Hertz - Availability Weirdness

Somebody explain this one: last week I wanted to rent from Hertz on Tuesday morning and return on Wednesday evening. My booking software and Hertz.com both told me no availability. Then my flight got changed and I needed to start the rental on Monday evening instead, so I searched again for cars and found that Hertz suddenly showed availability. Then my flight got changed back to Tuesday morning, so I called Hertz to find out what was really going on. The CSR didn't have an answer for me when she found that there was Monday evening to Wednesday evening availability but not Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening availability. However, she suggested that I just keep the Monday evening to Wednesday evening rental, not pick up the car as planned, and call and just explain that I'd be there Tuesday morning because the Monday evening rental would hold for 24 hours before it got wiped out as a no-show.

Any ideas on why the rental would have to be done this way?

i've seen this before--sometimes, when availability gets tight, hertz starts rejecting 1-day rentals. can you reserve a car tuesday-thursday? if so, do that and return early...

edited to add -- hmm, you're a two day rental either way. interesting.

[This message has been edited by Seat1A (edited Feb 08, 2004).]