Why are Phoenix car rentals so expensive?
 

Can't believe the car rental rates in Phoenix. What's up?

From a previous post of mine:

This is the approach we took several years ago in Phoenix and it saved us a lot of $$$.

1. <b>Don't rent at the airport (PHX)!</b>. Choose an off site car rental agency. Enterprise can be very cheap, away from the airport.

2. Search online for an Enterprise coupon code (e.g. http://www.carrentalsavers.com/enterprise.html). This is not necessarily the best or cheapest site for you. Do a thorough search and see what else you can find.

3. If you are arriving by air, consider staying the first night at a motel near the airport with a free shuttle.

4. Take the (free) shuttle to the hotel/motel, spend the night there and have Enterprise pick you up there the next morning. They will do this for you free of charge. Of course, your reservation must be with a branch location that is closest to your hotel/motel. This is the Enterprise location we used:
1131 W BROADWAY RD
TEMPE, AZ 85282-1225
Tel.: (480) 829-3970

5. Alternatively, if you don't want to spend the night in a hotel/motel, then take a taxi to the off-site Enterprise branch.

6. At the conclusion of your rental period, repeat the same process without the additional one night's hotel/motel stay. Better yet, you may be able to persuade your Enterprise driver to drop you off at the airport itself. We did! (While off-site car rental branches can't pick up at the airport, they can and do drop off if asked discretely.)

_______________________________________________
Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Thanks - great info. We had already planned to stay at a nearby hotel our first night, as we are arriving in the evening and I didn't want to drive then. We will see if enterprise can drop us off on the way back - our flight out is not until 9 p.m. and we aren't planning to be back in Phoenix until early that evening.

I wonder if a taxi from the Enterprise office would make sense if they can't drop us off.

Check the hours of the off-airport car rentals. They are often not open on weekends; however I found one open weekends in Denver so there is hope.

amie

Because the city adds taxes on tourists for everything that they are afraid to tax their citizens for. The next door city of Tempe is having a special election soon to raise their bed tax

The expense of a rental is ridiculous in Maricopa County--and you can thank the stupid "University Diploma Mill of Phoenix" and the Cardinals football team for that. I grew up in PHX and now avoid flying into Sky Harbor when I visit because of the rental car taxes. I fly into Tucson instead. It's a nice airport and far easier an experience, since PHX buses you offsite from the airport to the rental car site anyway. (By the way, some of the steepest escalators I've ever been on in the world lead to the car area once you're there!) Tucson is a 1 1/2 hour drive but if you are an AZ tourist and want to see some of the state other than PHX/Scottsdale, Tucson is much more attractive departure point anyway!