Minimum rental period
 

I reserved a Budget car for a four day rental using Budget's web site. When I arrived to pick up the car (at SFO), the receipt listed a 99 hour minimum rental period. This was not mentioned in any terms & conditions I saw, including on the confirming email. I asked what would happen if I returned sooner and was told I'd be charged almost twice as much ($286 v. $155 total). When I complained, agent spoke to a manager and called central reservations, then told me there was nothing they could do - the rates are locked into the computer and they can't change them. This doesn't make sense to me, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time arguing with Budget. I checked other rental counters and found a $186 rate at dollar.

Is there a 99 hour term or condition listed on the web site? Is this typical Budget behavior? Any suggestions?

Never heard of such foolish stuff.. :( What location?

Looks like OP said San Francisco airport (SFO).

Have rented from Budget for years & never heard of this. Of course, 4 days = 96 hours. And they wanted to charge you 3 extra hours? Did you bring your confirmation and/or email with you? I always do. Did you end up renting from a different company?

As I said in the OP, for the privilege of returning approx 3 hours early they wanted to charge $130, which almost doubled the original rate. I had the confirmation email, but they didn't care - "the minimum is on the computer and we can't change it."

As I said in the OP, we ended up renting from Dollar for about $30 more than Budget's promised price. I wasn't going to spend a lot of time arguing with Budget.

Browsing other car forums on FT, other rental companies play the same game.