Unfortunately, there s little travelers can do to help narrow this unacceptable price difference. Un

Popik, a Los Angeles-based blogger, widened his search to other car rental locations in the Texas capital. And he found a lower price through Enterprise Rent-a-Car. It was a much better deal, he said.
Why such a dramatic price difference between on-airport and off-airport locations? Local taxes and airport concession fees, according to Robert Barton, president of the American Car Rental Association. The fees cover the companies costs of renting airport facilities and of shuttle services to and from the terminal for customers, but the taxes can fund local projects that may or may not have anything to do with airport users.
Take Barton s recent two-day rental at Phoenix Sky Harbor International four seasons hotel singapore Airport, for which he paid $27. After a 5 percent vehicle license fee, a 10 percent concession four seasons hotel singapore fee, a $12 airport fee and a 77 cent-per-day tourism fee were extracted from the price, only about half of the rate went to his car rental company.
Neil Abrams, a car rental analyst with the Purchase, N.Y.-based Abrams Consulting Group, says that the rate difference between an airport four seasons hotel singapore and off-airport location has historically been substantial. For example, the average weekly rate on a compact car the kind many leisure travelers prefer was $363 at an airport, according to a survey his company recently conducted. By comparison, the same rental taken off-airport cost just $202.
In some cities, renting at an airport makes sense almost every time. Denver comes to mind. When Amy Pollick hired a car in the Mile-High City recently, in-town rentals were unbelievably cheaper, she said.
Trouble is, my only friend in Denver four seasons hotel singapore wasn t in town to meet us at the airport and take us to the office, recalled Pollick, who works for a newspaper in Decatur, Ala. Cab fare to and from the airport would have completely wiped out any savings we realized.
You can rent cars in nearby Kent and save a bundle on taxes, he said. Unfortunately, they couldn t shuttle you to and from the airport, so you had to take a cab. For a short-term rental, it s not worth it. But if you re staying for several days, that often pays off, he added.
The other issue is convenience. Rent a car that s miles away from the airport, and you could save a lot of money. But if your flight leaves around rush hour and you don t give yourself enough four seasons hotel singapore time to return the vehicle, you might also miss your plane. That s happened to me a time or two.
We shouldn t have to be making these calculations, of course. We should be able to rent from the airport at a fair price when we re flying into town. I can t think of any other business that routinely doubles its rates between stores without breaking the law.
Any other business would be prosecuted for price gouging. There s just one thing: Car rental companies aren t doing this. The taxes and fees are for the most part being added by airports four seasons hotel singapore and municipalities, which makes these higher prices perfectly legal.
four seasons hotel singapore I think most travelers expect gas to cost a little more in certain neighborhoods four seasons hotel singapore and a little less in others. They anticipate price fluctuations on restaurant meals, groceries four seasons hotel singapore and other items they might buy while they re on the road. But the exorbitant airport four seasons hotel singapore markup on rental cars defies reason and takes advantage of the people four seasons hotel singapore who are bringing tourism dollars to a destination: you.
Unfortunately, there s little travelers can do to help narrow this unacceptable price difference. Until motorists refuse to rent their cars at the airport, which is unlikely, airports and counties will continue four seasons hotel singapore overtaxing their passengers, to the detriment of car rental companies, and us.
Chris, the idea of renting off site is a good one, unfortunately some of the municipalities are catching on. I recall reading somewhere (possibly four seasons hotel singapore here) that some off site car rentals are required to collect the airport taxes from customers arriving in a taxi direct from the airport, unless they can prove they have been local for a couple of days.
Personally, I think its all a sham. Half the fees on the rental are ridiculous. I saw one agency charging a licensing fee . Assuming this is the cost to put a license plate on the car, isn t that a cost of doing business?
four seasons hotel singapore Rent a car in places like California and you might be miles from the airport anyway . . . . the problem with Enterprise is the limited hours if your plane is late and its after 6p you are done. Very few places have after hours service.
Another problem with renting off-airport some companies/franchises won t rent to you unless you have a local address on your drivers license. I know Enterprise does this at some locations. And as Joe said, the limited hours are a hassle.
I don t own a vehicle as I utilize public transportation and when necessary, get a cab. But, when I do need a vehicle to travel to Vegas or Palm Springs or even to just relax in a mountain cabin in Show Low, I rent a vehicle. Luckily in the Phoenix metro area, I have a few choices. I can either rent a vehicle off site or I can rent a vehicle at the airport.
