Hertz - Anyone ever really notice the surcharges?

Ok, I'll admit it, I don't always pay attention to the surcharges on my rentals, but this time I did when I made a reservation at DFW. Talk about usury!


Selected Vehicle: Full-Size-Car, Auto Trans-Air Con
Taurus, Sable or Similar
Details:
$16.19 USD Weekend day
Base Amount:
Weekend day: 3 at $16.19 USD
UNLIMITED FREE MI


(MI = Miles KM = Kilometers)
Total Approx. Charges: $61.38

The total rate for your SPECIFIC RATE was calculated based on the following:
Promotion Coupon Number: 00959976
PROMOTIONAL COUPON HAS BEEN DEDUCTED FROM TOTAL RENTAL CHARGES
CDP Discount Plan: XXXXXXX
THE RATE HAS BEEN DISCOUNTED BY 10 %
Plan Name: XXXXXXXXXXX


Additional Items (included in Approximate Total Charges)
PER RENTAL
Tax: 15.00 %
Airport concession fee recovery: 11.10 %
Property tax, title/license reimbursement: $5.40 USD
Customer facility charge: $12.00 USD

$12 customer facility charge? :confused: Who the hell wants to build a new stadium for the Cowboys just so they can watch Testaverde throw the ball to the other team in the end zone? :td:

26.10% taxes? Not even the VAT anywhere in Europe (or the world) is this bad!

Can't these idiots realize that by imposing stupid fees and taxes such as this on business travellers and tourists will only hurt their city economically? Who the hell wants to do business in a city that taxes their visitors up the wazzoo?

I'll take my blood pressure pills now. :(

If I remember previous threads, DFW has some of the highest rental car fees around. That won't help you, I realize, but you at least know it doesn't get much worse anywhere else you're going! And, at least you got a low rate. That 26% would really stink if you were paying big bucks!

Cleveland has horrible surcharges -- a $50 rental ends up being close to $75.

It's especially offensive considering that you have to ride the airport's always overcrowded bus to who-knows-where-off-the-airport (one of the longest bus rides of any city I've visited) with a) rude and unfriendly drivers, b) worn-out seats, c) bone crushing ride, d) screaming kids, e) dirty floors and windows and fabric, etc. Given the apparently dire straits the city is in at the moment, one would think they could get their act together a bit and provide decent service at a reasonable price.

Of course. At BOS,
Tax: 5.00 %
Airport concession fee recovery on flight arrivals: 11.10 %
Vehicle licensing and excise tax reimbursement: 3.52 %
Convention center surcharge & parking fine recovery: $10.60 USD

On a 50$ rental, i end up paying (2.5+5.5+1.76+10.60) = 20.36$

That's close to 40% of the base price of the rental.

Only way out would be to rent at a HLE and return there. But then, I am stuck with getting to/from BOS Logan to the HLE.

On Prestige collection vehicles, they are supposed to pick you up. I wonder if that would work in this case. Rent a Prestige collection (LS) and have them pick you up at BOS Term C and drop you back there.

Has anyone tried that?

On Prestige collection vehicles, they are supposed to pick you up. I wonder if that would work in this case. Rent a Prestige collection (LS) and have them pick you up at BOS Term C and drop you back there.

Has anyone tried that?

I just tried pricing this. A LS at BOS (eRewards CDP) totals to 89.34 for one day. If I change the pick up from BOS Logan to Park Plaza HLE, it jumps to 120.65 with the same CDP.

What gives? I don't know.

I hear at PHX the surcharges about double the daily rate.

SEA's tax is 18.5%. Does not look like we have a concession fee, based on my rental for tomorrow. Just the tax.

GSO is 14.5% tax and 11.10% concession.

TPA is 7% tax and $10.40 concession fee plus $.74 recovery fee and a $4.06 surcharge.

I hear at PHX the surcharges about double the daily rate.




PHX is by far the most outrageous when it comes to rental car taxes/fees based on my limited travels. A reservation for a one week full-size rental in May looks like this:

Base rate: 161.99
Total: 249.45

Tax: 15.10%
Recovery fee: 11.10%
Facility charge: $31.50 ($4.50/day x 7)
Surcharge: 3.25%

About 54%. YMMV depending on the daily rate and what percentage the $4.50/day facility charge this works out to. In this case, about 24%. But hey, PHX has the newest, most modern sports facilities in the country in all the major professional sports with the exception of maybe basketball!!

I just noticed this one when reserving for BOS:

Tax 5.00 %
VEHICLE LICENSING COST RECOVERY AND EXCISE TAX REIMBURSEMENT: 3.52 %
CONVENTION CENTER SURCHARGE & PARKING FINE RECOVERY: 10.60 USD

Are they assuming I'm going to get a parking ticket and charging me beforehand? This has got to be the weirdest surcharge I've ever seen... :td:

deleted

I just tried pricing this. A LS at BOS (eRewards CDP) totals to 89.34 for one day. If I change the pick up from BOS Logan to Park Plaza HLE, it jumps to 120.65 with the same CDP.

