This morning for a 3AM pickuP no car other than at Elizabeth st. I had to cab it there. However, I get to the garage and the car was not there. After going back and forth with HOD on the phone they let me take a car reserved only for roundtrips, a Fiat. Since it was EWR the cab fare would have been more than the $50 cab voucher offered.

I am glad I didn't risk a HOD rental for our one-way to EWR a few weeks ago as we had a 0700 departure and the last thing I want to do at 4 in the morning is try and figure out Plan B.

My first rental with HOD was my last. Only thing I used it for was to get a replacement ZipCard for the one I lost.

San Francisco Mason Street. Car was dirty. Car smelled of smoke. Car had 1/8 of a tank. Car did not even have a fuel card! And then on top of that they did not understand what I was unhappy with?!? Manager called me back a few days later and they refunded the cost.

Happily back to using Zipcar in the Bay Area :)

They seem to have issues of many of their rentals. Hard to believe they have not taken action to fix the situation.

I tried HOD a few months ago. After getting dirty cars with near-empty fuel tanks, I gave up. I've also had extensive experience with ZipCar in the past. Is it just a different crowd or something? I've rarely seen a dirty ZipCar.

It almost seems as though Hertz does not want to be in this business. With Zipcar you reserve an actual but with HOD you do not. Im hoping with the aquisition by Avis zipcar will go to one way airport rentals. A dirty car or even one low on gas does not bother me, no car does.

oh... I see what Hertz's plan is. :) No car means nobody can complain about
dirty car. :D

I haven't kept up with ZipCar news in a while. Acquisition by Avis!!!???
That can only end in disaster for ZipCar, IMHO. :(

I've had dirty Zipcars. But I suspect that because Zipcar still has an annual fee it probably has a lot more "regular" users who are more accustomed to cleaning up after themselves, while HOD both dropped their annual fee (leading to more one-time usage) and started marketing heavily toward traditional Hertz customers (who are accustomed to having the car cleaned out by Hertz staff whenever they return it).


Except for one-way reservations (which as you note Zipcar doesn't offer), HOD rentals are supposed to be for a specific car, just like Zipcar. In practice HOD seems to cancel or move reservations to a different car at the last minute much more often (and with less explanation) than Zipcar, though, and HOD seems to be getting worse judging by reports here (I haven't used either very much since I bought a car about a year ago).

HOD probably uses retired regular rental cars, which means they are probably more likely to be older, dirtier, worn out, and with high mileage. But now that Avis owns Zipcar, they may start doing that, too.

No, HOD does not use retired Hertz rental cars, they have their own fleet. Many of the HOD cars (like Fiat 500s and VW Jetta diesels) are not used at all by the regular Hertz locations.

I'm thinking about giving HOD another try next week. (partly because I've always wanted to drive the Fiat 500 at least once)

My co-worker who will be with me at the time... he's about 6'2" and I'm wondering if he can possibly fit inside the Fiat 500? :confuse:

I'm 6'1" and fit in (the front seat of) a 500 no problem. I don't think I'd want it as a daily driver, but as a vehicle for getting from A to B cheaply, it was fine.

He'll fit, not comfortably. The other issue is how broad are the both you. Shoulder room is also tight.

Early this morning @ EWR the assigned car is no where to be found. I called HOD & they claim the car is there and to try to look for it. Its 10 degrees and there are hundred of cars around. So I go in the office and the clerk tells me this is a continual problem with HOD. Turns out the car was parked on the curve at the front door. I saw it by luck.

Post Sandy there were major issues with the Hertz fleet in New York which is why there is probably more movement. Also where the cars aren't co-located with a Hertz rental then there seems to be more issues with switching.

On the issue with cleanliness it is just the luck of the draw as to how the previous renter treated the car.

The Fiat 500 is about the size of a large skateboard.

I think the main problem with HoD changing cars on people last minute is their IT system. There are many cars (over 30% of the fleet in NYC) that just aren't there. If you try to book a few days in advance, you will see that those cars are blocked off for the next few days. However, the system will let you book those cars if the rentals are week or more in the future but those reservations will be changed a few days or even hours before the rental. I've used this strategy to book cheap cars (like 500 or fiesta) that I know are not there and the system will then upgrade me to generally a better car w/o changing the price.

Also, the search by specific model feature has been broken for over a month now. :td:

Zipcar runs a way tighter ship. My car has only been changed once in over 30 rentals.

50-50 on this weekends HOD rentals.

Saturday's one-way to LGA went off fine (2013 Mailbu LS) but I got the dreaded "We apologize, but we are having trouble fulfilling your reservation..." email today at LGA for my one-way home. I cabbed it and will send in the receipt.

Update - To HOD's credit, I received a credit about an hour after emailing in my cab receipt, which was pretty amazing response time.

