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.