Originally Posted by
Roger
Practical example: I just made a dummy booking at avis.com for an Intermediate (Toyota Corolla) at Cape Town for 2 days in July. Without AWD or other discount, the base price before tax is:
- $95.99 for a US resident;
- ZAR 962 (about $123.88) for a UK resident.
Huh?!
The US resident gets CDW, PAI, liability insurance and TP included, the UK resident just CDW and TP, and liability insurance is not available even for a surcharge. So the UK resident pays 28.5% more for less in this example.
Let's think, is it to do with nationality? No. Is it to do with experience? No. Just Country of Residence.
No matter that the UK resident is more likely to have more experience of driving on the left than the US resident, nor that the UK resident may also have more experience of manual gear change (stick shift) than the US resident. (They drive in the left in South Africa and most rental cars are manual.)
Sorry, guys. This stinks. And you can understand why some posters are asking about the consequences of selecting a different country of residence when reserving.
I never thought it did not stink, and I never wondered about why people will use a different country of residence, other than their own, when making a car rental reservation. However, I also wonder if there is some other reason why car rental companies formulate different rental rates based on country of residence.