Hertz - Facility Fees at MCI are Outrageous

Three day rental of a midsize car at Kansas City Airport, three days (after United promo code) comes out to $37.58. Then I get knocked with a $33.90 fee for CF/TF/VL/KC fee, which is outrageous! Obviously, that doesn't include the concession fee, FF surcharge and 12.405% tax. What the heck is going on with all these feeS?

I'm with you, except I'd extend the thought to many major airports. I've paid airport fees that were much greater than the car fees on a number of occasions.

IMHO, the fees tend to be worse at airports with brand new rental car facilities - BWI is one that comes to mind. Isn't MCI reworking their rental car facility?

MCI has a new consolidated rental car facility that will open in May and is supposed to be pretty nice and an improvement on the current layout. Now you will take a single bus to the new facility rather than boarding each companies bus at one of the three terminals.

The fees are indeed insane....but if you take a trip downtown, you will see what $4 per rental is building....Sprint Center. That was how they were able to pass the funding for it. Another $5 goes to that new car rental facility.

Taxes and fees in Texas are often more than the daily rental charge.

MCI has a new consolidated rental car facility that will open in May and is supposed to be pretty nice and an improvement on the current layout. Now you will take a single bus to the new facility rather than boarding each companies bus at one of the three terminals.

I've never found a consolidated rental facility to be faster than having each company bring their own bus, especially Hertz.

I've never found a consolidated rental facility to be faster than having each company bring their own bus, especially Hertz.

Well, one of the reasons I rent with Hertz is because their buses come more often than theo other companies so this does take away an advantage they have over other companies. I wonder if it isnt cheaper for Hertz in the long run though.

As far as fees at MCI. I think they are some of the highest I have seen and really make a rental expensive.

I've never found a consolidated rental facility to be faster than having each company bring their own bus, especially Hertz.

Normally I would tend to agree with that, but for KCI, you sometimes had to stop at all three terminals before going to each companies location (not an issue if you were in the last terminal in the rotation and there are obviously some exceptions). With the new system, each terminal is supposed to have it's own buses directly to the new facility so you don't have to visit the other terminals before heading to the new facility. May save time for some, may not matter for others. Another "plus" is that part of the facility is underground which will shield the weather on occasion.

Normally I would tend to agree with that, but for KCI, you sometimes had to stop at all three terminals before going to each companies location (not an issue if you were in the last terminal in the rotation and there are obviously some exceptions). With the new system, each terminal is supposed to have it's own buses directly to the new facility so you don't have to visit the other terminals before heading to the new facility. May save time for some, may not matter for others. Another "plus" is that part of the facility is underground which will shield the weather on occasion.The new consolidated facility is also much closer to the terminals than the old individual facilities. In Kansas City between the fact that the buses will be dedicated to individual terminals and the facility will be closer I would expect that it will improve service.

Note that the arena fee is $4/day, not $4/rental. (suckers!) :D

As far as fees at MCI. I think they are some of the highest I have seen and really make a rental expensive.

The local paper did a story about it a few months back: MCI is #2 in the nation in terms of rental car taxes. On a percentage basis, I wouldn't be surprised if it's #1 - historically, rental cars at MCI are cheap, and these are high fixed-dollar-amount taxes.

Perhaps a little off-topic, but here's the backstory...

I still remember the election to pass the tax. I don't live in KCMO, so I didn't get to vote, but it was relatively un-newsworthy up until about 3 weeks before the election. Just another August ballot measure...a ho-hum tax on out-of-towners that would get earmarked for downtown renovation.

Ford and Cendant said "no comment" - they did not fund either side of the campaign.

Then something bizarre happened: Enterprise Rent-a-Car began throwing mad jack at the "No" side. From a business perspective, they were justifiably the most at risk. They have many locations a short drive away from a non-KCMO competitor. However, it took reporters about 5 seconds to inform everybody that (a) Enterprise is based in St. Louis, and (b) one of the Enterprise directors was on a committee designed to lure an NBA team to St. Louis.

