Rental Car Math

[happily single]

I am pricing out a rental car for our November trip.

So unpopular opinion: What happens if I say I will return the car at 1:30, but keep it till 4:30?

I priced out Costco, picking up in MCO at 1:30 pm on 11/4 and dropping off on 11/8. Here are some options:
Return car at 1:30pm: $211 ($31 day)
Return car at 3pm $253 ($36 day)
Return car at 5pm $285 ($42 day).

how can there be a difference of $74 if I keep the car for 4 hours over the "24 hour rental"?

Just for fun I thought I'd price it out for an extra day:
Return car at 7:30 am on 11/9 $470!

 

[robinb]

There should be a weekly rate, a daily rate and an hourly rate. The $470 is probably the weekly rate since it's 5 days. You will be charged the daily rate plus the hourly rate for an hour or two over which is what you see returning at 5:00 pm.

 

[EACarlson]

I would look at the actual rental agencies and not just through Costco, Costco may have some caveats in their agreements with the rental companies that are changing things. In general, you go from hourly to daily at 4 hours and daily to weekly at 4 days. I have a 5 day rental next week that is a weekly rental, if I look at it for three days it's less but 4 days is the same price.

 

[robinb]

I would look at the actual rental agencies and not just through Costco, Costco may have some caveats in their agreements with the rental companies that are changing things. In general, you go from hourly to daily at 4 hours and daily to weekly at 4 days. I have a 5 day rental next week that is a weekly rental, if I look at it for three days it's less but 4 days is the same price.

I think weekly rates start at 5 days, not 4 days.

Also, when the sum of the hourly rates exceeds the daily rate rental car companies will usually add a whole day to your rental. I looked at Costco pricing and in this case, the OP is bumped to a weekly rate for most of the rental car companies except Budget. Budget must have an agreement with Costco to extend the hourly pricing out a bit.

 

[mikehn]

Four hours more is considered an extra day. $74 including taxes and fees sounds about right. Yes, the taxes and fees are absolutely ridiculous