# car rental -  early drop off fee?



## bevans (May 29, 2008)

I was one of the many people caught up in the bankruptcies of Aloha and ATA and had to scramble to save our trip. One of the outcomes of this was having to take a red eye home and leaving Tuesday at 11pm instead of Wednesday at 10am. I had already made the rental car reservation so I left it alone figuring that I would only be dropping the car off about 11 hours early so no big deal. Well the rental car charged me an additional day for dropping it off early . What is all that about, I mean they got their car back early so they should be happy, right? I called and was told their policy was if you drop a car more than 30 minutes before the reservation time they can charge you for an extra day. So, keep this in mind when you make your reservations in the future. Curt


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## Bill4728 (May 29, 2008)

bevans said:


> I called and was told their policy was if you drop a car more than 30 minutes before the reservation time they can charge you for an extra day. So, keep this in mind when you make your reservations in the future. Curt



What!!

That is hard to believe that they can charge you extra when you bring it back early. 

What company did that to you?

PS  I'm moving this to the travel board since it isn't about HGVC.


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## derb (May 29, 2008)

They have been doing that for years.  If you rent a car for a week and return it in 5 days, they will charge you the 5 day rate if it is higher than a weekly rate.


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## dougp26364 (May 29, 2008)

derb said:


> They have been doing that for years.  If you rent a car for a week and return it in 5 days, they will charge you the 5 day rate if it is higher than a weekly rate.



But that's not what they were told. They were told if they brought it back 30 minutes early they'd be charged an extra day. That is beyond ridiculous since flight times often change. I will usually book our return for the same hour as our pick up, which is often several hours later than our original flight departure time. I do this because I don't want to have to arrive at the airport early if our departure times are moved back. 

Normally, on a week long rental if you keep the car over 5 days you still get the weekly rental rate. In this case the renter only returned the car 11 hours early. I would not think that weekly rate would have been voided. I'm afraid I'd be looking at their fine print, complaining to their corporate offices and challenging the extra day's charge with my CC company.


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## happybaby (May 29, 2008)

we rented a car thru Hertz for p/u in S. San Fran on Thursday at 4pm and were going to return the car to Portland, OR airport but undecided on our time.
Anywheres between 10pm on Sunday to 9am on Monday.

We ended up getting the rental at 2pm and returning at 10pm Sunday night at PDX

Hertz told me to keep my reservation for the later time since I would be charged a day if it were not returned by 2pm on Sunday.  Technically I had the car until 2pm Monday before any addl day would be charged  Actually 1:59pm

They bill per 24 hr rental period I guess, not to the exact hour as some agencies do  If I returned the car early there was no penalty and if I returned it by 1:59pm that Sunday, I would not have been charged for the time frame 2pm Sunday til 1:59pm Monday.

BTW we had a Ford Focus reserved and he asked if we wanted a SUV.  I saw no reason for one since there was only me and DH but he gave us one anyways at no additional charge    A Ford Edge


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## bevans (May 29, 2008)

The rental car company was Alamo at the Kahului airport in Maui. I will say this was the only problem I had with them on the trip as I rented from them in Kona and Maui on this trip and the cars were clean and in good condition. Both places I had reserved a midsize but they were out and gave me a  fullsize instead at no extra charge. Curt


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## DianneL (May 29, 2008)

*Contract stated early return fee*

We rented from Thrifty recently in Sedona, a van.  The contract had a provision for an early return fee and a late return fee.  We returned is when we planned so were not charged.  I, too, was astonished at an early return fee clause.


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## mjs (May 29, 2008)

This has happened to me twice.
When I went to pick up the car at a rental, I was there 30 minutes earlier than the time I said on my reservation.  I had to wait 30 minutes, for the paperwork, or they said I would be charged an extra day.
mark


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## bogey21 (May 29, 2008)

Hey, I don't doubt that these things happened but with hundreds of rentals under my belt none of these have happened to me.  I have routinely returned cars early and never had a problem with the way I was charged and as to arriving early and having to wait - that also has never happened.  They just moved the start time to when I took the car, adjusting the return time to the same hour.  There are times when I have arrived early and waited of my own volition before renting because I wanted to maintain the return time in the reservation.

George


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## sfwilshire (May 29, 2008)

Early return fees are a new one on me. I often rush back to turn the car in before the time I checked it out to save an extra day. It has always worked fine for me. Maybe it's different in resort areas like Hawaii?

When renting for personal use, I always try to stick with National. They seem to be much more consumer friendly than some of the others and I never beat their rate by much with other companies. In the US, they don't charge extra for the spouse as an extra driver, so that usually makes up for any small higher charge. In England, I did have to pay extra for a second driver.

Sheila


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## bogey21 (May 29, 2008)

dougp26364 said:


> I will usually book our return for the same hour as our pick up, which is often several hours later than our original flight departure time.



I always do this and like I said in my prior post, have never had a problem

George


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## hvsteve1 (May 30, 2008)

I rent cars for business trips and have been using my local Avis as they are the cheapest. The fellow at the counter usually recommends a weekly rental if I need it for five or six days as that is cheaper than the daily rate for five days. I return the car as much as a day or two early and never have had an early return charge. Of course, this is a small,local Avis location with regular customers. Maybe at the airports, especially in big tourist destinations, they look for every chance to soak the rubes.


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