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List of Cities w/ Exorbitant Car Rental Surcharges
Bravo National Car Rental at Los Angeles Airport! Just rented a car there and paid 8.25 percent state tax, that's it. No added fees, taxes and surcharges. <BR><BR>Some cities are really ridiculous. Please e-mail the Chamber of Commerce, The Mayor's Office, and the Dept of Tourism in these locations! <BR><BR>Providence RI 40 percent added surcharges!<BR><BR>Colorado Springs 33 percent! <BR><BR>Las Vegas 27 percent! <BR><BR>If you know of any other cities that add unacceptable fees to the price of a car rental, please let us know! The surcharges on our recent 3-week car rental in Providence added up to $246.00 ! That's just the surcharges!
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Phoenix, AZ. I can't remember how much, but it was enough that I chose to fly into Tucson instead.
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Minneapolis is bad for surcharges.<BR><BR>Generally I just take the advertised rate and add 35% to be safe.
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I just paid 45% from Houston International! I was appalled, and thought about posting here to ask if that were normal. Glad to hear that most places aren't quite that bad.
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Rental car surcharges are a method some cities use to get some revenue out of tourists. The proceeds are used to fund any number of things, usually things for which the locals refuse to pay - stadiums, arenas, etc. that draw fans from all over are commonly funded this way. Locals don't object because they don't feel the pinch.
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Rent a car at London Gatwick (LGW) and you'll pay an extra "location fee" of 17 pounds (about $25) per rental - even if only for a day !! Then I had a hub cap fall off.. they wanted $45 for it...
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You can e-mail all over, won't change a thing. You've just gotta do your homework and research ahead of time so that you know what you're in for. And, figure out how to best avoid same. All those added taxes are to balance the budget. If you think you're gonna get any sympathy, or even a response, from e-mailing all those places, well, you're NOT.<BR><BR>Whether or not you find such charges "unacceptable" is, well, irrelevant.<BR><BR>No matter where you're going, you have to pay whatever it costs to go there and be there. <BR><BR>If you can pick where you go, you can shop accordingly, otherwise, you're in for it!
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Hotels do the same thing, especially ones that are downtown. Although, not 30% ;) Let's not give them any ideas.
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Every time I rent a car, the company lets me know at the time of booking how much it will be. There are no surprises.<BR><BR>I just rented in California and National's rental estimate was to the penny! I didn't like Ontario's $10 per rental surcharge on top of taxes, but at least I knew it in advance.
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They tried to tack a surcharge on rental car here in Columbus, Ohio and everyone complained so much about it that they ended up getting signatures to put it on the ballot. The voters overwhelmingly voted it down. Kudos to the voters here in Columbus.
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Wow, I don't rent often because with a family, I prefer to drive but that is outrageous. I'll be flying to Houston this spring. I don't know if we'll be renting because we are visiting relatives there but if we do I am glad to have a heads up on that!!! I rented a car in Portland, OR with Thrifty. Didn't get the car I wanted (got a Daewoo instead of a Chrysler) but I didn't have any surprises on the price at all. Rented within 24 hours of arrival and got a special rate because of it. Very reasonable with no add-ons at all.
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San Antonio recently completed another $150 million stadium. I is being paid for by surcharges on car rentals and hotel stays.
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What is the policy in San Diego.<BR><BR>In Colorado Springs we used the hotel shuttle to go between the airport and hotel, and rented from the car rental at the hotel. No dropoff or other hidden charges that way.
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Congratulations to the people of Columbus. It is nice of them to prefer paying for all those projects themselves instead of letting the tourists pay for them!!!
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Boston airport has to be the worst. They have so many extra charges that it almost costs more than the rental.
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ttt
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Rented in Las Vegas recently and noticed a "$2.00 surcharge" for giving my Frequent Flyer number in order to get FF miles. I saw an ad in my United Airlines brochure saying that I would collect bonus miles when renting from Hertz. So I presented my card when renting, not realizing that they would turn around and charge me 2 bucks! I got 200 free miles for my two bucks, so if I rent a car 150 times I will earn a "free" plane ticket that ends up costing me $300 bucks in surcharges. Then they will tell me there are no seats available for my free flight. Unless I want to fly at midnight on a Wednesday and return at 6am the following day. <BR><BR>
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Cleveland, OH
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What about car rental prices? Charlotte, NC -- $85 a day for full size. Thank goodness for Priceline. Got it for $45 a day.<BR><BR>Phoenix does have high surcharges, but you can get a full size car on Priceline for about $20 a day.
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A couple of my favorite recent charges:<BR><BR>9% concession recovery fee. The guy couldn't tell me exactly, but thought it was to help them pay the fee they have to pay the airport to have a booth there.<BR><BR>$2.05 Florida surcharge for disposal of battery and tires. Like they're going to get rid of the battery and tires when I bring it in? There is such a charge for disposal of those things, but how many hundreds of renters are paying $2.00 each for that one time fee?<BR><BR>40 cents per day vehicle license recovery fee. Each renter is paying his share of the cost of the company paying for the license plates.<BR><BR>That FF mile fee. But in my case it was 7.5% tax on the "value" assigned to the FF miles. In my case on a $60 rental that amounted to exactly 6 cents.
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