When she books a rental car through Expedia in Tel Aviv, Israel, Marissa Barashi is led to believe her rate includes all mandatory charges. It doesn’t. She must buy insurance, too. Is Expedia responsible for the extra fee?
Budget
Renting a car in Europe can take some getting used to for the average American visitor. The vehicles are smaller. Gas is more expensive. And most of the cars have manual transmissions.
I’ve seen high car rental bills, but the one Fareeda Elqatto just got from Budget is in a class by itself.
One of the most frequently-repeated pieces of advice for bargain-hunters is that you’ll always find a deal on one of the so-called “opaque” travel websites, like Hotwire or Priceline.
Two weeks after Mary Garrow rented a car from Budget Rent a Car in Tulsa, she got an unpleasant surprise: A $250 cleaning charge for her vehicle. Budget claimed someone had been smoking in the car.
When it comes to fixing travel problems, every happy ending isn’t necessarily a Hollywood ending. Consider the case of Samantha McCormick, a 23-year-old Hotwire customer whose car rental rate unexpectedly doubled.
Here’s a novel idea for eluding a bogus car rental damage claim while you’re overseas: cancel your credit card and change your email address. That advice comes to us by way of reader William Muto, who used the strategy to fend off a fraudulent claim in Frankfurt recently.
Eric Johnson returns the keys to his Budget car in a drop box with time to spare. But he’s charged an extra day when the car rental company claims he brought the car back nearly five hours later. Who’s right? And does Johnson owe Budget anything?
Car rental companies are known to unleash collection agencies on their customers, often for no good reason. Don’t believe me? Just pick up a car rental trade magazine to see the full-page ads by companies that handle damage claims, which are just a step removed from a collection agency. Or visit my office, and I’ll share the “collection agency” case file with you. Or read this. Don’t get me wrong: I think these companies have a place in this world. But not in Dorothy Rice-Lara’s world.
Terry Boyle rented a car from Budget in Edinburgh, and when he got home, he found an unpleasant surprise from his car rental company: a $271 repair bill.
Here are two recent stories of car rental employees going the extra mile for their customers. I’m sharing them with you for two reasons: First, because car rental employees rarely get any recognition for a job well done; and second, because I just filed a column that’s critical of certain car rental franchises. Maybe I’m feeling a little guilty.
Poof! There go your hard-earned points. Employees at budget hotels are using a variety of strategies to deny travelers their rewards, including typing the wrong name in a guest’s reservation or failing to include important frequent-stayer information.
Douglas Hawkins and his wife reserve a Budget rental car in Naples, Italy, but when they arrive at the car rental counter, the company downgrades his car and almost doubles its rate. Six months later, Budget hasn’t refunded the money Hawkins says it owes him. What now?
Here’s a story with more disappointments than the college basketball invitational. Shortly after Mary Van Veen returned her Budget rental in Ireland, she discovered a surprise $174 charge on her credit card. She contacted the car rental agency, which told her “the car was extremely dirty and they had to pay a valet to clean it.”
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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