NA Expedia car rental

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
Is this a bait and switch or just exorbitant price alterations?
Maybe I just don't get how it works.
When I go to rent a car for 9 days, I enter pickup/dropoff day and time (its a large international airport), I am returning to pickup location and I search.
https://www.expedia.com/Cars
It says on every offer; $135 or $140 per week but each one of them says my final price is >$330 for the 9 days. ie 2.5X the posted weekly rate. How do I get the commeasurate weekly rate?? Is 2 days really 200 bucks more??
 

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It's basically bait and switch - every rental company advertises low per diem or weekly rates then adds SUBSTANTIAL "taxes and fees" to that. In my experience taxes and fees are higher than per diem.
Total lack of transparency in this industry.
 
Also, large international airports add large fees. But I often reserve cars and, in the end, they give you the estimated price including fees. I go to the rental car sites themselves. I never use services like Expedia. Also the weekly rate can be much less than the daily rate added up. Finally, rates can vary a lot, even at the same airport, using the same company. I'm guessing it's based on demand but I haven't been able to figure out a trend.
 
It's basically bait and switch
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omg, it sure is. Look what they did when I booked (I'm cancelling it)

Price summary

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Total: $418.98
Base Price: $263.63
Taxes & Fees: $155.35
You will pay CAD538.76 at pick-up
 
What's that in real dollars?

My one dealing with using one of the resellers for rental cars was when my wife booked a hertz car through hotwire at some rediculously low price like $15/day. Now I'm used to using my #1 Gold access where the car is sitting there waiting with the keys in the ignition and the trunk open but I figured we can do this for the drastic difference in price. Well what I was not expecting was the nearly 90 minute wait to get to see an agent at the rental counter and then followed by another thirty minutes to get the car. Apparently hotwire oversold and Hertz was doing their best to turn car returns around fast enough to get them out again but it was a major meltdown.

Normally Hertz quotes the base price in big print on their site with a smaller entry beneath with the estimated total price. Avis shows you the surcharges after you select the rate (but before you complete the reservation). National shows the actual price out the door upfront.

I usually shotgun my travel to those three sites (as I have preferred status at each) and pick whoever comes up the cheapest.
 
As far as rates go, I have the best luck with Alamo, Enterprise and Budget. Hertz tends to be more expensive. I have never tried the cheaper off-site brands.
 
Think I am going to Uber to my sister's then rent locally in the am. Thanks.
 
Alamo, National, and Enterprise are all the same company now. In some places, they share the same facility.
Similarly, Budget and Avis are.
 
flyingron said:
Alamo, National, and Enterprise are all the same company now. In some places, they share the same facility.
Similarly, Budget and Avis are.
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True, but for whatever reason their prices are different. Alamo is generally less expensive than National. Budget is generally less expensive than Avis. Maybe this will change with time, or it's a branding thing for now.
 
Everskyward said:
True, but for whatever reason their prices are different. Alamo is generally less expensive than National. Budget is generally less expensive than Avis. Maybe this will change with time, or it's a branding thing for now.
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Of course it is. There's good reason they maintain the different brands. I was just pointing out that if you go with Alamo you often get the same facility that you do if you book National. Used to be they were separate companies and more often than not Alamo wasn't on field.
 
My daughter and new son in law moved from Atlanta to Washington state last month. I looked online while they were on their honeymoon for a one way box truck rental, I didn't know the exact dates, so I didn't book it. Well on March 18 the truck was $794.00 plus tax with unlimited miles, to be dropped off in Washington. When they returned I went to book it and it was $1450.00 for the same truck!!:eek::eek::eek: Apparently it was the difference in booking for the middle of the month and the beginning of the month, the trucks are in higher demand around the 1st! I thought it was the cookies that helped them jack it up, but we tried from a couple different computers and locations. If you see a deal, book it!
 
Don't trust expedia, I rented before via expedia, got to my destination airport and no record of my rental. It was a pain in the butt.
 