Hey, at least you haven't had to pay full fare for a cab home in awhile. ;)

Happy to report that my most recent one-ways to/from JFK went through without a problem. I made the one-way to JFK reservation about a week in advance and noticed that the location I normally use wasn't showing as available. Luckily, there's another location just a block further that did allow me to book the one way. A few days before my rental, I did a dummy booking and saw I could use my preferred location for pick up, so I switched the reservation.

I am trying to book a one-way to LGA for later this week and am not seeing any locations available south of Midtown, so will keep trying between now and my departure and catch a cab if I can't find anything.

This reminds me, I don't see it as a location on the On Demand web site yet but when I was in the HLE last they have a sign up saying that they're getting On Demand there, which is kind of interesting. Will be able to pick up cars at all hours, Sunday, etc. Honestly I worry that it ultimately will mean the counters of small offices may be open fewer hours but that's probably a ways out yet.

It's kind of an odd suburban location for On Demand, that's why I thought it was interesting. Down in the city (Pittsburgh) there are Zipcars but the HLE is located in a sprawl suburb. Nobody is out there with no car, it would just be nearly impossible (plus it's fairly upscale area), so the target market is different I would think.

Reliability seems to have gotten better in NYC. I'm moving to South Florida and HOD would be a cheaper alternative to getting to and from the city when visiting. I have vowed to never step on the pokey Q33 again and avoid the subway whenever possible.

Seems like Hertz On Demand is rebranded as Hertz 24/7 as far as I have seen. And on the West Coast at least it appears to be available at locations outside of San Francisco now at many of the local HLE's. Many more of the standard Hertz vehicles also appear to be coming with the Hertz 24/7 equipment as well.

Better, perhaps, but still spotty and inconsistent service in my experience. Case-in-point: I had a one-way rental from JFK to Manhattan tonight. First, when my flight landed, I got the dreaded "we are having problems finding a car for your reservation" message. After calling customer support, they were able to assign me a Malibu LT. When trying to exit the lot, the attendants kept trying to process me as if it was a normal rental (checking driver's license, trying to print contract, etc.) despite my trying to explain that I am driving an On Demand car. The final kicker was a new one for me; when I tried to return the car to the garage on my reservation (one I have used numerous times in the past) I was told be the attendant that there were too many On Demand cars in the garage and I would have to take it somewhere else. A call to customer service confirmed that there is nothing they could do to help; I had to find another location. Luckily, there is another On Demand lot a few blocks away that accepted my car, but geez, does it need to be this hard?

It looks like HOD has been rolled out to many more HLE locations nationwide, from Abilene to Worcester. It's also been rebranded as Hertz On Demand 24/7.

In slightly related car-sharing news of potential interest to FTers, Car2Go now allows one-way trips to/from an offsite parking lot at AUS:
https://www.car2go.com/common/data/l...pot_Austin.pdf

Is there a damage report as in an ordinary rental? How are dents and/or other chargeable damage indicated when you pick up the vehicle?

When you pick up the car, the little communicator box in the center console will ask "Is there any damage to the car? Y/N" and if you press the Yes button, it will trigger a call to you from Member Care and they will note the damage on their side.

Following up on my poor experience at JFK a few weeks ago, Member Care gave me a $30 credit into my account and promised to look into why the contracted garage wouldn't accept my return. I also asked them to look into the one-way availability in NYC; I tried to make a Manhattan-LGA reservation for last Saturday and despite checking daily for over a week, I wasn't able to find anything.

When picking up the car at JFK, do you need to go to the Hertz desk? Or do they tell you by text message where your car is in the lot?

Wow, I wouldn't have put up with that. I would have left the car there (having badged out) and told the garage it's up to them to work it out with Hertz. I do find that the garage staff at HOD locations are much less helpful than with Zipcar - in one case, the staff just said "nope, car's too far back, we're not moving six cars to get to it."

No, just look for the HOD cars and go to the vehicle indicated on the text/email. However, be aware sometimes Hertz will put the HOD vehicles in god knows where locations. In that case you may need help from lot personnel.

I did exactly that. I told the garage manager I didn't give a flyjng %%÷÷@@ what he did with the vehicle. I then called HOD and they said they would take care of it.

You are supposed to get a text/email that gives you the make, model, plate number, and space. Sometimes, you don't get that.

At JFK, there's a dedicated bunch of stalls for HOD cars. It's on the far right as you exit the building.

I was very tempted to do that, but I do use the particular lot as my default pick up and drop off HOD location so didn't want to burn any bridges with the folks there. I was pretty annoyed and even more so with HOD's "not our problem" attitude. Maybe I should have just parked it on the street outside and let them deal with it.

