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The self check-in kiosk is already taken for granted by most airline passengers, and increasingly, for better or worse, by hotel guests. Car rental companies have been slow to adopt self-serve machines, though. (In part, this likely has to do with the distribution of keys, though you get around this by simply putting the keys in the ignition in the secured parking lot. Anyway…)

Alamo and National (both belong to the same company, Vanguard) are introducing kiosks nationally, after successful testing in Las Vegas, Dallas, and Jacksonville.

I’m all for it. I can say “no” to collision damage waiver, etc., as quickly and easily to a person as I could to a machine.

While some companies, like Hertz and Alamo, make it easy for their frequent renters to get in and out quickly, the “masses” are generally stuck waiting in line. I remember waiting for over an hour — at midnight! — at the Budget desk at LAX. Awful. I would have gladly used a kiosk.

Perhaps this will improve the companies’ ratings for customer satisfaction. As Chris Elliott points out, the industry essentially gets a grade of “C.” Maybe the kiosks can bump it up to a B-.