A "Customer Contract Fee"
 

Just booked a reservation for ms. jmd001 at DCA. In looking at the details of the price quote, there was an item for "Customer Contract Fee $7.50". This was a new one on me. So I called the Gold Desk.

According to the Hertz rep (who took about 5 minutes to dig out the answer), it is a $2.50/day fee that the airport charges the customer (for "airport improvements", she said). [The semantics of what is a "fee" and what is a "tax" is a bit beyond my ken.]

So, just another case of piling on fees that are not included in the first price-per-day that one sees.

Supposedly though, if you rent from a Hertz office that is off the airport, you don't get hit with that fee. (But the way things are going, there is probably a fee by Hertz for NOT renting at the airport.)

I think this one is mandated by DCA, and all agencies located at DCA charge it.