What gives? I don't know.

LAS just added another surcharge to pay for some performing arts center. Because they really need a new performing arts center to compete with everything they already have and need to rip off tourists more to pay for it.

From what I remember DFW currently has the record for the highest fees and charges.

Of course. At BOS,
Tax: 5.00 %
Airport concession fee recovery on flight arrivals: 11.10 %
Vehicle licensing and excise tax reimbursement: 3.52 %
Convention center surcharge & parking fine recovery: $10.60 USD

On a 50$ rental, i end up paying (2.5+5.5+1.76+10.60) = 20.36$

That's close to 40% of the base price of the rental.

Only way out would be to rent at a HLE and return there. But then, I am stuck with getting to/from BOS Logan to the HLE.

On Prestige collection vehicles, they are supposed to pick you up. I wonder if that would work in this case. Rent a Prestige collection (LS) and have them pick you up at BOS Term C and drop you back there.

Has anyone tried that?


Sorry but nope you still gotta pay all that! Even the HLE if it's within the greater confines of Boston they still have to pay the $10 Convention surcharge. Think about it from our point...it's already built...we didn't want... and yet those of us who are without a car and use the HLE every weekend end up spending a fortune on the damn surcharge! We can thank Mumbles Menino for that debacle. But when it comes to the other perks my HLE is out of this world at terrific customer service --even gave me a Kia Amanti for Christmas weekend (at the great unheard of price of $26 day)!

Rental car charges are worse than hotels. The average person doesn't realize how these nice airport terminals, sports stadiums, convention centers ect.. are financed.

These ballot initiatives pass because people like the idea of having these white elephants financed on the backs of people who " don't live here"

The rental companies than realize that with so many surcharges why not throw in a few more and get in on the action, it's pure profit for them. The vast majority of folks don't even realize whats really going on with their bill.

When I go to DFW, my relatives will gladly pick me up. I only rented once because I was going to a FT event & I did not want to impose on my relatives. (they go to bed at an early hour). With my low weekend rates, a $27 base rental for 2 days ballooned to $52 with all the fees, etc. :td:

A couple of years ago, I visited Austin, TX. My rental at the airport would have over $100 for 3 days & 4 hrs. Instead, I took the bus to/from downtown and did a 3 day rental with Enterprise for $35 all in. (I booked compact, received a full size car ^ ). I used to live in Austin for 6 years so I did not mind the inconvenience & saved a bunch of $$. My long time friends that I stayed with got treated to some yummy BBQ! ^

FLL seems to be pretty cheap, that way. I just went in there Friday, and the additional charges only show:

FAC CHG $2.75/day
FLA SCHG $2.40/day
TAX RATE 6%

Downright reasonable!

$12 customer facility charge? :confused: Who the hell wants to build a new stadium for the Cowboys just so they can watch Testaverde throw the ball to the other team in the end zone? :td:

Can't these idiots realize that by imposing stupid fees and taxes such as this on business travellers and tourists will only hurt their city economically? Who the hell wants to do business in a city that taxes their visitors up the wazzoo?
:(

These fees cheese everyone.

First, I believe the customer facility charge at DFW is for the shared rental car building/lot and shuttle service, not a local stadium. At least, they charge a one time fee. Some places charge per day. Let's face it, you generally only use the place twice -- at pick-up and drop-off.

Second, some rental car facilities and companies are beginning to recognize the negative impact of these fees and are fighting back. I believe they fought such a proposal at PIT and killed it.

Sometimes (not always, e.g. Boston), you can avoid a lot of the airport related fees by renting away from the airport. And many times, you can return to the airport without a drop off charge, e.g. Chicago. It's not always practical, but sometimes it works out.

I rent just about every week, and have gotten to where I never even think about the charges (they go on a company card). On a recent trip to Midland, TX, though -- where my rate was $234/week -- the $402 total really caught my attention. Sure, there's the fuel option charges and taxes, but $402???

I went back to the Hertz counter and questioned a daily charge for Sirius. I was happy that the Taurus had Sirius, but I hadn't requested that perk. The agent apologized and removed the fee. The total only dropped by $10 -- the Sirius fee was still shown, but a credit (appeared to be a partial credit) was applied.

Had this been a personal rental, I'd have thrown a fit. Hertz's billing, with all of these miscellaneous fees and unexplained adjustments should be regulated.

MCI is one of the worst. A recent rental with a 41.40 base rate came out to 87.04 after taxes. The taxes/fees were more than the rental rate (approx. 110%)

I'm going to check into the Sirius thing. I get that perq quite often.

I checked last weeks rental with a Sirius and a charge for roughly $8 showed up listed as an additional charge. It calls it VLF & ABIA. Anyone have a clue??

I checked last weeks rental with a Sirius and a charge for roughly $8 showed up listed as an additional charge. It calls it VLF & ABIA. Anyone have a clue??

I've seen VLF = Vehicle License Fee but not sure what ABIA is. What location was this at?

