Hertz Car Rental USA country of residence vs Great Britan
 

I am in the USA and my charge for a Hertz 31 day rental pick up in Zurich and drop off in Milan is $1,366.00. Now if I use the Hertz website for the same dates and car and say I am a resident of Great Britan the price is 668 pounds or $1,048.00.

Does anyone know why there is such a large difference in price? Has anyone from the USA paid for their Hertz rental on line at the time of making the reservation stating they were from Great Britan on the web site and received the lower price? What happened?

Thanks
Orrin

no, I haven't, although I think I've heard of people getting different quotes based on whether a website was in one country or another. But if you are making a legal statement as to your residency, I would be cautious about lying, as it could well have to do with insurance and other legalities. I believe non-US residents have different rates from some US car rental agencies, at least they certainly ask if you are a US citizen/resident or not.

It could just be marketing, though, so I don't know for sure, but if insurance is involved I'd be careful about lying. Also, what happens when you get there and don't have the proper driver's license to prove your residency? Will you not get a car, or get a different rate?

31 days could be an issue, also, as it is def. not a short-term rental. I know some US travel insurance policies don't cover you if it is over 30 days.

sorry I'm just speculating. I know on some websites (like train tickets), that's not some legal insurance issue, when it asks your residence, it is just for marketing or language reasons.

I just looked at the Hertz website, and it never asked me for my residency, so I don't understand how you got two different rates by saying you had different residency. I used hertz.com and it simply gave me a rate in USD first, then in CHF if I said I didn't want to prepay and wanted it in local currency (as that would be in Zurich). If you prepaid, it would be to the US site in that case.

I then used hertz.co.uk and it also never asked me my residency, just quoted a rate in GBP for prepayment or CHF (which was a heck of a lot more than the US site, actually). I put in 31 days in April/may and it quoted me USD $1378 for prepayment on the US site or 1589 CHF local, and the UK hertz website quoted me 1614 GBP prepayment or 3170 CHF onsite. This was for the exact same locations (both airports), dates and car.

So maybe you are looking at different cars or the rates changed since you did it, as they do all the time, but I don't see what you are finding.

Try checking the rates at Auto Europe and Kemwel. They are brokers and use Hertz and Avis as well as other suppliers, depending on the destination. If you're booking directly with Hertz or Avis, you'll find that their rates can be up to 20% higher than through a broker like Auto Europe or Kemwel (sister companies based in Portland, Maine).

It's somewhat of a secret, but the rate differences you see are based on each countries agreement with a rental agency. Even the brokers have to have a separate agreement at each destination, so prices and types of cars available change. If you go to a rental agency site based in Australia, the rates for the same cars will be different than the companies webpage based in the USA, Spain, Italy, France, etc.

We've booked through Auto Europe using the rental rates that were the most favorable at the time after checking different country based rates.

Christina:

If you go to the Hertz website at the upper right hand corner of the page it asks "Country of Residence" and gives you choices. That is what I am talking about. The Great Britan price I received was in pounds but, even after converting pounds to dollars, it was a few hundred dollars cheaper then for a USA resident.

Some credit cards allow for and pay insurance for a maximum 31 day rental and some 30 days.

Thanks for your response.
Orrin

As Robert says, it's basically an agreement between "markets". So if the US market travelling to Switzerland is geenrally more expensive than the UK market, the rates will be higher to stay in line with the competition.

I think when you choose your country of residence as UK, and get a quote, GBP, when you come to the address page it should allow you to put USA and the rate, at this point, shouldn't change.

I've worked in the industry and I know that some suppliers have complained to brokers for allowing different nationalities booking on specific country websites...but this is not your fault and you as the customer cannot take any blame/punishment - no insurances (if included) are invalidated.

And if checking around for prices I'd also search on companies like holiday autos and comparecarrentals.com - I've had good and bad experiences with Auto Europe/Kemwel and seeing only their names mentioned could throw you off!

Hope this helps!

Plastic_paddy (or anyone who knows), I'm curious if it invalidates your insurance with the rental company if your country of residence and the country that issued your driver's license are not the same.

I live in the UK but am an American. I don't drive here and have no UK license, but I do have a U.S. license and want to drive on a visit to the States. Looking at rental sites, they always ask your country of residence, which is UK and which means getting included insurance at lower rates when I visit the U.S. HOWEVER, rental companies often say in the small print that you must have a license "from your country of residence." I know from experience they will rent me the car with no problem if the license and country of residence don't match up, but will they say the agreement was invalid if there is an accident?

I don't know what to do really, because if I put the country of residence as the U.S. to match my U.S. driver's license, it will not only cost me nearly double to get the car with insurance, but they could also possibly invalidate any claims as I'm not a permanent resident. Anyone have any ideas about what to do?

You can solve the insurance dilemma easily enough by declining the offered insurance and making sure you have insurance coverage included on your credit card.

I don't have a reply to your OQ but I've been comparing Hertz vs AutoEurope. Without a deal and using an AAA card Hertz comes in cheaper but AutoEurope often has sales and I managed to get a great deal from AutoEurope that Hertz couldn't match.

ParisAmsterdam: I looked into credit card insurance, and there are similar problems involving residence.