Rental car price raised and not notified

[leebee]

Below is the text of the email from Mousesavers that arrived in my inbox about 10 minutes ago. All I have changed is to delete special "members only" link to a different travel site that gives discounts to Mousesavers members. This is DEFINITELY not a cool move on the part of Hertz and will cost them MY business (and I've already emailed to tell them this, even though I don't currently have an outstanding booking with them).

"This is a special notice because of an unusual situation with the MouseSavers exclusive Hertz rental car discount codes. The short version: Hertz has changed the rate plan for both of the MouseSavers-exclusive discount codes, including existing bookings. If you have a reservation that used one of the MouseSavers Hertz codes, you should check it now, because it may have gone up quite a bit.

Hertz did not give us any notice about this change, either before or after they did it. We found out from alert readers who saw their reservation go up in price and contacted us to let us know. Since then, we’ve been trying to get to the bottom of this with Hertz and see what we can do for our readers, some of whom have seen eye-popping increases in their rental rate.

Over the course of multiple phone calls and emails with Hertz executives, we were able to convince them to increase the discount off their standard rates considerably from what they originally had planned, but they are unwilling to restore the original rates for existing reservations.

The new, higher discounts from Hertz should start showing up on existing reservations today. But it might be a day or two before you see the final discount, as Hertz is applying the extra discounts manually to each reservation. Even with the new discounts, the rate will likely be higher than your original reservation, especially in locations where regular rates are extra-high, such as Hawaii and New York City.

Our advice: see if you can find a better reservation right away; don’t wait to see what Hertz is going to do (though wait until you find something better before cancelling the Hertz reservation).

The Back Story
If you’re at all interested in why Hertz would abruptly raise rates on a program that we’ve offered for almost 10 years, this is what we’ve been able to determine from conversations with our Hertz contacts and other industry partners.

The rental car business is under a lot of stress right now. Travel is coming back faster and stronger than anyone expected, and demand for rental cars is much higher than the rental companies predicted. They all sold off a ton of cars during the pandemic, when demand for rental cars was near zero. Now that lots of people are vaccinated and going on vacation again, the rental companies can’t get new cars fast enough to satisfy demand. This has driven up daily rates to previously unheard-of levels.

Hertz specifically has been going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and making a bunch of changes to their programs to streamline operations and start making profits again. One of their operating changes was to make a clearer distinction between “business” and “leisure” rate programs, and particularly take steps to avoid their business-rate programs being used by leisure travelers. (In travel industry jargon, “leisure” is a catch-all term for personal or vacation travel.)

As a result, several programs that they considered business programs, but were being promoted for leisure travel, including both of the MouseSavers ones, were either changed to a leisure rate program or essentially deactivated so the rate was no better than (or in some cases worse than) their normal floating rates.

Keep in mind: Hertz was entirely aware that MouseSavers is a leisure-oriented site, and offered us business rates as a value-add for our readers. We did nothing wrong, and neither did our readers. Hertz just changed their minds about their pricing strategy, and decided unilaterally to change their terms.

The bottom line is that this is not a normal situation. We have never seen anything like this happen before and we don’t expect it to occur again under normal circumstances."

 

[mickmom728]

Below is the text of the email from Mousesavers that arrived in my inbox about 10 minutes ago. All I have changed is to delete special "members only" link to a different travel site that gives discounts to Mousesavers members. This is DEFINITELY not a cool move on the part of Hertz and will cost them MY business (and I've already emailed to tell them this, even though I don't currently have an outstanding booking with them).

"This is a special notice because of an unusual situation with the MouseSavers exclusive Hertz rental car discount codes. The short version: Hertz has changed the rate plan for both of the MouseSavers-exclusive discount codes, including existing bookings. If you have a reservation that used one of the MouseSavers Hertz codes, you should check it now, because it may have gone up quite a bit.

