YVR Cockroach

Since others have posted that you should have only one booking at a time, I want to start off a new(?) topic which is:

Does one have any statutory rights in the U.S. (I guess it will be by state) if one makes a rental car booking and arrives to find that there are no cars available?

I booked a car with Thrifty's SAN location X'mas 3 years back. Arrived to find that there were no cars there or supposedly at any other location. The agency had someone drive me to my hotel in Mission Valley which is located next to nothing (where you'd want to walk anyway). During my 2 1/2 day trip there, I was carless for the first 22 hours.

The only compensation I got was the first car being made available (a convertible) and a day's free rental voucher which I never used.

MisterNice

When I was in the military, this would fall under the phrase "SOL". My experience is it occurs less than 1% of the time. Once I received (actually was reimbursed) cab fare to my hotel and a car was delivered the next morning to the hotel (Hertz). It is not a nice thing to occur, but I think little solice is given by any law.

rfrost

I think there's a New York City consumer protection reg the rental companies here display saying they have to honor the reservation if you arrive within one-half hour of the scheduled time, but I don't think it specifies what happens if they don't comply. I used to have a terrible time with one of the Dollar offices here; they'd routinely run out of cars and have to send to EWR for them, leading to lengthy waits in an unappealing garage. I think all they did for us was give us free gas. (I stopped using them some years ago so don't know if it's still a problem.) I think I once had to wait an hour or so at an Avis airport location, and I think they comped me a day. Those are the only instances I've ever had where cars were not available.

MisterNice

I just booked a National Car and found this nice interesting piece of info on their site:


GUARANTEE-
** GUARANTEED RESERVATIONS **
.
. SPECIFIC VEHICLES AND CERTAIN RENTAL PERIODS
. MAY REQUIRE A CREDIT CARD GUARANTEE.
.
BENEFITS- WHEN A GUARANTEE IS REQUIRED, NATIONAL WILL
. HOLD A CAR IN THE SPECIFIED CAR CLASS FOR UP
. TO 12 *BUSINESS HOURS* AFTER THE SCHEDULED
. ARRIVAL TIME OR UNTIL CLOSE OF BUSINESS.
.
. WHEN A GUARANTEED RESERVATION IS PLACED AT
. AN AIRPORT LOCATION, NATIONAL MUST MEET THE
. ARRIVAL OF A LATE FLIGHT.
.
. FOR THOSE RARE OCCURRENCES WHEN A CAR IS
. NOT AVAILABLE, NATIONAL WILL ATTEMPT TO
. SECURE A SUITABLE ALTERNATE VEHICLE FROM
. ANOTHER CAR RENTAL VENDOR OR PROVIDE--
.
. - FREE GROUND TRANSPORTATION TO THE CUSTOMER*S
. DESTINATION UP TO 50 MILES
. - LOCATION WILL DELIVER A VEHICLE TO THE
. CUSTOMER WITHIN 24 HOURS
. - LOCATION WILL PRESENT THE CUSTOMER WITH
. 50.00 USD IN COMPLIMENTARY RENTAL VOUCHERS
. GOOD TOWARDS FUTURE RENTALS

I hope you can use it to your advantage.

rmccamy

I once waited 30 minutes for a car at Budget at Denver Int'l Airport. When I arrived, they already knew they were short on cars. For those people in a hurry, they were offering to pay for cab rides to the city, and would deliver a car later on. Those who wanted could wait for a car.

I was more interested in getting a car than hassling with it later, so I chose to wait. They gave me a 25% discount on my weekly rental and, by chance, I wound up with an SUV. The discount seemed to be SOP, but the upgrade was definitely random luck (considering the lack of availability).

They were profusely apologetic, but I think they handled it as best they could. The most important thing was that they identified the problem and offered a solution for people who really couldn't wait.

[This message has been edited by rmccamy (edited 11-14-2000).]

Counsellor

One of the problems is what lawyers call "mutuality". For instance, with hotel reservations, if they don't have the room they are required to do something for you (e.g., "walk" you to another hotel); if you don't carry through with your end of the bargain (i.e., are a "no-show"), they get to charge you one days' rent for the room they held for you.

Most car rental agencies do not charge you for a "no-show" reservation, and thus may not be legally obligated to you in case they can't meet the reservation. However, as noted in earlier postings on this thread, for public relations reasons if no other, they usually try to make it up to the customer.

I'd be cautious about trying to push it too far, however, with things like consumer protection statutes. If they are going to be legally bound, they will almost certainly start charging for no-shows.

Watchful

Remember the Seinfeld episode when Jerry was explaining to the desk agent what a "reservation" really meant

Once in Orlando, they were out of the size car we had reserved and we were upgraded to a full-size (humongous) cherry-red van.

We never had any trouble finding that van in the huge WDW parking lots!