So for about the last three weeks, it was freaking ON. Yard signs went up everywhere like it was a Presidential election. Talk radio devoted entire days to it. People forgot about rental cars and talked entirely about the "No" campaign's funding, almost all of which was coming from St. Louis. On Election Day, busloads of St. Louisians, brought in at Enterprise's expense, stood outside KC polling places, wearing Cardinal red, holding NO signs.

The vote was a landslide - the YES count by itself was several times higher than the previous total turnout for an August election. Most people in KCMO still speak very fondly of this rental car tax. Right now, whole sections of downtown are torn up with new construction going on.

Enterprise way overplayed its hand. They looked stupid throwing all sorts of money at a KC election. Had they remained quiet, like other agencies did, it might have been just another boring August election where a small number of devoted anti-tax voters is enough to kill off the measure.

I live in Kansas - I didn't have a dog in the fight - if I need a car locally, I get it from one of the Hertzes in Overland Park. No unusual taxes there...

Normally I would tend to agree with that, but for KCI, you sometimes had to stop at all three terminals before going to each companies location (not an issue if you were in the last terminal in the rotation and there are obviously some exceptions). With the new system, each terminal is supposed to have it's own buses directly to the new facility so you don't have to visit the other terminals before heading to the new facility. May save time for some, may not matter for others. Another "plus" is that part of the facility is underground which will shield the weather on occasion.

Hopefully it will also result in fewer overall buses in the terminal areas. Or at least newer, cleaner, more efficient buses. But I understand the sentiment of Hertz renters: at many airports, I am willing to pay more for Hertz because they are faster. A big component of that is the bus.

At MCI, everybody will soon be on a level playing field as far as the buses go. So agencies will distinguish themselves by how well they run their expedited-rental process. Hertz still maintains an advantage there, but it isn't a huge one if I know the other agencies are running their processes well. The amount of "Hertz premium" I'd be willing to pay is a bit less in this case. (In fairness to Hertz, I've found them priced very competitively on my recent rentals.)

The local paper did a story about it a few months back: MCI is #2 in the nation in terms of rental car taxes. On a percentage basis, I wouldn't be surprised if it's #1 - historically, rental cars at MCI are cheap, and these are high fixed-dollar-amount taxes.

Perhaps a little off-topic, but here's the backstory...

I still remember the election to pass the tax. I don't live in KCMO, so I didn't get to vote, but it was relatively un-newsworthy up until about 3 weeks before the election. Just another August ballot measure...a ho-hum tax on out-of-towners that would get earmarked for downtown renovation.

Ford and Cendant said "no comment" - they did not fund either side of the campaign.

Then something bizarre happened: Enterprise Rent-a-Car began throwing mad jack at the "No" side. From a business perspective, they were justifiably the most at risk. They have many locations a short drive away from a non-KCMO competitor. However, it took reporters about 5 seconds to inform everybody that (a) Enterprise is based in St. Louis, and (b) one of the Enterprise directors was on a committee designed to lure an NBA team to St. Louis.

So for about the last three weeks, it was freaking ON. Yard signs went up everywhere like it was a Presidential election. Talk radio devoted entire days to it. People forgot about rental cars and talked entirely about the "No" campaign's funding, almost all of which was coming from St. Louis. On Election Day, busloads of St. Louisians, brought in at Enterprise's expense, stood outside KC polling places, wearing Cardinal red, holding NO signs.

The vote was a landslide - the YES count by itself was several times higher than the previous total turnout for an August election. Most people in KCMO still speak very fondly of this rental car tax. Right now, whole sections of downtown are torn up with new construction going on.

Enterprise way overplayed its hand. They looked stupid throwing all sorts of money at a KC election. Had they remained quiet, like other agencies did, it might have been just another boring August election where a small number of devoted anti-tax voters is enough to kill off the measure.

