Priceline Car Rental - Why Taxes/Surcharges so high???

[winger]

Four our Maui April trip, I first booked a 14-day full size car directly with Budget (throught their website). Base cost approx $294 + $46 Taxes/Surcharges. Total $340

I then canceled Budget because I won a Priceline auction.

Priceline auction: carrier is Hertz....same pickup and return times, same location, same size car: Base cost approx $196 BUT Taxes Surcharges approx $108. Total $304.

Is something wrong here?

 

[UWSurfer]

Your experiencing some of the "Aloha Spirit" that is so often referenced in Hawaii! :hysterical:

Basically the economy there heavily depends on tourism and what better group to soak than those who are not going to be around long. Hawaii is not the the only place that does this of course. Most US cities have occupancy taxes on rooms at 10% or more.

However Maui is natorious for giving locals a break and taxing TS owners and as well as the tourist trade. We crowd the roads, consume the food and use up the resources and must be made to pay!!!

Aloha....

 

[winger]

I know about the aloha taxing spirit, but WHY the huge difference in Taxes/Surcharges for the exact same rental? And Budget and Hertz are located right next to one another at the OGG Maui airport???

 

[gorevs9]

Four our Maui April trip, I first booked a 14-day full size car directly with Budget (throught their website). Base cost approx $294 + $46 Taxes/Surcharges. Total $340

I then canceled Budget because I won a Priceline auction.

Priceline auction: carrier is Hertz....same pickup and return times, same location, same size car: Base cost approx $196 BUT Taxes Surcharges approx $108. Total $304.

Is something wrong here?

Were the surcharges itemized?
Or did Priceline slip a couple of their own surcharges into the final price?

On a side note when you bid on Priceline (car, air, etc) do you bid on the final price which includes all taxes and fees? I was tempted to bid on airfare one time, but was a tad "afraid" of what I would've ended up with.

 

[djs]

You are essentially paying Priceline a "service charge", when you made your bid, something should have popped up showing what your final charge would be. At least you aren't paying more than with your original rental.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Many times after I reach the screen that shows the total price, I go back and revise my bid downward because of the fees. I make my PL bids based on final cost, not the bid.

On a side note when you bid on Priceline (car, air, etc) do you bid on the final price which includes all taxes and fees? I was tempted to bid on airfare one time, but was a tad "afraid" of what I would've ended up with.

Before you click to formally submit the bid, you are served a page that shows all costs including fees and charges. If the amount is too high you either drop the bid or navigate back and redo your bid.

 

[winger]

first to address an earlier question - on PL, you bid on the PRE-Taxes/Surcharges price.

I sent PL an email asking for the breakdown - here is their response:

Dear TUGGER,

Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail. We understand that
you would like to receive a breakdown of taxes/surcharges of Hertz.

We apologize, but we are unable to provide you breakdown and advise you
to contact the rental car company directly at 1-800-654-3011.

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,

Ramesh A.
Customer Service Specialist


Sounds like from PL's answer all the Taxes/Surcharges are Hertz' deal (e.g. have nothing to do with PL)

 

[djs]

Sounds like from PL's answer all the Taxes/Surcharges are Hertz' deal (e.g. have nothing to do with PL)

I'm willing to bet you'd get a very similar response were you to e-mail Hertz. PL has to make money somehow and I'm pretty sure it's not from renting cars for 1/2 the price other agencies rent them from.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I'm willing to bet you'd get a very similar response were you to e-mail Hertz. PL has to make money somehow and I'm pretty sure it's not from renting cars for 1/2 the price other agencies rent them from.

Priceline makes their money from the spread between the price at which the companies release inventory to PL and the price at which PL moves the inventory. If PL rents a car for 1/2 the lowest car rental agency price, that means that the cost to PL is less than that.

That's why PL lards their site with suggestions that you ought to raise your bid of you bid is "too low". If they can get you to go back in add more money to a bid that was already a winner, that's pure profit for them.

 

[winger]

I spoke to the Hhertz rental pickup office, the Hertz National reservation system, then finally to Hertz national billing only to find out Priceline likely has final say as noone of the three Hertz depts I called could see the itemized breakdown. All three parties I did speak with at Hertz did concurred that 54.8% taxes and fees Priceline is charging me for this reservatin is exuberant and excessive when their next door neighbor Budget charged me 15.6% taxes and fees. The pickup office's rep was actually very shocked and was not happy that one of their customers were gauged, especially in such hard economic times. They did convey this was likely an honest mistake and to contact Priceline (again).