It's not just Expedia. Taxes and fees usually aren't included in the published rate regardless of where you book.

If you want the cheapest deal get the manager special. You'll usually end up with an upgrade anyway. Personally I never prepay because you still aren't guaranteed the car that you "reserved".
 
MadseasoN said:
It's not just Expedia. Taxes and fees usually aren't included in the published rate regardless of where you book.
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That's patently untrue. See my post above. The full price is listed no later than the confirmation page. Two out of the three majors give it to your right up front.
If you want the cheapest deal get the manager special. You'll usually end up with an upgrade anyway. Personally I never prepay because you still aren't guaranteed the car that you "reserved".
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National seems to be the most bizarre in this. I just reserve the cheapest subcompact and more often than not they just let me pick whatever they've got on the line that morning.
 
So the auditors sent me a message and asked me to pay for the "XMR" fee of $20.97 on my rental car. I checked the rental agreement that said nothing about XMR but the receipt had it. I called and they refunded the XM radio charge that they add to everyone's bill because it is in the car even though it is not on the agreement.

Beware of this scam!
 
Which rental company is this? Never heard of that scam, and I'd certainly not pay it. If corporate wouldn't fix it, I'd have AmEx take care of it.
 
flyingron said:
That's patently untrue. See my post above. The full price is listed no later than the confirmation page. Two out of the three majors give it to your right up front.

National seems to be the most bizarre in this. I just reserve the cheapest subcompact and more often than not they just let me pick whatever they've got on the line that morning.
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In my experience taxes and fees are always calculated when checking out. It makes it very hard to comparison shop. In fact, some hotels have extra fees that are tacked on when you check out. Read the fine print. I never pay up front for a rental car.
 
Just be aware that college move in and out periods are peak demand periods for truck rentals, and they charge accordingly. Just sayin...
 
Don't blame the rental car company for the airport franchise fees and state tourism taxes that get tacked onto car rentals. If you need the car more than a day or two, you are usually better off taking a cab and picking up your car at a neighborhood location.
 
When I have to rent a car, I do not pick it up at the airport. Usually the city adds their taxes to car rentals picked up or dropped off at the airport.
 
weilke said:
Don't blame the rental car company for the airport franchise fees and state tourism taxes that get tacked onto car rentals. If you need the car more than a day or two, you are usually better off taking a cab and picking up your car at a neighborhood location.
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I can certainly blame them if they don't disclose them. They certainly know what they are and can put them in the rate quote. As I've already demonstrated, the big 3 certainly already do. The one time I such a fee snuck in I protested and I even got a phone call from Avis apologizing for it. More often than not, the checkin clerks seem to knock something off my bill these days rather than having unsuspecting things show up.
 
flyingron said:
I can certainly blame them if they don't disclose them. They certainly know what they are and can put them in the rate quote. As I've already demonstrated, the big 3 certainly already do. The one time I such a fee snuck in I protested and I even got a phone call from Avis apologizing for it. More often than not, the checkin clerks seem to knock something off my bill these days rather than having unsuspecting things show up.
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Most prices are quoted without sales tax. I rather have people see how they are getting fleeced by the local taxing authority. Same thing with the milking of tourists through occupancy taxes.
 
Hertz and Avis both list the sales (and other taxes and fees) in their listings. The SIriusXM is an optional checkoff on your reservation. I've never paid it and I rent from Avis frequently.
 
I just rented a car in Vegas, and in addition to the "say one price, charge another" scam, here was the latest thing they tried:

When I was signing the contract, they asked me in a loud voice, "Do you want to receive the optional Environmental Fee?" I asked what that was, and they explained the fee as a charge, several dollars a day, that they give you to offset the damage your renting a car does to the environment. I asked, "Who gets the fee?" They responded again with "its a fee that offsets the damage renting a car does to the environment". I replied, "Yeah, you said that, but where does the fee go?" They just tried to repeat themselves again before I said, "Are you kidding me? No!"
 