I live in Kansas - I didn't have a dog in the fight - if I need a car locally, I get it from one of the Hertzes in Overland Park. No unusual taxes there...My understanding is that other rental car agencies funded the No vote on that too, just not as much as Enterprise because it significantly hurt their business more than others. In particular the big problem for them is insurance replacements where the insurance companies pay a fixed amount per day including taxes, so by adding a $4/day tax on the car, Enterprise had to cut the base rate on the insurance loaners by $4/day. This affects other agencies in that segment too, in particular Hertz' expanding HLE presence. (I just noticed Avis is opening up a new location across the river in North Kansas City pretty close to downtown, I'm surprised one of the agencies didn't do this sooner to avoid the $4/day tax but still be pretty close to downtown, they can also serve the downtown airport from this location, not that folks flying into the downtown airport are probably too price sensitive). The entire structure of the tax is ridiculous, $4/day on rental cars but only $1.50 (or is it $2)/night on hotel rooms, who the hell thought that up?

On a related note, here's an older satellite shot of MCI (http://home.sprintmail.com/~beckley/MCIRentalCar.JPG) showing the old and new facilities and the terminal so you folks can see how much closer it will be (not to mention better laid out, the Hertz lot at MCI right now is terrible).

Hertz still maintains an advantage there, but it isn't a huge one if I know the other agencies are running their processes well.It comes down to preference somewhat, but I think a pretty good argument could be made that National has them beat already, how many times do you get to your Hertz spot and are disappointed with what's waiting for you there? At least with National you get to pick the least worst car out of the bunch with Emerald Aisle. :)

The entire structure of the tax is ridiculous, $4/day on rental cars but only $1.50 (or is it $2)/night on hotel rooms, who the hell thought that up?

Perhaps it's because hotel owners/developers are a more visible presence and active in local politics... I agree that the balance is out-of-whack - that's a 10% to 30% tax on rental cars but only about 1% on a hotel room.

FWIW, over the course of the past few years, we've done about 3 nights a year at the Westin Crown Center. Always thought it was a good place to use Cat 2 points... We'd stay there for an occasional First Friday, or if we were attending a party in Crown Center, and the night before the last couple of KC Marathons. They never added the buck-fifty to our bill.

Now the Westin is a Cat 3 (which is a joke, but that's another thread), so I'm not sure when I'll stay in another KCMO hotel room...

It comes down to preference somewhat, but I think a pretty good argument could be made that National has them beat already, how many times do you get to your Hertz spot and are disappointed with what's waiting for you there? At least with National you get to pick the least worst car out of the bunch with Emerald Aisle.

True...Hertz Seattle always seems to "upgrade" me into something thoroughly undesirable. I rent small cars in Seattle because I parallel park them downtown. Really, I don't need that minivan or SUV... Emerald Aisle, by contrast, always has a mix of small and large cars. None of 'em sexy, but all I'm looking for is a Corolla or whatever.

We'd stay there for an occasional First Friday

DT Marriott is running a First Friday special that's not too bad, $108 room rate, but that includes self-parking ($13 normally), 2 roundtrip Max tickets to FF & breakfast for 2.

For downtown hotels, especially on weekends, Priceline can not be beat, usually you can get the Hyatt, Westin, or Phillips for $50/night or less, just look at BiddingforTravel (http://p070.ezboard.com/fpricelineandexpediabiddingkansascity), I can see right near the top someone got a room for the first weekend in April (including First Friday) for $50/night.

DT Marriott is running a First Friday special that's not too bad, $108 room rate, but that includes self-parking ($13 normally), 2 roundtrip Max tickets to FF & breakfast for 2.Unless there's a very large show at Bartle Hall (i.e., the Car Show or Home and Garden Show), there would be no reason to pay for parking at the Marriott Downtown on the weekend anyway, plenty of on-street parking can be found around there.

DT Marriott is running a First Friday special that's not too bad, $108 room rate, but that includes self-parking ($13 normally), 2 roundtrip Max tickets to FF & breakfast for 2.

