joesorce

Avis no longer has an "extra hour" charge on their rental agreements. If you return your Avis rental 30 minutes late, you will be charged for another 3/4 of a day. At the 90 minute mark it goes up to a full "extra day" charge.

The charge for an "extra day" will be noted on your agreement when you sign out the car. Anywhere from $25 to $105, usually . The avis counter agent was kind enough to explain the new policy when we picked up our car. On our "$129 per week" rental, extra days are listed as $70 each.

nytraveler

In terms of travel, late is never a good idea., AIt can sometimes cost a whole lot more than an extra day's car rentl"

Having to get a flight to catch up with a cruise
Having to buy a new airline ticket when you were a no show (bad weather or mechanical delay - or just being late)

Several years ago I had junior who just overslept on the morning of a business trip (he generally wasn;t good with time). And he missed the flight. The next available flight got him to the client too late for the meeting - an important one. It lost him his job (granted he wasn;t doing well before that - this was the last straw.)

Ackislander

nytraveler makes some good points.

Here in Nantucket, many young visitors and some "entitled" older ones have a really hard time understanding that the ferry to the mainland won't wait "just a minute" for them. I overheard two girls yesterday talking about a third who had missed the ferry by a couple of minutes when she stopped to pick up coffee. Her fellow bridesmaids had to go on to Boston without her, so she was not only late but had to rent a car to get there. Ferry personnel work really hard to leave on time, and they pretty much don't delay for late arrivals.

Tomsd

Dang - didn't know Avis was getting so hard nosed. My favorite rental car company lately has become Enterprise: Very helpful staff and at least here in San Diego - a big selection of cars to choose from.

As for "Juniors" and others missing connections - nothing like a stark lesson in life sometimes, eh?

doug_stallings

It's not just Avis. Most of the big car companies are increasingly less flexible about returns. Some even charge extra for an early return. I saw that on my latest Dollar contract, but I can't remember the cut-off. It might have been 2 hours.

tracys2cents

It used to be that two or three hours late just added up to more than a full day anyway. But now a traffic jam plus a wrong turn or two can get you a $50 penalty? Then again, I'm not happy when I show up to rent and the car is not available yet because some bozo is a few hours late returning.

Alamo made some big changes last year but quickly switched gears because customers were up in arms. But there are always some glitches. Like if you rent for week and return a few hours early, you might not make the 5-day minimum to get a weekly rate and your price goes from $129 a week to "$60 a day times four days." So yes, price goes way up if you bring the car back EARLY, sorta ridiculous.

NeoPatrick

Doug, the situation tracys2cents mentions is the only problem I've heard of with an early return -- where it actually makes it a different category. But are you saying for example on a one day rental or a one week rental, returning it a couple hours earlier that originally stated even though it would still fall in the same category might result in a "fine"?

I often do one day rentals to get to or from an airport. With Dollar I checked and once returned a 24 hour rental after only 2 hours -- there was no problem. In fact, they were anxious to get the car.

doug_stallings

I don't have my contract any longer, but my rental stipulated that early returns weren't allowed, and this was a short rental of a few days. In truth, I can't tell you if it was 5 or 6 hours or 2 hours, but there was a limit.