"We worked hard when we weren't employee-owned. But we worked even harder since," she said. "It was like, 'Hey, this is ours!' We're like a big family; we have to work together."

Some Avis employees, however, said that even though they own the company, they often didn't feel like owners. They are not even represented on the Avis board, for example. And many said they were kept in the dark during the recent deal-making. In fact, many interviewed last week said they did not even know about the offer from HFS until they read about it in newspapers. One learned from a customer at a service counter in Manhattan who said to her: "Don't you know? Avis just got sold."

"There's great suspicion about the deal," said William B. Patterson, a spokesman for the Teamsters, which represents about 25 percent of Avis employees. "We don't know exactly what is going on here. We want full disclosure of the terms of the deal and to make sure that employee-owners are getting a fair value for their stock."

Among the big questions is whether employees are getting a fair price compared with what management is getting.

Mr. Patterson said that there was suspicion that management might receive stock options and golden parachutes. HFS's chief financial officer, Stephen P. Holmes, would not comment, citing an agreement among parties to the deal not to do so.

Mr. Patterson added that employees "need to know whether they're voting themselves out of a job."

The United States Trust Company of California, the trustee negotiating on behalf of Avis employees, said in a letter to be released to them tomorrow that it "has been assured by HFS that it has no intent to downsize Avis's car-rental business. In fact, our understanding is that HFS's desire is to expand the business."

The letter also tried to address concern about whether employees are getting the best possible deal. It noted that CS First Boston, the trustee's financial adviser, had considered a public offering of Avis stock as an alternative to the HFS transaction but concluded that, "with respect to the ESOP, the HFS offer is substantially superior."