Hertz did not give us any notice about this change, either before or after they did it. We found out from alert readers who saw their reservation go up in price and contacted us to let us know. Since then, we’ve been trying to get to the bottom of this with Hertz and see what we can do for our readers, some of whom have seen eye-popping increases in their rental rate.

Over the course of multiple phone calls and emails with Hertz executives, we were able to convince them to increase the discount off their standard rates considerably from what they originally had planned, but they are unwilling to restore the original rates for existing reservations.

The new, higher discounts from Hertz should start showing up on existing reservations today. But it might be a day or two before you see the final discount, as Hertz is applying the extra discounts manually to each reservation. Even with the new discounts, the rate will likely be higher than your original reservation, especially in locations where regular rates are extra-high, such as Hawaii and New York City.

Our advice: see if you can find a better reservation right away; don’t wait to see what Hertz is going to do (though wait until you find something better before cancelling the Hertz reservation).

The Back Story
If you’re at all interested in why Hertz would abruptly raise rates on a program that we’ve offered for almost 10 years, this is what we’ve been able to determine from conversations with our Hertz contacts and other industry partners.

The rental car business is under a lot of stress right now. Travel is coming back faster and stronger than anyone expected, and demand for rental cars is much higher than the rental companies predicted. They all sold off a ton of cars during the pandemic, when demand for rental cars was near zero. Now that lots of people are vaccinated and going on vacation again, the rental companies can’t get new cars fast enough to satisfy demand. This has driven up daily rates to previously unheard-of levels.

Hertz specifically has been going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and making a bunch of changes to their programs to streamline operations and start making profits again. One of their operating changes was to make a clearer distinction between “business” and “leisure” rate programs, and particularly take steps to avoid their business-rate programs being used by leisure travelers. (In travel industry jargon, “leisure” is a catch-all term for personal or vacation travel.)

As a result, several programs that they considered business programs, but were being promoted for leisure travel, including both of the MouseSavers ones, were either changed to a leisure rate program or essentially deactivated so the rate was no better than (or in some cases worse than) their normal floating rates.

Keep in mind: Hertz was entirely aware that MouseSavers is a leisure-oriented site, and offered us business rates as a value-add for our readers. We did nothing wrong, and neither did our readers. Hertz just changed their minds about their pricing strategy, and decided unilaterally to change their terms.

The bottom line is that this is not a normal situation. We have never seen anything like this happen before and we don’t expect it to occur again under normal circumstances."

Thanks for posting this. I’m the one who started the original thread.

 

[pigletto]

I’m just now seeing this. This is staggeringly slimey. I didn’t have a reservation with Hertz but I can guarantee you that after reading what they’ve done to all of you, I’ll never use them again. Wow.

 

[jeff_h]

It's too bad there's now an inventory crunch for rental cars, but I've decided to help Hertz out -- they'll no longer have to worry about saving a car for me for this upcoming trip, or for any future trip.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Posting here, too, b/c now Hertz's shadiness has almost become unparody-able...after the "correction" my rate went up almost another $600...now almost $2200 when it started as a res under $600 for 1 week for a minivan in Las Vegas...needless to say, I'm gonna hold my res to the last minute and then not rent from them (since I now have a backup Alamo at a reasonable rate)...

 

[pearlieq]

I got hosed on this too. My long weekend rental went from $225 to $1056 with absolutely no notice. If I hadn't gotten the alert from Mousesavers that would have been a horrifying shock at the counter.

I can't believe how shady this is, both that they did and how they did it.

I can't imagine using them in the future.

 

[mickmom728]

We booked last night with the UT discount and got a confirmation number for the reservation but when we went back to look at it it didn’t show the price even though it was there before. Should we be concerned that it will be increased also?

 

[OpieDoodle]

That is absolutely disgusting honestly. I totally understand changing rates but usually that's done on a set day and previously reserved rentals are not changed. Whats really shady is I'd bet a lot of people won't notice the change. So they'll show up to get a car and find out they're stuck with either paying double for their rental or trying to scramble and find another option.

