I think it's time to quit Hertz

KaiGywer said:
Haven't physically tried Sixt yet, but have a couple reservations pending for trips later this year. What's nice is they will status match Hertz President's Circle (maybe Gold, idk) and their prices are much lower. Also I like that I can pick "BMW or similar" rather than the standard rental fleet.
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Used Sixt extensively in Europe and always been pleased. It’s been a decade or so back though.
 
Zeldman said:
I would be trying to describe to some folks what it was like to jumpseat between Texas and Alaska every month.

When I would get to the part where I would say there were times I had to do the O.J. Simpson thing across the airport to get to a flight, folks would look at me strange and take a step back.... ''You would murder people at the airport.??...'' :nonod::lol:
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Well, that does make sense.
 
Knock on wood, I haven't had any issues with Hertz.

Well, a couple of months ago, I was in HNL, and the Gold area (pick your car) had 4 Camaro SS cars. NOT exactly what I want for Honolulu. Oh well, I survived. :D

I did have to use Alamo spring 2022 in SAT. We did have to wait about 10 - 15 minutes for them to finish washing and prepping a car for us. But no one else had cars.

I have used Sixt in Europe and things went quite well.
 
Just supposition on my part, not inside knowledge - but I think with so much competition, and likely razor thin margins, it may make sense for them to have a very high "occupancy" rate for their vehicles, even to the point of over booking, accepting walk-ups, and angering later-arriving customers. My guess is they have an algorithm taking in to account no-show rates, early return rates, late return rates, breakdowns, etc. But maybe not sophisticated enough to parse it by location, or to "protect" reservations made by Gold members.

PS
I rented from Budget at DCA last year - after I got to my hotel I saw the tags were expired. . .
 
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Sundancer said:
Just supposition on my part, not inside knowledge - but I think with so much competition, and likely razor thin margins, it may make sense for them to have a very high "occupancy" rate for their vehicles, even to the point of over booking, accepting walk-ups, and angering later-arriving customers. My guess is they have an algorithm taking in to account no-show rates, early return rates, late return rates, breakdowns, etc. But maybe not sophisticated enough to parse it by location, or to "protect" reservations made by Gold members.

PS
I rented from Budget at DCA last year - after I got to my hotel I saw the tags were expired. . .
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Otherwise known as maximizing short term revenue to meet a year end performance metric, at the expense of long term high value customer loyalty.
 
Sundancer said:
I saw the tags were expired.
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I rented a Hertz car in KFAR last year and when I got to the hotel, I noticed there were no tags on the car at all. I called the FBO (Hertz was already closed for the night) and asked what’s up with that and they said not to worry. It’s a brand new car and doesn’t need tags for the first few weeks. If the police stops me, I should just tell them it’s a Hertz car. Not sure it would have been that easy but luckily I didn’t get stopped going back to the airport the next morning.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
I rented a Hertz car in KFAR last year and when I got to the hotel, I noticed there were no tags on the car at all. I called the FBO (Hertz was already closed for the night) and asked what’s up with that and they said not to worry. It’s a brand new car and doesn’t need tags for the first few weeks. If the police stops me, I should just tell them it’s a Hertz car. Not sure it would have been that easy but luckily I didn’t get stopped going back to the airport the next morning.
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I’ve told the story before, but Avis did me one worse.

On a car that they knew was going to Mexico, Avis forged, with a sharpie, later expiration dates on the expired paper temp tag, which was also not the same as the tag number on the vehicle contract in the glove box.

The Mexican Federale who detained me for an extended period was not amused.

After I was un-detained I made a beeline back to Avis and gave the local manager hell. He told me I shouldn’t worry because they “do that to a lot of cars and would have paid my ticket if I had received one.”

That event likely could have been more than a ticket, but Avis corporate either didn’t care or wouldn’t tell me how they resolved it.
 
Ventucky Red said:
IMPO, It all has to do with the person working the counter and whether are they willing to go the extra effort.

While back, I interviewed a young lady for a sales position. One of her former jobs was working for Marriott, where she taught new employees customer service and customer relations. As she put it, I had to teach common sense things. "The one issue she brought up is people don't know how to say, "I am sorry we made a mistake, let me see how I can fix this for you..."
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That is the attitude that made me a Titanium Marriot customer. Back when I owned my business, we had daily morning meetings. Around 15-20 people for about 15 minutes. More than once my message was "Be like Marriott".
 
I had a similar story in Israel with the Hertz counterpart there. Reserved a car, they didn't have it. What I learned, and this might be true for the US as well, is that during COVID car rental companies really struggled to stay afloat and sold off a lot of their cars just to keep cash flow going. Then when COVID let up and people started traveling again they've been very slow to re-stock their inventory of cars. Not an excuse at all, but I think it makes sense. They have not really pushed hard to get their availability up as people have resumed travel.
 
Lawson_Stone said:
I had a similar story in Israel with the Hertz counterpart there. Reserved a car, they didn't have it. What I learned, and this might be true for the US as well, is that during COVID car rental companies really struggled to stay afloat and sold off a lot of their cars just to keep cash flow going. Then when COVID let up and people started traveling again they've been very slow to re-stock their inventory of cars. Not an excuse at all, but I think it makes sense. They have not really pushed hard to get their availability up as people have resumed travel.
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Covid is so 2021. What have they been doing the past two years?
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
Covid is so 2021. What have they been doing the past two years?
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100% agree, but the capital outlay to build back up a large inventory of cars nationwide would possibly be quite large. And I guess they already spent their COVID loans on other stuff...
 
Lawson_Stone said:
100% agree, but the capital outlay to build back up a large inventory of cars nationwide would possibly be quite large. And I guess they already spent their COVID loans on other stuff...
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Executive bonuses? Lol.

Baked Potato said:
Cars are a bit more expensive than they were before COVID
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Do they actually buy these cars or are they on lease?
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
Do they actually buy these cars or are they on lease?
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Oh, I actually have no idea. I'm not sure what kind of a deal one could get on a lease in 2021 (during the big chip shortage) vs an outright purchase.

It's likely a combination of low inventory and fewer people wanting to work customer service jobs now.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
Do they actually buy these cars or are they on lease?
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When I was still in the auto industry, there were very close relationships between OEMs and rental companies.

Contract pricing to rentals was manipulated to boost specific model sales and head off Wall Street share dumping in slow times, or to pad the Ford vs Chevy sales numbers for a given month.

Per the industry article below, it looks like that still happens, plus, coming out of Covid the rental companies were competing with dealers as supplies got short. And the dealers were willing to pay more.

https://www.wardsauto.com/industry-news/rental-companies-struggle-replenish-fleets-amid-covid
 
Since COVID has been over, cars and trucks have been in short supply. And prices stupidly high.

They buy them. And then sell them after about 1 year.

Also not all states use temp tags. Some have no tag until the metal ones come.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
I rented a Hertz car in KFAR last year and when I got to the hotel, I noticed there were no tags on the car at all. I called the FBO (Hertz was already closed for the night) and asked what’s up with that and they said not to worry. It’s a brand new car and doesn’t need tags for the first few weeks. If the police stops me, I should just tell them it’s a Hertz car. Not sure it would have been that easy but luckily I didn’t get stopped going back to the airport the next morning.
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ND doesn't do temp tags on the outside of the vehicle, we have a piece of paper in the rear windshield until the plates arrive. That being said, most rental cars here are titled in ID or SD once the plates arrive.
 
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