I have made car reservations online with Enterprise, Alamo, Hertz, Budget, National, and probably more. They all add the taxes and fees for that location before you get to confirm the reservation. The only things that have been added after the fact are gas (if not returned full) and tolls. The tolls are a ripoff because they charge a service fee. The other annoyance is that they all try to upsell insurance and other items such as GPS when you get to the kiosk or counter.
 
Hertz last time tried to upsell me on a model car. Usually, they don't get to try this because I got #1 gold so I don't usually have human intervention with my rentals, but this was Tampa (small airport). They offered to give me a Mercedes convertible instead of the Mustang I had reserved. Now if it had been for the same price, I might have gone for it.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Is this a bait and switch or just exorbitant price alterations?
Maybe I just don't get how it works.
When I go to rent a car for 9 days, I enter pickup/dropoff day and time (its a large international airport), I am returning to pickup location and I search.
https://www.expedia.com/Cars
It says on every offer; $135 or $140 per week but each one of them says my final price is >$330 for the 9 days. ie 2.5X the posted weekly rate. How do I get the commeasurate weekly rate?? Is 2 days really 200 bucks more??
Click to expand...

I actually have had very good luck with Expedia and rental cars. When I pay online, I never get charged anything more than what I already paid, except if I make any changes or additions at the desk. It is true that there will be additional taxes and airport fees tacked on to the final total by the time you get the final price that you pay. But those additional charges are going to happen to you regardless of how you book a rental at that airport. I am pretty certain if you went directly to the rental companies, they will quote you rates that are similarly pre-tax and fees, and they are likely to be higher than expedia's quote on an apples to apples basis.

The only way I have found to get lower rates than expedia is to try the priceline "name your rate" and try something ridiculously low. That has worked for me on occasion. I think I got a compact in Los Angeles for something like 15 dollars a day for a week.
 
tawood said:
I just rented a car in Vegas, and in addition to the "say one price, charge another" scam, here was the latest thing they tried:

When I was signing the contract, they asked me in a loud voice, "Do you want to receive the optional Environmental Fee?" I asked what that was, and they explained the fee as a charge, several dollars a day, that they give you to offset the damage your renting a car does to the environment. I asked, "Who gets the fee?" They responded again with "its a fee that offsets the damage renting a car does to the environment". I replied, "Yeah, you said that, but where does the fee go?" They just tried to repeat themselves again before I said, "Are you kidding me? No!"
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Sounds like a global warming fee!!;) Can't blame them for trying!! :D
 
Is that in Canadian dollars? Almost a 1.3 times exchange rate. Still $418 is a large amount (IMO), but taxes, etc on rental cars are outrageous.
 
bflynn said:
Is that in Canadian dollars? Almost a 1.3 times exchange rate. Still $418 is a large amount (IMO), but taxes, etc on rental cars are outrageous.
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Flew into KHOT this weekend for a three day weekend with the wife.

22.5% Tax rate on the rental car, and the restaurants hit us with a 12.5% Tax.
 
National always offers carbon offsets with my rental. I avoid them.
 
None of the premium car rental programs charge an annual fee. Sign up for all of them, put in your insurance preferences (no to all) and avoid interacting with the counter drones alltogether. I haven't been to an airport counter in a long time. Did the Expedia rental car once. Wasn't any cheaper than the company sites and turned into a hassle at rental time.

Just returned a Ford Explorer to Avis this morning. Whoever programmed the logic for the door locks ought to be executed in public. I open the back gate to load some tool boxes and batteries. Every time I came back to the car from the shop it closed the gate right in front of me forcing me to put down the battery/toolbox to re-open the gate. The idiocy of self lockingcar doors.
 
dweyant said:
Flew into KHOT this weekend for a three day weekend with the wife.

