yes. Did it all the time. But there are limits. If were matching hertz, no prob. National, most often, no problem. Trying to match an off airport price, or a dollar, advantage, or thrifty rate is often difficult, so they usually dont even try. Enterprise is a prime example. In your case, you might try showing the enterprise reservation at the avis counter, telling them, " I hate enterprise, but Avis is 100 a week more. Split the difference with me and Ill walk up." Be considerate of the fact that often Enterprise if off airport. Compare off airport with on airport with its concesssion fees and be considerate of that. 10 dollars a day off airport and 10 dollars a day on airport will never be the same price, so dont treat it as such.

this is my primary tactic. One of my tactics to match prices usually involves making a reservation at a place, for example, thrifty, i try not to use an enterprise reservation. Then walk up to Avis with thrifty reservation in hand, full print up with time, mileage, etc etc.

People need to remember that counter agents work on commission. The "walk up" is a high value target for commission hungry agents. Often they will do anything to seal the deal, often beyond what the manager has said they can do.

As an agent, I often threw friends, family, and cute chicks into high end cars at subcompact rates simply cause I felt like it. As a manager, I did the same. So long as its done discretely and not en masse, you can get away with anything with the right sweet talking and a good attiude with a willing agent.

When I left avis, the first thing I did (at another airport) was to get a thrifty reservation and walk up to the agent at avis. here is how my conversation went.

"I know how this works, you get commission. Lets figure out a win-win for both of us. here is my current car reservation. If you can beat this with a better car, or same car for less, ill no show this reservation and walk up with your car."

when they showed me what they could get, I said "eh...no. If I am going to take that car, I may as well just take my original reservation. But if you were to drop the car class one notch.....and go up one car class......weve got a deal."

Ive used this approach six times since then, always getting a full size or convertible for compact rates equal to or better than thrifty.

Its all about the gift of gab. And dont forget, food is the single greatest bribe in the world. if you go to the same location over and over and over again, grease the wheels a bit. bring a pie, box of cookies, even promotional pens, clipboards, and other items that pharm reps often are flush with can get you a car class or two bump.

If your a business rep for an industry, treat em like potential customers. throw down gift certs (which is practically free to you since its your company) and get some worth out of it.

But if your going to go the cash route (i.e. cash bribe), be very discrete about it, no need for anyone to get in trouble, and don't let the agent get too greedy with it. If they get too greedy, asking for too much, just back off. We should never grease the wheels so much as to cause 'inflation'.

as always, ymmv. As a manager with avis, all of the above worked on me, and ive seen it work many times.

Car rentals (as long as its not prepaid) is a negotiation rich environment. Price matching is just one mere tool in the quiver of the traveler battleground.