Other Car Rental Programs (ie. Alamo, Enterprise) - Enterprise @ SEA -- any chance they won't honor low rate?




dtremit
Dec 1, 11, 6:30 pm
I'm normally a National renter, but after seeing fairly high rates on an upcoming Seattle trip, I did a Kayak search and found that Enterprise had an almost impossibly low ($15) rate -- but on minivans only. The next lowest rate they're offering is ~$65 for a compact.

I really don't want to end up in a situation where I take a shuttle bus out to Enterprise only to find they won't honor the reservation because it was some kind of glitch. Has anyone ever seen Enterprise do anything like that?

Also -- any good or bad experiences with Enterprise at SEA?


Often1
Dec 1, 11, 7:18 pm
What did Enterprise say when you called to ask for a rate quote?

dtremit
Dec 2, 11, 10:57 am
I didn't call them, I booked through enterprise.com.


Often1
Dec 2, 11, 1:10 pm
I didn't call them, I booked through enterprise.com.
Very well understood. But, you have a question about the rate. Your best source of information is to call Enterprise. The number is: 1-800-261-7331. You don't have to flag it as a possible error, all you need to do is see if you can replicate it. There's nobody on FT who can shed any light on what actually will happen if indeed its a mistake quote.

dtremit
Dec 2, 11, 2:31 pm
I didn't ask anyone here to verify my rate; I merely asked if anyone had ever not had a rate honored by an Enterprise agent. I think that's a reasonable question.

jackal
Dec 3, 11, 8:04 am
Probably a byproduct of Enterprise's overly-aggressive automated rate management system. It takes car class utilization into account (although among other things) when setting rates, so if there are a ton of minivans sitting but a shortage of compact cars, it may price minivans lower than compact cars. Not really an intentional fleet management strategy as much as a programming oversight in the rate management system. (It's bad to oversell on minivans, because it's hard to find a replacement for customers who actually need the seating/storage capacity of one--you certainly can't give someone with 7 people a "free upgrade" to a "premium economy car" or even to anything else in the fleet with less than 7 decent-sized seats--so pretty much anything except a Tahoe/Suburban or 12pax van [hah!]).

Enterprise has and enforces a two-hour no-show policy. As long as you show up within two hours of your scheduled reservation (so they can't claim they've canceled your reservation) and bring a printed copy of your reservation confirmation showing your $15 base rate and estimated total (so they can't claim you misunderstood something), then even if they do try to do anything, you're as good as gold (and can definitely fight it later).

If worst comes to worst, use those magic words that all Enterprise employees live in terror of: "I'm not completely satisfied"... ;)



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