Car rental limitations
 

We are flying into Las Vegas to start a 2 week trip into Arizona, Utah and a side trip to Colorado to Mesa Verde. I considered booking thru Hotwire because I am finding pretty high rental rates for the period I am traveling. What is stopping me is that several car rental companies only allow travel to Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California. National does allow 150 miles into Colorado. Budget no travel to Colorado. How can this be?. Do the companies use GPS to track the movement of your car?? With Hotwire, you don't know the company until after the fact. Anyone??? Thanks!

Not sure about the reasons you're finding the limitations, but yes, most rental cars are equipped with GPS devices so that they can be tracked.

just to commiserate; I am finding really high car rental rates as well for two future trips; different locations at different times.

I've never heard of "most rental cars are equipped with GPS devices so that they can be tracked."

Regardless if that's true or not, if you violate the terms of your contract and something happens like an accident you could be liable for the full value of the car and any 3rd party damage. The rental car co's own insurance wouldn't pay, and your own coverage from your own insurance or cc co may be invalid.

Hotwire does not say anything about their rental policies limit the states you can drive in, regardless of which company they actually use. You may want to ask them about it. And I have not heard of such limitations.

Have you tried Enterprise? Also try renting at an off airport sight. Sometimes even added in cab fare makes the rental a whole lot less expensive than renting with a major at an airpot.

I've never heard of that restriction. Just out of curiousity, where did you find out about this?

Restrictions on out-of-state travel are actually fairly common, but it really depends on the company. Payless has been notorious in the past for charging for out-of-state travel. I think you're wise to verify that you'll be able to take the car where you plan to go. California and Utah are rarely a problem.

And, yes, many companies now embed gps units in cars to track their locations, but they also use toll receipts to track whether or not you've crossed a state line. I have never heard of the restriction that you can't drive to Colorado from LV, but I suspect it's just so that the company can keep a limit on the distance (and therefore the miles) the car is driven during a particular rental.

The key point is that if anything happens to the car - from an accident to a flat tire, cracked windshield from a thrown up pebble - or even a traffic ticket - and you're in a state you're not supposed to be in your contact - and therefore your insurance (from either the car rental company or your credit card) is null and void - and you will be personally responsible for all damage.

Don't know what assets you have - perhaps you're judgement proof (have no assets). But if you do - like a car of your own at home or a house/apartment you own - they're all at risk to pay costs for damage to property or people.

Thanks Doug, it's never occured to me to check if I can take a car across state line. Country lines, yes. I suppose I need to go make a post on "things I didn't know".

Just about every time I've rented a car here in CA, I've been asked if I was going to take it out of state. Depends on the company - but sometimes there is a complete prohibition, sometimes you can travel to another state for a higher rate, and sometimes it is more "oh just to Reno or SLT is OK but not farther"

In that part of the country there is also an issue with one-way rentals that include California. Since CA has stricter auto emissions standards than surrounding states, they are unable to rent a car in California unless it is a "California car" - equipped with this emission equipment. So if you rent a car in NV (as we did) and return it to CA, it has to be a car that they can then turn around and rent in CA.

Agree that biggest issue is insurance coverage rather than if you will be caught. If you go to various car rental sites and do first steps in renting a car, there is always a section of fine print you can seek out with such restrictions. Sometimes it is regional - when we rented a RT car in Washington, DC we could take it to VA, PA, MD, DE - but had to search for a company that would let us take it to the South.

Geez...I will write to Hotwire for their input on this as well as check off airport locations for lower rates. I can't understand why a car from LV can't enter Colorado, it's not that far a distance. Better get back to the drawing board and see what I can up with as far as rentals with no restrictions...

I've rented many cars here in California and have never been asked if I was going out of state with them.

I looked at Budget's website, as the OP found them to be most restrictive. What I found is that it seems to be a Las Vegas-specific restriction. Only when renting at LAS (or one of the city locations) do that terms comes out.

Not in other states, and not even if renting from RNO. So, it's not even a Nevada issue.

As for why, I have no idea.

I jsut wrote to customer service at Hotwire. I'll let you know what they tell me.

Maybe they think if they keep people "hostage" in LV, they will gamble more? Makes no sense to me!

I am a little concerned for Allison's sake, as I have read some posts where a person has been caught in some requirement they didn't know about and were stuck because they won the car on Priceline, for example. If Hotwire does offer reassurance, I'd want to know the name of the person telling me, and get it in writing.

We did the Southwest trip last summer for 2 weeks, same states and rented a car from Budget (we flew into Phoenix) and there weren't any restrictions. We booked directly on the Budget website.

cc1,
When booking your rental in Las Vegas, the terms and conditions toward the end of your tentative booking state "At this location, vehicles are only allowed to travel in the states of Arizona, Nevada, California and Utah."

My reply from Hotwire was that since I had specific needs (out of state travel) I would need to book my rental with a specific company that I knew allowed the travel that I was seeking. They said since they choose from a variety of top rated rental companies, they could not guarantee that I would get a rental that allowed the out of state travel that I needed. So much for Hotwire..At least they were honest! Had I not done a little research on this before hand, I could have put myself in a bad situation ie travel plans to states not allowed by the rental company I was given. That would be bad!