Hertz - Too many members?

Tried booking Hertz car recently and been told no cars available? Are these clubs too full of infrequent renters? Anyone know how many members they have?

"No cars available" means that the location has sold out - actual reservations for cars. It has nothing to do with membership in the frequent-renter clubs.

Yes, all of the clubs are full of infrequent renters. I have probably about 8 rental car memberships, most of which are dormant in any given year. But that doesn't impact your ability to reserve a car.

Start with an Orbitz search on all agencies. That'll give you a better picture of the overall demand for your dates/location. If it's just Hertz that is sold out, book another agency and join their "club" while you're at it. If everybody is sold out, then there still may be a trick or two to suss out some availability by tweaking your return date. (This almost certainly won't be cheap - likely only useful for a business rental.) If that fails, consider a cab/bus/train/etc.

There are less cars out there. Rental agencies in total bought 26% less new cars in 08 then they did in 07, and the number for 09 will be even less.

Add into that the number of people that make backup reservations at several agencies in case the first one doesn't have car in the color they like, and that ties up even more cars.

Keep trying, or try other agencies, as the date gets closer they may get openings for you.

If it's only a 1 or 2 day rental, try booking for longer and returning early. Excluding coupons which require 2 or 3 days minimum keep, there's typically no penalty for this. I've done it a couple times and gotten a car when otherwise it said sold out. If it's a big event, they'll generally get more inventory in from elsewhere (or new; couple years ago I rented from PIT during US Open golf and got a brand new car). But even so there is a certain point where they'll stop taking reservations. A certain number of the non-prepaid reservations will be no-shows, so there's some wiggle room in there. Apparently they'll take a longer booking on the chance that one of their shorter ones will no-show anyway. And of course the prediction doesn't always work so sometimes people show up with res and there are no cars.

But membership in #1 Gold doesn't have anything to do with it. When the reservations are deemed "sold out" is all about the car inventory.

Well, and then there's this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz/1005848-availability-changes-drastically-depending-cdp.html