businesstraveller2

I've been going to SFO the last couple of weeks on business. Aug 17 Sat evening got in and found a loaded Escape on Executive Selection with Arizona plates. Took that for a week and dropped it at OAK. This past week I found a Captiva LTZ (also leather with a moon roof and wood trim). Not as nice as the Escape but still a fun car to tool around the hills of the east bay. Managed to get back to SFO yesterday (Fri morning) with no traffic over the San Mateo bridge. The news agencies have scared people from driving this weekend with the Bay Bridge out. I will be back after labor day and wondering what they will have in Executive selection. Many of the ES cars were chevy sedans of some sort. These seem to be fleet cars. I had to go down a row to find the Captiva with leather. FYI if you are executive you can ask the staff at SFO for a car if you don't find what you like on the exec. selection aisle. Last fall at SFO I needed to drive 6 extra people and they found me a Yukon stashed away somewhere else and gave it to me for my regular midsize rate. Hopefully the new bridge will be up next week I will drive on that Tues morning if it is ready.

roadman3313

Fri 8/30 9pm:

EA: Empty
ES: Empty
Line about 15 people long at a waiting area they set up.
Alamo had about 20 people waiting around for vehicles.

10pm:
EA: Empty
ES: Empty
Line was down to about 5 people.
Alamo had 30 people waiting.

Asked staff about the situation. They said you just have to wait for what comes up and be patient. E or EE doesn't matter.

Went down to Hertz and was offered a Dodge Challenger R/T for my requested 3 day rental, which after taxes and fees came out to about $20/day. It'll make for a nice drive to/from LA

Between National and Hertz at SFO I have to say I've been both pleased and disappointed recently... last 2-3 times National did not have any vehicles in the aisles and Alamo was taking what was coming in. Hertz has been upgrading me to SUV's when I really would like a car... and then they say they don't have any cars available (though all the spaces are filled - I know they could be for other people but out of a couple hundred cars I'm sure you could trade my SUV for one and give the "upgrade" to someone else!)

Glad to hear you've had a good experience recently with National at SFO. Unfortunately I've had to rent on Friday afternoon/evenings the past few weeks and it's been a long wait and lack of vehicles.

businesstraveller2

Roadman that totally stinks! I've never gotten to SFO and not had a car. But interesting to know this. I flew out of SFO a few hours before you got in and the lines at the rental car counters were quite long - around noon on Friday so I imagine there were a bunch of weekend travelers who took all the cars. I tend to arrive mid morning on flights from LAX and the one time I got there in eve was a Saturday and still lots of cars in the aisles. I imagine labor day weekend is a very busy one for them. I will be there again Tues morning around 10am and will see what they have.

FlightNurse

I would assume since it's labor day weekend the last big weekend of the summer had a lot to do this with...

roadman3313

Labor Day generally isn't a peak travel day to San Francisco. Hotel rates are near their lowest as are rental car rates. That combined with the Bay Bridge being closed have kept people away. With that said, there are probably more locals potentially renting a car to get out of town for the weekend. Roadways out of town to Monterey, Napa, Tahoe, and the like were all packed.

The one thing I do know at SFO is Hertz always seems to have a full looking lot. They may have a crazy long line if you aren't a Gold Member but they do have a nice variety of cars. Do I prefer National and the choices they have, yes. But it's nice to have Hertz to fall back on or if I'd one would like higher end Prestige, Adrenaline, or Dream Collection Cars such as Porsche, Tesla, Audi, Bentley, etc...

National Daily Rate (Full-Size) was under $20/day for the weekend. Hertz was down below $20/day as well. Higher end cars were going for $30-50/day which was much lower than the usual $100-500/day. Surprising given the high demand but a great way to bring in business to an otherwise slower weekend (it wasn't slow but it was anticipated to be before the fact).

