RSS FeedHowto: Renting A Car In PQ
Not owning a car is a very satisfying way to live, until you need a car. Most of the time those of us without a car get along just fine by foot, bike, train, bus, or taxi. But there are time when you need a car for a longer period of time then even ZipCar provides. More than a year ago (before the Flex/ZipCar merger) we wrote about stringing FlexCar reservations together to create days or even a week or more car rental period. Since the merger between the two car sharing companies, it is no longer a cost effective method for long term car rentals.
You may already know that Union Station offers many major car rental companies (no need to head all the way out to the airport for a car), but we’re not sure everyone is aware that both Thrifty & Dollar rental are available in the Verizon Center. We’ve used this location several times this summer for periods of a week or more, and so far it has worked out pretty well.
The address for the car rental companies is 601 F ST NW, with the entrance at 7th & G (Thrifty & Dollar are operated at the same desk by the same attendants) in the Verizon Center. Decent weekday hours but limited weekends, the hours are: Monday to Friday 8 am to 8 pm, Saturday 8 am to 2 pm, and Sunday 9 am to 2 pm. Thrifty does allow you to return vehicles after hours to National Airport with no additional costs, and Dollar might offer the same.
Picking up a car is fairly easy, after checking in at 7th & G you get your reservation paperwork and head outside to walk down (South) 7th Street to F, and then turn left (East) to the “F Street Entrance” of the Verizon Center. From there you take the elevators down to P2, and make a left out of the elevators. The Thrifty (and we assume Dollar) workers are there cleaning & prepping the cars for you.
There are a few complications with this location, one if there is an event at the Verizon Center it can take a long time to get in/out of the garage. Also if you arrive to return the car when the parking garage is closed, you have to use a call box to get Thrifty/Dollar to open the garage door for you.
And of course don’t forget when returning your car to check out PQResident’s post on the gas stations for that return fill up.
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Comments
I don’t disagree with your assessment #1, as a blue chip member myself I can confirm that it matters not at this location.
But I do think it is still faster (although with more surly service) than metroing to the airport to checkout. I’ve never had it take more than 25 minutes from the time I entered the office to the time I was driving out of the garage. Of course it should only take 10-15 mins tops.
But I can understand why you’d prefer the blue chip member lines & more pleasant service at the airport. For me though, the convenience of renting & returning a couple of blocks from my home makes the downtown location worth the terrible customer service.
My car rental experiences:
Flexcar. Pretty good; never had any problems. Too bad it merged.
Zipcar. Charged me $50 because they said someone smoked in the car; sent me an accusatory email to levy the charge. Would not respond to my replies or phone calls, and did not care when I cancelled the membership. Only responded to my emails after I contacted my card issuer to have the $50 charge removed (issuer did refund me the $50.)
Enterprise. Will attempt to twist your arm to buy the ridiculous “damage waivers”. Not worth the hassle.
Hertz at DCA. No problems; clean car. Would go back.
Budget at DCA. Waited in line at least a half hour.
Avis at Union Station. Rented me a car with less than a quarter tank of gas. The car was absolutely filthy, with grime accumulated from multiple rentals. The floor mats in the back were upside down–brown filth was on the right side. Goo was in the cupholders. They obviously cared so little that I will never rent from any Avis or Budget again (they are the same company.)
Never tried the Thrifty; will give it a shot.
There’s also Rent-a-Wreck on 9th and M if you’re willing to walk a few blocks — much cheaper than most of the places you can rent in the city (not sure if it’s cheaper than DCA, tho). Only drawback is 100-mile-a-day limit.
I’ve used that 9th & M rent-a-wreck several times when moving large/heavy items in DC (in the past, haven’t used them for years, didn’t know if they were still around). You don’t have to worry about beating those vans up, they’re torn up enough already as is.
I had a bad experience renting from Thrifty at this location and would never rent from them again. They didn’t have the car I reserved and gave me something else that I didn’t want (it was a few years ago, so I don’t quite recall, but I believe it was a gas guzzler when I wanted a small efficient car). So, they wouldn’t bring me the car I wanted in any sort of reasonable, timely fashion (or maybe at all) and I had to take the big car and go to another Thrifty location on the road to the airport and get it myself. On this same rental, I apparently got a speeding ticket due to having a picture snapped at one of the cameras in DC. Thrifty charged me an additional amount for the ticket and an additional fee much later, with no info on what is was for and it took forever just to find out what this mystery charge was. I was not at all amused by this.
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We have used the Thrifty at this location several times, and it is not our favorite, even if it is convenient.
If you are a Thrifty Blue Chip member and have already reserved your car on line, it won’t matter. You stand in line behind people who act like they have never rented a car before, and are making their choice while you wait in line. The process is painfully slow.
We can usually take metro to the aiport, walk to the Thrifty Blue Chip counter, pick up our car in less time then it takes to get a car at the Verizon Center location.