<p>We recently traveled to Las Vegas, where I had reserved a rental car. I had checked rates on Hotwire, but reserved at the same rate directly with Agency D. </p>
<p>If you have rented a car in Las Vegas, you know that all of the rental car companies are in one, large, separate facility near the airport. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the rental car center and there were 25+ people in line for car rentals at Agency D and NO ONE in line at any of the other agencies’ counters. Has anyone else encountered this?</p>
<p>Fortunately, I had not prepaid for a car from Agency D, and they had not collected credit card information with the reservation. And fortunately, we were able to go to another agent counter and rent a similar car for the same price.</p>
<p>I am planning to rent a car in Las Vegas again in a few weeks, and I’m wondering if I should reserve more than one car and then go for the shortest line.</p>
<p>I’ve never done what you did, but I’ve been tempted while waiting in a long line. Since car rental reservations are generally (always?) cancellable, I think your plan makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>I rent from Avis and have the ‘Preferred’ service with them so most airports I go to I don’t go to the counter at all - I just go to directly to the car. They usually have an electronic board with one’s name on it and the car spot to go to. You just go directly to the car, drive to the booth at the exit, show the person the paperwork and your DL number, then drive out.</p>
<p>Sometimes the longer line at one place versus others is due to a shortage of workers that day there, their computer being down, or a swarm of people from the same company all renting at once.</p>
<p>My H rents from Hertz and uses a service that allows him to bypass the counter and go directly to the car–very similar to that describe in post #4. It’s really nice to bypass those lines.</p>