Not getting best price on Hertz.com
Jun 7, 2014, 8:15 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: PHL / NYC / PSA-BLQ
Programs: AA PPRO, Marriott/Hilton Gold, AMX-Plat, Global Entry
Posts: 3,109
Not getting best price on Hertz.com
I was trying to book a weekend rental on Hertz.com and kept coming up with a ridiculously high price ($160 for two days). Used CDP, took it off. Nothing would change it.
Decided to shop it on Kayak and got a bunch of prices around $70 for two days INCLUDING HERTZ. Used Kayak to try and book Hertz and when I went to the site, price jumped back up.
Decided to price an award and, voila, the pricing that led to the $70 for the two days shows up. Decided NOT to use the points and booked the reservation at the lower rate.
Now what p**ses me off is that I have to jump through these hoops to get the price and that Hertz.com is not giving me their best price.
Decided to shop it on Kayak and got a bunch of prices around $70 for two days INCLUDING HERTZ. Used Kayak to try and book Hertz and when I went to the site, price jumped back up.
Decided to price an award and, voila, the pricing that led to the $70 for the two days shows up. Decided NOT to use the points and booked the reservation at the lower rate.
Now what p**ses me off is that I have to jump through these hoops to get the price and that Hertz.com is not giving me their best price.
Jun 11, 2014, 9:40 am
#2
Join Date: May 2013
Location: TX
Posts: 240
I've seen this or at least a similar issue. When trying to book a car at IAH 6/25/14-6/30/14, Avis, Budget, etc. come in between $100 and $200. Hertz? $350 for an intermediate and $425 for a full size, and that's WITH the USAA CDP and a coupon. Now Kayak shows a similar price for Hertz, so it might be that demand is disproportionately higher with Hertz that weekend than the others, but either way, seems fishy!
Jun 12, 2014, 12:20 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2013
Programs: Hertz 5*, Le Accor Gold
Posts: 24
Well... this happens sometimes as they have prices allocated to different systems the same way as airlines do. It can then happen that there are still some cheap slots for aggregators while the cheap slots for hertz.com are already sold out.
What also happens that some locations are way cheaper than others. It's not only an airport/railway station surcharge, but just a location "discrimination". This happened to me in Norway where I get significantly lower price for 2 stations than for 10 others in Oslo for the same car group. I might even get an upgrade as the smaller stations don't have that many cars in the lot and they will assign me whatever better they have.
And CDP/Gold-Plus is tricky as hell. With my Gold Plus Account/Corporate account, the price was 2,5x more than without any CDP. So it's quite a lottery on what price you get, the only way you can avoid overpaying is simply do both searches (hertz.com and aggregators) anytime you want to rent a car and even dropping an email to the station might do some wonders.
What also happens that some locations are way cheaper than others. It's not only an airport/railway station surcharge, but just a location "discrimination". This happened to me in Norway where I get significantly lower price for 2 stations than for 10 others in Oslo for the same car group. I might even get an upgrade as the smaller stations don't have that many cars in the lot and they will assign me whatever better they have.
And CDP/Gold-Plus is tricky as hell. With my Gold Plus Account/Corporate account, the price was 2,5x more than without any CDP. So it's quite a lottery on what price you get, the only way you can avoid overpaying is simply do both searches (hertz.com and aggregators) anytime you want to rent a car and even dropping an email to the station might do some wonders.