 

[zazz]

I have a reservation for a car in Providence in March with Hertz. The taxes are about $45. Just for fun I ran a NYOP query and the same rate I have now without submitting the request just so that I could see the total charge. The taxes came to $48. So there is nothing fishy there.

Under the taxes and fees section I clicked on the link and this is an excerpt:

"This charge includes an amount to recover the amount we pay to the rental car supplier in connection with your reservation for taxes, fees and surcharges owed by the rental car supplier including, without limitation, sales and use tax, excise tax, value added tax, airport or facility taxes, surcharges or fees and/or other similar taxes, surcharges or fees. The amount of this charge is intended by us to be sufficient to cover the maximum amount we may be required to pay to a rental car supplier, and may be greater or less than the amount we actually pay the rental car supplier in connection with your reservation for taxes, fees and surcharges. The balance of the charge for Taxes and Fees is a fee which we retain as part of the compensation for our services and to cover the costs of your reservation, including, for example, customer service costs and additional fees which may be charged from time to time by the rental car suppliers."

So they are charging the maximum allowed under the rental contract in the event that all of these fees happen to come up. There may be an extra hour charge, a "Maui screw the tourist" charge or whatever that Hertz is legally permitted to hit you with when you return the car. Who knows. Priceline collects the whole thing whether it is needed or not but sends Hertz only what they actually ask for. Then they keep the rest.

 

[bogey21]

I'm too tired to go look but I think Priceline makes the statement that the taxes and other fees are an estimate which if lower than actual (unlikely) works to the detriment of Priceline, and which if higher enure to Priceline as profit.

George

 

[winger]

Well, I got my lazy butt off the couch and found this page linked from my reservation's Taxes/Fees (actually the link did not work for some reason until just now )

"Charges for Taxes and Fees

In connection with facilitating your Name Your Own Price® rental car transaction, we will charge your debit or credit card, in addition to the price you name, a charge for Taxes and Fees (an amount that will always be disclosed to you before you elect to proceed). This charge includes an amount to recover the amount we pay to the rental car supplier in connection with your reservation for taxes, fees and surcharges owed by the rental car supplier including, without limitation, sales and use tax, excise tax, value added tax, airport or facility taxes, surcharges or fees and/or other similar taxes, surcharges or fees. The amount of this charge is intended by us to be sufficient to cover the maximum amount we may be required to pay to a rental car supplier, and may be greater or less than the amount we actually pay the rental car supplier in connection with your reservation for taxes, fees and surcharges. The balance of the charge for Taxes and Fees is a fee which we retain as part of the compensation for our services and to cover the costs of your reservation, including, for example, customer service costs and additional fees which may be charged from time to time by the rental car suppliers. The charge for Taxes and Fees varies based on a number of factors, including, without limitation, the amount you pay to priceline.com and the location at which you will pick-up your car from the rental car supplier.

We are not the vendor collecting and remitting taxes to the applicable taxing authorities. The rental car companies, as vendors, bill all applicable taxes to us and we pay over such amounts directly to the vendors. We are not a co-vendor associated with the vendor with whom we reserve our customer's travel arrangements. Taxability and the appropriate tax rate and the type of applicable taxes vary greatly by location."

 

[Carolinian]

IMHO there is a lot of hankypanky on ''taxes and fees'' in the travel industry. I would like to see consumer protection legislation to insure transparency by prohibiting a charge on a tax and fee line for anything that is not paid to a third party like a taxing entity, airport, etc. Bumping up what is actually the price by phony fees on the tax and fee line is just fraud.

One question to explore is whether it is the rental car company or Priceline that is doing this to you. It could be either. For quite some time, the ''taxes'' on the same TATL routings for NW and DL were significantly different, meaning that one was padding the ''taxes'' since tax authorities would not be charging different airlines different amounts. After enough attention was called to that problem, it stopped.

One thing I would do is go to the website of the rental car company that the Priceline rental is with and do a dummy reservation with the same pickup, car size, dates, etc. and see what tax it shows. If the amount is different from what Priceline claims, I would file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division of the state AG of your state and send copies of the dummy reservation and your Priceline documents. If the amount is the same as Priceline quoted, the problem is with the car rental company. In that case, I would make dummy reservations with other car rental companies at the same airport and look at the tax they charge. If your car rental company is out of line with everybody else, then send those documents to the Hawaii Consumer Protestion Division.

