PHXflier Are you not a Dollar frequent renter?
Just curious.
I have had long waits with Dollar as a frequent renter, but only as a local renter.
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dliesse
As Autoslash notes - car rental companies have traditionally not limited reservations to cars available. That wasn't an issue when the car rental companies always had more capacity than business - but became a problem with inventory slashing during early COVID.
I rent from Hertz frequently enough that I know all the people in the 3 locations I rent from; they will actually tell me when the next rental is because they know I tend to be very flexible in returning. From this, I have learned that not only do the car rental companies overbook, but they will also book for specific vehicles with 1 to 2 hour turnaround windows. For example, I rented a Sprinter van to move a bunch of boxes from storage to my place. It was a 10 am to 3 pm rental. The Hertz guys told me that they had a customer for that van at 4 pm and asked me to return early - which was no problem because I was literally just doing a single trip from storage. But if I were delayed, or needed longer - that customer would have been in trouble especially since that Hertz locations close at 5pm.