Question: What’s a car rental company’s responsibility to have a vehicle available for you when it sends you a confirmation? I ask because we recently rented a car from National Car Rental in Mexico, and they ran out of cars.
When we arrived at the rental counter in Guadalajara, a representative told us that other renters did not return their cars on time. He said there would be no cars for several days and would not help us find another car.
We eventually got a rental from another company, but it took us an additional five hours, and we were very upset by the experience. Although our first email to National was acknowledged with a form response, we haven’t heard anything from the company in two months. I thought rental companies had to either honor their reservation or find a car from another rental company. Isn’t that what National should have done? — David Nicholson, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Answer: National should have found you another car — even if it was from a competitor. That’s the policy of most major rental companies, including National. The Guadalajara office goofed.
Why do car rental companies confirm reservations when there’s a chance they won’t have a car? One reason is that customers can cancel their reservation without penalty, or just not show up at all. In fact, as many as a third of the people with reservations are no-shows at some rental locations, according to informal estimates I’ve heard. (It’s usually between 15 and 25 percent.)
That means car rental companies have to factor in the possibility that lots of the people who reserve a car won’t show up when they’re managing their fleet. And that can be a real guessing game.
You checked in on a day when National guessed wrong. It had run out of cars. The rental employee must have known National’s policy, but instead chose to let you fend for yourself in a foreign country. Something tells me he won’t be getting his Christmas card from the Mexico Tourism Board this year.
You shouldn’t have taken a frontline employee’s “no” for an answer. Instead, you should have asked for a manager, and if one wasn’t available, you should have called National’s reservation number to report this. National could have helped you find another car quickly.
Car rental employees often treat foreign tourists differently from natives, and this seems to be a case-in-point. It could have been worse. I’ve heard horror stories of out-of-country visitors being forced to buy unnecessary insurance or talked into expensive upgrades. My best advice would be to be on your guard when you rent overseas. The moment you open your passport, you become a walking dollar sign.
I contacted National on your behalf, and it refunded you $685, the cost of your car rental in Mexico, and sent you a coupon for three rental days as an apology.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
We traveled from San Francisco to London, only to find we didn’t have a rental car. It was horrendous after an 11 hour journey and no sleep. My husband rang Hertz customer service and kept politely asking for the person’s manager or someone who could solve the problem and somehow (we are not sure how) got through to the CEO of Hertz UK. He clearly didn’t know how we had been able to reach him either. BUT we had a car within an hour. It’s a shame we had to go up that far in a company to get the issue sorted. The sad thing is, this isn’t the only horrendous car rental company story I have. They really could do better.
If car rental companies are bad, customers can strike back the following way: Reserve cars from multiple rental companies at the same time.
On a recent vacation in Cancun, we reserved a car from Hertz well in advance. About a month before our vacation, we decided to check if all reservations were OK, and I found out that Hertz had doubled our initial quote. Speaking to Customer Service or managers was in vain: They insisted that there were additional airport charges, and would not honor the initial quote. That was nonsense, of course, as in the initial quote we had the airport charges and taxes clearly listed; moreover, they did not nearly account to the increase that they imposed.
We then reserved 2 more cars from National and Budget. National required us to pay additional insurance (at least it was clearly listed). The day before our departure we checked our reservations again and National had increased the required insurance by about 50%. So, we stuck with Budget. It was smooth. We didn’t cancel our reservations with Hertz or National in order to have a backup plan just in case, and we don’t feel bad about it. They deserved it with the policies they adopt.
One additional note: Speaking to the reservation center doesn’t hurt, but doesn’t always help either. On several occasions I’ve been told that the on-site manager is the final authority and can override some of the company’s policies.
I know I’ll probably hear “what is she thinking” over this suggestion – but if the problem is largely created by people who make reservations who don’t show up, putting the car rental companies in the position of engaging in a guessing game, wouldn’t it make more sense to change the system?
I don’t think the suggestion from my fellow poster of getting back by making multiple reservations with different rental companies is going to solve anything, and only exacerbate an already bad and frustrating situation. Wouldn’t it make more sense to make the reservation more solid. If you cancel an airline reservation, you pay a hefty penalty – I’m not tyring to suggest that we make traveling any more penaly-laden than it already is, but just suggesting a change might be appropriate.
I’ve rented from several companies in several countries…All the big ones…and have to say I’ve been lucky…But I found out early that when you find one car rental company that does good, you stick with it! I found this out with Avis and never even looked at other companies. I only hope that my future rentals with them go as smoothly as all my past ones.
Ed
That’s why I often use Priceline for car rentals. It’s all paid upfront and the rental agency can’t weasel out of the contract. O.K., so I’m out the money if I have to cancel, but I usually don’t use Priceline unless I’m positive I’m going on the trip. I know it doesn’t always work out, but it’s worth a $5 kickback to Priceline to have everything paid in advance. That way, the only option the rental company has is to sigh and hand me the keys.