This has gotten to be a real problem with airline tickets in some places, where airlines advertise a phony come-on price and then pack much of what is really the fare into a ''fuel surcharge'' which you don't see until later in the process and makes it extremely difficult for consumers to effectively compare prices. In Europe, new rules are going into effect to stop this deceptive and fraudulent practice.

 

[bogey21]

"The amount of this charge is intended by us to be sufficient to cover the maximum amount we may be required to pay to a rental car supplier, and may be greater or less than the amount we actually pay the rental car supplier in connection with your reservation for taxes, fees and surcharges. The balance of the charge for Taxes and Fees is a fee which we retain as part of the compensation for our services and to cover the costs of your reservation, including, for example, customer service costs and additional fees which may be charged from time to time by the rental car suppliers".

This is what I remembered and personally I have no problem with it. They clearly disclose that the excess in here is part of their profit. If Priceline's "all-in" price is cheaper than renting directly from the Rental Car Company, I'm happy with it. To me it is like looking at a prospective timeshare week on Ebay and combining the bid price and closing costs to get the "all-in" cost of the Week.

George

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

This is what I remembered and personally I have no problem with it. They clearly disclose that the excess in here is part of their profit. If Priceline's "all-in" price is cheaper than renting directly from the Rental Car Company, I'm happy with it. To me it is like looking at a prospective timeshare week on Ebay and combining the bid price and closing costs to get the "all-in" cost of the Week.

George

Exactly. I found a bit of humor in one of the earlier posts when there was reference to being "gouged". This when the final price through Priceline with fees included, was still less than the price through the car rental agency without the gouging.

 

[Carolinian]

This is what I remembered and personally I have no problem with it. They clearly disclose that the excess in here is part of their profit. If Priceline's "all-in" price is cheaper than renting directly from the Rental Car Company, I'm happy with it. To me it is like looking at a prospective timeshare week on Ebay and combining the bid price and closing costs to get the "all-in" cost of the Week.

George

It is thoroughly dishonest to call something taxes and fees when it in fact is part of the price. Doing that allows companies to snooker customers with phony come-on prices as has become rampant in some sectors of the airline industry with phony-baloney fuel surcharges. Fuel is part of the basic product and not an add-on. Europe is movinig in the right direction to end this fraudulent shell game.

Calling something in the fine print ''clearly disclosing'' is stretching things.

Of course, there is one area to watch out for in European car rentals which is a real racket, and that is charging a whopping extra fee in winter for winter tires, which can amount to around $10 or $15 a day or more. Rent a car for a couple of weeks and you have bought them the winter tires. Rather than installing yearround all-weather tires, these companies mount inadequate summer tires, which is what you will get in winter if you do not pay through the nose extra. I have not encountered this racket until the last few years. The EU needs to take action to clean it up as well. At least US car rental companies have not discovered this fraud as yet, at least from my experience. Who knows, if rain is predicted, they may charge extra for windshield wipers.

 

[winger]

IMHO there is a lot of hankypanky on ''taxes and fees'' in the travel industry. I would like to see consumer protection legislation to insure transparency by prohibiting a charge on a tax and fee line for anything that is not paid to a third party like a taxing entity, airport, etc. Bumping up what is actually the price by phony fees on the tax and fee line is just fraud.

One question to explore is whether it is the rental car company or Priceline that is doing this to you. It could be either. For quite some time, the ''taxes'' on the same TATL routings for NW and DL were significantly different, meaning that one was padding the ''taxes'' since tax authorities would not be charging different airlines different amounts. After enough attention was called to that problem, it stopped.

One thing I would do is go to the website of the rental car company that the Priceline rental is with and do a dummy reservation with the same pickup, car size, dates, etc. and see what tax it shows. If the amount is different from what Priceline claims, I would file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division of the state AG of your state and send copies of the dummy reservation and your Priceline documents. If the amount is the same as Priceline quoted, the problem is with the car rental company. In that case, I would make dummy reservations with other car rental companies at the same airport and look at the tax they charge. If your car rental company is out of line with everybody else, then send those documents to the Hawaii Consumer Protestion Division.