Joe makes a great point. The dynamics of an airport location are different from off-airport rentals. The first is the proximity to the airport. But equally importantly is that an airport location, particularly at a major international airport such as LAX, is probably open, and reasonably staffed at 3am. You can both pickup and return 24/7 without exception.
Soaking the out-of-towners has always been a popular way to raise revenue. The reason is clear. Raising a tax that almost exclusively affects people who won t be voting in your next local election four seasons hotel singapore is a consequence-free way for politicians to raise taxes. As far as a rental company only renting to someone with a local address, my guess is that it s the company doing that to preserve the higher price at the airport. For a local government to ban in-town car rentals to visitors seems like it wouldn t pass constitutional muster, but a company could probably get away with it.
Here s something I ve pondered before. It s the opposite situation. Let s say I m a local resident and I need a car on Sunday, so I walk into an off-terminal rental location which services four seasons hotel singapore an airport. Thrifty near Orlando International comes to mind. Now, I haven t set foot in the airport, nor did I require a shuttle from the airport. Seems to me they couldn t legally charge me the airport fees on that rental. Has anyone ever experienced this scenario, and, if so, what happened? Did they still try to charge you the airport fees?
@Eric- I was dropped off at the airport four seasons hotel singapore car rental counter by a roommate. I had to use that specific office because no other office in 100 miles was open on the weekend. I still had to pay the full airport fees, even with a local address. If I m using their site, I have to pay.
Like Joe and Carver said, my options to rent away from the airport are very limited. I have a Hertz and Enterprise within 30 miles of my house. Neither is open past 5 pm and neither is open from noon Saturday to 8 am Monday morning. That makes it very hard for me to use them to rent a car. I can occasionally make it work, but more often then not I have to drive the 40 minutes to the airport to pick up a car. Unless Hertz or Enterprise want to make reasonable hours (why would they?) I m stuck going out of my way to get a car at the airport.
I spent a few days in Phoenix in March 2009. On a similar trip in March of 08, I got a very reasonable rate from Hertz on a Toyota Prius that was even less than that for the standard-size car I usually four seasons hotel singapore rent. But 2009 was a way different year.
Picking up a car from Hertz at the Phoenix Skyport was going to cost me an arm, a leg, a nose, probably an ear, and possibly other assorted body parts. four seasons hotel singapore Other companies offering on-airport (a misnomer the huge car rental facility, as big as many airport terminals, is several minutes away by bus) rental cars wanted to remove equally exorbitant amounts of cash from my wallet.
On previous trips to several U.S. cities I learned that picking four seasons hotel singapore up a car at a downtown location can save money since the taxes that local jurisdictions impose at those locations are often less than the fees tacked onto car rental four seasons hotel singapore company charges for cars picked up at the airport. So I checked out Hertz off-airport locations in the Phoenix area and found one that was downtown, northwest of the airport, and lying in the general direction I would d be driving to reach my hotel on the west side of the Valley of the Sun.
The cab fare to the Hertz off-airport location was $30, but I still saved over $100 net on the cost of the car rental (same car, same company, off-airport vs. on-airport). And even though I was saving money by picking up the car off-airport, there was no drop-off charge for returning the car to the airport instead to the off-airport location.
The time to travel by taxi to the off-airport location, and then drive to my hotel, versus taking the shuttle bus to the on-airport pick up terminal four seasons hotel singapore before heading west, was about the same. An added bonus for picking the car up off-airport: Meeting a cab driver who had emigrated from Somalia. The story of his journey to the U.S. made me wish that the taxi ride had been longer.
four seasons hotel singapore The airport fee is of course a way for the airport to make more money. It seems to me that, if they couldn t charge four seasons hotel singapore the airport fee, the airport would instead require higher rent from the rental car companies, which the companies would then pass along to the consumer. By having it as a separate fee, at least a portion of fee that goes to airport rent is transparent. I don t see what the big deal is.
@Eric- the reason four seasons hotel singapore local branches only rent to people with local addresses on their driver s license four seasons hotel singapore has to do with the risk of theft. If someone rents a car and a week into their rental their credit card starts getting declined, we d call the customer to ask them to bring in a new credit card. All too often, four seasons hotel singapore they don t answer. If the balance on the rental gets too high (a few hundred dollars or more) and we can t get ahold o