ARTICLE

Many Detours on the Road to Rental Discounts

Car-rental companies often lure customers with offers of rock-bottom rates for rentals that include a weekend or a Saturday night, or “free” upgrades to larger, more comfortable models. But watch out for the “now you see it, now you don’t” effect: You may have to coax the promised rate out of a reluctant reservation agent by quoting an advertisement exactly, or even by citing a “code” number given in an ad.

Early this winter, we ran an extended test to see just how easy—or hard—it is for ordinary travelers to get in on advertised bargains At the time, rental companies were trumpeting deals for the coming month or two. While those rates (subject to availability and other conditions) were higher than the rates during last June’s short-lived price war, they were a lot lower than today’s daily rates.

Though our test involved winter promotions, you can expect to see similar discounts throughout the year. And you’ll probably face the same obstacles we did in getting the lowest rates.

Dialing for Deals

Without disclosing our identity as CRTL staffers, we checked the promotions of four companies—Alamo, Avis, General, and Hertz. In a series of calls to the companies’ toll-free numbers, we asked for the lowest rates for the dates and car models the advertisements featured. But we didn’t mention the ads or ask for discounts unless the agents quoted us rates other than the advertised ones. Here’s what we found:

Alamo

Alamo had been pitching a two-door economy car with unlimited mileage at $l9/day ($29/day for a two-door midsized car). The promotion began on New Year’s Day and ran through 2/10; it required the car to be reserved at least 24 hours in advance and kept over a Saturday night. The rental period could be as short as one day.

In six back-to-back calls after Alamo’s first ads appeared in mid-December, we tried to arrange a weekend rental at Boston’s Logan Airport for 1/29-1/31, dates that included a Saturday night.

Although we called far in advance of the target weekend, only two reservation agents volunteered the $19/day special for a Geo Metro, Alamo’s low-end car.

The first four agents to whom we spoke offered the same vehicle at a weekend rate of $39.99/day. When we remarked that the quoted rate seemed “a little high,” two agents asked us if we belonged to a motor club, such as the American Automobile Assn, or a senior association, such as the American Assn of Retired Persons (club and association members generally qualify for a small discount, as do corporate customers). We answered no. But when we mentioned the ad, three of the Alamo agents confirmed that there was a $19 promotion and that vehicles were available.

“Oh, I have a special here,” said the first agent, after we asked her to double-check her computer. “Actually, that’s available” said the second agent, after a further look. The third made the same discovery, albeit more hesitantly: “That ends... let’s see...yeah...OK,” she said, then concluded: “The Great American rate is going to be $19.”

But the fourth agent proved more hard-nosed. She challenged us to provide a rate code before stating that the promotion ran from “4/19 to 12/17...it expires tomorrow.” Asked to double-check, she said “I just did.” She repeated the higher rate. She never conceded the existence of the advertised rate.

Avis

Avis was featuring a four-door compact with unlimited mileage for $32/day ($25/day for a two-door subcompact in Florida). The January promotion, similar to Alamo’s, required a Saturday-night “keep” and advance booking. The rental had to be charged to an American Express card.

Again using Boston’s Logan Airport as a test, we placed a half-dozen calls to Avis soon after it launched its ads. We requested a rental for the weekend of 1/22-1/24, which met the January-rental and Saturday-night requirements.

When we asked for the lowest price, regardless of model and without mentioning the promotion, Avis quoted five different rates—from $33.29 to $39.99. All but one were for a subcompact, the two-door Geo Metro; the highest was for a compact Chevy Cavalier.

All Avis calls were greeted with a standard question to screen Avis customers who might be eligible for a discount—frequent renters listed in its Wizard database and reservation system, renters employed by corporations with volume contracts, and renters wishing to redeem discount certificates, such as those issued by Avis’s frequent-flier and frequent-stay partners.

None of the agents volunteered the advertised rate. But when we mentioned American Express, an agent who had quoted $39 for a subcompact said the same car was available to cardholders for $35. When we said that we had seen an advertisement for a compact car, she promptly found the advertised $32 rate for a four-door compact.

Another agent quoted $36.99 for a subcompact before we pushed for something lower. “As an Avis owner-employee,” she said, “I can offer you a 10% discount...$33.29.” Then, after we cited the newspaper ad and provided a rate code from the ad, she came up with the $32 rate—”for a four-door compact...three car classes higher” than the subcompact originally quoted.

On a different call, we questioned an agent’s $36.99 quote for a subcompact and mentioned American Express. The agent then said “I don’t work in promotions—I work in another department.” He transferred our call to another agent, who insisted upon knowing what her counterpart had quoted us before she would field our questions.

After we mentioned the advertisement, that agent pressed us for a rate code and made us read from the ad. She then confirmed that the $32 special was available and told us we should have called a special number—800-831-8000— to inquire about promotions. (The Avis advertisement listed 800-331-1212, the number we had called.)

General

General promoted a flat rate of $33.99 for “economy through full-size cars” at locations in 12 southern and western states, and $26.99 in the hotly competitive Florida market. The advertisement ran as General was being taken over by Dollar.