Stranded at EWR
 

I had a serious failure with my EWR reservation this morning (1:30 a.m. pick-up; one-way into Manhattan). When I reached the EWR lot, the assigned car (from the email/SMS notification) was nowhere to be found in the designated On Demand stalls. I called Member Care and was told there was nothing they could do. I gate them the tags of the On Demand car that I could find in the lot, but they weren't willing to release it to me. I was told that I would need to catch a cab.

I ended up booking a regular one-way from the EWR desk; I am asking On Demand for full reimbursement of this. Wish me luck...

That happened to me in the middle of the winter when essentially HOD told me to go out to the lot (in sub zero degree weather) and hunt for the car. Turns out it was parked next to the building.

One of the enhancements I have noticed recently is when booking one-way from Manhattan they show zero availability in the Manhattan garages but they can book you one when you make a phone booking which also attracts a $3 fee.

To be fair, I should report that Member Care did fully reimburse me for the regular Hertz rental, plus the cost of refueling the car before I turned it in. ^

I have noticed that one-ways from Manhattan are just about impossible to book these days; thanks for clueing me in about the phone booking option (but a serious :td: to the $3 charge).

First experience with HOD - registered online this past Saturday and made reservation for Manhattan upper west side for next day Sunday morning for 3 hour rental - wanted to visit my Dads' grave on the 4th anniversary of his passing away. HOD customer service advised me that as I wanted the car within 3 days of registering, I needed to go to a normal Hertz office and use the HOD Kiosk to verify my license (from England).

So went into West 77th street office - very efficient, sort of a Skype set up video link to HOD customer service agent - held up my license and passport to the screen so agent could read details - whole process took 3 minutes.

Next morning went to 97th street/West End Ave garage - no car !!!!!!!!!!! I call HOD and they advise there was a mechanical issue - and that they could give me another car from 93rd street/Central park west garage location.

I said I would need to take a taxi as I was with my mother who uses a walker - and that I would want re-imbursing for taxi going and coming back to 97th street - no problem at all. (I emailed receipts yesterday, so I will see how fast they re-imburse).

Got a better car than my original rental (at the absolute bargain rate of $8/hr) - but VERY filthy inside with stains on the seat. And only 1/8 tank of gas.

Car drove well - a Chevy Cruise I think it was called. When I went to get gas, tried to use the fuel card, but when i put in details, my pin and odometer reading, card was not accepted. Paid $5 cash for 1.3 gallons (New Jersey cheap petrol) - submitted receipt by email for re-imbursement.

I wound up giving car back 20 minutes late - for which I was charged. However, without my asking, when the invoice for the rental was generated (by email) a 2nd invoice also showed a credit of 1hr for inconvenience of not having original car at the original garage.

Pending receipt of refunds for taxi and gas - overall, I thought customer service and the overall experience good - and for NYC a bargain at $25 for 3+ hours, including insurance and gas.

Thanks for the tip - wish I had read this thread a few days ago. I tried to get a 1 hour rental from manhattan to newark airport on sunday but nothing available. Wound up taking the train from Penn Station - but what a crowd!! Turned out the Mets played vs Philadelphia - the game had ended about 1hr before - and these were all the Philly fans going back home (to Trenton) - I waited 15 minutes more for the next local train, which was empty. During my 15min wait managed to find the 1 working AC vent in Penn station and camped right underneath it LOL.

I recently had my first (and possibly last) experience with HOD, at a neighborhood location in DC.

The car was FILTHY, unknown sticky substances all over, food wrappers, etc even an odor of smoke (not the tobacco kind).

The car also had a number of fairly major dents, scratches and other body damage.

Upon return there were three different accounting errors on my invoice which required a 30 minute call to customer service to fix. FYI, if you are hoping to use the advertised first free hour promotion from the website, prepare to call to get it credited back.

In my experience they also placed a hold on my credit card the day before my rental, which seemed a little out of line with their cancellation policy of "at least five minutes notice before the start of your reservation"

Overall, I found this experience inferior to the other car-sharing/short-term rental options in DC and probably will not use it again.

Tonight was my final episode with HOD. I have a one way rental from LGA to EWR. Of course I get the email that there are no cars. Now in the past when going into Manhattan I've been given the choice of either a cab (up to $50) or arrange to take a Hertz vehicle. I call CS which is usually very good but this time its nothing but holds and hangups. Finally I am told to take a cab, which is not practical between the two airports. No other option, told no supervisor on duty, take it or leave it. And no cars in Manhattan either as an alternative.

So I did a Hertz one way on my own ($142) and was told that I would need to appeal to "upper management" to get reimbursed. I want the difference between the $142 and the original cost of the HOD rental (comes out to around $100). At the very least, the $50 allowed for cab fare. Any suggestions on how and who to take this matter to at HOD. You can PM if you prefer.