Book Payless car rentals in Sarasota

Pros: Price was good and gas mileage of the car excellent

Cons: We choose a small SUV the description was Jeep Cherokee. We have a small SUV Rav 4. We were traveling with our 1yr old and had a car seat - since I was told they couldn’t reserve one or that one would 100% be there - our stroller and luggage. We were given a crossover. The careseat barely fit in etc

Nightmare rental pickup process!

Pros: Airport terminal inside desk process: Fast, easy, professional. They usually give you the keys with your contract, but he instructed me to 'just go outside to our rental lot, they have the keys and car for you. "

Cons: After struggling across the street to find their lot (unmarked for Payless, BTW: signage said 2 other vendors, so that was confusing) I found an unattended EZ-up. After 5 minutes or so, I was joined by another two customers, and we stood there for close to 10 more minutes before 2 men with vests and walkie-talkies appeared, who then walked in front of us and started talking, turning their backs to all of us with no acknowledgement until I too-politely said: "Hi. Can we pick up our cars, please?" Nothing. They were then joined by a woman, and their conversation continued until I politely interrupted again, "Can you please help us?" One man turned around, said "What's your car?", and when we (now 4 separate customers) told him, he said: They were just returned, they need to be cleaned. We have 140 cars and 130 of them are out. It's been like this for weeks ." (None of us were "walk up" rentals, we all had reservations in advance.) Let's sidestep that issue for a moment and point out that there was no, I mean *no* attempt at even the slightest amount of customer service here: no initial greeting or acknowledgment to the now-small-crowd of waiting people, no apologies for the delays and resulting confusion, nothing. We customers were "you, the black Sentara", "you, the white Accord", when they finally began to look for our cars. In my case, I was first told that the car needed to be cleaned, and then that my key had been "brought into the terminal with someone's paperwork by mistake", and when the woman went into the terminal for a second time to look for it, she returned to inform me that "unfortunately when your key went back inside, they assigned your car to another customer over at Budget. It happens all the time." (!!!) So, she had to go back inside with my contract and redo it with another vehicle. Only when she finally brought my new contract, AN HOUR AFTER I GOT THERE, did this one employee express any courtesy, saying" Sorry for the mixup, have a great day ". If I hadn't had 3 heavy bags, I would have just returned to the inside rental desk and canceled in the first 15 minutes of this fiasco, but I was pretty much stuck there waiting for these completely inept, unhelpful group of outside people to do something. In the meantime, watching all of the other rental lots around us, where there were competent, friendly, helpful and fast transactions, was beyond frustrating. Never again in Sarasota, at any price.

Bait and switch

Pros: Nothing

Cons: Reserved an SUV and was provided a sedan and they refused to adjust the price.

Cons: Payless was supposed to be open until 11.00 PM. I had a confirmed reservation and arrived at the counter at 10:30 PM on a flight from DCA. Counter was closed causing me to rent from Avis at a much higher eater. Was told that the Payless agent closed at 6:00 PM. This was totally unsatisfactory.

I got there and it was closed

Pros: That another rental agency took care of me

Cons: I booked my rental online. With the time that my flight was due to arrive. My flight was not late. I got the counter and no one was there. The guy at the Avis counter said he left at 6pm. My flight was due to arrive at 10pm. So no rental for me from Payless. And I'll never use them again now.