Avis Rent A Car

Do not rent from this location if you care about actually getting the car class you book. I booked a compact for my ferry trip and they only had a minivan. Waited an hour and they found a midsize. Incredibly frustrating!
After waiting longer they have gone to Allston to get the compact I booked.
I do want to say I feel awful for the folks who work the desk. The system sets both us as customers and them as workers for this. But it’s a constant problem in my experience with both Avis and Budget at this location so be warned.

Reasonably easy and efficient pick-​up and drop-​off, but car was very poorly cleaned inside and out. There was a leftover chocolate milk bottle inside the door, and the whole car, especially the side mirrors, was covered with water spots. They wanted to charge me $ 200 extra to drop off at Logan, but I found a great workaround, initially agreeing to return the car to the Charles Hotel, but then calling the Avis 800 number later in the week, and asking if I could return the car to the airport, and they only charged my $ 25, less than the cost of a cab from the Charles Hotel.

(It seems there are two pages for this location. Submitting the same review for this one as well)
Worst experience of my life. Unacceptably unethical practice.
I rented a GRAY car for the night and never left Cambridge. Five months later they mailed me a bill for a parking ticket in the City of Boston issued to a RED car. I provided a photo proving the ticket wasn’t issued to the car I got. They disregarded it and went ahead charged my credit card for the ticket and some fees.
What was outrageous is after I submitted a dispute through Chase, AVIS started LYING just to get me to pay for this ticket issued to some other people.
I built a strong case of dispute with all the evidences, then Chase contacted AVIS. AVIS conceded that I had a different car, but now they claim I exchanged my car in the middle of the rental and the ticket was issued to me when I had the first car. That NEVER happened! They are just plainly lying to get me to pay for the ticket. Before, they were confused about which car I took. That was just poor management, but this lie is unacceptable unethical practices.
I called the manager of this location asking him to find a grey car rented out on the day. He said they only keep records for three months. Yet they waited five months to tell me about the ticket. What a convenience for them.
Would not recommend this location or AVIS to anyone.

Darren is the man. I didn’t even end up renting a car here, but last minute I was looking for a vehicle that sat 7 people. Even though the website showed no availability and he confirmed this when I called, he took down my number and called me back in a few hours letting me know he had a car. Excellent customer service and I’ll be back.

I had a much better experience here than I had at other local rentals (like the Budget in Central Square, where the pick up process seems eternal). The best rates are available if you prepay online (and if you have an Entertainment book it comes with a reusable coupon for a free weekend day rental, which pays for the book’s entire cost with one rental). Since all my information was already filled out online the pick-​up process couldn’t have been faster. When I returned the car there was a long line at the counter so I just left my paper and was e-​mailed the receipt a few minutes later. The staff was friendly and didn’t yell at me when I managed to lose the small token that gets you out of the hotel parking lot. Also, in regards to the comment from David C, I was not charged any kind of $ 13/​fee — all the fees and taxes were in line with what I paid for online. I asked the staff about his comment and they had no idea what it could refer to. The only downside is the traffic hassles that come with returning the car to Harvard Square.

