Did You Notice What You Can Rent By The Hour? Hey…It Might Actually Be A Good Idea.
Yes cabs are expensive and in some cities very expensive. Sometimes when I travel, I think about renting a car but I only need it for a few hours, so I am better off jumping in a cab and not dealing with a car and hotel parking (which in some major cities is a fortune!)
It isn’t shocking to know that others feel the same way, and now car rental companies are offering hourly rentals:
- Hertz Car Rental announced that it will offer hourly rentals in three locations in New York City.
- In the next few weeks Enterprise Rent-A-Car said that all eight of its Manhattan stores will offer hourly rentals. In addition, Enterprise offers hourly rentals in seven other cities — Washington, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Portland, OR.
Neither company rents by the hour from airport locations–which makes some sense, since you probably wouldn’t want to return the car at the airport. Hourly rates start at about $8.75 for the smallest cars before taxes and fees. Daily rentals for compact cars in Manhattan start about $80 on weekdays before taxes and fees. So there is a huge savings if you only need the car for a few hours. (Not to mention the savings of not having to park at the hotel overnight in New York, which could be another $45.00.)
I didn’t realize it, but two companies, Seattle-based Flexcar and Boston-based Zipcar started the hourly rental business several years ago in large cities, hoping to draw people who don’t own cars like New York City where over 75% of people don’t own a car. I did spend a few minutes on the Flexcar and the Zipcar websites and found them easy to navigate and some very cool features.
- Did you know about the service?
- Have you used the service?
- Do you think this is a good idea?
- Would you ever use the service?
I look forward to your comments and feedback.
May 25th, 2007 at 9:35 am
When I lived in Seattle, I knew several people who took advantage of Flexcar. There were pick up locations all over the city, so it was truly convenient if you worked or lived downtown. Once you factor in the annual membership, daily (or hourly) rate, it’s not cheaper than renting from a car rental place, but you can’t beat the convenience of finding cars located all throughout the Seattle metro area. I think it’s great the the agencies are figuring out there’s a market for this, but they could learn some lessons from Flexcar.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I have heard of zipcar in Chicago however I have not used it yet. I do not have a car so I plan to try it this summer. I will let you know.
May 25th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Community Car (www.communitycar.com) has the same kind of scheme in Madison. I considered using it, but didn’t in the end. I still think it’s a good idea, but they really need to do a better job at targeting the service at people who NEED it rather than who think it’s cool. Funnily enough the one time I would have really used the service was from an airport. I didn’t want to rent a car the whole time I was in Phoenix, but the taxi to and from the airport cost nearly as much as a rental car would have cost.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:19 am
As a New Yorker that doesn’t own a car, I’ve followed this trend since day one. Hertz’s new entry, however, cannot be booked online, only through a speech recognition system and then you have to get a call back. Luckily (or unluckily), I travel a lot for work, so with Hertz’s great loyalty program, I usually have a free day/weekend voucher for personal use when I need one.
I do have a number of friends that use zipcar and swear by it, as it includes parking and gas. It’s a pretty ingenious system.