Essentially an upgrade offer, the special was good through 1/31—if you could find General locations that hadn’t been absorbed by Dollar. CRTL couldn’t: Dollar was already staffing the counters at the six airport locations (Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco) where we priced late-January rentals.

And Dollar wasn’t honoring the General promotion—which was both good and bad news. Good, because Dollar’s lowest rates were better than the General special (Atlanta $23.92, Houston $21.70, Los Angeles $21.93, Phoenix $32.50, San Francisco $19.95; Denver was sold out for the test weekend). Bad, because the rates were for their smaller cars.

Some agents seemed to think Dollar would offer its new customers an upgrade from economy to compact, subject to availability. “We’re offering General’s customers an upgrade to the next class,” said one agent. Others seemed less certain about the upgrade: “I guess,” said one agent. “Only if you had already booked with General and we took over that location,” said another.

Hertz

Hertz promised a weekends-only upgrade from a midsized car to any larger model at most of its airport locations nationwide (but not in Hawaii or the New York metropolitan area). The midsized rates were “as low as $35”; you had to reserve in advance and keep the car over a Saturday night. Testing rates at airports in six randomly selected cities, we placed our calls a month before the dates we asked to reserve—the weekend of 1/22-1/24.

Five of our airport locations were participating in the upgrade promotion. And much to our surprise, three actually offered rentals for less than the $35 starting price quoted in the Hertz advertisement: $29.99 in Atlanta ($27.99 without an upgrade), $27.99 in Seattle ($24.99 without upgrade), $32.99 in Phoenix (with or without upgrade). Chicago O’Hare was charging one rate, $40.99, which included CDW (collision damage waiver) insurance, as required under Illinois law. Boston had a single rate of $42.99. (The Hertz location at Los Angeles Intl was not participating in the upgrade promotion; its regular midsized rate was $35.99.)

Our calls were greeted with a question to elicit “any special-rate program numbers” for discount promotions or corporate contracts. We were informed about the upgrade offer, but only after we quoted the rate code in the advertisement.

Try the Computer?

Is it any easier to find the lowest promotional rates in the travel agents’ computer reservation systems? Not really. We spot-checked for two advertised February promotions in several cities in the System One reservation system. In each case, we requested a rental that conformed to the limitations of the promotions we were tracking.

The first promotion was from Hertz, $29 for an economy car to be kept over a Saturday night, available nationally except in Florida, Hawaii, and the New York area. In seven of the 12 cities we checked, we found a lower rate than the advertised rate. In the five other cities, the promotional rates were higher than the advertised rate. In three of those cities, however, the regular weekend rate was lower than the advertised rate.

The other ad was from Alamo, for “Super Sunshine Rates” in Arizona, California, Florida, and Las Vegas. The pitch was $24 a day with a Saturday-night keep. We checked the computer for eight cities. We found lower rates in five cities, the advertised rate in one, and higher rates in two (in one of those—Orlando—the weekend daily rate was $5 higher than the lowest weekday rate.).

We didn’t stop with the computer’s initial standard car-rental display (although even the most competent travel agents and corporate travel managers might well have stopped there). Instead, we undertook a cumbersome search in the special “promotions” areas of the database. So much for the theory that the computer always spews out the best deal.

One Car, Many Rates

When it comes to marketing the same travel product at different prices, car-rental companies take a back seat to no one, as our difficulties in obtaining even advertised discounts show. But our test also demonstrates how quickly reservation agents can shift gears from high to low. We asked representatives of the four companies to explain that.

Alamo’s spokesperson said the company’s winter special was geared to certain key markets and wasn’t advertised as widely as the original weekend promotion last June. “When someone asks for the cheapest rates and we have two rates in our system, the answer should be the cheaper rate,” she said. The problem is that “we have thousands of rates in our system.”

Without a rate code, she said, the reservation agents probably quoted Alamo’s regular weekend rate. Even so, she said, “we pretty much have a reputation for having the cheapest price out there, no matter which kind of rate you’re asking for.”

Avis said its reservation system is “computer-driven”: Agents need a key word or rate code to pull up details of a given promotion. “Lord knows, we have lots of rates,” said the spokesperson. Explaining the 10% discount offered at the discretion of an “owner-employee,” he said that Avis allows agents to offer discounts “for a specific car at a specific time and specific place” if “supply is well over demand.”

Dollar, in the final phases of its takeover of General, said that it was not picking up General’s upgrade offer across the board. “Certain [promotions] were adopted, certain ones were not,” a spokesperson said, adding: “We’re still somewhat operating two separate companies” with different advertising agencies and marketing departments.

Hertz explained that only some of its ads list rate codes. If a code is required for a discount, a spokesperson said, the ad will specify that and “you have to mention it.” Even if you don’t have a code, agents can search for the “best rate” (which may be the promotional rate, or even lower). If a promotion’s rate varies from one location to the next, she said, Hertz advertises “the most widely available rate” even if there are lower rates in some cities, because “we don’t want to mislead our customers.”