Hertz - Ever had Hertz run out of cars?

This is a first. April 1st through the 2nd at PHL. They have no cars oline. Called up the reservation desk and they were pretty no shalant about it too. I said well I guess I have to go to the other guy's and the girl said yep, have a nice day.

Oh well... who else offers GPS?

Avis does.

Had the same thing in CLT a few years ago. I was trying to reserve 4-5 days in advance.

This is a first. April 1st through the 2nd at PHL. They have no cars oline. Called up the reservation desk and they were pretty no shalant about it too. I said well I guess I have to go to the other guy's and the girl said yep, have a nice day.

Oh well... who else offers GPS?

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago in SAT. I was trying to book a car a 2 p.m., nothing available. So I tried 11 p.m., and voila, there were cars available. So I booked at 11 p.m., showed up early and picked up the car at about 3 p.m. Was a 5* at the time.

Oh well... who else offers GPS?

Avis, National, Thrifty all do; they're portable units that aren't installed in the cars.

Try making a reservation for a longer period, that will often show additional inventory (and then return early).

This happens at PHL quite a bit. I'm not sure why. Highly annoying. Especially when the lot is full of cars as I drive by in an Avis car.

They probably have LOR restrictions in. (Length of Rental). Since you are renting mid-week (where there is peak demand) and keeping it a short time, Hertz sometimes won't take reservations for 1-2 day rentals. Try 3 days or longer. It's more cost effective to turn down a one day rental and take a three day rental because you don't have to rent the car, check it in, service it, etc. as often.

We had this happen all the time at the location I used to manage. Just book for 3 days and return after one day. Remember that many corporate rates have a slight surcharge for renting 1-2 days midweek (usually $5 a day) so don't be surprised if your rates edges up slightly upon return. If you were able to book it for one day in the beginning that rate would have been provided.

Well I bumped it up by one more day and now I can select a car. Isn't that some crap. Well that's what I will do and just return it earlier.

Have done this too. ExManager spells it all out first-hand. They're pretty full now and would rather have longer rentals than a bunch of new 1 or 2-day. It's all about trying to utilize the fleet, including accounting for no-shows. But on midweek you can rent for 3 days and return after 2. The rates I've done typically had no penalty at all (midweek daily was midweek daily, whether I kept 1 day or 4).

PHL is notorious around here anyway, but this length of rental stuff happens almost everywhere from time to time. Often coincides with specific large one-time events.

Was in the air a couple of years back during the US East coast blackout flying to Toronto. We got diverted to Montreal and after an age on the tarmac got into the terminal.
After picking up my bags, headed over to the car rental zone. I was lucky enough to get a car as there was only a few left and by the time I finished the paperwork the counter reps were turning people away.
Given the situation, I ended up giving two other passengers a lift to Toronto (couldn't take a 4th due to luggage constraints).

We checked out the lots of the other Rental companies as we drove past & they were all virtually empty.
Unusual circumstances obviously but I'm guessing there was a lot of one way rentals & it took a few days of reshuffling to get things back to the norm.

This situation is one of the reasons I like my PC membership - always cars. Not always the cheapest, but always there.

-Brian

Got to Hertz to pick up my car late and they had nothing left and had "cancelled" my reservation. Ended up with a Mustang, nice to have something fun for a chance, to bad it was snowing like crazy!

This past Christmas week, I had a reservation at the Stamford CT Metrocenter Hertz for a one day rental. When I got there at 11 am, I was told they had no cars, but were expecting some in. There were 3 of us waiting, and after about 30 minutes my turn came. I ended up with a Ford Expedition (:td:) rather than a Corolla. Luckily I didn't have far to drive, as it felt like I was in a truck. While waiting, a number of others arrived for cars, but were turned away. The agent said told us he was keeping the incoming cars for us 'regulars' :D

