Why Are Car Rental Companies Different?
To start with, let me get you into the zone.
You are going on some type of trip. Perhaps it involves a plane, hotel and possibly a car rental. If for whatever reason you are delayed—since I travel almost every week this happens often—what goes through your mind:
- What appointments am I going to miss?
- Is there a later flight?
- Does it still make sense for me to go?
- I need to cancel the hotel!
- Am I going to get stranded?
- Do I need to make a new hotel reservation?
I am sure there are many other questions but these might be the most obvious.
What doesn’t go thru my mind quickly is notifying Hertz, Avis, Budget or whatever car rental company I have my reservation with. In fact, most of the time it doesn’t matter if I cancel it or not.
Why?
Because unlike the airlines and hotel industry, they don’t have any cancellation charges! In fact there is NO penalty for not showing up! NO penalty for not calling! Some of the time I will call them if I’m at the airport and a little bored and it seems that when I call and notify them they are a little surprised and might want to say “why are you calling”.
Why is that their policy?
Because it is always done that way? That doesn’t make sense. What makes more sense as the reason is none of the big car rental agencies have stepped forward and made the plunge and enforced a new policy! If they did I believe everyone would follow.
Even though I don’t understand why car rental companies haven’t changed, I am happy that it is one less thing to think about when travel plans change.
Are you surprised this is just the way it is?
What are you thoughts?
February 1st, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I’ve been baffled at this one for years…particularly when it gets around the holidays. I recently sent some clients to Colorado to go skiing for Xmas, and was very concerned they would arrive at DEN airport Dec 24th, and no cars would be available…..(that could ruin a vacation quick).
So I called Hertz and offered to pre-pay the rental to ensure there would be an SUV there, and they turned down the offer; they have no such policy. So on their own, the clients booked an alternativee car company as a back-up. Fortunately they didn’t have to use it, and they did cancel it when they arrived, but the car companies need to make some changes.
February 1st, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Funny you should bring this up. Recently, while I was waiting in line for my car at the Oakland Airport, I wondered why the car rental business is not more automated. You are soley dependant on the next avaialble person to help you and it doesn’t help when there is only 1 person behind the desk! I’ll spare you the lengthy details, but it boiled down to taking close to 2 hours to get a car, due to location/personnel changes, & widespread system updates, and then told that they did not have a mid-sized car available. (I reserved this car a month in advance!) They wanted to give me a van for the same price. I actually went out into the parking lot and found a couple cars myself that would be more suitable and that’s how I finally got close to what I needed! Mind you, by now it’s 1:00am. I did write a complaint e-mail and got two $25 certificates, so at least they are still concerned about customer relations!
February 1st, 2007 at 2:11 pm
While I don’t travel as much as you, probably relative to my importance, I due travel quite a bit, and have deduced both on my own as well as with the help of the observation of my peers that I tend to be a bit of a travel snob. Rather than argue it, I embrace it. I typically change my room in a hotel if anything is to my dissatisfaction (I have a lot of pet peeves); I still think people that work on the airlines should be friendly and accommodating; and I believe that customer service should still prevail throughout these service-based industries. HOWEVER, I do not hold car rental companies to the same standard. WHY? I guess from being beat down too much about expectations.
I don’t know any other industry where you could look at a list of offerings, order something, and get something different. That would be like reading a list of fruit, and on the list it says “APPLE (or something similar).” You then order the apple and get an orange. On Orange is nothing like an Apple: in taste, texture, color - anything! But try reserving a specific type of car, and just cross your fingers and see what happens. It reminds me of the Sienfeld episode where Jerry is trying to rent a car, and explains to the customer service rep that he made a reservation for a midsize car. It goes something like this:
Service rep: ”I’m sorry. We have no midsize available at the moment.”
Jerry: “I don’t understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?”
Service rep: “Yes we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars.”
Jerry: “But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation.”
Service rep: “I KNOW why we have the reservations.”
Jerry: “I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See, you know how to TAKE the reservation, you just don’t know how to HOLD the reservation, and that’s really the most important part of the reservation – the HOLDING!”
Service rep: “Well, I spoke with my supervisor, and there’s nothing I can do about your reservation. However, we DO have a compact car.”
(By the way - this is much funnier in when viewed as opposed to typed)
I recently rented a car, (I had reserved a Mustang convertible), and honestly had no expectations of getting that car, based on previous experience. I was blown away when I actually got the Mustang, because my expectations were so low. I also noticed they were charging me for Satellite radio, and while I did enjoy having it, I was never given the option to NOT have this feature, although it appeared as a line item on the bill (like steering would be a line item on the bill).
What does any of this have to do with your question? I’m not 100% sure. I never really gave it any thought, but from the hip I’d say that in general, the car rental companies seem to have been conducting business for years by not reserving specific makes and models for customers, which is why the caveat of “something similar” appears. I would think that if a car rental company actually honored the specific make and model (contractually) that you wanted to reserve, and you didn’t show, then a cancellation fee would apply, as then they could argue the lost potential revenue from another customer that actually wanted that specific make and model vehicle, put was unable to receive it due to your previous reservation. I actually take it as the one thing car-rental companies give back as a plus, but also realize that people not showing up more likely created the “or something similar” issue that seems to be the industry standard. I would actually be willing to pay a “no show” fee, if no previous notification was required, in order to reserve the specific model of my choice.