MCITV08

If anyone has any questions regarding rental from an HLE location such as body shop rates, insurance replacements, or simple leisure rental questions, please feel free to address them as your question may be the same as another customers.
Thanks!
Matthew

sbagdon

Whine: why is it so inexpensive to rent HLE->airport, and so expensive to rent from an airport->HLE (sometimes 2.5x as much!). I have an HLE in walking distance to my house, and I'd pay 2x HLE prices (rent one-way, fly, rent one-way), just so I don't have to park my car at the airport (parking fees, lease mileage, etc)... just not going to do it, specifically because of the airport->HLE rental cost.

Question: are HLEs friendly to mileage-runners (or whatever you'd call renting a car, to push you over the edge to 5*)? With an HLE so close, it would make sense to rent a car for a day, if I had to do a short/mid-distance quick drive (keep the miles off the lease car). And if the right rate popped up (and there are some low rates at the local HLE!), I'd rent 3 cars in a weekend, returning 1 each day, just to get to 5*. Do the HLE's look at us wierd?

Out of curiosity, how do you handle keeping a variety of cars on an HLE lot? Are you a satelite of an airport location, and you can swap cars any time you want (to keep the variety correct... Sat, NL, etc?). If I ever rented airport->HLE, and the HLE site-manager was friendly enough, and was short a specific car, I'd be more then glad to be sure I came back with one. Just curious how you keep a good variety, with cars coming and going, and not having the lot capacity of an airport site.

Steve B.

Savage25

My local HLE is good for that...I did 3 one-day rentals in a weekend several times last year, when the $20-off per day gave me each rental at under $2 for 1700 BD miles, hitting PC in the process. The HLE manager would let me keep the same car and just close out each rental every day...she knew I was doing it for the miles. I don't own a car, so having a rented one every weekend came in useful too.

MCITV08

You brought up some interested questions about our HLE location...

Renting one way from an HLE to an Aiport is NOT always the cheapest. It usually depends on the time of year and season. So actually, in my opinion from an HLE>Airport should be more expensive from an Airport>HLE..You stumped me on that one...

As far as keeping cars on the lot, basically we know how much each car costs the branch per month. We try to keep the cheapest cars (for us) idle on our lot. The cheapest cars doesn't mean a lot full of old Ford Tauruses and beat up Corollas; even brand new cars can have a low cost, depending on how they are purchased through the corporate office. As far as having cars with SAT/NL at an HLE location we really don't look into that that much due to the fact that 80% of our renters are insurance replacements or customers who aren't looking to spend a lot and really don't want to spend an additional $10.95/day for NL. We only keep those with NL in our fleet for Gold Customers who preferred that in their profile. We are not a satellite location of the Airport, and it's per branch what type of cars they want and don't want, those we don't want, we send them to customers on a one way trip. If our lot ever became too large and we can't push the cars out fast enough, other branches will pull them from us including the airports.

sbagdon

OK, thanks. I've got HLE rentals down to a rediculous level, cheaper then insurance rental, and it's almost painful how inexpensive I've gotten the rental, with a valid CDP. I'd really like to find a $-off PC, for single-day weekend-rentals, just haven't found one. I'm just going to wait for a high-mileage weekend, save the miles on the lease car, and drive the rental for the miles.

Don't know what to tell you. It's measurable, and repeatable. I've got a 4-day trip coming up, and the Airport->HLE was 2.5x the HLE->Airport. The 2x HLE rentals would have been a few dollars more then the parking, no milage on the lease car, and clsoe to 5*. Seemed odd to mee too, just calling it out.

BTW, does PC mean anything, for HLE's... or even Airport stations? Sure, the guaranteed upgrade sounds nice, yet the upgrades stop at Premium (if it went to Fun/Prestige, that'd be another story!). It's just that anything larger then a Mazda 6, and I'd return it for something smaller... the Premiums use too much gas, and I prefer small cars anyway.

Thanks!

Steve B.

Savage25

I used PC #110353 this last weekend for a one-day rental at my HLE and paid $1.11...its valid till 4/30/08.
http://www.aaa.com/Coupon/ZEMemberAAA.html#rocks

azepine00

It takes $5 off at every single location I tried

bhatnasx

What's an MA?

Sanosuke

I think it means 'Manager's Assistant"

Sanosuke!

johnep1

With an HLE, where you don't need to check the car out at an exit booth (like at airports), can one keep the car for just a few seconds and then return it (without even getting in the car)? If the rate is low enough, this is a great way to get some extra airline miles.

Savage25

Update after a few daily rentals: This code gives me $20 off when I rent from my HLE and return at DTW, but only $5 off when I rent and return at my HLE.

cash003

I am taking a road trip and have rented a minivan for 10 days. I would like to get a particular model but I know that cannot be guaranteed. I plan on calling the location to request the model but I don't know how early I should do this. Would you recommend a week, the day before, the day of? Is there anything else I can do to try and get what I want?

Thank you.

MCITV08

You're right, an HLE location cannot guarantee you a specific model minivan. And due to the fact that many HLE locations generally do not carry many minivans in their fleet, to get the best price possible, the sooner you can book it, the better. A week is a good amount of time to get you the best rate for the 10 days you need it. If you just needed a seven passenger minivan, call an HLE location for the best price, if you wanted to get picky about which one, the best and only thing you can do with an HLE is put in a request for a specific minivan, but that request does not in any way guarantee that model; it just helps get that model, if possible, to that location.

UAzip

The local HLE is closed on Monday for Memorial Day, so can not return car until Tuesday. Of course, this then kicks in an "extra day" at a rate more than twice the weekend day rate..... Should this be? Even if I drop off the car on Monday (and it would be dropped off in a parking garage where I could provide the ticket showing the time/date), the charges accrue until they open Tuesday morning.

Does this sound right to you? Can they adjust it somehow? (Or is this just a screwup by the corporate office, not taking the holiday into account--especially when the location is closed all day at the end of the official "weekend" and they bill until they reopen?)

Thanks for any ideas....

MCITV08

Very good point, this was a complaint we've had from many from our HLE location. When you drop the car off, I would tell the rep that is at the counter or ask for a manager, and politely say to them, if they can extend the weekend special price until Tuesday since they were closed on Monday and I didn't need the car. If you put it in that perspective where you were forced to keep it therefore forced to pay for an extra day, they'll change it. They don't want any unhappy customers, and there's no doubt in my mind that they won't change it. It's all about how you approach it. In the computers they come up 3 weekend days and 1 extra day. So unless you don't say anything, they won't change anything.