That's how bigger airport car rentals work, you've obviously never rented a car outside an airport location. Non airport car rental locations usually take a lot longer to go through the whole process, no streamlined/staffless way to rent, and have limited hours and a much smaller staff. I think the one by my house is even closed on Sundays. If you have some jackoff in front of you who is fighting with the staff about being turned away for not having a credit card you end up having to wait for the staff to deal with that before they can process your rental[1]. I've also had to wait for the car to be cleaned in the past when they got unexpectedly busy.
On top of that airports are usually not located near where people live. The vast majority of people renting a Zipcar for a day trip are not going to want to go to an airport to pick up their car.
Airport rentals can get significantly backed up during busy times. I've gotten totally gridlocked in the rental car parking lot before.
That's how bigger airport car rentals work, you've obviously never rented a car outside an airport location. Non airport car rental locations usually take a lot longer to go through the whole process, no streamlined/staffless way to rent, and have limited hours and a much smaller staff. I think the one by my house is even closed on Sundays. If you have some jackoff in front of you who is fighting with the staff about being turned away for not having a credit card you end up having to wait for the staff to deal with that before they can process your rental[1]. I've also had to wait for the car to be cleaned in the past when they got unexpectedly busy.
On top of that airports are usually not located near where people live. The vast majority of people renting a Zipcar for a day trip are not going to want to go to an airport to pick up their car.
Airport rentals can get significantly backed up during busy times. I've gotten totally gridlocked in the rental car parking lot before.
[1] actually happened to me