Hertz - 2 month rental-avoid airport taxes

This winter I plan on renting for 2 months. I am Hertz gold. We are flying and get in after the HLE closes.

I wonder if their would be a problem to do a Hertz one day rental at the airport and return it to the HLE the next day and pick up my 2 month rental at the same HLE? I would be saving over $300 over airport prices.

Would the HLE give me problems? I know I can do another car company rental from the airport for the one day, but returning the one day rental car to HLE would save my husband and I from going back and forth to the airport the next day.

We are vacationing about 45 minutes from the HLE and it would be 30 min futher to the airport. Would the HLE give me problems? It would be very obvious what I was doing.

Shouldn't be a problem. I regularly book a one-day one-way airport to HLE, then a long HLE rental and keep the same car too. Its pretty obvious what I'm doing but no one's ever complained ;)

Are you just saving on airport taxes/fees that -- in theory -- should just pass-through for Hertz (i.e., no profit for them)?

Also, aren't many/most HLE franchise operations? Not sure about the airport location in question, but if they are owned differently, I could imagine they'd love your plan :)

Not Hertz related, but...

I've had Avis people at NON airport locations tell me: "If you want, drop by our location after you've picked up the car at the airport, we'll set you up with a new car and now airport fees". In other words, they were telling me to do exactly what you suggest.

JP

I'm not sure what problem you could possibly have with that plan. I drop off one car and pick up another all the time and they don't blink an eye.

QL

That seems to make sense.

One thing I'll add is that you *might* want to investigate doing your rental as two one-month rentals.

I do this all the time in RIC when I need a weekly rental. There is both an HLE and an Avis within a few miles of my apartment, so I just have a friend pick me up from the airport, then I get the car from the local place (usually Avis for me) and return it at the airport before my flight. Over $100 per week savings as compared to an airport pickup, in many cases.

It's especially nice when there's an HLE close to the airport. In Richmond the Laburnum Green HLE is about a mile from RIC (even walkable, in theory, though there are no sidewalks in that part of town) or a $10 cab ride.

By the way, many of the taxes and fees do not apply for rentals over 30 days. Personal and credit-card insurance also frequently does not apply.

QL

No problems with this all at. I did something similar on a weekly basis last summer. Picked up at DFW, drop off and pick up next day at HLE. Return HLE car to DFW at the end of the week. Saved about $30 a week when compared to keeping the DFW car. The HLE location would often just "swap" the contract out with me keeping the same car. In this case, they don't even need to clean the vehicle.

Just be sure that the airport and HLE are "local" to each other, so that there's not a one-way charge. Not an issue for me, as the HLE a mile from my house permits one-way rentals, just wanted to be sure someone wasn't suprised by their experience.

Steve B.