...

thanks for the step-by-step. makes it easier for me to follow through on something i want to do but it's also an additonal burden/todo in an already very busy life (kids, various upcoming trips, work, etc). half the battle lots of time is sitting down and figuring out the steps to do something, the rest maybe as easy as slicing through warm butter. i sure be doing the comparisons this upcoming weekend when we head to our 3-day getaway ! should be able to find a few minutes then to surf (compare prices).

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

It is thoroughly dishonest to call something taxes and fees when it in fact is part of the price. Doing that allows companies to snooker customers with phony come-on prices as has become rampant in some sectors of the airline industry with phony-baloney fuel surcharges. Fuel is part of the basic product and not an add-on. Europe is movinig in the right direction to end this fraudulent shell game.

Calling something in the fine print ''clearly disclosing'' is stretching things.

Of course, there is one area to watch out for in European car rentals which is a real racket, and that is charging a whopping extra fee in winter for winter tires, which can amount to around $10 or $15 a day or more. Rent a car for a couple of weeks and you have bought them the winter tires. Rather than installing yearround all-weather tires, these companies mount inadequate summer tires, which is what you will get in winter if you do not pay through the nose extra. I have not encountered this racket until the last few years. The EU needs to take action to clean it up as well. At least US car rental companies have not discovered this fraud as yet, at least from my experience. Who knows, if rain is predicted, they may charge extra for windshield wipers.

I'm sorry but I just can't get excited about this when you see the all-in price at the end and you get a chance to accept or decline. Before using PL anyway I check the car rental company sites and figure out what my all-in price is from them.

It's stupid to use Priceline without first knowing what your best rate is without using Priceline. That's like going into a car dealership without doing any comparison pricing on the internet first.

From your comments I guess you would be perfectly happy with the Hotwire business model where you simply are offered a car and a price. Even though in my experience Priceline, with the add-on fees, still beats Hotwire about 80% of the time.

For myself, I find it hard to get in lather about it when I'm saving money even with the added fees.

*******

The added fees are a big problem in situations where the customer gets tagged with the fee after they've committed to the purchase. Your winter tires is an example; another is Mexican car rentals, where rates are quoted without the mandatory third party liability insurance.

Those situations are outrageous. But when you get to see the all-in price before you buy, well to me that's a Yawwwnnnnn .....

 

[winger]

steve like i said it's my fault ... during bidding, i noticed the pl base price AND final price... because both were lower than budget's, i accepted (hard to concentrate wih things swirling all around me)...it was just the other day i saw the huge taxes/fees like that pl charged. i just do not feel a taxes/fees line should include things other than what states and local authorities charge. maybe pl can add an additional line called 'keep pl in business surcharge' and put the excess monies i paid in there.

 

[swsc16]

I got interested in this email thread, cause I was an extremely happy Priceline bidder recently. It got me curious if I was overcharged with "taxes/fees", and followed the suggested steps.

Here's my winning bid for Buffalo standard SUV for July2009:
Rental Partner: Alamo Rent a Car Car
Type: Standard Sport Utility Vehicle (Unlimited Mileage)
Your Offer Price: $28.00 (per day)
Total Rental Days: 7 days(6 days)
Subtotal: $196.00
Taxes and Fees: $67.40
Total Charges: $263.40
Lowest Published Price: $450.00 (USD)
Total Savings:* $186.60 (USD) (You saved 41%)


First step, I tried to do another NYOP PL bid with the same offer price, and I still got the same bid final Total Charges price.... whew!

Next, I tried to check Alamo website, and chose exact same criteria (SUV in Buffalo, and same dates), I also chose their prepay option with 15% discount.

Base Rate - Standard SUV (USD)
(1) Time & Distance ($404.82/Week) $404.82
Subtotal $404.82

Taxes, Surcharges and Fees
Concession Fee Recovery 11.11 %
$44.98
Sales Tax (13.750%)
$61.85
Subtotal $106.83

Pre-Pay Total $511.65

whew!

Then lastly, I tried Hotwire again with exact same criteria.... $331.13 final price in Hotwire. I still saved $68 (20% savings) using Priceline insted of Hotwire. Whew, I haven't bid in PL for many years now, and I'm glad to know I can still be smart in PL bids

Also by the way, I thought it was worthy to note that I saw Hotwire taxes/fees is $65.48, and the PL taxes/fees is $67.40 (close enough!)

