West - PHX rental car tax is out of control - alternatives for 8-day trip?

I'm looking last night at a week-long SUV rental from Hertz for when we're out there the first week of April. I had been in Phoenix last year and knew that the rental car taxes were bad, but it's gotten worse.

Off of a base rate of $256, there were an additional $112 in taxes! The killer was a $27 "customer facility charge." WTH?? Why is that different from the 11% airport tax?? I popped in a Hertz local edition in Mesa for the pickup - they didn't have SUVs, but on a $200 Taurus rental, the taxes added only $62.

Does anybody know if any of the hotels either near the airport have their own rental car counters from one of the major chains?

Any help available on this? I need a minivan for 10 days and the on-airport taxes are mind-boggling. I've got a reservation at the Tempe Holiday Inn on 915 East Apache Blvd that will save me about 100 bucks. They seem to have an airport shuttle bus, and I assume I can just hop on.

Unfortunately, my reservation is with Dollar, which is my least favorite major car rental company (reliability -- I can easily imagine showing up and they having no minivans at the hotel). Any advice? And does anyone know of OTHER off-airport rent-a-car companies (aka "lower tax") that are accessible using hotel shuttles?

I assume that, with your comment about Dollar, you are really interested in *name* brands, so these are the only three I looked for. Hertz appears to have quite a few, as well as Avis and Alamo. I just looked at their web sites. However, I do not know if the hotel offers a free shuttle. Another option is to use Super Shuttle to get to an off-airport location, but you probably have quite a number in your party so that's not necessarily an option.

Be sure to drop by Bank One Ballpark and look at what all of those taxes are paying for :eek: .

(You may price picking up at an off-airport, and dropping at the airport location. I do not recall at which point the taxes are set... picking up or dropping off.)

Bob

Any help available on this? I need a minivan for 10 days and the on-airport taxes are mind-boggling. I've got a reservation at the Tempe Holiday Inn on 915 East Apache Blvd that will save me about 100 bucks. They seem to have an airport shuttle bus, and I assume I can just hop on.

Unfortunately, my reservation is with Dollar, which is my least favorite major car rental company (reliability -- I can easily imagine showing up and they having no minivans at the hotel). Any advice? And does anyone know of OTHER off-airport rent-a-car companies (aka "lower tax") that are accessible using hotel shuttles?

If I remember right, the hotel has a Dollar counter. Rent the minivan from the hotel and the taxes are about half of what you would pay at the airport. Goodluck.

Thanks for the comments. So far, Dollar has (by far) the best minivan special (less than $200 week before tax) so unless something else comes up, it looks like I'll be visiting the Holiday Inn.

I'll let folks know how well this works next month. For anyone renting a car for more than a couple days, the financial incentive to go off-airport in PHX is substantial.

Just an FYI -- the Dollar pickup at the ASU Holiday Inn worked. It did take almost a half-hour for the hotel pickup, and it was a bit uncomfortable when the friendly shuttle driver started telling me how much I'd enjoy the hotel (I was following the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of why I was on the shuttle bus). The Holiday Inn is probably an extra 5 minutes from where the "regular" airport rent-a-cars are located. My minivan was there waiting for me (I did call the counter the day before to reconfirm) and the checkout procedure was reasonably efficient.

For my return, I was initially planning on returning to the airport location (which would have resulted in a $10 fee, plus about another $3 in taxes -- the brunt of the taxes are based on where you PICK UP the car), but since I had a friend who was flying out of PHX at about the same time, I decided to return at the Holiday Inn. This time, after waiting almost 15 minutes for other customers to be helped, I left the keys in the drop box in order to make my flight. Turns out the "kind" agent tacked on a $25 "cleaning fee" to my rental (the minivan wasn't unusually dirty -- the back seats had some crumbs that needed to be vacumned, and the exterior needed a car wash from the bug splats on the front grill). When I discovered the charge on my credit card statement, I called Dollar customer service and they readily credited me the $25.

The bottom line is that going to the Holiday Inn probably makes sense if it will save you 50 bucks in taxes (it saved me $100), but isn't worth the hassle for short, relatively inexpensive rentals. It's also probably quite worthwhile to pay the extra $13 to return directly at the airport unless, like me, you've got someone to give you a ride.

For future reference, there is a Hertz HLE at I-10 and Elliot Rd in Ahwatukee. You'll have to get there from the airport, but taxes are cut in half, and in my experience it costs nothing additional to drop at the airport.

To make renting even more attractive, there's also a "Phx City Ord. G-4530" tax that adds $4.50 per day! :mad:

I tried booking at National's S. 24th Street location (on the airport perimeter) but cars don't seem to be available there. There is a National location at an Embassy Suites off I-17 towards Flagstaff (Greenaway Road) where the taxes aren't charged, even for a return at PHX. Rates are as good as ex-PHX.

Speaking of car rentals, the new rental facility at PHX opens on Thursday. Starting then, all rentals will be from the complex on the west side of I-10, connected to the airport by shuttles.

Any update on this situation? I'll be in Phoenix late June.

Thanks

Any update on this situation? I'll be in Phoenix late June.

Thanks

I just made a car reservation for some friends at PHX and the tax/fees seemed to add about 65% to the bill. According to reports I've heard, the new "unified" garage is a pretty long bus ride from the terminal.

That Dollar location at the Holiday Inn is still open, so the shuttle bus option should still work. The problem is that sometimes the off-airport rates are higher than the on-airport rates, so you lose some of the tax discount. You basically need to find a good Dollar special (their website usually lists them) that the Holiday Inn location participates in.