FlightNurse

You might have known the bay bridge is closed, I wasn't aware of that, and if hotel rates are low, then tourist might be coming to SF for a getaway. Some stated that the car rental line were long...

roadman3313

A Side Note: I was down in San Diego today (rented a car from Hertz at SAN) and was surprised many of the CMS signs on I-5 around San Diego and LA also showed that the SF Bay Bridge was closed until 9/3. Caltrans seems to really be trying to get the word out and done a lot of marketing to that affect which I do give them credit for.

And yes the lines were long. The low rates brought people in. I may have phrased that wrong before. My apologies.

This is the third time I've been to SFO in the past month that National did not have any cars in the aisles and people had to wait for vehicles to pull in when I went in. The main gripe from people in line was the lack of customer service or attention.

Personally I like the cars and variety that National has at SFO. It has just been a busy month for them and they have not been able to keep up with demand. An Employee did say that they have plenty of drivers but lacked cleaners (sick/vacation) so the cars that came in were not being cleaned promptly so the line of cars coming back out was slow. Another employee also mentioned that they were short staffed all around so some staff were "short tempered" from the added work.

They were trying to get out cars which was no easy feat so it seemed. And they had to put up with a lot of flack from some who flat out yelled at staff and were disrespectful.

Overall National has come through when I needed them in a pinch. And SFO is no exception to that!

PlateMan

Another Labor Day pickup .. Sunday 1-Sept around 10pm, EA and ES were fully stocked. EA was almost all midsize cars (pick your model) with one SUV thrown in, ES had mostly full-size cars (again pick your model). VIP had a Nissan Juke and a large brand new Ford.

Since I wanted to have fun in SF on my short rental ... I asked if there were any Fiat 500s on the lot and one (freshly washed) was brought around for me. NV-plated with just under 10K on the odometer. Staff were very friendly here too.

FlightNurse

The fiat would have been my last pick to have fun in.....

Coastercameron

Am I the only one who thinks it is misguided logic to think that the fire sale pricing it what was driving the high demand? Surely some are drawn in when they slash prices, but the only reason they drop rates super low is because they don't have much demand for that period to begin with at all..

Same goes with hotels, when you get a super low rate the hotel is more likely to be empty than full, and vice versa.

roadman3313

I believe they did not anticipate much demand and were a bit surprised when they had the demand they had compared to the lack of supply. Idont believe the hotels had many staying in them in SF. I thought quite a few locals may have rented to go along the coast or out of town. Traffic was pretty heavy going out. Not much coming in.

Labor Day is usually slow in the Bay Area. I agree with your logic. I only rented personally because of the low rate.

PlateMan

Ha, I had one in CLT and enjoyed it. Turns heads, starts conversations and is good in the city. Coming off a huge SUV in ABQ yesterday so switching it up.

businesstraveller2

Roadman thanks for the tip about the lack of cars! Sure enough when I showed up at 1030am this morning (after an hour flight delay out of LAX) there were ~20 people waiting at the executive selection aisle and no cars!! So I asked the national person and she said she thought it would be only a five minute wait. Actually she was right they were bringing cars up all the time. When I got within two or three from the front I noticed a white minivan that had been sitting there. No one else wanted it so I took it. Fully loaded town and country with black leather seats, sat radio (operating), backup camera, dual zone a/c. etc. I needed to drive a bunch of people tonight so it turned out to be an appropriate car for me. But a challenge to parallel park on the street in Berkeley. Backup camera saved the day I was able to squeeze (if you can use that verb with a minivan) into a spot within an inch of the car behind me and just clear a driveway. It's a bit of a boat to drive around the east bay hills but overall very comfortable and nice to have the sat radio working. About 10K miles on it.

roadman3313

I'm originally from the Berkeley Hills so I can understand your pain! Glad the mini-van worked and was loaded! Seems like it was calling your name

bocastephen

Some things never change - I had this experience frequently at SFO a few years ago. Many of the staff or supervisors don't care about status and will make a repeat-customer EE wait in line behind 20 Kettles for a car instead of bringing them forward, which completely rubbed me the wrong way - but on a few occasions with other Elites stuck in line, we asserted ourselves and found a manager who brought us forward and gave the Elite group first right of refusal on any car that came up.

Sounds like this station is still unable to properly manage its inventory.