Thanks, just sharing my experience.

 

[Carolinian]

By not being honest and transparent, they put consumers at a disadvantage in comparing prices. I like the new EU rules that will require airlines to advertise all-in prices, instead of adding things like a ''fuel surcharge'' that does not come close to being based on the cost of fuel that a customer does not see until late in the process. It makes price comparisions by consumers very cumbersome. Some stripped down fares look like the best deal, but not after one discovers that they pop you with a much higher ''fuel surcharge'' than competitors, which makes the all-in fare higher. Some fare comparision sites only show the stripped down ''phony fare'' and you have to go through multiple steps to find the all-in fares for each to do a real comparision. Unsophisticated buyers don't know they have to go through that grind and get suckered by the come-on fare. The surcharges are little more than a scam to cheat such consumers and should be prohibited by law.

I applaud Wizz Air, whose CEO wrote in the airline's magazine that they were dropping the fuel surcharges long before they were required to do so because they were confusing and unfair to customers.

It all comes down to honesty. Hiding part of the price under taxes and fees is simply a dishonest business practice.

I'm sorry but I just can't get excited about this when you see the all-in price at the end and you get a chance to accept or decline. Before using PL anyway I check the car rental company sites and figure out what my all-in price is from them.

It's stupid to use Priceline without first knowing what your best rate is without using Priceline. That's like going into a car dealership without doing any comparison pricing on the internet first.

From your comments I guess you would be perfectly happy with the Hotwire business model where you simply are offered a car and a price. Even though in my experience Priceline, with the add-on fees, still beats Hotwire about 80% of the time.

For myself, I find it hard to get in lather about it when I'm saving money even with the added fees.

*******

The added fees are a big problem in situations where the customer gets tagged with the fee after they've committed to the purchase. Your winter tires is an example; another is Mexican car rentals, where rates are quoted without the mandatory third party liability insurance.

Those situations are outrageous. But when you get to see the all-in price before you buy, well to me that's a Yawwwnnnnn .....

 

[winger]

In case anyone finds this thread searching Google and to challenge PL fees

http://www.consumersrevenge.com/complaints/priceline.htm

 

[Robert D]

I've rented quite a few cars and a ton of hotel rooms on PL and saved a lot of money every time. PL charges a transaction fee of about $6 for a car or hotel rental (not $6 per day per $6 per transaction) and that's included in the "fees and taxes". I always bid very low on the per day rate and look closely at the final price. There's no surprises with PL because they show you the final total including taxes and fees before you submit your bid. A big part of "taxes and fees" on car rentals from any of the companies are junk fees, not taxes, and PL is no exception. Things like "cost recovery fee" have nothing to do with taxes but are one of the ways car rental cos. make money. The same thing is true with most local and cell phone companies. The nominal price per day for a car is irrelevant since the taxes and fees will usually be at least 30% of the nominal amount.

 

[Carolinian]

I don't see why you have such a problem with rules requiring transparency for the consumer, either as the new EU rules for airlines will do, requiring advertsiing of an all-in price, or prohibiting the shifting of part of the base price to some arbitrary ''fee'' on the taxes and fees line.

One thing I like about pricing European hotels is the transparency. The price you are quoted is an all-in fee, including all taxes. In the US, you often have to drag that info out of hotels when booking. The European hotels take a more honest and aboveboard approach.

I'm sorry but I just can't get excited about this when you see the all-in price at the end and you get a chance to accept or decline. Before using PL anyway I check the car rental company sites and figure out what my all-in price is from them.

It's stupid to use Priceline without first knowing what your best rate is without using Priceline. That's like going into a car dealership without doing any comparison pricing on the internet first.

From your comments I guess you would be perfectly happy with the Hotwire business model where you simply are offered a car and a price. Even though in my experience Priceline, with the add-on fees, still beats Hotwire about 80% of the time.

For myself, I find it hard to get in lather about it when I'm saving money even with the added fees.

*******

The added fees are a big problem in situations where the customer gets tagged with the fee after they've committed to the purchase. Your winter tires is an example; another is Mexican car rentals, where rates are quoted without the mandatory third party liability insurance.

Those situations are outrageous. But when you get to see the all-in price before you buy, well to me that's a Yawwwnnnnn .....