Hertz - Booking at an HLE (upgrade coupons and/or replacement rates)

I'm making a reservation for a friend at an HLE in the PDX area. I've never done anything with an HLE (actually, I've never booked at a Hertz, period ;)) and had a couple of questions.

1) My friend, as a Costco member, qualifies for the Costco CDP as well as the currently-listed PCs on the Costco Travel website (http://www.costcotravel.com/#12_rentalCars_hertz). She's debating between the $35 off the weekly rental versus the free upgrade coupon from a compact to a midsize (which would be available to book for about $43 more than the compact).

Is the upgrade coupon likely to be honored at an HLE? (Do Hertz coupons like this show up in advance on whatever reservation manifest or availability report that is run to determine what cars to have in stock and moved between locations? Or can they only see that a compact is booked and can't even see that the upgrade has been requested until they pull the reservation up at the time of rental?) If there's a chance it won't be able to be honored, it's probably better to suck up the $8 and guarantee the midsize with the $35 off code, but if it's all but certain to be honored, she might as well save the $8.

2) The Hertz website's location details shows that pick-up service is available if within a 15-minute radius from the location. According to Google Maps, the place where she'll need to be picked up from is 5.2 miles or 12 minutes away. How sticky are they on this pickup time calculation? Is there a chance they'll have some different formula that may calculate the drive time differently and she'll be unable to get a pick-up?

Anything I need to be aware of as far as calling for the pick-up? It says they need a one-hour advance notice. Do you call and schedule a specific pick-up time, or is it kind of on an as-available basis? And can you call and schedule the pickup at any time (even weeks ahead of time), or should you call on the same day as pickup?

3) Last, a bonus question--and this one is strictly for my curiosity, because the regular hertz.com rate with Costco CDP is cheaper--is it possible to book via the Hertz replacement rate booking site (https://selfpay.htzpartners.com) even if your car isn't legitimately in the shop? It appears the only thing you're required to enter on that site is your name and phone number: the extraneous information about the repair shop, insurance claim number, and the like is optional. If you do this, do they require you to show proof of your repair or insurance claim? (I'm not one for using codes I don't qualify for, and even if it weren't enforced, I doubt I'd actually book it unless I couldn't find anything under $100 per day--I'm just mostly curious about how this works.)

Thanks! :)

1) The coupon will be honored. However, upgrade coupons are subject to availability and if an upgrade is not available then you will not be able to redeem your coupon. It would be better for you to stick with the $ off coupon.

2) The pickup will be available as long as you are renting Monday-Friday and don't want a pickup when they first open or towards closing time. It is best to call them with as much advance notice as possible so they don't make commitments elsewhere.

3) If you really want to book through the replacement site then go ahead. As you have already pointed out, the rates are going to be more expensive. The replacement rates only become cheaper when an insurance company becomes involved or if you are actually at a shop where the HLE has an agreement in place. However, coupons are not accepted on any replacement rate.

1) The coupon will be honored. However, upgrade coupons are subject to availability and if an upgrade is not available then you will not be able to redeem your coupon. It would be better for you to stick with the $ off coupon.

Thanks--after posting this morning, I went ahead and changed the res to a midsize with the $ off coupon when I realized the difference in price was less than I thought.

2) The pickup will be available as long as you are renting Monday-Friday and don't want a pickup when they first open or towards closing time. It is best to call them with as much advance notice as possible so they don't make commitments elsewhere.

She'll be getting out of her meeting sometime between 4pm and 5pm. The office closes at 5:30pm. Pushing it?

3) If you really want to book through the replacement site then go ahead. As you have already pointed out, the rates are going to be more expensive. The replacement rates only become cheaper when an insurance company becomes involved or if you are actually at a shop where the HLE has an agreement in place. However, coupons are not accepted on any replacement rate.

