Avis - Weird Manhattan Policy

Avis Manhattan locations have a very weird policy. Everywhere else you can rent a car for 24 hours and if you return it anytime within the 24 hours you get charged the same price no matter when you return it.

In Manhattan if you reserve a car Sunday morning with a Monday AM return, but decide to return it early on Sunday evening, they claim period contract is invalid and will reprice based at a much higher rate even though you want to pay the 24 hour rate.

Similarly if you reserve a car Sunday morning with a Sunday eve return and decide to keep it until Monday morning they hit you with additional charges even though it is within the same 24 hour period.

Since most of the Manhattan locations close at 11:00PM you have to commit in advance to returning the car before 11:00PM or the next day. If you decide to return early or are running late and have to return the next morning, you get hit with higher charges even though it's the same 24 hour period.

Hertz doesn't play these kind of games.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

It sounds like you are reserving with a rate that either: 1) requires a Sunday night keep; or 2) expires at 11:59 PM on Sunday. Have you tried calling Avis and asking if they can offer you a different, more flexible daily rate that has neither return restriction? (That rate might be higher than one with return restrictions.)

Parking in Manhattan: super expensive. Not too surprising that they'd prefer you to deal with the car overnight.

I'm assuming you're talking about Manhattan NY and not Manhattan, KS

Avis Manhattan locations have a very weird policy. Everywhere else you can rent a car for 24 hours and if you return it anytime within the 24 hours you get charged the same price no matter when you return it.

...

Hertz doesn't play these kind of games.

False.

Avis in other locations, as well as Hertz, certainly has weekend rates. You might get a significantly cheaper rate renting 9am Friday - 9am Saturday than if you drop the car off at 5pm Friday. Or rather, if you've reserved the cheaper rate for the 24 hours, it is likelythat dropping it off at 5pm will incur a weekday rate.

False.




Dwight Shrute, is that you?

Parking in Manhattan: super expensive. Not too surprising that they'd prefer you to deal with the car overnight.

It is, but don't you think they have a long-term lease on the parking stalls they use? It's not like they pay $50 per night for each car they park.

I suppose, though, if they are in danger of running out of stalls and having to find places to park the extra cars, then it'd make sense to charge more for an early return. But that doesn't explain why they then charge more if you indicate you want to return at 11pm but don't actually get it returned until 8am.

Ask the rental location if there is an alternate drop-off location during the hours when your rental location is closed. There is probably a 24-hour rental location that will accept drop-offs that originated from non-24-hour locations. Hertz does this in Manhattan; I would hypothesize that Avis operates similarly.

Hertz doesn't play these kind of games.
Avis seems to play a number of games that Hertz doesn't. For one, Avis won't let me make any modifications of my reservation (e.g., pickup time) without a complete reprice of the reservation (it's now 2x).

Hertz is almost always able to keep the original rate plan, as long as the new reservation time meets the terms of the original rate, although often you have to call in. Avis is 100% stubborn about this. As it is, I only consider Avis when there is a significant price differential (not actually all that often IME). Otherwise I'm a Hertz guy, and will stay as such.