That's not bad. We've also done 1 night at the Hilton - just a basic $99 weekend rate. Another good option for FF...

For whatever reason, the Hyatt and Westin don't seem to offer great weekend rates. About once a year, I get a direct email from the Westin with a good offer in it, but I usually see it in the $129-149 range. It was a pretty easy call to use the 3000 Starpoints.

Agree on the parking: free street parking is pretty easy to find except in rare cases. Even on First Friday there's plenty of parking to be had.

And it's good to know that people who like playing the Priceline game will always get a good hotel. The Phillips isn't part of any of the Big Three, but it's a solid 3-star downtown property. Actually has both a good steakhouse and a bar/grill type place in it.

For downtown hotels, especially on weekends, Priceline can not be beat, usually you can get the Hyatt, Westin, or Phillips for $50/night or less, just look at BiddingforTravel (http://p070.ezboard.com/fpricelineandexpediabiddingkansascity), I can see right near the top someone got a room for the first weekend in April (including First Friday) for $50/night.

I used PL for my recent Phillips stay ($44 for a Sunday...only drawback is the ChopHouse is closed on Sundays :( ) and can usually get the Hyatt for $49 or so via PL. Lowest weekend direct rate I have found for Hyatt has been $89 and Westin at $119 in recent memory. I haven't seen the DT Marriott come up in the DT/CrownCenter zone at all recently....the 3* always hits the Radisson first. Westin/Hyatt/Phillips are all in the 4*, but I haven't seen the Westin show up recently either. If we could kick the Radisson out of the 3* DT zone and the Four Points out of the MCI 3* zone I would be happy.

Chose the Marriott this time direct so I can finish my megabonus stays, otherwise I would have probably PL'd to get the Hyatt or booked the President direct since I only need 2 more stays for HH Gold, one already booked for this weekend.

To add insult to injury, this is probably the worst station that I have experienced of all the locations that I visit on a regular basis.

Crappy PC upgrades
Dirty cars
Beat-up, high milage cars
Looooong wait for bus returning to airport
Always a long line at the Gold booth(always a bad sign)
Overall crappy selection of cars.

I'm thrilled just to get a Grand Marquis at MCI!

Wow...Priceline is playing those star levels a little fast & loose.

For years, Kansas City only had one four-star hotel: the property that is now the Intercontinental. But I'm not even sure that hotel continues to receive the 4-star rating. I don't believe any of the above listed props that Priceline considers a 4* are actually rated that by anybody else. To me, they are all garden-variety midscale 3-star hotels.

That said, it shouldn't stop you from bidding $50 a night on them - that's a great deal and they are all perfectly fine hotels - just don't expect a Four Seasons or Ritz.

To add insult to injury, this is probably the worst station that I have experienced of all the locations that I visit on a regular basis.

Crappy PC upgrades
Dirty cars
Beat-up, high milage cars
Looooong wait for bus returning to airport
Always a long line at the Gold booth(always a bad sign)
Overall crappy selection of cars.

I'm thrilled just to get a Grand Marquis at MCI!
They don't have a lot of variety, but they have a ton of cars. I was told this was because there are so many government rentals out of there for some reason, so they had no reason to have the Prestige/Green/Fun cars there. Basically just a sea of Taurus as far as the eye can see.

Next time I'm there I'll have to figure out a way to rent outside the tax zone and save some money. LAS did the same thing to fund some performing arts center (does LAS actually need another anything?), but they exempted rental replacement cars from the new tax to get the locals to vote for it.

FYI - I was at the MCI Gulag last week (5 days after everyone made the move). The buses had that "new bus" smell. Each shuttle bus is assigned to a particular terminal (except during off hours, where one bus will circulate to all terminals). The bus pulls into the docking area, you go up the escaltors, and the rental companies are arranged in a reverse U, so there's no long walk.

It's better than most Gulags. But I'm still not happy with the almost 100% tax.