Railfan Technology > Rental car agencies add more fees

Last year I complained that in Spokane I paid more fees than the advertised price of the rental car. Now it looks like the rental car companies are coming up with even more fees:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/traveltips/05/05/rental.car.fees/index.html

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

My favorite is the early return penalty.

KG

A $50 million annual travel budget at work has been zeroed out. On the home front, this will be the first year in memory where I will not be renting at least one vehicle.

I can see why the car rental companies are getting desperate.

Bob

If you think Spokane is bad, the same rental chains in Missoula, MT just 200 miles east charge exactly 200% of the Spokane price. Instead of Spokane's unlimited mileage you get 150 free miles which will not make a round trip to the state capital in Helena. You cannot take the Montana cars to Utah or New Mexico, you cannot take the Spokane cars to Alaska and Hawaii.

One of the things you can do to get good rates is make your reservation and keep checking ALL the rental companys daily looking for a lower rate. There is a great fluxuation in pricing of rental cars in some markets. Last year for Denver, the original rate I got was around $380 for 8 days, over the next several weeks I changed reservations 5-6 times finally setteling on $220. I sometimes canceled a reservation with company "A" and then made a new rerservation with the same company for $20-$30 dollars less before ever logging out of the site. This was not a one time thing, it happens on a routine basis. Ive never had any problem with any cancelation fees or any thing like that. Use one of the major search sites and you can see all the companys at the same time to compare.

biff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of the things you can do to get good rates is
> make your reservation and keep checking ALL the
> rental companys daily looking for a lower rate.
> There is a great fluxuation in pricing of rental
> cars in some markets. Last year for Denver, the
> original rate I got was around $380 for 8 days,
> over the next several weeks I changed reservations
> 5-6 times finally setteling on $220. I sometimes
> canceled a reservation with company "A" and then
> made a new rerservation with the same company for
> $20-$30 dollars less before ever logging out of
> the site. This was not a one time thing, it
> happens on a routine basis. Ive never had any
> problem with any cancelation fees or any thing
> like that. Use one of the major search sites and
> you can see all the companys at the same time to
> compare.



Another "trick" I discovered is to put in different lengths of rentals. I got an online quote from Hertz for 7 days in Los Angeles with AAA discount last October. It was about $40/day for a full size car. I put in 8 days to see how much an extra day was and it quoted me about $20/day. Needless to say, I booked the 8 day rate and saved a chunk of money.

Nomosantafe
Fort Worth, Texas
"Where the West Begins"

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you think Spokane is bad, the same rental
> chains in Missoula, MT just 200 miles east charge
> exactly 200% of the Spokane price. Instead of
> Spokane's unlimited mileage you get 150 free miles
> which will not make a round trip to the state
> capital in Helena. You cannot take the Montana
> cars to Utah or New Mexico, you cannot take the
> Spokane cars to Alaska and Hawaii.


That's what I found out when I went to Montana/North Dakota/Saskatchewan last September. I had to fly into Spokane to get an SUV with unlimited mileage.

Rental car pricing is getting a bit strange. Around here I can rent from Hertz locally, or I can rent from any one of a number of airports, depending on which way I'm going -- Stewart in Newburgh (NY) if I'm heading north, Scranton if I'm heading due west (Chicago), Allentown if I'm heading westish-southish (i.e. Cincinnati) or Trenton-Mercer if I'm going dead south (Trenton also has the benefit of free parking for when I leave my car there). The local Hertz agency offers cars (not SUVs) with unlimited mileage, while the local Enterprise agency only lets you have unlimited miles in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York (the local Enterprise won't rent to me anymore, but that's another story -- it involves putting 2000 miles on one of their cars in five days).

However, lately I've noticed that the local agency and Trenton airport don't have unlimited mile SUVs. Even more puzzling, the weekly rental on a standard SUV out of Stewart and Scranton is about $325 per week, but only $175 out of Allentown. Allentown is soooo cheap that any time I need a rental I now route my trip through there (it's 75 minutes away, so I usually hit Allentown as part of the trip and drop my car there). With fees, I can usually get a weekly rental on a standard SUV for about $205 (plus $70 for airport parking for my car).

As far as fees go, I use my own insurance to cover the rental cars. Always, always bring the car back full -- the prepay gas option is one of the greatest rip-offs the rental car companies ever invented (even if you bring the car back with only a gallon of gas left in it, you're coming out behind on the deal).

Steve Barry
Railfan & Railroad

Steve,

You will see the dearth of SUVs account the resale market for these vehicles is dying faster than banking integrity. The reason auto manufacturers owned rental agencies was to provide dealers with low mileage used vehicles with impecable service records for sale to buyers who could not afford a new car. Yes, the American auto industry has been crippled for a long time and has tried any number of ways to keep it limping along hoping for a rebound. If SUV sales improve in the future you will see more rental SUVs available.

arb