22.5% Tax rate on the rental car, and the restaurants hit us with a 12.5% Tax.
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I just made a reservation for a car for Oshkosh out of MDW and there is a 62% tax and surcharge on the price. If I wasn't getting a good rate already, there is no way I'd be paying this.
 
I book rental cars through Costco. Monday through Monday from KLAS (7 Days) $102 base rate, $76 tax and fees, no up-charges, no extras, no explanation of what the 75% in "taxes and fees" are.
 
I had a 7 hour layover in FLL last August, so I booked a "SUV" from Hertz through Expedia, to go play some poker at the casino there. Price was like $25, $43 after all the taxes and fees.

I get to the rental place (weekday about 2pm, had a 9pm flight), and the counter is huge, probably 8-10 stations. But there is ONLY 1 agent working and the line is probably 8 deep. There was a guy trying to get people off the line to use the self-service kiosks. After almost 30 minutes, I finally get to use the self-service kiosk, and am told that they don't have any SUV's at the moment but they were cleaning one. After 30 more minutes, I said I can't wait any longer, so I just took a Chevy impala sedan. No discount, no sorry about the wait or not having your car. Lousy customer service.

But I won like $400 in 2 hours of play, so it ended up being worth it. The casino is not far from the airport, so I think a taxi may have been a bit cheaper and less of a headache. Next time. Uber says $14.65 one way.
 
For those of you who are AOPA members, you can get some pretty good discounts from the AOPA rental car program (Enterprise, National and Alamo). It's a little hit or miss, but always the first place I check. The prices you get through AOPA are inclusive of all taxes, fees etc.

AOPA members also get a free membership in the Last Minute Travel Club (LMTclub.com)...this is a site like Expedia that gives you discount flights, hotels and cars. I have gotten amazing discounts on car rentals through them (especially at Budget and Thrifty). Be advised, though, that not all rental rates are all-inclusive, and sometimes the site will tell you only the base rate, and that "taxes and fees" will be charged in addition by the rental car company when you pick up the car.
 
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weilke said:
Just returned a Ford Explorer to Avis this morning. Whoever programmed the logic for the door locks ought to be executed in public. I open the back gate to load some tool boxes and batteries. Every time I came back to the car from the shop it closed the gate right in front of me forcing me to put down the battery/toolbox to re-open the gate. The idiocy of self lockingcar doors.
Click to expand...

LOL! I have a co-worker with the opposite problem. He has some Hyundai thing that has a powered lift gate on the back. Supposedly in order to save you having to put things down, it senses the keyfob is nearby and if you stand near the rear of the vehicle long enough, it opens the lift gate.

Of course it can't tell if you're just standing in the parking lot talking to someone after work, so it'll open the thing and hit you with it, and he says he's stopped it from hitting people and other objects (you mash the close button on the fob to abort this silly behavior) many times. There's apparently no way to turn it off or he hasn't read the manual carefully enough, but I suspect the former. He's a bright guy. And he hates the thing.

His favorite is when he's walking past the car on the OTHER SIDE of a closed garage door (he's in his driveway) and he hears it start beeping and whacks the lift gate into the closed garage door, if he doesn't stop it quick enough. Hahahaha. Thump. Oh and after a while it resets and it'll do it again if you walk away and come back.

Flying Viking said:
For those of you who are AOPA members, you can get some pretty good discounts from the AOPA rental car program (Enterprise, National and Alamo). It's a little hit or miss, but always the first place I check. The prices you get through AOPA are inclusive of all taxes, fees etc.

AOPA members also get a free membership in the Last Minute Travel Club (LMTclub.com)...this is a site like Expedia that gives you discount flights, hotels and cars. I have gotten amazing discounts on car rentals through them (especially at Budget and Thrifty). Be advised, though, that not all rental rates are all-inclusive, and sometimes the site will tell you only the base rate, and that "taxes and fees" will be charged in addition by the rental car company when you pick up the car.
Click to expand...

Maybe something has changed, but I always found I could beat the AOPA price on all of that stuff just by searching.
 
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