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Car rental throwing away money?
- milar 3y agoHow do you decide which equally distant rental place to choose? It’s a loyalty program. That’s all.
- gruez 3y agoPrice?
- SoftTalker 3y agoMost people in Hertz Gold are business travelers and aren't spending their own money. Price is not a concern as long as it doesn't exceed any reimbursement limits their employer may have.
- amluto 3y agoI once asked a friendly Budget agent what they were doing when they typed furiously when I rented a car. They said they were copying data from the reservation system to the rental system, which don’t communicate with each other.
- xp84 3y agoThat Budget/AVIS system (or one of them, apparently) does seem ancient so this wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest
- red-iron-pine 3y agoOne is an SAP system that has been there for decades. The other is an SAP system that has been there for 4 years.
- reillyse 3y agoThey get to upsell you at the counter which they love to do for people who don’t rent often - its basically free money . For people who do rent often they don’t want to upsell cause they know it leaves a bad taste in the mouth so they just want the rental business.
- xattt 3y agoIn the before times, I rented with Hertz on three occasions. I was upgraded to a larger vehicle for free. I still can’t tell if it was deliberate or a coincidence.
- gnicholas 3y agoThis can be a plus, but it can also be a minus if you are planning to drive a long distance and don't want to double your gas bill.
- bjustin 3y agoI’ve had this happen as well. Unfortunately I only book — and want to drive — sedans, so I learned I have to make sure to say so to the rental company employee if they say they’re upgrading me for free. Even then, sometimes they have so few sedans that I’m stuck with the “upgrade” SUV.
- CydeWeys 3y agoIt's not an upgrade per se, it's just whatever vehicle they have available. If they're running low on sedans (which often happens), they'll start giving out SUVs to people who'll accept them, keeping sedans in reserve who want them. NYC has some crazy rental experiences because the lots are so small. One time I got "upgraded" to a 3 row minivan (which costs 2-3X the base economy car rental price) because that's all they had left. It was not the ideal car for a road trip for my girlfriend and I, and we ended up spending more on gas, but they didn't have anything else available. Similarly I've often gotten free upgrades to convertible sports cars (e.g. a Mustang) just because they have a lot of them and they have extra on that particular day and want to reserve more boring options for picky people.
- colechristensen 3y agoI convinced a rental agent to upgrade me for free from a compact to a convertible Mustang… in Minneapolis… the day before Christmas Eve… at midnight. The most fun and stupid decision I had made in a while. I got caught in a snow storm and ended up driving 200 miles on the interstate at 30 mph because it was literally the fastest I could go without fishtailing. Worth it.
- tumanian 3y agoApparently for a while their internal tech org was a number of fiefdoms with huge number of contractors and no central vision. They have changed that post-bankruptcy, bringing in serious operators in the exec team building the org, product and culture from scratch.they are hiring product, data and ml folks. Please dm me if interested in working on this, happy to connect
- hasmolo 3y agoi'd be interested to learn about it
- dev-ns8 3y agoI'd be interested in talking with you about this
- BrianKamrany 3y agoThanks for the tip.
- cortesoft 3y agoThey use the time filling in data to upsell you on all sorts of things
- ghaff 3y agoIn general, there are also fairly involved formal contracts involved when you rent a car. Quite a few years back, I naively decided to merge a couple of rentals (from the same company, Avis) and in spite of some attempted phone calls and chats it all ended up being a monumental hassle with threatening emails that my first rental hadn't been returned etc. No one knew how to handle.
- unglaublich 3y agoLol, this is _exactly_ what I did today at Avis: proposed to keep my first car for my second contract. Wish me luck when returning! I try to update this post in a few days.
- ghaff 3y agoIt didn't end up being a problem. But no one knew how to handle (this was 10+ years ago with sketchy communications outside of Vegas at the time). As I recall, this was back when a lot of Vegas parking was free and I decided it made more sense to just keep the car for a few days between outside Las Vegas trips.
- lostdog 3y agoTake a picture in the car lot of the car when you return it! Try to get an employee in frame too. That's how I managed to avoid a no-return penalty with Hertz a few years ago, and now I always take that picture.
- onion2k 3y agoSigning up to Gold is removing the friction of getting a rental, and makes it easier to get a car next time. That brings you back to Hertz. It's the same as any other rewards programme designed to improve brand loyalty, but instead of a discount or free coffee or whatever, the reward is "having less hassle buying the product". The author signed up for Gold. Next time they want a rental they'll use Hertz. It works.
- lmm 3y agoThe author will use Hertz because Hertz+Gold is less hassle than Competitor+no gold. But why are the competitors complicit in that? If another car rental company offered the Gold experience to everyone, wouldn't that help them outcompete Hertz?
