BugsyPal

Anyone who has plans for a renting from Hertz 24/7 for the Thanksgiving period better be prepared for a rate shock. After 11/20/14 rates increased by >200% effective until sometime after Thanksgiving.

Went to reserve a car in Manhattan for one hour and rate had jumped from about $10.79 to nearly $20 per hour for a Mazda 2. Don't even ask about Nissan Altima rates.

oldgoldflyer

Nothing here that is not unexpected. There is barely a car available in the NYC area over Thanksgiving right now.

BugsyPal

Well Hertz 24/7's fleet at least in Manhattan hasn't been anything to write home about for months now. They've lost several locations and only have a handful of cars at those which remain. Most places have at max three or maybe four that I've seen. It doesn't take much then to "sell out" availability.

Then you have to factor in many vehicles are out on maintenance for weeks/months at time. Just because a car is blocked out as "unavailable" for an entire day or several does not mean it is being rented.

Still cannot imagine why anyone would want to pay what amounts to double or triple what it would cost from a normal rental place. Unless you intend to eat and run a full day at $20/hour comes to $100 for every five hours.

FlyinHawaiian

Once 24/7 ended one-ways to/from LGA, JFK, and EWR, it ceased to have any value to me.

bk3day

Furthermore, over the past few months anytime I searched 24/7 Manhattan rates, a normal full day traditional rental was pretty much the same price or in some instances, even cheaper than 24/7

Good thing that the sub $30 1ways albeit date restricted, rates can often still be had from NYC to EWR.

fwiw, I haven't tried often but haven't had any luck getting the same discount from EWR to NYC (on the old Thurs/Fri date & times that should qualify)

ETA: I realize the following is non Hertz related but fwiw, I recently noticed Dollar Manhattan locations often have @$50ish a/i daily rates.

docbert

Avis has been advertising $19.99 one-way airport/downtown rates for some time - including gas, but limited to 4 hours. Never tried it myself, but seems like a great deal. http://www.avis.com/oneway

BugsyPal

Hertz 27/7 (this final incarnation seems to be the name they are sticking with, well at least haven't changed *yet*) went through some changes the past several months and IMHO certain things are better.

It does seem for the most part the bottom feeders looking for cheap rates yet causing 90% of the trouble (availability, last minute changes, bringing back vehicles with nil to no gas, bringing back vehicles fitly and banged up) have been gotten rid of or at least brought to heel. Have been renting the new Mazda 2 from several locations in Manhattan and after several months in the fleet they still look pretty much like new. OTOH by this time the Fiats of old were tore up.

Yes, rates increased but again one thinks that is what drove some of the bad apples away. Apparently the suits that designed Hertz on Demand didn't think many things through especially the car rental habits of large urban markets like NYC. In their rush to gain market share against ZipCar they made things too easy and were sloppy. Had no idea but later found out one reason for so many last minute switched rentals was not just that vehicles were not being returned on time, but that they were simply take on "one way rentals" and left somewhere. This was tied into no small amount of credit card/ID fraud where members joined using fake or stolen information. Hertz 24/7 now does a credit check on all new applicants.

Also if you wish to extend a rental on the fly Hertz 24/7 will place an additional $140 hold on your credit/charge card. If the hold cannot go through then the reservation will not be extended. On the good side you no longer have to purchase extensions in 30 minute or one hour blocks.

Fiat 500 (a horrible car IMHO) is no longer the cheapest small car, at least in NYC anyway. Due to the abuse those things suffered last time around they now cost more than the Mazda 2 (the cheapest at $10.79 or so an hour).

Inventory wise it looks as if the Kia Soul and other SUVs of all sizes have been removed (returned to Hertz's main fleet), or are hard to find in NYC. No more Priuses, electric cars either.

Hertz 24/7 now has a maximum rental period and IIRC it is two or three days, maybe less. They still have various "overnight" rate specials at times. When I called to complain about the sudden rate increase was offered $45 as an overnight rate, but didn't want nor need something that long (alternate side parking is a pain), so didn't inquire further.

With National and other car rental locations closing locations or totally gone from many parts of Manhattan at least, Zipcar and Hertz 24/7 have seen increase in demand. It is becoming nearly impossible to make a last minute reservation on the weekends even in Winter. Am used to things being that way during Summer, but not now.

BugsyPal

From what one understands Manhattan/NYC car rental places are the opposite of what you'd find say at airports or wherever. That is outside of major holidays demand is low to weak during the week, but very high on weekends, especially in the warmer months of the year (Spring through Summer into Fall). Outside of say business travelers either coming into the City and or needing to leave it there often just is not much weekday demand to rent vehicles.

Making matters worse was the fact one had to take the vehicle for 24/hours minimum at often high daily rates (National was around $65 or so last time one checked a year or so ago), traditional places had you over a barrel if you needed a car to run an errand or something, then came Zipcar, HOD and other hourly rentals. For most Manhattan/NYC residents for a whole host of reasons it makes much more sense to only rent a vehicle for time needed, then return. Why pay nearly or more than $70 for a daily rental when you only need the car for say two hours and can get it for about $20 or so from Hertz 24/7?

To address this situation many traditional car rental places in NYC are offering various daily rate specials to drum up business.

Auto Enthusiast

Why pay nearly or more than $70 for a daily rental when you only need the car for say two hours and can get it for about $20 or so from Hertz 24/7?

Unbundling is also more profitable for Hertz et. al. 5 people using the car for 2 hours each, paying $20 = $100 > $65 for one person using the car all day.

BugsyPal

Don't know about that.

Since Hertz 24/7 tightened/cleaned things up have noticed availability has gone way up. Again this is for my area of Manhattan but can always find something at any of the four locations near our house, even at the last minute. That never happened say last year. This leads me to believe a lot less renting is going on. In which case it would make sense to allow "overnight" rentals at $45 rather than have vehicles sitting earning nothing.