vatraveler

Hertz wants $155 per day for an economy car over MLK weekend. The other agencies are quite high as well. What gives? Hotel rates are not jacked up that weekend, so I assume it's not related to holiday visitors.

Sorry - didn't mean to include both Insane and Crazy in the title, but I guess they apply!

VidaNaPraia

Enterprise seems to have, at their Prudential location, an economy car for $42.99/day over that weekend. (Jan 17-20, noon to noon, $154)

JY1024

What dates are you looking at? I don't see the prices you're seeing.

I threw in random dates of Friday Jan 16 pick up and Monday Jan 19 drop off. Expedia shows me 5 companies <$100 pre-tax per day (with the lowest being $65). Comes out to $275-370 all-in.

Using the Costco website and the same 3-day rental, I'm able to get an Alamo standard car for $96 after tax/fees and a full size for $102 after tax/fees (their order goes economy -> compact -> intermediate -> standard -> full size).

vatraveler

Friday 1/16-Sunday 1/18 Hertz on Orbitz.


Car rental

Base rate:
$311.98

Taxes and fees
$102.46

Total car rental estimate:
$414.44

Amount due at booking:
$0.00

Amount due at pick-up:
$414.44

I got Hertz prices down to $63 per day ($181.92 total for two days) with AAA discount, but that's still crazy high for a weekend. BDL and PVD are both in the high-$20s to low-$30s per day (and both have lower fees).

Out of my Element

So you found a high rate on Hertz and all rates are crazy and/or insane?

Using your dates on Orbitz, I find reasonable prices for Payless, Alamo, and Advantage, and two other posters found better rates than you did.

So either you gotta move off of Hertz, or you need to be more specific "Hertz charging crazy insane rates" about your kvetching

vatraveler

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Define reasonable. $42.99 per day for a subcompact on a weekend does not fit that bill.


I would never consider Payless or Advantage as options, either.

AAerSTL

Someone needs to pay for the new combined rental car center. In addition to the fees Massport and the rental companies add to your bill I have no doubt they have increased the base rates to pass on the higher rents for the new building.

BearX220

No, you define reasonable. Rental rates gyrate up and down all the time, but objectively, $42.99 / day can be entirely reasonable, depending on:

• Market
• Pickup location
• Date / season / occasion
• Provider

You're looking at the typical most expensive provider in one of America's most expensive markets, with airport pickup, on a holiday weekend. The rate you're scoffing at might be seen by others as a gift. If you are fixated on Hertz and won't consider other providers, or Priceline, we can't help you.

My wife needed a car on short notice at DCA for a family emergency trip in October and we paid more than $50 / day for a compact from Alamo, and we were glad to get it as most of the A-list providers were quoting $70-$90 per day. No idea why, but if you want a deal you got to loosen up, and even then it sometimes doesn't happen.

marlborobell

You could try FlightCar (flightcar.com) -- you'll get someone's personal car rather than a dedicated rental car, so you'll never be sure quite what you're going to get, but they start at $19/day for an older compact ($23/day for 2009 or newer) on those dates.

Never rented with them before but I have listed with them (and would do so again). They're off-airport (but closer than Thrifty)correction: they've apparently moved and they're a good bit further from the airport now. Sigh.. They have some kind of semi-arm's-length relationship with a limo company to get you to the site and get them out of the airport surcharges, so you're just paying the listed base price. (That and/or they roll the taxes and fees into the price so that the price you see is actually the price you pay. Shocking concept for rental car companies )

Often1

The rates are only "crazy insane" if the market won't support them. In that case, Hertz will have a ton of cars available and you can pick one up for next to nothing. The fact that the rates are "crazy insane" means that they aren't because people are paying the rates.

Pickles

I don't really rent cars that often, but the rate variations in Boston can be pretty meaningful. $155 for a weekend day is stiff, but not unheard of in Boston. You can also find the exact same car in the exact same location on a different weekend day for $13 plus taxes (which are way more than the rental). It's supply and demand at work, I guess.

VidaNaPraia

If you're expecting the kind of $25/day weekend special that is sometimes advertised for other locations, posters can chime in about whether they've seen that in recent times here in Boston. I have not.

Pickles

I have. Not every time, but frequently enough.

vatraveler

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Hotwire has $23.95 per day, so I'll probably go that route. Or I may stay in the city and forego the rental car altogether. Hotel rates are actually quite reasonable.

vatraveler

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Priceline has $15/day. Now we're talkin'!