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The difference from car rental vs a hotel room or an airplane seat is the fact the the company relies on the previous occupant to return the car on time, which

The difference from car rental vs a hotel room or an airplane seat is the fact the the company relies on the previous occupant to return the car on time, which often does not happen. If a person wants to extend a hotel reservation but the hotel is entirely sold out, they say "sorry, too bad." With a rental car people simply don't always bring them back, they pay the extra day fee or whatever, but the car simply isn't there to give to you. It does suck, of course, the best way to prevent this is to pre-pay. This will get you priority among everyone else waiting for cars to become available.

Ansil849 5y ago
> The difference from car rental vs a hotel room or an airplane seat is the fact the the company relies on the previous occupant to return the car on time, which often does not happen. If a person wants to extend a hotel reservation but the hotel is entirely sold out, they say "sorry, too bad." With a rental car people simply don't always bring them back, they pay the extra day fee or whatever, but the car simply isn't there to give to you. If you don't want to vacate your plane seat or your hotel room, you don't just get to say you'll pay for another night or another flight. Why then is this allowed practice for car rentals? The late return fee should be proportionately high so as to very strongly dissuade this kind of behavior.
- listenallyall 5y ago
  > Why then is this allowed practice for car rentals? Because the car is a physical object whose entire purpose is for you to take it far away from the rental office. > The late return fee should be proportionately high Are you sure you want to advocate for large corporations to add additional, punitive fees to consumers? One day you might need to return a car late, you know, if someone in your party gets sick or something. They already do charge a lot extra, still, some people pay it. The other part is there is no fixed time where everything switches over. Hotels have a fixed check-out time for everybody, doesn't matter if you checked in at 3pm the or 11pm. Cars work on a 24-hour schedule, if you rented the car in the evening, you can keep it till the evening. Sometimes people return them early, if they have a flight to catch or whatever, some people keep the car as long as possible. Usually this is managed just fine, but sure, occasionally, demand exceeds supply and the car isn't immediately available. Flights get delayed too, sometimes, perhaps you've noticed.
- megablast 5y ago
  This can not be a serious question.
dlubarov 5y ago
It's understandable if a reserved car occasionally isn't available because it was returned late, but it seems like most car rental companies don't even attempt to limit reservations based on their inventory. It seems like standard industry practice is to accept all reservations, then hope they can somehow come up with the cars, e.g. by borrowing cars from elsewhere. The other day we were in a queue with ~20 families waiting for the cars they reserved, and it was clear none were available. Surely they didn't have that many late returns. If there are some companies that do limit their reservations appropriately, I'd like to know their names please :)
- listenallyall 5y ago
  You got a car though, right? Long line, waiting around, of course it sucks but this is meaningless without knowing where you were or the end result. 20 out of thousands (Orlando, Las Vegas)? Not unreasonable at all.
  - dlubarov 5y ago
    LAX area but it seemed like a small agency. They were processing around 3-4 customers per hour, presumably as returns came in. We got a car after ~2h, but lots of others gave up and left. Hypothetically if nobody gave up, I expect the line would have grown and grown until they eventually closed with a huge line of reservations they couldn't meet.
    - listenallyall 5y ago
      So you admit it was a small agency, in other words, next time stick with a Hertz, Avis, National, Alamo, etc. In any case you got a car after 2 hours. I'm not denying it sucks, especially with a family, but it happens. Ever had a flight delayed for 2 hours? Happens all the time.
      - dlubarov 5y ago
        Don't all those companies follow the same practice? I've used most of them and have issues all the time (though in most cases they have some car available, just not what I reserved). Seems like it's not just me :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM&t=39s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM&t=39s Airlines also overbook but at least they have reasonable limits based on data, and offer compensation for bumps.

Ansil849 5y ago

> The difference from car rental vs a hotel room or an airplane seat is the fact the the company relies on the previous occupant to return the car on time, which often does not happen. If a person wants to extend a hotel reservation but the hotel is entirely sold out, they say "sorry, too bad." With a rental car people simply don't always bring them back, they pay the extra day fee or whatever, but the car simply isn't there to give to you. If you don't want to vacate your plane seat or your hotel room, you don't just get to say you'll pay for another night or another flight. Why then is this allowed practice for car rentals? The late return fee should be proportionately high so as to very strongly dissuade this kind of behavior.

listenallyall 5y ago
> Why then is this allowed practice for car rentals? Because the car is a physical object whose entire purpose is for you to take it far away from the rental office. > The late return fee should be proportionately high Are you sure you want to advocate for large corporations to add additional, punitive fees to consumers? One day you might need to return a car late, you know, if someone in your party gets sick or something. They already do charge a lot extra, still, some people pay it. The other part is there is no fixed time where everything switches over. Hotels have a fixed check-out time for everybody, doesn't matter if you checked in at 3pm the or 11pm. Cars work on a 24-hour schedule, if you rented the car in the evening, you can keep it till the evening. Sometimes people return them early, if they have a flight to catch or whatever, some people keep the car as long as possible. Usually this is managed just fine, but sure, occasionally, demand exceeds supply and the car isn't immediately available. Flights get delayed too, sometimes, perhaps you've noticed.
megablast 5y ago
This can not be a serious question.

dlubarov 5y ago

It's understandable if a reserved car occasionally isn't available because it was returned late, but it seems like most car rental companies don't even attempt to limit reservations based on their inventory. It seems like standard industry practice is to accept all reservations, then hope they can somehow come up with the cars, e.g. by borrowing cars from elsewhere. The other day we were in a queue with ~20 families waiting for the cars they reserved, and it was clear none were available. Surely they didn't have that many late returns. If there are some companies that do limit their reservations appropriately, I'd like to know their names please :)

listenallyall 5y ago
You got a car though, right? Long line, waiting around, of course it sucks but this is meaningless without knowing where you were or the end result. 20 out of thousands (Orlando, Las Vegas)? Not unreasonable at all.
- dlubarov 5y ago
  LAX area but it seemed like a small agency. They were processing around 3-4 customers per hour, presumably as returns came in. We got a car after ~2h, but lots of others gave up and left. Hypothetically if nobody gave up, I expect the line would have grown and grown until they eventually closed with a huge line of reservations they couldn't meet.
  - listenallyall 5y ago
    So you admit it was a small agency, in other words, next time stick with a Hertz, Avis, National, Alamo, etc. In any case you got a car after 2 hours. I'm not denying it sucks, especially with a family, but it happens. Ever had a flight delayed for 2 hours? Happens all the time.
    - dlubarov 5y ago
      Don't all those companies follow the same practice? I've used most of them and have issues all the time (though in most cases they have some car available, just not what I reserved). Seems like it's not just me :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM&t=39s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM&t=39s Airlines also overbook but at least they have reasonable limits based on data, and offer compensation for bumps.