Budget - New Very Tough No-Show & Late Return Terms

This is very different language than I've seen on Budget before for reservations of the standard array of Economy to "full-size" cars:

• Vehicles are rented on a daily (24-hour) basis. There is a 29-minute grace period for returns. After 30 minutes late, a 3/4-day late charge + $.01 + taxes apply. After 90 minutes late, full-day late charges + taxes apply. There is no grace period for rental fees, surcharges and optional equipment or protections charges, so full-day late charges will apply for these items.
• If your plans change and you no longer require the rental, you must cancel this reservation before the scheduled pick up time or you will be charged a $75 US fee ($50 US for a pre-paid rental).

The grace period / and phase-in period for extra day charges have been shortened once again - full day charge after 1 minute if you have any adds-ons and, if you have no add ons, a 0.75 day fee if you are 30 minutes late. They were phasing in extra day charges over a two-hour period (and before that it was after three hours.)

But I've not seen this $75 fee for rentals of non-specialty cars. And you have to click on an optional pop-up window to see this.

If this is the future, I won't be renting from Budget unless they have a really killer deal (currently they do for me). This is just too much to worry about if I don't have to.

On this rental I had to go back and change my pickup time to much later than my planned arrival time, to ensure I don't get caught on the charge should I have to cancel and can't get through to them before the planned pickup time - as a Fastbreak member not happy about having to do that.

Sounds like LAS langauge to me.

Hoo boy...I just did a dummy reservation to test this, because as the thread I started about the $10 late fee illustrates, I have a dog in this one. And I feel that the following is really buried, discoverable only if you follow the link on the last rental page - "You're done! Your car is rented!" - the one after the "Rent it" page...**

The following terms and conditions apply for your rental:

additional fees & credit holds:

• To extend a rental from your originally scheduled return time, you must contact a Budget reservation agent at 800-824-6287. A service fee of $10 will apply and your original per-day rental rate may change. If within 7 hours of your originally scheduled return time you don't call to extend your rental, a $10/day late fee will apply.
• Your total rental rate is calculated based on the information provided at time of reservation.
• Vehicles are rented on a daily (24-hour) basis. There is a 29-minute grace period for returns. After 30 minutes late, a 3/4-day late charge + $.01 + taxes apply. After 90 minutes late, full-day late charges + taxes apply. There is no grace period for rental fees, surcharges and optional equipment or protections charges, so full-day late charges will apply for these items.
• If your plans change and you no longer require the rental, you must cancel this reservation before the scheduled pick up time or you will be charged a $75 US fee ($50 US for a pre-paid rental).

I just finished a series of several two-day rentals, keeping the same car, to capitalize on the 2-day/5,000 DL mi. promo. I was one day late returning on one rental, and so a no-show for the following one, that day, anyway. But I "picked up" on a new rental the next day. I thought my worst problem was the $10, but now I think I may be out the $75 no-show fee, as well. :mad:

I know, we should read the fine print, but this is a material departure from practice, going back a long time. I think it should be highlighted. Budget is going to make a ton of money on this, and I suggest that this thread is the tip of the iceberg of the response they will receive.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: ...for how they are handling this change.



** I only put this exerpt here because there's a little more than what GrizShel pasted.

This thread is interesting to me, even though I almost never rent from Budget.
If you prepaid a rental, I could see how how they might be able to get you for not showing up:p.
But if you just made reservation for April 15 @ LAX and never showed up; how would they bill you for that?
Still, it is interesting and helpful to know that rental car companies think like this.;)

I was a no-show a few weeks ago and did not get charged a fee. After hearing about this new fee I went back and looked at the original reservation and it was listed in there, but I was not charged it.

I'm guessing they will not actually charge this to customers since reservations that are made when not signed in to a rapid rez account can still be made without entering any credit card info.

I'm guessing they will not actually charge this to customers since reservations that are made when not signed in to a rapid rez account can still be made without entering any credit card info.

Right you are. Thank you for putting it so diplomatically. I should know better than to hit the Big Red Button prematurely like that. :o

OH, that is a good point! Don't use RapidRez or anything that has your credit card info recorded. Yikes! $75 is a lot!

@:-)@:-)@:-)@:-)@:-)@:-)@:-)
...Don't use RapidRez or anything that has your credit card info recorded...

(Putting this in lights...)