I was surprised to see this. I thought the insurance/replacement rates would generally be cheaper than retail bookings online. I'm especially surprised by the difference in rate between the airport and the HLE. So to find HLE at literally half the cost of the airport was surprising--I would have expected to save the airport fees (10-15% or whatever), but I didn't expect even the base rate to be so much cheaper and assumed it was some sort of anomaly.

I understand they're different markets, but fleet availability is sort of spread around the various branches in an area, right? So if the airport were renting cars at $95+ per day (as they were recently in SEA), I would assume the HLEs in the area would raise their rates, too, since the SEA airport would probably be pulling cars from the HLEs in the area. In that case, would the replacement rates ($26.99/day for an ECAR under insurance replacement and $31.99/day for an ECAR under mechanical replacement, according to the site--and I assume those are fixed rates regardless of the retail rates) be cheaper than the retail rate? That's the situation I was referring to in my third question.

5:00 is pushing it if closing time is 5:30. I would call them as soon as possible and try to arrange something. Obviously by giving them advance notice it allows them to plan better.

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There are times when published replacement rates may be cheaper. However, if a HLE is charging $60-90 a day then that means that they are sold out and they probably won't be a position to honor a regular "walk-up" replacement reservation at the time when this would actually work out in your favor. The really cheap replacement rates (Sometimes as low as $13.99 a day) are through insurance companies.

HLE's, for the most part, will always have cheaper rates than the airport. If SEA is getting $95 then that is great but off airport pricing is more difficult. The Green Team runs a tight ship and usually the response to the opening of a HLE is to cut rates, HLE responds, The Green Team responds again, and the cycle continues until rates are at the point where it is extremely difficult to turn a profit. Plus, negotiating $13.99 rates with insurance companies does not help. $13.99 is an extreme but generally insurance rates for a midsize average around $19-23... not exactly the kind of rates you want to see from a business perspective. Insurance rates are always calendar days (not 24 hour days) so essentially the first day is always double billed but it still doesn't help that much when the average rental lasts 8-12 days making the first day less and less significant.

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Oh, also in response to your first question - in addition to what I already said, the answer to the other part of the question is NO - if you use an upgrade coupon it will not change the car class on the manifest since upgrades are subject to availability.

5:00 is pushing it if closing time is 5:30. I would call them as soon as possible and try to arrange something. Obviously by giving them advance notice it allows them to plan better.

When you say advance notice, under normal circumstances, do you mean days in advance or just as early as possible on the day of pick-up? This is for pick-up this coming Monday. They're closed until Monday (obviously), so the soonest she can call is Monday. Hopefully they'll be amenable.

There are times when published replacement rates may be cheaper. However, if a HLE is charging $60-90 a day then that means that they are sold out and they probably won't be a position to honor a regular "walk-up" replacement reservation at the time when this would actually work out in your favor.

Does this mean that regular self-pay replacement reservations (booked through the site I mentioned above) are treated as walk-ups and are only on a space-available basis? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding you there.

Oh, also in response to your first question - in addition to what I already said, the answer to the other part of the question is NO - if you use an upgrade coupon it will not change the car class on the manifest since upgrades are subject to availability.

Ah. Does it even appear as a request on the manifest that is used for planning purposes--i.e. if they have a choice to bring a CCAR or an ICAR from the airport or another branch, will they pick the ICAR because they see the upgrade request? Or will they pick the CCAR and and that's what you'll likely get?

Understand completely about the Evil Green Monster (http://www.failingenterprise.com). They make Wal-Mart look generous...

If a replacement reservation shows up it isn't considered a "walk-up" - that probably wasn't the best term to use. However, the replacement site doesn't block reservations like the regular system will when you want it too (At least I don't think it does). I don't know for certain because I NEVER saw even a single reservation come through that website. I don't think anyone really bothers to click on the links that would take you to that site.

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It doesn't indicate the coupon. Generally it isn't something that they see until they actually pull up the reservation so if they are at the airport looking for cars, they won't be aware of your upgrade coupon until you are actually there.