found it kept it in a safe for when I returned the following week. They even counted every dollar and documented it just to make sure I got it all back.
As for the vehicles themselves. Sunday nights are the worst nights to pick up because it’s the beginning of the work week and there are not very many good cars (in my opinion), and you’re fighting like 5 other people for the next decent car coming out of the wash.
I also have seemed to have the worse luck in choosing clean cars, the cars seem like their clean when I get in at night, but once I’m driving out in the sunlight, you can see all dirt and food crust in the cup holders and center panel. Many times there are window smudges, as if they are using a dirty oily rag to clean the windshield, I end up having to stop and clean the inside of the windshield myself because its hard to see thru it at night. I think the people who clean the cars should put in a little more effort. I have even had ant problems in a few cars from SFO, very gross.
All in all, I don’t have much complaints with the cars themselves. They are generally in good condition and you can’t beat the customer service.

What more can I say— Emerald Lot, Executive Aisle, plenty of cars. Quick in and out. The most time consuming part is the train ride to the car rental center. Besides that, it’s quite painless.

I have been with National for quite a few years and I am yet to be disappointed. I have tried a few other car rental companies but none of them compare.
Although I no longer travel anywhere near like I use to, still being able to walk straight to a car of my choosing in the Emerald Aisle and take off is great.
Thanks for the great service!

We always use National when renting a car. Love that we can skip the counter and go straight to the Emerald Aisle to select our car. The last time we picked one up we were greeted with a very enthusiastic woman welcoming us to National when we entered the garage! That was a nice surprise: o) Also, it’s nice to be able to choose the car. Sometimes it’s just me and I want a small compact. Other times, it’s the whole family and we need a larger car. The cars are always clean, and check-​in when you return is always fast. Great service!

As an emerald club member, it’s so nice to just get in the car you want and go.
The choice of vehicles in emerald aisle was excellent
As a presidents circle member of another brand, they just lost all my business due to poor service and dirty under fueled vehicles
Thank you National for a great product.
Btw, Hertz — you’re fired!!!

The car was very clean and a very smooth ride. The options were great, chosen for my own car was a plus. Signing up for Emerald Aisle made life so much easier. I got my car after the long flight and was done with the airport like *that.* This was my first time traveling for business so it was great having a seamless car rental experience.
I recommend this car rental service to anyone, just make sure you take advantage of the perks like Emerald Aisle.

Very pleased (yet again) with my rental experience at National. 3.5 days and just over 1,000 miles with the car on a trip from SF to LA for a conference. Below are my highlights and to happily say, no issues!
Check-​In — –Fast and efficient. Needless to say, there were no people at 6:45AM which helped, and the counter staff were attentive and very friendly with the process.
Car pickup & Checkout — –It’s very pleasing to be a member of Emerald Club, with the ability to have «aisle service». Usually when I rent with National, their selection is at best, standard, but thankfully this time, the selection amounted to a mix of Nissan Altima’s, 2016 Camry SE’s, and Kia Optimas. In a surprise twist, I discovered two Ford Fusion Titanium’s in the lot, a selection usually reserved for «Executive Elite» and I happily jumped in a very clean, and immaculate black Fusion, and was on my way.
Enroute — –Cruising down the 5 towards SoCal was made all the more pleasant with Sony’s entertainment system built-​in with the car and was best put to use through my podcast collection of Above & Beyond’s «Group Therapy» episodes. Two hours of epic trance, high speeding down the freeway.
Around Town — –This is probably the one spot where I should have considered a Corolla or an Elantra. Driving through the small back streets of Hollywood was a bit difficult in a fullsize class of vehicle, especially parking. Thankfully the hotel I was staying at offered valet parking at a price only $ 3 dollars above the daily self-​park rate, so I happily took advantage of this opportunity, and the staff obviously knew how to handle the vehicle as no scratches were found on the body upon return.
Coming Home — –For those of you who have driven from SF to LA and back know are probably familiar of the stretch of freeway on the Grapevine where I-​5 splits down the hill into two different strips of roadway. Now imagine taking almost 2 hours to go up that hill. Thanks to a small brushfire at the top of that, I can tell you what it’s like… spoiler alert – it’s not fun. Not unless you have the Sony entertainment system, which came through once again. After that small hiccup, the rest of the drive was uneventful and 4.5 short hours later, I was happily filling up the tank and pulling into SFO’s rental car center.
Car Return — –I paid for 4 days, yet only used the vehicle for a little more than 3, so it was a nice delight to see that National lowered my total bill by $ 125! A print of the receipt, a drop of the keys, and I was on my way back to BART.
Once again, a flawless rental experience with National. Planning another road trip to SoCal in late December, and National will certainly be on the top priority of chains to rent from of the need arises,

Since I was originally motivated to sign up on Unilocal in order to post a negative rental car review, I try to give special consideration to car-​rental places whenever I happen to need one.
This was a business trip, so my selection was whatever my company’s travel booking software offered up in the correct price range. I got 3 different companies as options and had not rented from National before. They were also about $ 3 /​day cheaper, so I went with them.
As far as convenience, they are in the same building at the same counter as all the other similar firms at SFO (other than off-​airport companies, if there are any). The line at National didn’t seem particularly longer or shorter than the other nearby counters. It moved fairly quickly; I didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes.
Once at the counter, they found my reservation promptly and did not try to upsell me any insurance, etc. Maybe because it was a corporate booking? At any rate, the process was quick and painless and I was on my way out to select my vehicle.
I’d consider 5 stars except that they didn’t mention the push-​button start mechanism. I’m now driving a car with that feature at home, but the last time I was at SFO a different company skipped that detail also. I just think they ought to spend 30 seconds on the topic until they know the customer is familiar with it, just as a courtesy. Also, while I like selecting my vehicle from a row of similarly classed vehicles, National apparently released about 7 customers onto a row of 8 cars simultaneously. This made it more like musical chairs (or cars).
As far as drive-​ability, etc., I was fine with my selection, a Chrysler. The controls were a bit odd (dial-​a-​gear, no foot-​activated parking brake, non-​obvious headlight selector), but that wasn’t really National’s fault.
All-​in-​all, though, I’d definitely consider renting from them again.

The location manager reached out to me to discuss my experience. She was very nice and was very open to hearing my feedback on my rental.
The gift cards were most likely thrown away because the cleaning crew thinks those are used and therefore is trash. She also apologized for not having enough cars on the lot and told me to email the location directly next time to reserve a particular car I prefer ahead of time, so they can save it for me on the executive aisle.