- dev_tty01 3y agoMost of them do. Get on the bus, tell them your name, get off the bus and walk to the car. Key is in, trunk is open. Load, sit, drive off. Avis Preferred, National Emerald, ...
- guitarsteve 3y agoTrue! I use Budget Fastbreak usually. Same experience.
- CydeWeys 3y agoA lot of car rental chains have this program now.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- gnicholas 3y agoI learned (on HN) a few years ago that you can rent cars at car dealers. The pricing is moderately higher than at Hertz/etc., but you can choose the kind of vehicle you want, and it's guaranteed. I haven't done it in a couple years, and it's possible the supply chain crunch has affected this practice. But I found it to be much more enjoyable than renting from a traditional agency. It's especially helpful if there's a vehicle that you want to do an extended test drive of, so you can get a sense of how you like it after more than a few times around the block. This obviously doesn't work at airports, but for road trips it's great.
- mike_d 3y agoOnly at a relatively small number of dealerships/brands and you're getting a base model car from the service loaner fleet. It is really more intended for people who have been in accidents and their insurance is paying for the rental. The getting to pick the vehicle you want is meant to give you a like model car while yours is being glued back together. It is becoming much more common for larger dealerships to just house an Enterprise or Budget rental desk inside the dealership which manages loaning out the fleet.
- cxmcc 3y agohertz employee here. we are working on improving car rental experience with modern product and engineering practice. if you are interested in working on such problem dm me.
- quickthrower2 3y agonice, by the sound of this comment, they are investing a bit in this. Is this for every hertz around the world (not sure how the company is structured). All I know is hertz was a "stonk" people were gambling on a while back ha ha.
- cxmcc 3y agoWe are building product and engineering capability in SF bay area, CA and Seattle, WA. Hertz is a US company with global footprint. The business has tremendous potential to be unlocked with modern software.
- cebert 3y agoIs Hertz remote friendly?
- cxmcc 3y agoHybrid in Seattle WA and SF, CA.
- cebert 3y agoThanks for the info. Sounds potentially interesting but not if you’re geographically tied.
- red-iron-pine 3y agoI'm a WA resident but not going into the office and not relocating to Seattle. Would be game otherwise though.
- mchannon 3y agoIt’ll never happen, but the first car rental company that abandons the timeshare presentation model of make-the-customer-wait-an-eternity-while-we-try-to-upsell-them will make all their competitors abandon it. Because once I hear Hertz, or whoever, isn’t going to make me wait an extra half an hour to rent a car anymore (while enduring high-pressure salesmen trying to get me to get the “extended coverage” which is overpriced at best and useless at worst), I’m thrilled to go with them exclusively, and perhaps even if they’re substantially more expensive. Other companies will be forced to follow suit. But executives don’t get paid to abandon tried and true customerphobic business models in favor of one where you lose upsells and save on staff, but you more than make it up in volume. Business travelers like me hate hate hate rental car counters at airports. They’re the seventh level of hell. I’ll take Ubers for about the same overall cost, and Turo as plan B. It’s been like this for the past 5 years. I don’t doubt your sincerity in wanting to improve the car rental experience, but Sinclair’s law applies.
- xivzgrev 3y agoAre they losing money though? They pay a minimum wage person or two, to upsell you: nicer car, insurance, gps, blah blah. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a profit center for them
- sheepscreek 3y agoFirst comment on the article answers this question: “I think one reason is that for normal people, they make you go to the counter so that they can upsell you to a larger car with lots of extra insurance etc. Frequent customers know what they want and are unlikely to be upsold, so they can sign up to Gold Club to avoid the upselling. Repeat business customers are also more valuable than the occasional tourist, so the Gold Club members probably have real reservations for their car, while people who aren't in the Gold Club don't have real reservations, so the counter person does actually have to search and see if they have a car available to rent to you.”
- seattle_spring 3y agoI rent cars several times a year from several different companies (whatever is the cheapest) and I never experience upsells, let alone "high pressure timeshare tactics." Are you speaking from experience, or just assuming this is how car rental agencies operate? Edit: they do ask about pre-buying gas and additional insurance, but a simple "no thanks" ends that part of the transaction immediately. Are those the upsells you are referring to?
- jrs235 3y agoI have had the same experience as you. I'm confused by the "high pressured sales tactics" talk, I have never experienced it.
- robbiet480 3y agoThe other reason I haven't seen mentioned here for requiring non-Gold customers to go to the counter is so that they can check photo ID matches the person physically there and matches the name on the credit/debit card. Hertz even makes Gold members go to the counter one time after changing your profile card to get it validated with a photo ID comparison + swipe.
