Anyone else notice that fees have increased dramatically at Hotwire and Priceline

[Ned Land]

I've noticed a huge increase lately. They advertised a $9/day economy car for a 9 day rental, but the total price was like $230. How can that be? How can taxes and fees be more than the price of the rental. I never paid this high of a percentage in the past. I always have booked my Orlando cars from Priceline and Hotwire. Any one else notice this?

 

[Lewisc]

I've never used PL for car rentals. Losing perks like a free extra driver doesn't work for me.

Taxes and fees don't just include all the various fees and taxes we pay when we rent directly from the agency. It also includes a fee to PL. I'll speculate PL decided increasing the fee rather then increasing the price from $9 to $10 or $11 would be better for business. How many people read the "fine print"?

PL can rent a car for less then the price they pay to the agency if PL is willing to use part of their $$$ fee to "subsidize" your bid.

edited add. Some of the extra fees are fixed. Alamo is currently charging MCO renters $6.21 /day for fees (and the tax on those fees). Now add the concession fee and sales tax to the rental price of your car. Add tax to your $9 fee and your total should be around $160. PL is either subsidizing the $9 or Pl is making $$$.

 

[NotUrsula]

Yes, I've noticed. You can still get very nice deals in major cities most of the time, but tourist destinations like MCO are trending up in price. Apparently the companies would prefer not to let the cars there go to their PL contract these days.

I recently did a bid and went up to $21 for a standard-size car. Beyond that didn't make any sense, because I could match the price on codes AND also pick up loyalty and FF points.