Hertz - Why is Hertz Germany trying to get me to buy the car?

I've been trying to book a car for a work trip to Germany at the start of April. Based on the rates that Hertz want for a 4 day rental, it would probably be cheaper for me to buy the car...

I have a corporate CDP and we also have a CDP that staff can use for leisure rentals. Most of my rentals are personal ones so the leisure CDP is my default one in my #1 Gold profile online. When I plug in the airport and dates, Hertz.com suggests an Audi A3 for EUR219 at the leisure rate. When I change the CDP to the corporate one for business travel, the rate increases. A lot. It suggests that I might like the same A3 for EUR21190 for those 4 days! :eek::D When I check the rate details, it says that the daily rate is EUR3741 per day but it generously includes unlimited free kilometers ;)

It's obviously an error in the website because there are only a few cars that it will let me book and they're all at rates which mean it would be cheaper to buy one than rent for a week. The error has been there for a couple of days though and for 2 CDPs. I thought that maybe it was because I was using an invalid CDP and I found a new one on the intranet at work. The new one gives me the same rate...

Has anyone else had a similar problem? Is there any way to resolve it in my profile or will I have to call Hertz to make the booking?

When you do call them up, tell them you had a cheaper quote for you to airfreight you own car as excess baggage!!! ;)

Have you tried to make a booking without using your profile, ie as an ordinary punter? When i try this for a number of locations in germany in early April for 4 days i get sensible results.

When you do call them up, tell them you had a cheaper quote for you to airfreight you own car as excess baggage!!! ;)

Have you tried to make a booking without using your profile, ie as an ordinary punter? When i try this for a number of locations in germany in early April for 4 days i get sensible results.

I thought about that but I think I'd have insurance hassle if I'm on company business but not using our CDP. I've noticed there is usually a price difference between the Leisure CDP and the Work CDP and I think that's due to the insurance. I've never needed to claim on insurance with a rental car so I don't know the details but I'd rather not find out the hard way if I can get this issue sorted.

Just for kicks, I'd go ahead and reserve the car and see their faces when I get to the counter.

"I think it is a tad bit more expensive than I thought, can you see about getting me a better deal?"

Has anyone else had a similar problem? Is there any way to resolve it in my profile or will I have to call Hertz to make the booking?

yes, for same time frame. My CDP is over 1,000 Euros/day. Without it is 186 Euros for four days

As a rule of thumb i always check prices "unlogged" as an odinary, price sensitive renter to find out for what price they are willing to rent it. It's not unusual that your corporate CDP will triple the price ( same happens at Avis for sure ). They think if the company pays for it the renter doesn't care about the price.

I agree, thats why i gave the suggestion too. The OP might want to clear this with his firm - I dont think they would have any difficulty when told the price.

This might be the time to have a bit of fun with your corporate travel arranger. You can probably argue that you can get a private helicopter rental or chauffer driven limo cheaper than the hire car, so will they give it the OK. It might make them realise how much they are getting ripped off on the corporate CDP, after all it is supposed to be a corporate discount....:D

It's obviously a bug in the website. I called Hertz and the cost is around EUR300 with the corporate CDP. The corporate CDP is often more expensive than the leisure CDP so EUR300 is reasonable. I assume Hertz are working on the principle that I'm less price sensitive when the company pays... I priced the equivalent booking without any CDP and it is around EUR500.

It would have been interesting to have taken the EUR20k booking but I don't want to get into the situation where I have a credit card bill for EUR20k before my expense claim has been paid ;) Also, if I'm paying EUR20k for a car for 4 days, I would want something a bit better than an Audi A3 - at least an R8 for the autobahns :D

The bug is still there in the website but the Hertz rep didn't get similar prices on his system so it would be interesting to see how long this lasts.