My S.O is leaving Wednesday for Portland, OR. His original plans were to leave Thursday and return Monday. I made his rental car reservation through the hotel's website ( hilton.com ) for Thursday through Monday. I forgot to add Wednesday when he added an extra day to the start of the trip. Original rental was $208. Enterprise wants another $200 to add one more day to the rental. Hilton can't help me. They say they rent hotel rooms not cars, and the rental was through a third party. Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can add a day to his rental without bankrupting him?
Why don't you just cancel the "original" car reservation then check with the various car rental agencies in the area to see who gives you the best price and "rebook" with that company. I venture to guess you'll get a better price even from Enterprise.
Roams: I already checked one or two car rental rv travel trailer websites and the price to rebook the entire stay seems to be in the ballpark of what Enterprise rv travel trailer wants to charge for the old reservation plus one day. I am not going to cancel the cheap one until I find something better. He could hardly do worse by just throwing himself on some agent's mercy when he arrives. Could they possibly charge more than $200 for a one day rental??!!
tomfuller: rv travel trailer you are definitely correct that off-airport rentals are way cheaper, however this is not in the S.O's playbook. (He's heading for Vancouver, so the lightrail rv travel trailer solution won't work, either, but thanks for the suggestions in any case.)
Do not try returning the car a day early unless you specifically clear it with the rental agency. I've heard they can charge a penalty for early return - presumably to prevent people from reserving for a week to get the cheaper rate but then returning it after 5 or 6 days.
In May I rented a car from Cleveland airport for 12 days. I paid for 2 weeks since it was cheaper than 12 days. The day before I was to turn it in at 7PM I called and asked to turn it in about 9PM. No problem. I could have turned it in any time up to 9AM the next morning at the same price.
he's flying to Portland to visit 2 (adult) sons, one in Vancouver WA and the other in Portland; he needs a car to go between the 2 and for daytrips each day with them. He stays in the Hilton Garden Inn in Vancouver each time he goes out there (a few times a year) because he loves the location, the people at the hotel, and the bed.
I was thinking about getting him a one day rental rv travel trailer but (1) then he'd have to drive back to the airport and (2) it doesn't appear to be much of a bargain. I don't know how far it is from the hotel to PDX but I've heard often about Portland traffic and traffic across the bridge, etc., and was trying to avoid having him have to go there. If you say it's close and I can find a cheapo one-day rental, that would seem to be an answer. I've discussed this with him and he's all for trusting his luck and persuasive powers with a rental agent. I'm more of a pessimist and like to know ahead of time if I'm going to incur some kind of outrageous charge that will make my blood boil. You know, the old "Men Are From Mars and Women are From Venus" thing...
Look on Hotwire for the entire package days he needs. Cancel the other reservation. Don't tarry--it will only get more expensive. If it is tomorrow, you need to get on with it. And yes, walk up will be more expensive.
The returning early example almost 100% sure won't work here. Tom's rental was for over 7 days (discounted) in the first place and his early return was still over the 7 day minimum. If Tom had turned rv travel trailer it in after less than a week -- you can be pretty sure they would have nailed him for extra $$
Your SO's rental isn't long enough to get a weekly discount - but some agencies count Thurs through Monday as 'weekends' for reduced rates. That is probably where the problem is. The original rental was quoted as a weekend but if it had included Wed in the first place, it would have been much more expensive.
Thurs through Mon is "weekend rates" which are cheapest. By adding Wednesday, you are throwing him into a "weekly" rate or a "daily standard rate". So it's not really that they're charging you $200 for an "extra day", it's that you are now in a whole new rate category.
You might keep the thurs to Mon reservation, and see what just a one-day Wednesday rental would cost. It should save probably $100 at least? When he shows up, if he tells the agent he has back-to-back reservations, the agent might do some magic and allow him to just keep the car all the way through without returning rv travel trailer after one day and switching cars. If not, he'd have to be willing to return the car after one day and switch out in order to save $125 or whatever it ends up coming to.
Thanks for the explanation of the reasoning behind the huge increase in cost (although it doesn't make me feel much better for forgetting to add a day to the rental when he added a day to his stay...)
He's still thinking that he will try to talk the agent into a one-day addition at the same rate. Plan B is take a taxi to hotel. It also occurred to me that I should call the Hilton and find out if they have a shuttle. If so, he could cab to hotel Wednesday and maybe get the shuttle back to pick up the car (he's trying to avoid inconveniencing his sons).
Update: the hotel doesn't have its own shuttle but there is a "Blue Star Shuttle" that leaves the airport every half hour, no prior arrangement necessary, $16, pay the driver (and might stop at other hotels if there are passengers who wish to do so). There is apparently a "Washington only" shuttle.
C'mon, rv travel trailer when driving from the Hilton Garden Inn in Vancouver, WA, to PDX, you don't even take "THE" bridge... you go east and take the wide-open I-205 path, and you certainly don't do so during the morning commute.
At any rate, MAKE him a one-day reservation at whatever random airport company you can find, spanning Weds-to-Thurs, SO he has something in stone onto which he can fall back, in the event he strikes-out with pleading to the agent.
Enterprise is not the easiest company to deal with when trying rv travel trailer to negotiate at the counter. rv travel trailer I agree, just make a one day reservation with Thrifty or whoever, just to have something to fall back on when the Enterprise agent doesn't co-operate. Couldn't be easier to do, you are under no obligation to keep the one-day reservation, etc.
okay okay, I'll listen to you! I'll make him a one-day reservation when I get home from work today. (I did already make a 5/6 day reservation rv travel trailer with a company I never heard of, Advantage, that allegedly rv travel trailer has a counter in the terminal and shuttle to their cars. So he does have a fall-back position.)
As far as the shuttle is concerned, I called the hotel and spoke to someone at the hotel front desk, who told me about the shuttle. Since it isn't connected to the hotel, I'm not surprised there isn't any advertising for it there.
and as a postscript, yesterday I did run the dates through Hotwire (in the $400s) and Priceline (which is where I found the Advantage car rental for about $280 for the entire period). He prefers to not have to use a shuttle to get and return the car, but at least it's signficantly less $ than Enterprise.
Try alamo and discount I.D 7014650 which I found on their website, Alamo sometimes has good last-minute rates. Also, their website has a "hot deals" ad up top where you can sometimes get a good 5-day rate if you stay over a Sat night. The "hot deals" section will probably also have a $20 off weekly coupon that you can also plug in.
He arrived PDX and found a line of about 20 people at Enterprise counter. He didn't want to use the above-mentioned Advantage reservation because he wanted a car from a company where he didn't have to use a shuttle (bad experience in past finding offsite parking lot to return car in the dark). He walked over to Dollar counter, was waited on immediately, given a price just $20 over the Advantage quote. Is very happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment