Budget rental agency - shady?

[Genie+]

https://archive.is/20260328051723/h.../03/26/travel/budget-rental-car-discount.html

This article served as a good reminder for me to stay away*. Think Budget has good discounts? Be careful!

Shorter version of above article:

Person had a 13 day and 4 hour rental booked in Geneva for 866 Swiss francs (~$1,060 usd). Since it counted as a 14 day rental, it was charged at the 14 day discount rate. The car was returned after 13 days and 20 minutes. Budget has a 29 minute grace period, which sounds nice until finding out Budget used it as a caveat to charge the customer an extra 600 francs. Nearly doubled the bill. Budget chose to bill it as 13 days undiscounted, even though they had entered the 14th day. If this customer would’ve waited 10 more minutes then Budget would’ve been unable to tack on all this extra money.

Not only that, but the original 866 franc charge should’ve been 70 francs less to start. Seems like they are playing games at Geneva that Hertz and Enterprise decided not to play.

Looking at what the cost should’ve/could’ve been - 796 francs, then actually charged 1,545 francs, Budget figured out how to nab them for an extra 749 francs ($935 usd).

*Budget charged me almost double at MCO - my $600 paid in full through UC reservation somehow required another $480 at the counter to get our car (this was charged - not a security hold). Never again. That wasn’t date/time changes or upcharges like insurance, tolls or any of that kind of stuff - I was told “It’s just the normal way we do business.” Direct quote when I asked why it had never happened with another company after paying in full. Not kidding! Yeah, taking advantage of weary travelers is a sucky way ‘to do business’. As if upcharges and false damage claims aren’t enough to avoid, Budget goes the extra mile in creativity to rip people off. Budget can sugget.

 

[kdonnel]

It’s not just Budget. All the car rental companies have similar policies.

 

[Genie+]

It’s not just Budget. All the car rental companies have similar policies.

After 20 or 30 rentals Budget is the only one who ever created more payments to be made at pickup after I already paid in full. I’ve never experienced that before or after.

Hertz and Enterprise are not playing internet games for their Geneva locations.

I know most use the common tricks but Budget has no qualms going well beyond those.

 

[Genie+]

I should say the difference is you can prepare yourself for the others to avoid the BS. You can’t really prepare yourself with Budget because they went out of their way to make sure what you encounter is unexpected and beyond the typical paddings.

ETA - AI might have gotten this one right they summed it up as Budget requiring higher vigilance when compared to other premium brands

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Returning EARLY was the issue. This is just making hubbub over something that is commonplace depending on the company used. We don't have to agree that it's fair but the booking is based on X amount of days. This is like getting a weekly rate, a weekend rate, etc. When you don't actually meet the qualifications for a discount depending on the company (any company) it may mean you forfeit the discount. The grace period has to do with returning early, that's for when you return it beyond your reservation time (and they say that on their website) they won't charge you if it's within the grace period. It's unfortunate that the writer even mentioned the grace period as that just muddies it.

Budget tells you they are rented on a 24 hour time period so yes if you don't do on the dot 24 hours that extra timeframe is counted as a day.

It's a reach that the New York Times felt that they needed to get an international scenario here, the location has nothing to do with it.

There are a lot of things in life that we may want to prevent others from making a mistake but this really isn't one of them, it's just about people not reading what they reserve (or reading what's available on the website).

Grace Period info


Rate period calculation information

 

[LuvOrlando]

TOTALY shady these days.

Budget was playing a lot of games with me recently as well, recent Florida trips. In particular, for our last trip I booked early but the website would not permit me to look up ANY lower prices as time went on because the page would CONSTANTLY revert back to what I got at the price I had. If I found a better price in incognito mode it would stay grayed out commenting that I did not fill in the airline even though I did and the only field open was "Pay Now" so that was what it was after, if I used my login info it would go back to my original vehicle and price. In the end DH was able to look freely because, I guess, he didn't pick anything yet so we got a deal saving hundreds through him. I managed to grab an updated deal once at around 3am with an alternate email BUT when I called to add my Fastbreak info I was told if they add it I would not get the price, so basically punishing me with time at the counter. Other antics included in December, charging for gas even though it was full, and last month, giving us an empty fuel car so we might get charged returning it empty - both times we were saved by doing walk around videos before getting into the car.

Years ago they played games too so I got in the habit of printing the contract as proof for last minute price changes and also emailing in PDF.

