Avis car rental - Santa Cruz, California

H-Pop Local Guide

Excellent car rental location & service. A go-to for car rental in Santa Cruz. We have rented cars here many times. Always a good experience. Never a hassle or wait. Ease of scheduling directly or thru various car rental sites like Costco.

Newer car models offering good gas mileage & hybrids to lessen the gas expense.

Located across from the county building next to Jack In The Box. Easy access to highway & main streets in area. Centrally located.

Clean cars, consistent & reliable. Thanks very much!

J Kartouche

Reserved a car here after Enterprise said they had nothing for me. The person at Avis was very friendly and accommodating when I went to pick up my rental. He made sure I was satisfied with the vehicle I was offered and answered all my questions. Never made me feel rushed. I am definitely coming back here the next time I need a rental car in Santa Cruz!

Caterina

Steven and Andrew are wonderful people who treat you like family. Their Avis mascot, Luna, is the sweetest friendliest little pup. So nice to do business with kind, caring people.

Queen Joseph

Steve is a wonderful leader! I would rent cars from this location anytime. Steve has excellent communication, a service minded attitude and cares about customers' experience.

BJ Escalona

I attempted to rent a car that I reserved a few weeks prior. I was using a discount code that my employer provided me, which through our company is for business OR personal use. That day, I had the horrible luck of coming into contact with Manish Basnet. The Santa Cruz Avis/Budget car rental is a franchise location which decides which company policies he will or will not honor. He denied me use of the code, because I would not provide him with a paycheck stub to prove my employment status, even though my boss had spoke with him on the phone, and emailed him from our company's email address.
My boss contacted Avis' corporate office, who agreed that our use of the code was in fact within guidelines and that he was incorrect. As the conflict escalated, he began cursing at me and my employer. He kept contradicting himself and refused to contact corporate, saying it was my need to prove my qualifications, not his to verify. He even contacted his regional manager, Dre Sharma, who also told him he was incorrect, but no .... This man had drawn a line in the sand and was sticking to his decision. This was the absolute worst customer service experience I have ever had in my entire life. You would think as a representative of the Avis brand, corporate would be a little more on top of how they are being represented. Read through this locations reviews and see how there are multiple people who have had issues with this person being rude, dishonest and using foul language at them.

AVIS......... Do better!

*This review is in regards to case# 67821284 that was filed with Avis on 9/19/2024

10/2/2024 ***Updated response

I appreciate the time you took to reply to my review, but again, the inaccuracies of your reply are just mind-blowing. I have no idea what you are talking about when you say a Florida code. I am not associated with anything remotely related to that state, so it shows your recollection of our encounter isn't as sharp as you are leading on. I completely understand that one horrible interaction for you might blend into the next, due to the number of negative reviews your franchise receives.
I have not tried to rent a car for 4 months, but again, the details get lost. You stated I didn't bring proof of my contract work for the company allowing me to use the code, however, according to AVIS (the actual company and not some fly by night franchisee that makes his own rules) the code I was using from the company's Citibank card is valid for business OR personal use. The trip I was taking was not related to my job so therefore fell under personal use and you still chose to disregard what the corporate office and your regional manager Dre said was correct.
You can try and spin your inaccurate memories of that day, but it changes nothing. You lied to and cursed at both myself and my employer and failed to uphold the guidelines set forth by Avis. I absolutely am disgusted by your behavior and I hope to warn others of the miserable experience they too can avoid at your location. You have plaques on the wall for such great service, that are way outdated and we're given to a man you acknowledged is dead but you said you thought they looked nice. That is the caliber of business you will be dealing with. Stolen valor from a man who did a great job and died, only to have it displayed by a shady person, acting as if he did that hard work.

Again AVIS, do better!

Alexandra Silcox

This review is for Avis as a whole, since we had to go to two different Avis locations: Santa Cruz and the San Jose Airport.

Our experience was terrible. We went through 4 cars in 2 days because cars were not maintained or dangerous to drive.

1st car there were bubbles in two tires

2nd car the system console display and audio kept glitching, making it impossible to use navigation safely

3rd car the transmission started tailing. bucking on the highway and street. The check engine light flickering on and off.

4th car finally worked, but didn't make up for everything we had to go through. Including the extra time and stress to swapping cars at different locations.

All cars had some sort of cosmetic damage (scratches and dents), 3 of the 4 cars were dirty. The person at the Avis location in Santa Cruz said they don’t do maintenance or check the cars, if the previous renter said the experience was fine they just hand them to the next person.

After all that we weren’t offered a discount. It’s unacceptable that we had to go through so much hassle swapping cars in different locations without any remediations offered for the time out of our way and stress.

Bingham “Wild Child”

I’m 19 and i couldn’t book a car here but Steven helped me find a place that could help me (Turo app) thank you so much that man deserves a raise no joke!

Jimi Doss

I'm sorry to say disappointment is my first reaction. Our rental was less then clean, but nothing horrible. We got it dirtier on our trip. (Ran it through the car wash before we returned it)
The big deal was unknown to us we drove from Santa Cruz to Ocean side with a "bubble" on the side of the tire. Luckily I took video of the rental when I picked it up. The bad tire with the bubble and damaged wheel was captured on that video. Though I didn't notice it at first. Extremely dangerous. Anyway I went to change the tire and there was no spare tire. 600 miles from home. Scary drive home waiting for the tire to blow. Though, YES. I WOULD RENT FROM THEM AGAIN. Everybody has "one of those day", even Avis. We have rented here in the past as well. the counter service is quick, efficient, and polite. I would suggest though, you view your rental vehicle carefully before you take it off the lot.