Originally Posted by
Jeeves
If you put in 33 hours in your reservation and actually return the car 48 hours later, they are going to charge you for two days either way.
They aren't going to call the cops if you bring back the car back a few hours later than you stated on the reservation.
No, they won't call the cops. And in the example you give above, the base rental charge will be the same. But the point of this thread is that sometimes they'll charge you a late fee if you return the car more than one hour past your stated return time, even if the rental charge itself does not increase.
I've had this happen to me. I used to try to give an honest return time, but when I started getting charged a "late fee" when I was still within the same rental period, I stopped doing this and now do as the OP suggests: give the latest return time from my intended time that doesn't result in a rate increase. If that makes their planning more difficult because I return the car a half-day earlier on average, so be it. If they didn't stick me with the "late" charge during the same rental period, they'd not have to be dealing with it.