What do you do if there are no cars at the rental agency?

[idontknow]

Ok, after reading Randywc's post about National not having any cars (except for compact cars when he rented a full size) I got thinking. What if, on Thanksgiving day, we get to National at MCO and they don't have any cars? What are all 10 of us going to do? We are renting 2 cars. 5 people per car should not be a big deal since we have a full sized EA reserved, right? I've kept up with Randy's post, but that would be a LOT of out of pocket money to "hop over" to another rental agency to try to get a car. What are our options? Do we:

1. Ask at the counter that they call us cabs and pay for it?

2. ?????

3. Ask that they find us a car at another agency for the same price?

4. Make a back up ressie with another agency?

As for #4, how do you do that and not get charged? I am having a really hard time with making a ressie and then not showing up for it. Is this standard traveling proceedure that I don't know about? It isn't really the moral issue I am having a hard time with, (everyone has their own morals) it's the legal issue. Are we responsable for payment to another agency if we don't rent the car from them? How does it work?

I am really getting nervous about this car issue. I tried to check the rates yesterday and there are no cars available on Thanksgiving day from National. (not thru the EA reservations anyway)

 

[CarolMN]

If you make a reservation to rent a car and don't show up, most companies will charge you something anyway. Lst time I checked, National charges $50 if you don't cancel less than 24 hours in advance. They also charge $50 if you don't show up within 12 hours of your reservation.

I don't know what to suggest if there aren't any cars when you appear for your reservation. Hope that doesn't happen to you. I would think it is very rare for this to happen.

 

[sgtdisney]

I always, ALWAYS, make a backup reservation for any trip I go on with a rental car. This was after a situation with ALAMO, which pulled something very much like you are describing. But that's a long story. Anyway, I always have a 2nd reservation. There are a few rental agencies that do not require a credit card when you make a reservation. Dollar I know for sure doesn't require a card to hold a reservation. If you really are concerned you should make a back up reservation with someone else. If one company tries to mess around with you as Alamo did to me, or if there is another problem, you can walk away and know that you have a backup plan waiting.

 

[Pluto4President]

My theory is this, if they don't have a car, THEY GET YOU A CAR. I find it hard to believe that they actually "run out" Maybe on a holiday. But I've passed the car rental garages when returning cars and they are always full of cars being cleaned & vacced. That is actually one of the last things that I would be concerned about, especially with National.

 

[R4racing]

Actually, a lot of people book 2 or more reservations for the same dates. The only time we have ever had a reservation with a no show/cancellation clause was for mini-vans, SUVs, and stuff like that or really really busy times. If you are worried about being charged, call the 800# and ask them if your reservation is guaranteed they will be able to tell you if it is or not, the guaranteed reservations are the ones with the charges for not showing up.

Also, it is possible for rental agencies to run out of cars, doesn't happen very often though. Also, if more likely at smaller locations with smaller fleet sizes, at least at a large airport like MCO, there would be greater chance of someone returning soon if they are indeed out of cars. Part of this could be due to the agencies getting wise to people booking more than one reservation so they could get overbooked due to planning on a certain number of their reservations not going to show up.