Back up rental car ressies?

[TandEsMommy]

I've seen a few posts mentioning having a "back-up" reservation for rental cars. How does this work? Is there no cancellation fee if you don't show up for your reservation? Does this vary between rental companies? Why would you even need one?

Sorry if this is common-sense or has been explained before; I've never rented at DW before and don't understand why this might be necessary. TIA!

 

[WeLuvTink!]

Hello TandEsMommy! to the DIS!

In most cases, rental car reservations are made without your credit card number, hence they can't charge you for not showing up. In practice, rental car agencies know that several reservations will be no-show and plan accordingly.

For the best deal, I recommend watching this board and playing with the codes posted at mousesavers.com.

Have a great trip.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Sorry if this is common-sense or has been explained before; I've never rented at DW before and don't understand why this might be necessary. TIA!

It is absolutely unnecessary to make a back-up car rental reservation and I cannot imagine why anyone would recommend doing so.

 

[richmo]

It is absolutely unnecessary to make a back-up car rental reservation and I cannot imagine why anyone would recommend doing so.

One reason is that sometimes (rarely) they run out of cars. As mentioned earlier, the agencies have a pretty good idea of what percentage of people show up for their reservation, but sometimes they guess wrong. People sometimes extend trips, wind up dropping the car off somewhere else and sometimes cars go down for mechanical reasons and sometimes they give cars away to walkups.

When they run out of the car class you requested, they will usually try to upgrade you at the same price, but sometimes the only inventory is a downgrade...which may or may not be acceptable, depending upon your circumstances.

I haven't personally been shut out, but it does happen...