- joshfraser 3y agoRented a car today and had the same question while waiting in line for 3o mins. If getaround can let me just walk to a car, unlock it, and drive away surely the car rental companies can figure out how to streamline the entire experience too!
- rhplus 3y agoA few possible reasons of the top of my head: * Not every renter has a US license or ID * Want to add another driver * The gate security clerk isn’t always an employee of the rental company (one exit, multiple companies) * Travelers are tired/frustrated and would prefer to talk to a human to make sure it’s done right * Not everyone arrives with a working smartphone and email or app, or perhaps they just don’t like or can’t use apps * Flight cancelled/missed/delayed and just need to rent a car on the spot
- m1abcd3 3y agoI work for a car rental company and can assure you that it is not some evil ploy to upsell you. It comes down to this: you are renting a really expensive ($30K-100K) asset and they need to make sure you are not trying to steal it. This can take a few minutes if you are unknown to the company. If you think about it this way, 5-10 minutes to make this decision is pretty damn quick.
- Rebelgecko 3y agoWhy do they need to re-do this process every time someone rents a car? With the equivalent programs from companies I've rented with, they check your info at the counter once and from the on its just a cursory glance as you leave the lot. It doesn't seem like there's anything stopping them from making the quick one-time check the default.
- m1abcd3 3y agoI know it feels that way, but we don't redo anything if you have a valid license and card on file. The lines are long at airports because planes deplane at similar intervals and there are a lot of travelers that come to the location without this information on file (think cruise ships, travel agency bookings, discount site bookings). If you download the rental app and take advantage of loyalty programs then you can skip the craziness.
- fmobus 3y agoIt shouldn't be more complicated than selling alcohol to an adult, really. Sixt gave me the car I reserved in 3 minutes time, half of which was me walking to the car, no upsale attempts, just a quick driver license check, some instructions regarding EV charging and here's your key sir have a nice day. That's how it should be. If I were to steal the car, I'd bet they'd have no trouble tracking it down, as the technology involved is trivial nowadays.
- m1abcd3 3y agoThis same experience is provided by every other brand via loyalty programs. The counter does not exist for loyalty (or known) members, it exists for all the other customers that come to the company via third party vendors (travel agency, third parties, etc). Most of those people do not have a license or credit card on file.
- forgingahead 3y agoSeinfeld did a great bit on car rentals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM
- klntsky 3y agoMaybe they are exploiting sunk cost fallacy to get more loyal customers
- bit_logic 3y agoThis is why I think it's ridiculous when car rental is recommended as a solution to the range issues of EVs. There is so much friction, have to shop around to get a good rental price, pickup and drop off the car and ask someone to pick you up (or uber), very unpleasant waiting at the counter, mileage restrictions, driver restrictions (can't ask your friend to help with taking turns driving on a road trip). Compare all of that to just getting in your own car and going. If deciding on whether to go on a road trip to somewhere like a national park, this can mean the difference between going and just giving up because of all the hassle in renting cars. EDIT: I'm not against EVs, just against dismissing the EV issues with ideas like "go rent a car" as if that's a realistic solution considering how inconvenient it is.
- seattle_spring 3y agoI can't think of any range issues that'd necessitate me renting a car instead of just driving my EV. Can you share some examples? The national park one doesn't make sense to me-- why not just use a fast charger?
- xp84 3y agoI assumed the reason for this was simply about incentivizing people to book directly, while penalizing people who rent through an agency (such as Priceline), since those agencies generally offer lower to much lower rates to you, plus Hertz then has to pay a nice commission to the agency, further destroying their margin. Reason for my assumption: you are unable to add your hertz account to a reservation done through a third party, meaning those people always are forced to wait in the lines and use the counter.
- twelve40 3y agoThis process is comically absurd compared to Turo. I used to rent out my car on Turo, and at some point I stopped meeting the renters completely. Just leave the car any time in the agreed-upon location, pick it up a week later at my convenience, same for the renters. The absurdity of standing in 30+ minute lines (my personal record was almost two hours at Hertz in Cancun), it feels like something from two centuries ago. Like, Blockbuster came alive and decided to resume competing with Netflix via VHS tapes. I understand it gets complicated with a lot of customers in, say, the airport all at once, and I'll wait if I actually didn't make a reservation and they are getting the car ready, but the counter bottleneck is completely unnecessary.
- soupfordummies 3y agoOh wow, last time I rented a car was in Miami in early 2021, the line stretched from outside their booth all the way around the concourse. I think it was almost 3 hours there-- and I HAD a reservation. I had forgotten about that... The next time I used Turo also and it was awesome (last summer). It was a half mile from where we were staying, much cheaper, much less hassle. Would recommend also.