Hertz - Pacific Northwest Inventory Problem - No Cars

Is there a problem with car inventory in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle/Portland)? fFor the last two weeks I've been forced to use another vendor as Hertz has no availibility of vehicles - of any kind. the same is happening for next week. I'm a 5star and was PC last year but when I called and asked about the situation I was told that there was nothing in their special events calendar but there were no cars. I thought as a PC or 5star you were guaranteed a vehicle. No was the answer.

1) Does anyone know what is going on in those markets - no cars?

2) Can I request any credit or consideration from #1Club/Hertz for being forced to use another vendor (Avis - who has plenty of cars). It's hard to re-qualify for PC if I'm being forced to use other vendors?

Thanks

I've been renting a couple times a week from SEA lately and have had no issue with getting cars. The lots look pretty decent.

And my Local Edition seems to have cars on the lot when I drive by.

I've been renting a couple times a week from SEA lately and have had no issue with getting cars. The lots look pretty decent.

And my Local Edition seems to have cars on the lot when I drive by.

Hello Sea Tigger- as a fellow Seattleite i have a question for you. Why do you rent cars so frequently in Seattle?

Are you a mass transit user regularly?

Just a question i have been curious about for sometime now.

Junkie

Yup. I live on top of a Park and Ride so if I need to travel down to PDX or such, I rent. Much cheaper then owning with my use patterns.

I HAVE noticed that rental cars in Seattle are exceedingly expensive......? ???

And yes... Hertz seems to tell me "SOLD OUT" a lot.

In answer to the OP's question, the Portland Rose Festival is in full swing and I assume that is the reason why Hertz is sold out.

As a matter of fact, I am traveling to PDX and then SEA and I have found it less expensive to rent in PDX and drop off in SEA. That is no doubt due to the less expensive taxes in Oregon.

In addition, I found the best value was a convertible for a week -- Go figure! :cool:

Have you tried playing around with your pick-up and drop-off times? Sometimes Hertz won't allow short weekend rentals in order to keep the cars out and rented the entire weekend.

I was looking for a Lincoln LS for a NYC Sat AM-Sun PM (2 day rental) and got no availability. When I switched to a Fri pick-up, but still a 2-day rental, inventory suddenly appeared.

I'll be dropping an SFO car at PDX on the 25th, too late to help you I suspect. :D

I noticed something interesting for my upcoming 2-day SEA rental. I always start at the grid on Orbitz just to see what base rates are looking like, then start playing with the discount codes on the individual sites as needed.

Hertz was pricing out at about double what everyone else was, including other "majors" like National, Alamo, etc. Even playing the codes, an F car at Hertz was over $55 day, base rate. (It's two weekdays.) National Emerald Aisle was $34, Alamo Quicksilver was $29, off-brands (of course) were less.

Is it because:
- (a) Hertz has a "prime" location at SEA that others don't (e.g., I can walk directly to the #1 Club Gold area but would have to take a bus to the EA area)
- (b) it's just bad luck: Hertz is into a oversell situation on my dates, whereas the direct competition isn't (for what it's worth, all car types were available everywhere and my air/hotel are normal rates, so I don't think I've hit a major convention week or anything)
- (c) there's still some sort of major Northwest inventory problem with Hertz
- (d) some other reason?

I don't expect the rates to change - the people I work with mostly use Emerald Aisle and say they've had problems pricing Hertz for many of their trips. I just wonder if anyone here has insight into what's going on with this Hertz station...

This is one of those instances that I appreciate being a President Circle member with the 24 hour rental guarantee. ^

Weird.

I'm still amazed I got a car last weekend in Downtown Seattle at the rate I did...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=459920

No problems to report here. Just made a 5 day reservation out of PDX with no problem whatsoever (picking up the 23rd).