In a year when car rental companies are downsizing fleets, many airports are nearly sold out of cars during peak periods, and many travelers will get unpleasant surprises when trying to rent cars during the holidays.
A full-sized car in Florida for a week in late December at Miami International Airport? That’ll set you back more than $700 before tax. The same car at Denver International Airport will cost about $450 plus tax.
But pickup the car at a hotel outside the airport, or a downtown location, and the rate is quite different. In Miami, a Hertz car at the Airport Marriott, for example, was over $300 less per week. In Denver, most car companies were at least $100 to $200 less per week, before tax. (Note, these are not the “off-airport” airport locations, where they still have a rental car shuttle, these are the downtown, hotel, or in Hertz’s words “local edition” locations.)
And the cost of a cab to the off-airport location by comparison is minimal. In the Miami Airport example, the Marriott even has free shuttles.
Car rental rates change about as often as airfares, so these specific examples may not apply to your trip. But a little searching could pay off big time. Airport locations do pay higher rent and fees, which accounts for some of the difference, but when I asked a Budget agent at a Denver downtown hotel why their airport location charged rates that were so much higher, his response “Because they can.”
In addition, in many cases, a car picked up downtown or at a hotel can be returned to a nearby airport for no extra charge. And the lines are likely to be shorter too.
With constantly fluctuating rates, and competition in different markets, this advice doesn’t apply in all markets. But if every price you or your travel agent finds for a car seems ridiculous, try a little really off-airport exploration. The amount you save may pay for a good chunk of your holiday shopping.
