Originally Posted by
trooper
First trip in a long time is approaching (as for many others I am sure) and I simply can't understand car rental pricing in the USA right now. Airport/Shuttle locations have insane prices for the days I am looking at.. AUD$660-1300 for FOUR days.... and yet...by booking with a major rental company..OFF airport (and not FAR off) I have been able to book a rate of AUD$260 , with all the inclusions necessary (CDW etc) for exactly the same period (and with a slightly nicer car).
I thought I largely understood why car rental prices had increased...but for that to seemingly apply only to Airport rentals seems ridiculous.. (Not that I'm complaining! LOL) Sure, there is a certain inconvenience involved in having to Uber/Taxi to the rental site... but for those sorts of savings I'm up for a bit of inconvenience!
You might also price the rental with an off-airport pick-up, and a return to the airport: sometimes the rate will be higher, but sometimes it will be the same.
Make sure that any rate quite includes not only CDW, but also third-party-liability insurance, which California requires that renters have.
Note that even if you were to pick up your vehicle at the "airport" location, you would still have to ride a (free) rental-company shuttle bus to get your car.
Some of the off-airport rental-car locations are located inside hotels which might have their own free shuttles from/to the airport. I'm not sure how the hotels feel about car-rental customers using the hotel shuttles to pick up a car