Advantage Rent A Car appears to be shutting down. The Las Vegas location apparently closed last week. Their flagship headquarters Orlando airport location closed yesterday. Franchise locations appear to still be open. A Dallas off-airport location also shows closed, and I’m hearing Denver as well.
This was flagged to me by Jonathan of Autoslash which is both a great source of absolute best deals on car rentals and awareness for what’s going on in the industry. This is a scoop since it doesn’t appear the state of play of Advantage
If a separate bankruptcy is filed (and for technical reasons it’s possible there wouldn’t need to be), it would be their fourth bankruptcy.
- A PACER search of the federal bankruptcy docket shows they haven’t filed a new one yet – just their May 2020 Chapter 11 case (Advantage Holdco et al., Del. No. 20‑11259) which remains in post‑confirmation status—ironically the latest quarterly report was filed on Friday.
- No WARN Act notices or Florida or Delaware dissolution filings have appeared for “Orlando Rentco LLC,” “Advantage Opco LLC,” or related entities though databases aren’t going to show the past several days of filings.
- There are no publicly posted concession fee default letters to seemingly-closed airport locations; no cure notices or lease‑termination actions either against Orlando Rentco LLC / Advantage that I can find. Airports have not yet exercised formal legal remedies — so Orlando Rentco may have just walked away and perhaps left a cash deposit large enough to cover near‑term fees.
Multiple recent Orlando reviews report that the Advantage desk is dark and Zezgo employees are honoring — or in some cases refusing — Advantage reservations at the same address.
The 2020 Chapter 11 plan left the estate in a liquidating trust, and Orlando Rentco has been running a much smaller business under the Advantage trademark.
All 8 secured lenders listed in the January 2022 plan supplement appear to still have live liens: Element, NextGear, Bancorp, HFC, Westlake, Merchants, URG and Wells Fargo. I doubt that, and any tax debt and lease financings, can be resolved consentually to be able to just walk away without a new bankruptcy.
It’s notable that franchise locations are separate legal entities. It appears that Atlanta, Houston Intercontinental and San Juan locations, for isntance, continue to operate. You can still go to the Advantage website and book cars, I’d just want to know that I was booking at a franchise location for certain before doing so. Orlando airport, for instance, now just shows no availability so perhaps new bookings are ‘real’ at this point.
company dates to 1963 when it was founded as “$3.99 Car Rentals” in San Antonio. Various brands the group acquired were consolidated under the Advantage name in 1984. The company was sold in 2006, went bankruptcy in 2008 during the financial crisis, and was acquired by Hertz in 2009. However, Hertz was forced to divest them in 2012 in order to acquire Dollar and Thrifty. The next year they were back in bankruptcy and again went bankrupt at the start of the pandemic.
Franchise or not, why take the chance?
I ceased renting from dis-Advantage last year – I had booked a car in Vegas – as I had done many times before – but when I went there to get my car, they said I had to provide proof of “full coverage” in order to rent the car. At all previous instances of renting from them, my legally state minimum insurance coverage had been fine for a rental from them. They said that I needed to show proof of full coverage – or buy insurance from them. I inquired about the cost for my 10 day rental and was told the cost would be $715. for the 10 days. I asked when did the change in insurance proof of coverage take place and was told one week ago. I told them that I had made my reservation 6 weeks ago and there was no mention of the change of policy and that I should be able to still get my reserved car for the quoted price – they said no, I had to provide proof of “full coverage” insurance – or purchase their insurance. I turned and walked out the door and have never been back. I walked across the street to the car rental center and rented a car then and there – without needing to have” full coverage” car insurance coverage. I am personally pleased to see that this mismanaged rental company is no longer viable.
Have never used this company, but the loss of competition isn’t ‘good.’ Maybe they are a one-off, poorly-run company. Or, we’re going to see a lot more trouble in the industry and larger economy. Thank goodness we are ‘great again,’ because otherwise the threats to our society/stability would be concerning.
And probably won’t be the last rental-car company to do so. The available pool of rental-grade automobiles (Stelantis, Nissan, etc.) is drying up, automated “scratch-and-ding” charges may be the breaking point for customers, and many cities would just as soon see people take public transit instead.
So did they wait to shutdown after all their cars were returned? Or is it possible someone has a rental and can’t return it? (I’m assuming that is doubtful but who knows with a lot of companies.)