How rental cars work is that we rely on the returns to flip them and re-rent them. A reservation is made, NOT to reserve the physically hold the car there, but for the agency to make sure that the specific sized vehicle reserved is present. Never will a rental agency hold a mid-size car for example if you're reservation is set up to pick it up in 3 days. Being "sold out" online simply means the date you are trying to rent the vehicle is too close to the time you want to pick it up; in the best bet, don't give up, but call the rental agency directly. At an HLE location, we don't guarantee a specific car, but a size of a car. Hertz does not want to have a car sitting for more than 4-5 days at a time, this is considered a NO-REV, meaning the car is sitting there, developing no revenue. The name of the game is flip them as fast as you can, make as many reservations as possible to account for no shows (which occurs 1 too many times). This is why rental agencies become overbooked, because we know we have to account for no shows.

The post above says " Being "sold out" online simply means the date you are trying to rent the vehicle is too close to the time you want to pick it up" I recently was rerouted from Ewr to JFK with 3 hours notice.:mad: When I called the Reservations number they told me "sorry we are sold out" :(I went so ar as to book another car at bu--- but when I got to JFK I said what the hey and went to Hertz. Manager waited on me and told me basically the same thing. I was out the door in my rental very quickly no problem:D

I have had it happen at a couple of small (but non-HLE) stations before. On one occasion, I inquired about picking my car up early (having caught an earlier flight), and the agent claimed that (1) not only were there no cars available, but (2) they were not expecting any in that afternoon (including when I was originally reserved).

I explained that as a 5*Gold, I knew I didn't have a "guaranteed" rental, but I did indeed expect to have the car by the time I reserved it, or that would end my affiliation with Hertz.

When I came back by later, of course they did have my car waiting.

I also found that online showed none for a small HLE station, and calling the national line didn't help, but calling the actual HLE did turn a car up for me.

I have had it happen at a couple of small (but non-HLE) stations before. On one occasion, I inquired about picking my car up early (having caught an earlier flight), and the agent claimed that (1) not only were there no cars available, but (2) they were not expecting any in that afternoon (including when I was originally reserved).

I explained that as a 5*Gold, I knew I didn't have a "guaranteed" rental, but I did indeed expect to have the car by the time I reserved it, or that would end my affiliation with Hertz.

When I came back by later, of course they did have my car waiting.

I also found that online showed none for a small HLE station, and calling the national line didn't help, but calling the actual HLE did turn a car up for me.


I'll tell you, that's not good customer service represented from Hertz...It happens that an agency runs out of cars even with reservations, but as a Gold customer I would never tell them we're out of cars, even yours. I would go to another location to find a Gold member a vehicle...All customers are our prioirty, but Gold members especially Five Stars, deserve excellent treatment.

the few times I have had to rent from Enterprise (!) is because Hertz had no inventory in advance in small towns in the US.

As to 'out of cars' at time of arrival, one hot summer night in MSP, there were several of us wandering around the garage, muttering 'what is the point of being PC?!' The very young male manager appeared about to cry and told me that it was an ongoing issue and that he was ready to quit as a result.

MUC and I don't have a very good relationship (let's see if they do better next week! :rolleyes:) I somewhat understood when I arrived home during World Cup, but the suggestion that I pair up with another stranger who also was unable to get a car as reserved, and team our way up 'down south' ie beg for a ride for the 2 hour drive was crazy. AND they wanted me to come back 2 hours the next day to get a car. All I wanted was to get home so I shopped and ate lunch and bought groceries and lurked until any car was returned.

Other than that MUC seems to have acres and acres of mini manual vehicles but rarely the actual car class which I reserve. And when one wants to cross certain borders, that is important (or when one reserves a decent vehicle and is offered a manual Yaris or similar!)

I'll tell you, that's not good customer service represented from Hertz...It happens that an agency runs out of cars even with reservations, but as a Gold customer I would never tell them we're out of cars, even yours. I would go to another location to find a Gold member a vehicle...All customers are our prioirty, but Gold members especially Five Stars, deserve excellent treatment.

I suspect that particular location--though at a regional airport--doesn't see too many Golds, much less 5* or PC members. You're right, though, that it was quite poor customer service. That's the only time I have had a problem with that particular location, though.