I am looking at doing a one way rental from Union Square, San Francisco to Reno/Tahoe airport as part of a trip to CA next week. I'm a UK resident.

Selecting the above on budget.com gives me a price for a Compact vehicle of £58.29 (~$87). It also includes unlimited mileage, LDW, SLI and £0 drop off fee.

This looked too good to be true to me so I tried the same but this time selecting that I was a US resident.

This time, price is $344 + LDW + SLI = $416.29 (~£279).

What is going on here? I'm no stranger to market pricing but 1/5th of the price?? FWIW all the UK travel sites show the same lower UK price so it doesn't look like a budget.com only error.

What happens when you book as a UK resident for a rental in the US which is quoted in £? do they simply exchange on the day?

I'm obviously worried about going to pick the car up and the agent laughing at the quote and getting stung for the full US price with no time to change plans...

Any advice? is this commonplace?

thanks.