I ran into this in Reno. Did not return the car late or have any actual charges, but still felt taken advantage of. I looked back at the web screen and the reservation-confirmation e-mail (3 pages long) and found NO specific disclosure anywhere of any overstay fee (or how much) or any different rate being applied retroactively (or how much).

In other words, this is a last-minute condition they popped on me at the counter (when I was in the worst position to back out), and that aspect of it was the most unseemly. It also looked suspiciously deliberate, since it'd be very easy to back out of a reservation but very hard at the counter.

At the VERY least, the time to disclose things like this is at time of BOOKING, not at time of rental. Making it an undisclosed last-minute term that's material to the transaction is at BEST a questionable business practice, and certainly not of the standard Alamo should be setting for itself.

As for the policy itself, I think the idea of applying a different rate for time already spent is unfair. Most companies will charge the added time at a higher rate; either that or the flat amount is more than sufficient to cover costs, IMHO.

It reminds me of the banks and their NSF fees. Under the guise of punishing the "bad" people (or paddling the ones that had been bad), the banks slowly went from charging something semi-reasonable to cover costs, to developing the area as a major profit center. So now you have $25 charged against about $2 in actual costs for the bank, and some banks caught putting payments and deposits through in such a way as to maximize NSF fees.

And then they wonder why their goodwill is shot and people stop believing what they say.