Gaucho100K

Hello Folks.... now that Im a retired Frequent Flyer and rental car customer in the USA, Im a little rusty on the basics so please be so kind as to bear with me with all these dumb questions...

First here are the facts I need to deal with:

a) I need to have a car in Houston from 10/28 until 11/01

b) need to rent and return at same HOU location

c) not fussy on car, a midsize would be best, but I do need NeverLost

Now my questions....

i) Im no longer a US resident, so when I go to the Hertz website it can tell Im renting from Argentina... I think Im not getting the best possible rates, is this true...?

ii) Will the same happen if I walk up to the counter...? Are prices different for US residents vs. what they charge "tourists"...?

iii) The website will allow me to "reserve" a pretty normal car like a Nissan Sentra and select a NeverLost as an optional... do they realistically have these cars with the Navigation option...??

iv) I have the option of having a business associate based in Houston make a car rental reservation on my behalf... would this be of any value and will this cause issues when I show up at the rental car counter to get the car... (ie. because Im not a US resident and dont have a US drivers license)..??

v) alternatively, do the experiences car renters out there think its too high a risk to show up at the counter with no reservation during these dates..??

I apologize for the 'hard' and 'vague' and overall out of the ordinary questions.... I guess Im kind of brainstorming here and hope you guys can help me reason this out...

Thanks in advance for any tips & advice...

Cheers from Buenos Aires,
Gaucho100K

Gaucho100K

BTW, the rate Im getting for this rental (pickup 10/28, return 11/1) for a Nissan Sentra including the Never lost option is approx. $260....

UAPremExecflyer

You're having a lot of angst over a simple three-day weekend
I see you got a quote from the Argentine website of USD260.
Why didn't you do a comparison on the US website? There's a lot of basic research you can do here yourself that you're asking other people for!
i) From what I can divine in a very quick search is the quote from the Argentine website is quite a bit more expensive than what's available on the US website with no CDPs etc;
ii) I wouldn't ask the question that way at all! If you have no reservation, the desk agent will give you the walk-up rate, which is invariably higher than booking advance (threads ad nauseum);
iii) A big airport station like Houston Intercontinental or Houston Hobby probably have a few midsize with NL. If they don't have your size of vehicle, they'll probably give you the next size up;
iv) You can have your business associate make the reservation in his name, but you can't pick it up. Like I said I found weekend day rates for a Nissan Sentra of $20.49 (without NL) with no CDP etc. You can have your associate make the reservation locally, but then both of you need to be present and you need to be added to the rental as a named driver. That'll add $10 per day;
v) As I said in answer ii) you will get a higher walk-up rate than if you book in advance.

Gaucho100K

Hello UAPremExecflyer-- Thanks for your input.... although I cant find that angst you mention anywhere around here, I was just looking for a little advice.

Please forgive me if my English as a Fourth language writing made you think I was wanting basic research done for me... I should have said that after doing the research, I found that the large rental companies do have this dual pricing... I should have asked if some other smaller companies act otherwise.

In any event.... what I now know - after doing the legwork, is that Hertz is the most expensive company... I can get better rates for comparable cars with Avis.... even better rates with Budget. All these companies will price adjust their quotes if I tell them about my residence.... also, these sites will NOT allow you to use a non US credit card to book so this means that your above proposed solution (remember English is not my first language so I may have misunderstood) of just using a US website is not feasible....

However... in the end, I found that Thrifty offers comparable cars and does not have this dual pricing policy.... I was able to get a great rate even and booked it... even called their (800) number after this to ask about my residence and drivers license and they said that this would not be a problem.

Regardless, I appreciate you taking time to answer my dumb questions.

Cheers from EZE,
Gaucho100K

astan100

If you don't care who you rent from and just want the lowest price, hit up priceline.com or hotwire.com. As it gets closer to your pickup date (assuming you haven't booked a nonrefundable) those prices tend to drop dramatically. Priceline is great, but their bidding takes a little time and effort, so maybe enlist the help of your US coworker.

You won't know which rental company you're bidding on, but it's always one of the major rental agencies.

Good luck!

Gaucho100K

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.4; Series60/5.0 NokiaN97-3/22.2.110; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) AppleWebKit/525 (KHTML, like Gecko) BrowserNG/7.1.4)

Thanks for the tip...

optcsa

I live in Argentina also... I'm american, but my residence is outside of the USA. I rent all the time with Hertz, and I've found if you declare that your not a US Resident you can get a better price.

There is a special offer:

CDP: 1633306
Rate Code (RQ): ADF

This gives non US-Residents an all inclusive rate:

- Unlimited mileage
- LDW coverage (Loss Damage Waiver)
- LIS insurance (Liability Insurance Supplement)
- VCLR fee (Vehicle License Cost Recovery),
- Additional driver fee, and
- Tax, and airport, govermental & other fees included.

And a 20% off on the rate. Try it.

Gaucho100K

Gracias, will try this.

rthib

If you are arriving international, you will not be at HOU (Houston Hobby) as it a domestic only airport.

IAH (Houston Intercontinental - George Bush Intercontinental Airport) is the international airport.

The airports are on the opposite sides of town, so make sure you pick the right one.

Gaucho100K

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.4; Series60/5.0 NokiaN97-3/22.2.110; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) AppleWebKit/525 (KHTML, like Gecko) BrowserNG/7.1.4)

Yes... I arrive from JFK so it is HOU.

Thanks.