Advantage
Advantage is an American car rental company with its headquarters in Orlando, Florida (the largest rental market in the world, coincidentally). It operates in large American rental markets along with Mexico and Canada and concentrates on serving leisure travelers with the vehicles they need to have a great time on their vacations.
Advantage was founded in 1963 and was originally named “$3.99 Car Rentals.” The original location was in San Antonio, Texas. The original owners, Kenneth and Helen Walker, would go on to purchase other rental companies in other cities and operate them independently. In the 1980s they finally brought all of the companies under the Advantage brand. The company expanded throughout much of the US in those years with locations in many airports, particularly in the Sunbelt region. Many of these would close during 2008.
The original owners would later sell the company to the Hertz Corporation, one of the largest rental companies in the world. Advantage is no longer owned by Hertz after the company divested Advantage in 2012. What is now the Advantage brand is a privately owned company. Many of Advantage’s previous locations are now owned by other rental companies or have since been closed.
The Advantage brand nowadays has locations near the airports of Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, and Miami. It also has locations at three hotels and resorts in the Orlando area where travelers can easily pick up and drop off their cars at the hotel and use it only when they need it. This is particularly useful for those visiting Disney World who don’t necessarily need a car every day while visiting the parks.
The Advantage brand used to have locations at airports in Boston, New York (JFK and La Guardia), Newark and Houston, Denver, Maui, and Honolulu. These locations were taken over by Sixt during the last change of ownership of Advantage in 2020. The company’s locations in Las Vegas and Orlando were also taken over by Sixt, but they have been reopened at different locations by the Advantage brand since then.
Advantage has also expanded internationally under its new ownership. It has a location at Toronto Airport in Canada. The company has many locations in tourist hotspots in Mexico. These include Cancun, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, and Los Cabos.
When renting with Advantage, you can drop off your vehicle at any time, so if you have an early morning flight, there is no worry. Advantages airport locations are not open 24 hours a day, though, so you won’t be able to pick up a vehicle at any time. Its locations are also usually not in the airport and require a shuttle service to reach (which is provided for free by the company).
Advantage offers a wide range of vehicles and can meet the needs of almost any leisure traveler, whether they are a single traveler or a family. The company has cars of various sizes, SUVs, minivans, and special cars like luxury and convertibles.
