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Comments (9)
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Save/ShareQuiz time: When is a $20 daily car rental rate promotion a rip-off?
Answer: When you could just as easily be paying $10 a day.
Long ago, I signed up to receive promotional "Hot Deals" e-mails from Alamo Rent A Car. Recently, I received a message alerting me to "Weekend Rentals from $10 a Day."
Hmm…
Curious about how truly "hot" this deal was, I opened a new window on my computer to check out Alamo's website, where I found a similar-looking weekend promotion. Only this one had the headline "Weekend Rentals from $20 a Day."
I clicked on the $20 promotion and saw a blond model with a gray tank top, standing and smiling in front of a Chevy. Around her were the details to the promotion: compact cars from $20 a day, mid-size cars from $24 a day, full-size cars from $28 a day, premium cars from $30 a day, with restrictions including a four-day maximum rental and validity dates of August 20 to September 21.
Next, I went back to the e-mail that heralded the $10 weekend promotion. I clicked through the link provided, and saw the exact same blond model, same Chevy, same restrictions, same validity dates. The only differences were the words "EMAIL EXCLUSIVE" on the top of the web page, and the prices listed for cars: $10 for compacts, $14 for mid-sizes, and $18 a day for full-sizes, and $20 a day for premium cars.
The lesson? If you've ever thought that all promotional e-mails do is clog your in-box, here's a case for signing up for them. The bigger point is that you should never assume that a "deal" is actually a deal. Sometimes, you can do much better than a "special" promotional rate.
EARLIER
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Alamo ran the same dual promotions pre peak summer period. Although the $20 per day promo does not seem like a deal after you see the $10 per day it may well be the best deal you can find for your rental. The $10 per day deal tended to be limited and may be sold out or not available for your location. There are many similar type deals in the travel industry where you pay a different amount for the same product; Alamo certainly could have been more creative in their promotion. Southwest do a good job with their Ding fares, I see this as a similar type promotion.
Posted By Mark on August 13, 2009, 7:04 PM
Thanks for your insights, Mark!
Posted By Blog Editor on August 13, 2009, 10:49 PM
Thanks for the heads up. I will pay more attention in the future.
Posted By Tom B. on August 13, 2009, 10:55 PM
I took advantage of the Alamo "deal" to reserve a car in Boston. However, by the time I upgraded to a "Premium" car and added all of the taxes the total for two days was almost $80. (Premium car was $20 a day) Thus, the taxes added almost $20 a day--still a better deal than the competition, but not nearly the quoted price!
Posted By Jeffrey on August 17, 2009, 11:35 AM
I received the same e-mail and almost deleted it, thinking it would be some "junk" sale that didn't apply to me.
I'm so glad I opened it--turned out to be just what I needed. By tweaking my plans I was able to cancel the $75 car I'd booked (cheapest I could find, including the "Name your own price" plan).
Instead--including fees--my estimated total for 48 hours is $27.64. Sure, it's a compact car but that works fine for my weekend plans.
I agree, Brad, it's worth looking over the e-mail if you need the deal. It just might end up fitting the bill.
Posted By eliewriter on August 17, 2009, 5:32 PM
Don't ever trust those car rental companies or hot deals ! We booked our rental cars on line with Avis before our 14 days trip to Oahu and The Big Island. It was considered a good deal to book on line rather than dropping in at the rental office plus we have a free upgrade. It turned out that the trunk of an intermediate size Chevy is not big enough to fit all our luggages (2 adults and 2 kids) we have to upgrade to a full size Nissan. The Avis sale rep. tried to sell us all sorts of insurance on top of that, lucky our credit card covers all the 3 rd party liabilities...Avis charged us $58 gas plus tax even when we returned the rental car 3/4 full !! Beware !! Car Rental cost us over $ 100O !! Turned out to be the biggest expense in our budget Hawaii trip !!
Posted By Maggie on August 18, 2009, 2:02 AM
Priceline is a perfect example of this. They sent me 2 emails, both touting $15/day rentals in Fort Lauderdale. I signed up for the car and when my credit card was finally charged at the end of the transaction, it was $19/day - way more expensive than Enterprise and many other places. Now I'm battling it out with Priceline - talk about aggravation.
Posted By Jasmine on August 18, 2009, 10:10 PM
I guess I need to start reading the travel newsletters I receive. Most of the time I just end up deleting them. I remember a story about Dell doing the same thing selling computers. Except it wasn't an email offer. They were changing the prices when people visited different pages.
Posted By Jeff on August 19, 2009, 10:50 AM
Hi there,
I'm completely agree with Brad. Every time when need low cost car hire, must read carefully the "hot" offers and terms underneed. Sometimes its actualy double more expensive than the standard rates.
Nick
Posted By Nick Stamatoff on December 16, 2009, 3:03 AM