It’s been a while and long overdue for an update.
So again. Location is great!
Staff:
— The usual staffers are friendly in addition to being professional. There are one off times when I get someone who I normally don’t see at the desk and the staff goes through the motions without a care… but that’s rare and I have rented over 20 times at this location. Basically, the usual staffers will try to accommodate your needs and provide the service you want. I really like working with the regulars and would have given 4 stars for their professionalism.
— The one off random people? Yeah, going through the motions and makes me into the argumentative client that refuses to take «that’s just what happens normally here» for an answer. (IE– been renting over 15 times and the girl tries to tell me that cars without automatic windows are normal? In this day and age? Don’t try to rely on «normal practice at this location» for forgetting to set aside decent cars for the Avis customers who took the time to reserve in advance or we will find other places to take our business. Especially if in the past 15 rentals, I have never heard of such cars at this location. Own up to your greed or lack of professionalism in renting out the reserved cars without calling for cars from other locations to this one before the scheduled arrival of reservation customers. I mean really, problem solving folks. Not too hard!)
But other than that it’s good.
— I don’t have garage workers trying to pass off pre-​existent scratches as my fault or arguing over the cell phone pictures. Makes my life a lot better not having to feel like I have to have a cell phone pic of every scratch when I return the car.
— After the first few bad incidents of them not saving cars for advanced reservations and making me take out (and pay for!) expensive town cars or larger SUVs, they seem to finally get the policy that prepaid reservations deserve to be set aside so when we arrive we get the car we paid for not some random car that costs 10 – 20 $ more.
All in all, I will continue to use Avis as of now. I still take pictures of larger scratches because I never know who will be the garage worker when I return who yells at me. I will also not be pushed into taking some larger (uglier) and bulkier car instead of the smaller car I reserved and be forced to pay more money because someone didn’t have the sense to set aside cars for reservation customers. But, I am cautiously optimistic. It takes a while to regain a customer’s trust but I think they are on the right track.
Last note– price
— Not the cheapest. It’s like $ 40 + to rent a small economy car for one day. Insurance is around $ 20. So renting for one day with insurance and gas is around 60 – 70. I tolerate it for convenience (and just rely on good Visa for insurance) but I have to say AVIS is not winning brownie points for this. I would definitely rent for longer periods and rent more if it wasn’t so expensive.

Living in Cambridge area, I chose AVIS because I needed to rent a car just for the day Saturday, and they were the ones open the latest on saturday (6PM). I reserved 10 hours before I was to pick it up, got there at the opening at 9AM, two very nice staff, rented my car for $ 50 (incl. insurance), I didn’t have any hidden costs, drove my 380miles to maine, came back, was stuck in traffic, called at 5:59PM saying I would be 5 minutes late, I arrived at 6:08PM and they were patiently and nicely waiting for me. Got a nice Focus, did 38 MPG average. All good! Major thumbs up for the nice people at the desk.

I prepaided online at
but showed up to a magical 13 $/​day «fee». Buyer beware: there is a city tax on rental locations inside hotels. Any information about the «fee» is conspicuously missing from
.
I easily could have chosen a competitor, but that Avis location had the most competitive prices online.
I find it despicable (and a borderline scam) that the fee is not advertised to the buyer until you show up to the rental location (at which case you’re cornered and forced to pay it).
Other than that, great car and good service. But the hidden «fee» leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.

There is never more than one person working the desk, and that is unacceptable. I had to wait in line for more than 20 minutes both to pick up and drop off the car. Convenient location, good selection of cars, but not easy to deal with.

In my quest to rent from every rental facility in the greater Cambridge area, Avis was next on the list. I wasn’t overly impressed, as there was nothing to make me recommend it over anywhere else if the price is comparable. In this case, the price was cheaper (thanks Orbitz!), so away we went.
The bottom line is this — this is a no-​frills rental facility. Meaning, even in the New England winter of ice and snow and slush, an ice scraper brush is too much of a luxury to include in anything less posh than a full-​size (apparently, in the SUVs they’ll let you have one that extends!). Get the more expensive car, and maybe they’ll treat you nicer too. Alas, I’m too poor for that. But, even their economy cars are nice enough (no real eyesores in the lot, the «compact» we got was a brand new black Sentra).
One perk worth mentioning — they’ve started a SmartCar fleet (the only one I know about in the area), and although the rental price is no lower than an economy rental ($ 49.99/day, about $ 60 after taxes and fees, they said), it might be fun to take one out on the town, if you value parkability over cargo space.
But, eh, I’ve had better rental experiences elsewhere.

This Avis is located at the Charles Hotel, with the cars the underground parking structure and the rental desk inside the lobby.
I just had a very good experience with Avis here. I picked up a car in Battle Creek, Michigan and drove to Cambridge, dropping it off at this location the next morning. (I drove through Canada — it took me 14 hours, including a few stops along the way)
I got the car at 7am, but the Avis at the Charles Hotel doesn’t open until 8am. I showed up at about 7:45 and there was already someone at the desk ready to help me. The computer tried to charge me for an additional hour rental, but he noticed it and took it off the bill without my even having to ask.
He was very friendly and it was a great overall experience.