Vladmir Golobovic

Hello,

I am creating this thread to check whether this actually works.

Let's suppose I rent a car on Friday, 2 pm, for exactly one day.
Therefore, I need to return the car by Saturday 2pm.

Considering that the rental business closes by Saturday 12 p.m., I would have to leave the car in front of the store, and use they key return box, as usual in after-hours return.

However, I realized something, the car would simply stay there until Monday, when staff would checkout the car for me.

My question is whether it is possible to keep the car over the weekend (until Sunday), and not get charged for this extra day? Is this a trick people use, or do companies have a way find that out. Some locations might have cameras, but I don't know if that's the case.

cblaisd

On Hertz, whenever I want to return a car after the hours a location is closed, I am warned that charges will continue until the facility re-opens and the car is checked in. In other words, no, at least for Hertz, this won't work.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

As cblaisd points out, the fallacy in your reasoning is your assumption that rental charges end when you drop the car off. At most car-rental companies, that's not how it works. Rental charges accrue until the car is checked in by company personnel. If you choose to rent from a company that closes at Noon on Saturday and is closed on Sunday, if you do not return the car before closing time on Saturday, you will be charged as if you had kept the car until Monday.

Of course, at some rental companies at some times of the year, a three-day weekend rental (Friday to Monday) might not cost much more than a one-day Friday-Saturday rental. Look for Enterprise's $9.99/day three-day weekend special to return in the Fall. And you can often find free-weekend-day coupons from the majors, so that you would only pay for two days (at the weekend rate) when you keep the car for three days.

sdsearch

Your other fallacy is that you're assuming that since it the counter is officially closed according to the posted hours, that no one ever checks the cars in the lot.

I've seen rental locations which are closed in terms of the counter (per the posted hours) but down the road at the car washing bay there is someone working, and they are able to check cars in the lot even though they don't generally open the counter outside of the posted business hours.

Posted hours are for when customers should be able to depend on the counter being open. That doesn't mean that once every few hours someone may not come and check the cars in the lot, especially if it's an employee who lives very nearby.

Oh, and gosh, couldn't they even possibly have video surveillance to verify when you returned your car?

But there's a much bigger worry you should have: If you return a car such that it sits open to the public for 24 hours before the office opens, if someone hits that car in the parking lot between the time you leave it and the time they open the office, how will you prove it wasn't you? So I'd wary of leaving a car unattended that long in a public lot. (If it's an enter-only lot specifically for the rental company, that would be much better.) At the very least, take extra documentation photos of the condition of the car at return time in such a case.

Vladmir Golobovic

I don't know where you got that information. You clearly have no experience of what you are talking about.
I have already rented several times, and for many of these rentals I return the car after the location is closed. There is no such thing as accruing charges until the car has been checked in. I guess other users can also confirm this.

I do worry about leaving the car in a parking lot unattended for many hours. That would be another reason for me to return the car as late as possible.

sweeper20

Actually they do continue to charge you until the car is checked in - unless you are lucky enough to strike a deal with the manager before your rental starts (I worked for a rental car company, so I'm sure of this) Seems like you might not be aware of how rental car companies operate as is referenced in another thread you started...Hope Hertz isn't the company you "forgot" to pay parking tickets from on this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/renta...ntal-cars.html

BugsyPal

Whoa there Buddy!

Take it down a peg, the guy was just trying to offer you assistance, much good as it got him...


Answer to your query is that when a vehicle can be returned *and* the reservation considered ended varies by car company and or type of service. You did not give any information as to whom you rented from and so forth, so what do you expect other than a blanket answer?

Generally Hertz does not allow vehicle check in after hours/the office is closed unless part of particular circumstances.

National and or Alamo usually do allow after hours/office closed check in but it varies by location.

Enterprise again may or may not allow after hour vehicle check-in, depends upon location.

*YOU* need to read the terms of the rental agreement and get back to us with clear information. Unless instructed otherwise leaving a vehicle at any location does *NOT* release you from contractual obligations. Depending upon terms of rental agreement you can and will be held liable not only for all charges accrued but any damage to the vehicle.

http://thegate.boardingarea.com/care...al-cars-hours/

http://enterprise-rent-acar-are-thieves.weebly.com/

BugsyPal

Yea I know, but just want to see if he has any moxie on the ball; otherwise wont bother.... *LOL*

Sooner or later his next post will be about how some car rental place charged his credit card $50k.......

cblaisd

I'm with you. It does appear sometimes that no good deed goes unpunished, and the op's attitude makes it that much less likely one may want to offer good and factual information to a new poster in the future. Sigh.

fjord

How did he make it to the newsletter?

oliver2002

If I may add my two cents as a very frequent renter: the question/trick posed by the OP is possible, especially at small stations. If the station closes at 12noon on Saturday and you rented at say 2pm on friday, its perfectly legal to put the key into the keydrop at 2pm on Saturday. The agent will book the car as a return on monday morning, but manually override the separate field that accounting uses. So you only pay one day, but in case the vehicle is damaged while on the lot or captured by a speed camera anytime before monday morning, the bill/blame goes to the renter. That part is clearly spelled out in the fine print of the rental contract you sign.

I've been dinged for damages to the car in the parking lot after I dropped the key on Sunday, but also stretched the return terms quite a few times. For example if I don't find a decent weekend rate, I will rent on Friday afternoon on a fairly decent daily rate. Of course you don't have to point that out to the rental office... @:-)

Deckard

I've done this - with a twist. One of my card benefits is free pickup/delivery. Booked a car for 14:00 Fri to 14:00 Sat. Location shut at 12:00 Sat. Car was dropped as required and collected Monday morning. Approx 70 hours rental for the price of 24.

doglover

Work a deal with the site manager -- Enterprise is great to work with -- it helps if you are a regular customer.

Reindeerflame

What is described by the OP can be possible. In the 1980's, a means-limited college student I knew occasionally rented a vehicle on Friday night for the weekend from a convenient downtown location that was closed after Saturday mornings. He did figure out that returning the vehicle even as late as early Monday morning (by 6am) was quite sufficient. In any case, if they had the ways and means to charge him for an extra day, he would not have been any worse off. (On a holiday weekend, early Tuesday morning might even have been possible).

He used this concept in another city, but things didn't quite work out as alluded to in a subsequent post because that location did have staff that came in while the office was closed. By that point, he was "shocked" to be charged more for the extra day(s), having now become "used to" the concept, but of course did not object.

So, sometimes things are possible, and sometimes they're not.

KRSW

My biggest fear would be damages charges. Rental car agencies, especially franchise-owned locations, are notorious about phantom damage charges. It's why I take photos of the car in front of staff when I first take delivery and do the same when returning it. I always make sure they notice me taking pictures and haven't had to deal with bogus damage charges.