I agree with safetymom. The last time I rented a car, I (overly-optomistically) made the reservation for 11:30 PM - completely sensible based on my 10:30 PM arrival time.
Well, my plane had to land on the way to refuel (yes, we were alerted before we boarded
). Then we were delayed taking off... we finally landed around 12:30. Collect luggage, go to shuttle... get to rental location @ 1:15...
Finally got to the front of the line to complete my reservation around 3:15.
No problem... well, except that when I finally got up to the garage to select a car... there WEREN'T any. Back down to the counter, back up to the garage. No 'selection', but at least there was ONE car ready.
But: no problem with the actual reservation, i.e. they didn't cancel it simply because I arrived at the counter almost four hours after the original reservation time. And no problem with the rate, either (actually, when I
very reasonably explained my experience and disappointment, when returning the car - they took about 25% off the rental rate).
Now, granted, this wasn't Avis - but all the rental companies are in one building, and all were overwhelmed with customers whose flights from the day before had been cancelled due to snow.