Be careful to return your rental car ontime

[mgilmer]

Just a warning that if you return your rental car late, you will now be docked. Most companies have abolished or severely limited grace periods on rental returns. Here is the link to their policies:

http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/...ened-to-car-rental-late-return-grace-periods/

 

[maciec]

Just a warning that if you return your rental car late, you will now be docked. Most companies have abolished or severely limited grace periods on rental returns. Here is the link to their policies:

http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/...ened-to-car-rental-late-return-grace-periods/

Darn it! But I understand their position on the issue. I think it was either Dollar or National that use to have a 2 hour grace period. That was nice!

 

[Lewisc]

Thanks for the warning, particularly with the rate being changed for the entire rental term. Could be a big issue for customers that booked via Hotwire or Priceline.

 

[joellyn23]

I book Saturday to Saturday. We pick up around 11 am and expect to return the car at 9 am. Would I be better off just saying drop off & pick up at 11 am in case we're running a little late? Can they penalize me for dropping it off 2 hours earlier than expected?

 

[safetymom]

You will be fine dropping it off at 9 AM.

 

[Detailor]

Thanks for the warning, particularly with the rate being changed for the entire rental term. Could be a big issue for customers that booked via Hotwire or Priceline.

Yes! That's exactly right that if you've rented through a pre-paid service like Priceline or Hotwire there is no latitude. Your reserved times are all that you've paid for so be sure that those are the times that you want or add a couple of hours to your drop-off time when you're making the PL or HW reservation.

 

[dburg30]

Being in a rental equipment business I can see their stance. Now with big national chains at busy tourist airports, I have a feeling they have enough cars to cover rentals, BUT. If you come in here and rent something, and tell me it'll be back at noon tomorrow, and I have someone that wants it at noon tomorrow, I'm taking your word for it that you'll be back by noon tomorrow. If you arent back by noon tomorrow and the customer shows up to pick it up, well you can see this one. I'm going to get yelled at for not having the equipment here, and you're going to get charged for me getting yelled at.

 

[erikthewise]

I guess I'm dense but it is not clear to me what constitutes "late".

We typically pick up in the morning and drop off in the afternoon.
e.g. this year our reservation currently says we will be picking up at 10:30AM Dec 1 and dropping off at 5:30PM Dec 9. Obviously we are paying for a 9-day rental. Are they saying that we can/will be charged extra for dropping off at 6:00PM instead of 5:30PM, even though we have paid for nine full days (through 10:30AM Dec 10) and 5:30PM is a time arbitrarily chosen by ourselves? If so I will add more time onto the reservation!

Or does this only apply to reservations where a late dropoff exceeds the number of days paid for?

 

[dburg30]

I would check with them to see, I would say technically, you've told them you will be back at X:XX, if you arent back by then, 'technically' you're late. Just call them and check, and like you said, add some time on just to be safe. I had this happen to me when I was younger and learned a valuable lesson then I was like an hour late and they told me how much extra I owed!! I had just 'assumed' that an hour wasnt really 'late' . Oh we learn so much when we're young..

 

[Detailor]

I guess I'm dense but it is not clear to me what constitutes "late".

We typically pick up in the morning and drop off in the afternoon.
e.g. this year our reservation currently says we will be picking up at 10:30AM Dec 1 and dropping off at 5:30PM Dec 9. Obviously we are paying for a 9-day rental. Are they saying that we can/will be charged extra for dropping off at 6:00PM instead of 5:30PM, even though we have paid for nine full days (through 10:30AM Dec 10) and 5:30PM is a time arbitrarily chosen by ourselves? If so I will add more time onto the reservation!

Or does this only apply to reservations where a late dropoff exceeds the number of days paid for?

Well, yes, you're paying a full nine day rental price, but you're not renting for nine days. You're renting from 10:30 on the 1st until 5:30 on the 9th. So, late is technically a return after 5:30 pm on the 9th regardless of how much you paid. I have a rental that falls into a similar situation as your's for our June 30-July 7 trip. We've scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 1:30 pm on the 30th and have a flight out on the 7th is at 8:40 pm. That pushes us from a seven-day rental charge to the eqivalent of an eight day charge. So when I made my car reservation I pushed the rental time to 8:00 pm even though we'll be at the airport long before that time. If I had put in a return time of say 5:00 pm it wouldn't have changed our rental cost so I made sure that my return time gave us a buffer in case we're running later than expected to get to the airport.

Dick Taylor

 

[anabelle]

I book Saturday to Saturday. We pick up around 11 am and expect to return the car at 9 am. Would I be better off just saying drop off & pick up at 11 am in case we're running a little late? Can they penalize me for dropping it off 2 hours earlier than expected?

I have actually had a penalty for dropping it off a day early but not on the same day early. If you have a weekly rate and go below a week, then it can cost you more.