Saturday, April 07, 2007

Boooo Dollar

Dollar rental charges $25/day if you're under 25, as opposed to the $15 that other companies charge.

I tried to rent a Charger and they gave me a Grand Marquis. Lame.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Boooooo indeed! Not only do they charge more, they're inexcusably opaque about it. Last year I was weighing whether I could afford my trip to New England. Based on all of the projected expenses, I decided the trip was a go and purchased my plane ticket. I made a reservation with Dollar and printed out a copy of the estimated expenses. (Disclaimer: they _did_ call the bill an "estimate," as I would not actually pay until I picked up the car.) Apparently "estimate" has a very broad margin of error for Dollar Rental. During the calculation of the projected bill, they requested such information as number of days for the reservation, size of car, and my age. While all evidence indicated they were already taking age into account, it turned out that they didn't _actually_ figure it into the cost until I had already flown to Boston and was stranded at the airport and, on my AmeriCorps salary, unable to afford the more than double their original "estimate."

I hear you. Go with someone else (and I'd be happy to hear if you have any specific recommendations).

Stevious said...

I've shopped around a bit when renting, but always find the IBM rate at Hertz to be a good deal. Not that it helps you out, but maybe your employer has negotiated something with one of the rental car companies that would provide a workaround for the under 25 penalty. Our contract rate covers all employees, regardless of age.