All of the car rental companies are struggling with inventory, I get that but what Hertz is doing really irks me.

I haven't rented from them in a long time honestly, they're so much more expensive than other companies. I usually rent with Costco discounts and get the better deals at Avis or Alamo. We've rented from other companies before too but not the big ones lately (Hertz or Enterprise).

Hopefully all involved see this update and it doesn't ruin their trips. I know I personally fall into the category of not checking my reservation after its been made so I'd be the person showing up at the counter to find out.....I'm getting all fired up just thinking about it. Oph.

 

[TwoMisfits]

We booked last night with the UT discount and got a confirmation number for the reservation but when we went back to look at it it didn’t show the price even though it was there before. Should we be concerned that it will be increased also?

Yes...and it will be.

 

[GreatLakes]

snip

The rental car business is under a lot of stress right now. Travel is coming back faster and stronger than anyone expected, and demand for rental cars is much higher than the rental companies predicted. They all sold off a ton of cars during the pandemic, when demand for rental cars was near zero. Now that lots of people are vaccinated and going on vacation again, the rental companies can’t get new cars fast enough to satisfy demand. This has driven up daily rates to previously unheard-of levels.

snip

This just shows a total lack of forethought. When it was happening I remarked to a bunch of people they will be selling their cars when the market is low and forced to buy when the market is high. They should have just held onto them or devised a business model where they loaned them at a below-market value to businesses that need them (like delivery services during the pandemic) in the short term just to cover holding costs.

 

[lmdean]

I wanted to share an idea, not sure if this will work for everyone. After reading this thread, I got nervous about a car rental reservation for an upcoming road trip (not Disney related), and I decided to go through a popular travel site that gives you a guaranteed deal on a pre-paid car but you don't know the provider until after you book and pay. But the catch is it's not refundable and not changeable. If some folks want to take a risk of a non-refundable booking, you might look into something like that. I actually saved money over my initial reservation quote. As an example, a full size car car from MCO from 7/17 through 7/23 is $43 a day. Providers will be one of the following: Thrifty, Sixt, Dollar or Alamo. Just wanted to share,

 

[Wandering Oaken]

I wanted to share an idea, not sure if this will work for everyone. After reading this thread, I got nervous about a car rental reservation for an upcoming road trip (not Disney related), and I decided to go through a popular travel site that gives you a guaranteed deal on a pre-paid car but you don't know the provider until after you book and pay. But the catch is it's not refundable and not changeable. If some folks want to take a risk of a non-refundable booking, you might look into something like that. I actually saved money over my initial reservation quote. As an example, a full size car car from MCO from 7/17 through 7/23 is $43 a day. Providers will be one of the following: Thrifty, Sixt, Dollar or Alamo. Just wanted to share,

Appreciate the looking out for everyone but anytime I have seen someone use something like that they get messed over by getting NU or Sixt and they get charged a ton more than anywhere else. One person I knew got stuck with NU and they charged him over $1000 for a tiny scratch on the bumper. No thanks. I will stick with Alamo for sure.

 

[Caseheidi]

We also had a reservation with Hertz for our upcoming WDW trip in August. When I first came upon this thread the day it came out, we looked and our rate had more then doubled. We now have a reservation with AVIS, and will not work with Hertz again. I had thought that there were fair advertising practices that would regulate something like this. Seems to be kind of a "Bate and Switch" tactic that they are doing. I can't believe that it is legal to agree to a rate, reserve it and then change it with no notification (we have never recieved a notification from Hertz about the change, only saw it when we looked).

 

[EACarlson]

The thing just about everyone here is missing, and why I have no issues with what Hertz is doing, is that Hertz is now enforcing the policy that Mousesavers agreed to. It was a Corporate Discount Program code. It was never meant to be a publicly available rate. I think Hertz could have handled it better from a PR perspective, but many traveler forums for years have been warning about using CDPs and non-public discount codes. I hope all of you follow through and never go near Hertz again, should bring rates down for me.