Szymon

I once pricelined at BOS. Got a $10 daily rate, with the convention surchage and priceline bid fee and the concession recovery and the tax and the parking ticket surcharge, the total is about $27.

So all the fees amount to 170% of my basis rate. I think I have set a record. :p

26.10% taxes? Not even the VAT anywhere in Europe (or the world) is this bad!


Isn't it actually 27.65% since the airport fee is charged on the base amount and then the tax is charged on this amount

In Australia the surcharges for non airport rentals work out at about 22.2% and for airports such as SYD, the surcharges work out at about 40.6% due to the 15% airport surcharge...

Dave

Ok, I'll admit it, I don't always pay attention to the surcharges on my rentals, but this time I did when I made a reservation at DFW. Talk about usury!


Selected Vehicle: Full-Size-Car, Auto Trans-Air Con
Taurus, Sable or Similar
Details:
$16.19 USD Weekend day
Base Amount:
Weekend day: 3 at $16.19 USD
UNLIMITED FREE MI


(MI = Miles KM = Kilometers)
Total Approx. Charges: $61.38

The total rate for your SPECIFIC RATE was calculated based on the following:
Promotion Coupon Number: 00959976
PROMOTIONAL COUPON HAS BEEN DEDUCTED FROM TOTAL RENTAL CHARGES
CDP Discount Plan: XXXXXXX
THE RATE HAS BEEN DISCOUNTED BY 10 %
Plan Name: XXXXXXXXXXX


Additional Items (included in Approximate Total Charges)
PER RENTAL
Tax: 15.00 %
Airport concession fee recovery: 11.10 %
Property tax, title/license reimbursement: $5.40 USD
Customer facility charge: $12.00 USD

$12 customer facility charge? :confused: Who the hell wants to build a new stadium for the Cowboys just so they can watch Testaverde throw the ball to the other team in the end zone? :td:

26.10% taxes? Not even the VAT anywhere in Europe (or the world) is this bad!

Can't these idiots realize that by imposing stupid fees and taxes such as this on business travellers and tourists will only hurt their city economically? Who the hell wants to do business in a city that taxes their visitors up the wazzoo?

I'll take my blood pressure pills now. :(


Take a closer look; sometimes these surcharges are taxable. Watch out for the concession recoupment fees. You may want to check into off - airport locations as sometimes the "fees" are less. Hertz offers something called HLE (Hertz Local Edition) at lower prices inmany cases.

I just noticed this one when reserving for BOS:

Tax 5.00 %
VEHICLE LICENSING COST RECOVERY AND EXCISE TAX REIMBURSEMENT: 3.52 %
CONVENTION CENTER SURCHARGE & PARKING FINE RECOVERY: 10.60 USD

Are they assuming I'm going to get a parking ticket and charging me beforehand? This has got to be the weirdest surcharge I've ever seen... :td:
Yeah that is an odd "extra charge",I would ask a location manager about that one.

Austin Bergstrom International Airport.

I checked last weeks rental with a Sirius and a charge for roughly $8 showed up listed as an additional charge. It calls it VLF & ABIA. Anyone have a clue??

As wth mentioned, the Customer Facility Charges are generally intended to fund current or future rental car facilities. In many cases (like DFW), they are new consolidated rental car facilities.

The Concessions recovery fee is simply the rental car company's pass-through of the % of gross sales the rental car company must provide to the Airport operator.

I can't speak to the 15% tax at DFW, although, I imagine it's regionally administered, and not under control of the airport.


Personally, I can understand why the rental car companies pass facility charges and concessions fee through, but I find it annoying when they don't bury costs like the Vehicle License Fee. And, I think the special facility taxes are just offensive to out of area customers, particularly when they purpose has little to do with tourist infrastructure. (I can understand a convention center or funds for promoting a region, but a football stadium seems like a stretch.)

If any of you are thinkking of making the Airport operators the villiains, keep in mind that they are under incredibly heavy pressure from airlines to increase non-airline revenue. For better or worse, two ways to do that are to push rental car facilities out to new facilities (and increase land for revenue rich close-in parking/development), and jack up the concessions and facility use fees.

At Sea-Tac airport, it's 18% plus $4/day.
At the Sea-Tac Marriott HLE, maybe a 1/2 mile away, it's a flat 31% tax.

At MCI, my home airport, it can easily top 100% About a year ago we voted for a rental-car and hotel tax to fund downtown redevelopment. We're getting an arena, an entertainment district, and some redone roads and bridges out of the deal. Politicians have an easier time selling rental car and hotel fees because the voters don't have to pay them. The downtown redevelopment stuff passed overwhelmingly with record voter turnout.

Yesterday, voters narrowly said NO to a local use tax that would have paid for a rolling roof over Arrowhead for Super Bowl 49. Already this morning they're saying that Roofus will be back on the ballot later this year - next time the vote will be to raise the rental car and hotel taxes. Love it or hate it, it's a formula that the politicians know works pretty well.