Want to revisit car rentals in Phoenix airport
 

Hear tell there is an obnoxious surcharge AT the airport when renting a car. Others have recommended taking a taxi and renting offsite. More specifics? What type car?
Also someone mentioned using Priceline at airport and has that worked out for anyone and how--particulars please. About to rent a car for twelve days!! H

Compare the rates from Hertz at the airport to their Indian Springs Road location and it might be worth the cab fare.

Some have found a hotel that picked them up at the airport, then they stayed the night and Hertz picked them up at their hotel in the morning, eliminating cab fare.

car rentals in phoenix are high, period. lots of local taxes.

I can give a very specific example of all fares since I just rented in Phoenix last week. Since my company has a corporate agreement with Hertz, I don't think you can get the same rate but the fees and taxes should be similar.

This is what my final receipt shows:
4 days @ $37.50 = 150.00
concession fee recovery $16.65
additional charges* $18.00
(at the bottom it says *additional charges/fac chrg - $4.50DY)
Tx 15.1% on $184.65 = $27.88
Cnty surchrg $6.00
Total $218.53

Going to my contract, it says:
concession fee recovery 11.1%
county surcharge of 3.25% min $2.50 per rental
customer faciltiy charge $4.50 per day
tax rate 15.1%

I don't know which of these charges you would avoid renting elsewhere, perhaps the concession charge?

Hope this helps. You'll have to figure out if it's worth a few dollars to rent somewhere else. Especially if you have to take a taxi to the other location. I mentally also put a value on "hassle factor" when I look at these things but maybe you don't.

I travel a fair amount and these charges don't sound grossly out of line with what I've experienced other places including my home town of San Antonio. Many cities now find out of town visitors fair game when it comes to fees and taxes on rental cars. It's part of the total cost of renting cars.

That's about 45% in taxes & surcharges, I call that HEFTY, though not out of line with a lot of other cities these days. I've noticed DOLLAR often adds another 5% that others don't charge. Tire recovery fee or something.

and boy did I have BAD retrun car service w/Avis there last weekend on Sunday afternoon. I missed my plane. There were 40 (yes 40) cars in line to be returned when I drove up, and not one Avis person in site. It took me 20 min. to check in the car, and then no bus came for 22 minutes! When I got into the airport, I stood in line 28 min. at American West and missed the 30 min. cut off time by two minutes. I shoudl have had another 40 min. in the airport if Avis had done their job.
I liekd it when they had cars in the garage right next to the airport. Sigh.

Wow! This has been so helpful! Someone on line once mentioned they did well booking thru Priceline. Anyone out there tried that? H

The priceline quote will not include the 45% in taxes...for a 12 day rental you will probably save $100-150 by going off-airport.

You really need to run the numbers on this one. We've traveled to Phoenix several times and on one of the trips I worked the numbers both ways. The difference between airport pick-up and in town pick-up wasn't that great, and when you factored in round trip cab fare, it was really a minimal savings. Then, as mentioned above, you have the hassle of loading & unloading your luggage twice. Perhaps if you're staying for a long time it might make sense, but for a fairly short stay we found it wasn't worth it.

Nobody's mentioned that if you pick up the car at Hertz Local downtown, you can still RETURN the car to the airport location... so the "hassle" and cab fare is only one-time, at pickup.

You don't mention your dates, but for a mid size car, picking up tomorrow and keeping for 12 days, the AAA rate at Hertz airport is $739, and the AAA rate at Hertz local is $517.....well worth the cab fare I'd say!

WOW!! Now that is a savings!! Looks like a cab fare is in our Phoenix future and I bet I can still bid on Priceline there as well! H

A couple of questions here. We are not landing until after 3 in the afternoon. In looking for off sites they tell me 5 pm is too late to pick up? I am allowing for plane delays, luggage retrievement etc. We have ammeting in Tempe and were thinking of staying there. Is Tempe close enough to the airport they would provide shuttles? Then I coul d pick up next day in Tempe Basically what is closest offsite you can get to for the $20 bucks. H

To Reeder: I'm not trying to sound glib here, but you'd really need to call the off-site rental company directly with your question. Given your time frame, it's too important to rely on the opinion of anonymous posters who may or may not be correct. In this case you're not asking for an opinion--you need a cold & hard fact, and you're much better off getting the answer directly from the source. Same for the hotel shuttle question. I hope you get the answer you want!

To clarkgriswold: That certainly is quite a savings! And as I said previously, that scenario makes more sense for a longer stay, which is what you're doing. In your case, your savings amounts to $18.50 per day. However, if someone were only staying for 4 days, that would only be a savings of $74 before calculating cabfare, which can easily run to $25-30 one way if you're staying up north in Scottsdale. So you really have to calculate each trip individually.

Yes of course, Judy...but the original question was about a 12 day rental.

Reeder, Tempe is very close to PHX (the airport is in Mesa, Az actually) and there is a Hertz Local location in Tempe that allows returns to the airport at no extra charge. Rates are comparable or a little less than on Indian Springs road. Enjoy the savings!

clarkgriswold - Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is in Phoenix, not Mesa. However, you are right, Temepe is very close to the airport. Also, I think you mean Indian School Rd, not Indian Springs.

Thanks.

Reeder: Check out the Best Western Grace Inn in Phoenix, they offer airport shuttle and local shuttle around the area...I believe that the Tempe Hertz is only a mile or so away.


http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwest...mp;disablenav=

Yhsnks to everyone. I will look into the Tempe site and also shuttles from various hotels. And then I will report in with my findings and perhaps resolution! H

Try rentalcars.com also. I got much cheaper rates there than at the individual car rental agencies..... even on a one way rental. (ex: 10 days p/u in Vegas, return to PHX for total of $241 - all taxes, fees,etc)

Update here and thank you for all your advice!! Looked into Hertz prices off site airport in Tempe and at airport. They were 581 plus change at airport and 399 in Tempe for intermediate siz car. I tried Priceline (just for the heck of it) bid $20. per day(and while doing it they advised against that price--they also include all the taxese tc we have to assume at airport ((I checked on that too)) and I got it. Total is 359.62 and no hassles with cab rides, opening hours etc. So passing this on. And thank you all. H

By the way and I know you are wondering --it was with AVis!! H