 

[GreatLakes]

The thing just about everyone here is missing, and why I have no issues with what Hertz is doing, is that Hertz is now enforcing the policy that Mousesavers agreed to. It was a Corporate Discount Program code. It was never meant to be a publicly available rate. I think Hertz could have handled it better from a PR perspective, but many traveler forums for years have been warning about using CDPs and non-public discount codes. I hope all of you follow through and never go near Hertz again, should bring rates down for me.

Except if you read the post from MouseSavers they state that Hertz always knew they were publishing a corporate discount rate and were ok with it. They have every right to change their mind but should only change it going forward, not on already made reservations.

 

[Marci1115]

Just an FYI-I had replied on this thread that my rate went up multiple times from the time I booked it. When I noticed it, I reached out to hertz by phone, Twitter and FB and they assured me that my initial rate would be honored. When we arrived last week our original rate was honored. We did not have an issue at all. Our rental was at srq (Sarasota airport). I did have a back up rental with budget just in case.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We booked last night with the UT discount and got a confirmation number for the reservation but when we went back to look at it it didn’t show the price even though it was there before. Should we be concerned that it will be increased also?

Which rental company? Problems are being reported for Hertz rentals using the Mousesavers code. We booked an Alamo rental through UT. Prepaid and refundable. Our confirmation for Alamo showed zero for the price, since the reservation was prepaid to UT. As it turns out, we got a better deal using Costco/Alamo, so we canceled the reservation through UT and received a prompt refund, but I was pretty confident that had we used it, Alamo would have honored the price, since we were not expected to pay them anything directly on the prepaid rental.

 

[EACarlson]

Except if you read the post from MouseSavers they state that Hertz always knew they were publishing a corporate discount rate and were ok with it. They have every right to change their mind but should only change it going forward, not on already made reservations.

Except you are basing everything on one side of the story. The fact that Hertz decided to enforce rules that have always been in the contract and the T&C's is poor PR, but absolutely allowable. Many companies have not enforced rules, then decided to. You can say what they should do, legally they had the right to do it, legally they could have waited until you were at the counter, asked for proof that you worked for Mousesavers, then charged you the maximum rate. You may believe that they shouldn't change existing reservations, but it's pretty standard in the car rental industry. Alamo changed my rate last year after my CDP expired and was re-negotiated. Are you all going to boycott Alamo for doing the same thing?

 

[TwoMisfits]

Except you are basing everything on one side of the story. The fact that Hertz decided to enforce rules that have always been in the contract and the T&C's is poor PR, but absolutely allowable. Many companies have not enforced rules, then decided to. You can say what they should do, legally they had the right to do it, legally they could have waited until you were at the counter, asked for proof that you worked for Mousesavers, then charged you the maximum rate. You may believe that they shouldn't change existing reservations, but it's pretty standard in the car rental industry. Alamo changed my rate last year after my CDP expired and was re-negotiated. Are you all going to boycott Alamo for doing the same thing?

The proof required was Mousesavers reader/subscriber - and I could easily pull up my monthly newsletter. Now, that said, I have decided to never use either company again. I respect Mousesavers for coming clean on the whole issue, and believe that Hertz screwed them, and they did try to mitigate, but while their mitigation was better than Hertz offered, it's not better than I found myself...and I don't want to trust anyone but myself in this entire fiasco going forward.

So yes, I won't use either company that screwed me again. If Alamo does it to me, when I was 100% in the right, maybe I'll boycott them...hasn't happened yet...

 

[pearlieq]

I got an email from Hertz yesterday advising me of my new compensatory "discount". My new total is only $905 for a 4 day rental!

Mercifully I still had a safety reservation through Costco, so I'm not totally hosed, but yeah, the way Hertz went about this is completely off-putting to me. They're perfectly within their rights, but they're selling a service...one which I'm no longer interested in buying from them.