Germany rental car and Berlin low emission zone
 

Hello,
We are flying into Frankfurt (arriving 9/24), where we'd like to pick up a rental car to visit friends in Ottrau on the way to Berlin. In Berlin, we're hoping to drop our bags at our hotel (Myer's Hotel) then return the rental car at the main train station. Both the hotel and the train station are in the Berlin LEZ (low emission zone). I was looking at Auto Europe for rental cars, but I see no way to verify whether these cars have the green stickers required to drive in the Berlin LEZ. I called Auto Europe and the US helpline advised me to call the rental car company (Hertz) directly at the Frankfurt airport. I thought perhaps I could figure it out by trying to book directly from that Hertz location, but Hertz is showing no cars available for our pickup date (although Auto Europe shows availability from Hertz).

Does anyone know how I can verify that a rental car will have the LEZ sticker we need for Berlin? Can it be assumed that all cars rented in Germany will have the sticker?

I guess an option would be to drop the car outside the zone if we don't have a sticker, but we are hoping to make the stops mentioned above.

By the way, I looked into train/bus options, but we want to do a few things near our friends and need a car for this part of the trip.

Thank you for any information you can provide!

German rentals almost always have green stickers - LEZ are all over Germany.

I hope you are not planning on driving immediately after arriving if you are on a long haul flight.

Thank you so much for the reassurance that we will be fine on the rental car. I was hoping that would be the case.

Yes, we are leaving right away, but we only have an hour drive to our first stop in the countryside and no plans there other than our evening dinner. It's a very easy day.

"but we only have an hour drive to our first stop"

but it only takes a second to microsleep and lose control of a car. One hour has lots of seconds.

At the end of the day you are going to do what you are going to do, but, please seriously think about the risks to yourself, those you love and complete strangers you will pass on the road.