For the time changes, these days I book 2 hrs after I land and generally have a backup at another car co for 3 hrs after that in case of a delay.

 

[Genie+]

Returning EARLY was the issue. This is just making hubbub over something that is commonplace depending on the company used. We don't have to agree that it's fair but the booking is based on X amount of days. This is like getting a weekly rate, a weekend rate, etc. When you don't actually meet the qualifications for a discount depending on the company (any company) it may mean you forfeit the discount. The grace period has to do with returning early, that's for when you return it beyond your reservation time (and they say that on their website) they won't charge you if it's within the grace period. It's unfortunate that the writer even mentioned the grace period as that just muddies it.

Budget tells you they are rented on a 24 hour time period so yes if you don't do on the dot 24 hours that extra timeframe is counted as a day.

It's a reach that the New York Times felt that they needed to get an international scenario here, the location has nothing to do with it.

There are a lot of things in life that we may want to prevent others from making a mistake but this really isn't one of them, it's just about people not reading what they reserve (or reading what's available on the website).

Grace Period info
View attachment 1060589

Rate period calculation information
View attachment 1060590

Correct.

But just because they have a 29 minute GRACE period, they should use it to rewind the clock on someone who actually returned the car on 14th day as planned. If you call something a grace period - that doesn’t convey they will whip it out later if they find a way to punch you with it?

My point is I would never trust that the discounted price I’m seeing with Budget will be the whole story. They require higher vigilance when compared to other premium brands.

 

[kdonnel]

After 20 or 30 rentals Budget is the only one who ever created more payments to be made at pickup after I already paid in full. I’ve never experienced that before or after.

Hertz and Enterprise are not playing internet games for their Geneva locations.

I know most use the common tricks but Budget has no qualms going well beyond those.

International locations of Hertz are famous for extra fees, not honoring rates, etc.

At this point Hertz is a caricature of its pre covid self.

Here in North America, lookup up Hertz AI scanner. Charges folks thousands of dollars for damage only an AI can see.

The other rental companies have seen Hertz success grabbing money from consumers so they are also deploying UVeye scanners.

 

[Genie+]

It's a reach that the New York Times felt that they needed to get an international scenario here, the location has nothing to do with it.

After what we went through with Budget inventing costs to add after we paid in full, we decided to use Hertz twice in Italy even though Budget had a few decently priced options. I just wasn’t going to take the chance that it’d end up much more expensive than initially portrayed. No issues with Hertz. We pre-paid and that was that. Who knows what Budget might’ve tried to pull lol. I’m not giving another chance to find out.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Correct.

But just because they have a 29 minute GRACE period, they should use it to rewind the clock on someone who actually returned the car on 14th day as planned. If you call something a grace period - that doesn’t convey they will whip it out later if they find a way to punch you with it?

My point is I would never trust that the discounted price I’m seeing with Budget will be the whole story. They require higher vigilance when compared to other premium brands.

That's just misunderstanding, willingly I might add, what a grace period is for and what explicitly Budget tells you it's about.

If you rent your car say noon to noon but you're stuck in traffic and you don't make it in until 12:15pm that's the grace period.

Your point, respectfully, just falls into the not reading the terms and conditions. Regardless of what company you rent or do business with you'd want to read what you're booking. This isn't about Budget because you can insert whatever you want as an example into it.

Avis (who owns Budget) also has this rule if you're unaware. In practice if they adhere to that is up to them but they do have the policy in place

After what we went through with Budget inventing costs to add after we paid in full, we decided to use Hertz twice in Italy even though Budget had a few decently priced options. I just wasn’t going to take the chance that it’d end up much more expensive than initially portrayed. No issues with Hertz. We pre-paid and that was that. Who knows what Budget might’ve tried to pull lol. I’m not giving another chance to find out.

Hertz's policy, also note the grace period like Budget is for returning late. Hertz does not say they will charge you but they do say they won't give you a pro-rated rate for the less time you had the car if you did a pay now rate (because that is a discounted rate).


It's your prerogative whomever you want to rent a car with, I myself don't want to after several times of issues with Enterprise want to rent from them again. That is a different discussion than talking about what you brought up. Like I said we don't have to agree on what is fair (that's your viewpoint) but this isn't about shady or not shady based on the topic, we don't have to like a policy but it doesn't mean it's shady because of that.

 

[tvguy]

Please note this is in Europe. Rental cars can be a mess there.