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I was just pricing the cost of renting a car. For each city that I plugged in, the added fees were anywhere between 30-50% of the base rate for the rental. How can these companies find suckers to rent to? These cities are literally raping the tourists that come to visit.
There are a lot of ways to lower the costs. Avoid renting at airports, be over 25, decline CDW insurance, don't add on car seats, GPS devices, prepaid gas and tolls, pay with a credit rather than debit card, etc.
I have a car rented for 10 days in October, fees and taxes are under 20% of the rental total. My total cost per day for a standard size car (Ford Fusion or similar) is $28.
I can't remember the last time I paid more than $18/day for a rental. Priceline is the best, but only if you use it last minute. I most recently rented in NYC and while individual sites were showing prices to be over $400 for my time period, I paid $16/day and well under $200 for the entire time.
I have found that changing the time of day I rent and return the car can make a difference in price. I usually rent for a week or more at a time. More than once I have reduced the rate by 20 percent or more simply by getting the car at 6pm instead of noon. Getting the car a day earlier or later often can change the rate. You would think all of the rental companies at the same location would have about the same rates. This is not the case. If you don't mind a gas guzzler, there are times in the summer when the rate for a SUV will be the same or even less than a compact. While sites like priceline can save me a little money, I tend to book my cars online with what ever rental company I decide to use. By doing this I can almost always get a free upgrade when actually getting the car.
There are two types of additional fees. Those the rental car company charges based on you renting and those imposed by governement.
The company rental charge is a base rate for a specific type of rental. Everything above that is based on you wanting or needing something else. You can control those cost by ALWAYS getting the quote based on how you are renting. If you get a quote and add on other options like insurance, of course you will pay more.
The fees and taxes imposed by governement is beyond the control of the rental company, its just a passthrough. When getting quotes, ask what are the taxes and surcharges imposed on the rental. you may avoid some like was mentioned before by not using an in airport location. Some surcharges are applied to non-business rentals but unless you know the fee exist and why, you can't ask for it to be removed.
I was just pricing the cost of renting a car. For each city that I plugged in, the added fees were anywhere between 30-50% of the base rate for the rental. How can these companies find suckers to rent to? These cities are literally raping the tourists that come to visit.
In MOST cases, you can avoid a lot of the fees by traveling off-airport.
For example, on a recent trip, a 9 day rental on Seatac Airport was $680. Taking a $5 train ride to DT Seattle yielded a $250 rental from the same rental company.
For example, renting at Cleveland-Hopkins on a $15 one day weekend rental with Enterprise RAC will cost you $35 or so including all fees. A short one stop ride on the light rail will get you the same for about $18/day including fees.
For example, renting from Hertz at O'Hare costs you 27% in additional taxes. Rent the same car in Park Ridge, IL, a five mile taxi ride will reduce it to 7%.
For a short rental, heading off the airport will not be worth the hassle; a two week rental, it may amount to major savings.
To the OP - Travelers generally DO NOT vote in the areas where they rent cars.
Back when I was young and inexperienced and wasn't yet worldly, I took a very ill prepared trip to the UK with no back up credit card and I think I had 600 pounds in cash. The rental car was booked through some travel agent and I think the weekly rental was 100 pounds for some crapbox. When they handed me the forms to sign it was some outrageous amount on the invoice and I was like what the hell!
There was 17.5% VAT, 10% Airport tax, insurance, Airport pick up fee, Young Driver under 25 fee and even a 50 pound deposit I had to pay because I paid in cash! There I was looking at the prospect of most of my cash being gobbled up.
Finally I worked them down some, but it was a tight week and ultimately had no money to do what I wanted and what I came over to do and really never should have gone to begin with. It was a humbling week sitting in highway layabouts in rural UK eating gas station sandwiches with no idea where to go or what to do. I did see the countryside though. And admired Page 3 girls in the Sun newspaper everyday.
To top it off, when I got home and was back at college and work, right in front of me a drunk driver plowed into my personal car parked at work.
March of 1996 was a hard month.
Now years later I decided long ago that I will complete that trip as intended and even go better and do stuff that I previously dreamed of back then. Finish the job so to speak.
We just returned from a road trip and rented a car through Priceline. We rented for two weeks in Albuquerque for $24./day......we thought!!!
After fees were added, it came to over $50/day. Our visa covered for collision but not liability which we had to purchase from National. We live overseas so our auto insurance does not cover us for liability in the states.
Does anyone know a less costly way to obtain liability insurance? We paid $12/day for liability in Alb. and then $24/day for liability in Las Vegas. Our total car rental bill for three weeks came to roughly $1100 including liability insurance and OUTRAGEOUS added fees. Our hotel bills were less!!!
Any suggestions on how to save money next time are welcomed.
wl
Don't rent at the airport, If you rent alot, check out Amex they have a rental coverage you can buy from them for alot less the then rental (and its better coverage to). Search the web for other ins companies that sell coverage.
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