National Car Rental - Detroit Metro Airport (DTW)

Reviews

• SC

  Steven Compiani

  2 days ago
  1.0
  I’ve been increasingly disappointed with National lately. As an Executive member, I expect there to be a wider selection of full size SUVs, third-row vehicles, and higher-end options available in the Executive Aisle. On my recent rentals, most of the vehicles available seemed comparable to what I would find in the Emerald Aisle. There were larger SUVs on the lot, but many were either not ready or already reserved. From a customer perspective, it feels like Executive members should have priority access to those vehicles, as that is one of the key benefits of earning and maintaining Executive status. This is now the third time I’ve been told to reserve a specific vehicle in advance. While I understand the need for reservations, I would expect the Executive Aisle to consistently offer a selection of premium vehicles without having to reserve them individually. Otherwise, it diminishes the value of the Executive membership program. I value my relationship with National, but experiences like these are causing me to consider other rental car companies moving forward.
• HM

  Helton MS

  2 days ago
  1.0
  No, that isn't the type of service usually offered by National. When I returned the vehicle, the agent asked if I was sure I had picked it up at that location. I confirmed that I had—3 days prior. Anyway, he told me not to worry about it. Long story short: had to call customer service just to get my receipt. I called National customer service, and they told me the local management hadn't closed out my contract yet, though they had been notified and it would be handled quickly. This rental is still not showing under my account and next week I have a rental at the same location. I am tired of kind words when I return, yet nothing effective being done to correct the situation. PLEASE: WHERE IS MY RENTAL? I HAVE PAID FOR IT! I contacted National corporate account...lets see if the situation will be solved. P.S. In 2025, I’ve rented from National for over 90 days. Maybe it’s time to switch companies and see what the competitor has to offer.
• MS

  Matt Sweeney

  4 days ago
  1.0
  Very frustrating experience. I used National for business travel several times. My wallet was stolen 3 days before a business trip, so I had a temporary drivers license, my passport, pictures of my license, credit card from the reservation, my company ID, and I had rented a car using the exact same info 2 weeks earlier. They refused to rent a car saying they don’t accept temporary licenses. Their website clearly states they accept temporary licenses as long as they can verify the driver. They cost me a full day off my business trip, and I had to pay way more to rent at another company because of the time crunch.
• RR

  Rick Ray

  Jun 26, 2026
  1.0
  My company booked and paid for my rental through National, but I was still required to put a $100 deposit on my personal card, which I understood. The problems started when my rental needed to be extended. I was initially told not to worry because my company could handle the extension and that my personal card would only have a temporary hold. However, my card was still charged for the extension. Later, when the rental period was ending, my company contacted National and told me they had worked everything out and instructed me not to return the vehicle. Despite that, I continued receiving calls and warnings from National telling me to return the car immediately or risk being banned from renting from any National location in the U.S. It was extremely frustrating being caught in the middle while my employer and National seemed to be giving completely different instructions. To make matters worse, after I returned the vehicle, my personal card was charged approximately $1,800 even though this was supposed to be billed to my company. Now I have to wait to be reimbursed for a charge that should never have been placed on my card in the first place. Pros: The vehicle itself was clean and drove well. Cons: Poor communication, inconsistent information between representatives, unnecessary stress, and improper billing to my personal card. Unfortunately, this experience has made me think twice about using National again.
• ST

  Stephen Tyler

  Jun 20, 2026
  1.0
  Reserved two cars for trip, one for business use and another for personal use with my wife as an authorized driver. I’m an Executive Elite member, so my wife and I picked two cars and went to the gate to check them out. I told the “Manager” in the booth, employee #E42DC0, that the car I was driving was for business and my wife was behind me in the car I rented for personal use, which included a free day I’d earned. The Manager told me in no uncertain terms that it’s against National policy to rent two cars. I asked him why they allowed me to reserve two cars using my National Executive Elite number if I can’t rent two cars, and he said multiple reservations are allowed, but not multiple rentals. He insisted that this policy is on the website, which I have since tried unsuccessfully to find since then. He said my wife would have to rent the car in her name and we would not be able to use the free day. I asked him to match the same rate we were quoted in the reservation, which added up to about $200 for 4 days, including the free day and he said he’d “see what he could do.” Finally, after a huge hassle of him making my wife make a new reservation online, and about 15 minutes of back-and-forth, he told us the rate would be $540 for the same 4 days, which allegedly included a rate discount through my wife’s company. This is when it became clear that the real reason he made us go through all of this hassle was to jack up the rate on us. He’d rather make loyal National customers go through all that hassle so he could try to extract another 170% in higher rates from us. We said no thank you, we don’t want the car, we’ll find another less-greedy rental company to rent from. To add insult to injury, we heard him mouthing off to another employee “Can you believe, after all that, they said they don’t want the car.” That’s right, we didn’t want to pay another $340 on top of the $200 we were quoted. Wow, there must really be something wrong with us, right? Not to mention that you were so self-absorbed that you cared more about your own time as a paid employee on the clock than ours as a customer. National, is this how you treat your most loyal customers? It was bad enough that I couldn’t combine “regular” free days with “promotional” free days, but then this where I was not only prevented from using any free days at all, but tried to jack the rate up by another $340 above our original quote and then mocked us for saying no?

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