Rental Car Apocalypse: Everything You Need to Know to Survive It.

00:00:00.000 | You can use auto slash two ways.

00:00:01.440 | Number one is you can request a quote.

00:00:03.560 | We ask you where you're picking up,

00:00:05.040 | when you're picking up, where you're dropping off.

00:00:07.240 | And then we ask you which organizations you're a member of,

00:00:10.560 | which discounts you qualify for.

00:00:12.380 | So for example, if you're a AAA member or a Costco member,

00:00:15.440 | if you're a member of AARP, if you're old like me

00:00:17.640 | and you've got AARP membership,

00:00:18.840 | hey, that can get you a great deal.

00:00:21.040 | And then what we do is we send you an email

00:00:23.480 | within about five minutes.

00:00:24.440 | We crunch the numbers.

00:00:25.360 | We let you know where the best deal is.

00:00:28.560 | You could go and you could go and crunch the numbers yourself.

00:00:32.200 | You can go and go to 10 different websites

00:00:34.480 | and try to beat our rate.

00:00:36.160 | You can go and compare the AAA rate

00:00:38.320 | versus the Costco rate versus the AARP rate

00:00:40.200 | and maintain a spreadsheet.

00:00:41.760 | But it's unlikely you're gonna be able

00:00:43.520 | to find a lower rate than what we can offer.

00:00:45.360 | You're welcome to try.

00:00:47.280 | But the thing is, just because you have the best rate today

00:00:50.120 | doesn't mean you're gonna have the best rate tomorrow

00:00:51.880 | or next week or even the day before you pick up the car.

00:00:54.560 | And that's why we offer a tracking function.

00:00:56.440 | And essentially what happens is after you book your rental,

00:00:59.200 | you track your reservation with us

00:01:01.120 | and we will keep looking for better deals

00:01:02.840 | right up until the day that you pick up your car.

00:01:05.040 | Rental rates fluctuate all the time.

00:01:07.280 | We will find you the best deal upfront,

00:01:09.880 | but oftentimes the customers who do the best with us

00:01:12.800 | are the ones who are tracking their reservation with us.

00:01:15.120 | Some customers get three, four, five,

00:01:17.200 | sometimes 10 price drops over the course of a few months.

00:01:20.880 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:01:24.200 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.

00:01:27.320 | If you're new here, I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,

00:01:29.520 | and I'm a diehard optimizer who loves doing all the research

00:01:33.240 | to help you get the best experience in life

00:01:35.680 | without the expensive price tag.

00:01:37.800 | And today is no exception because we're gonna cover

00:01:41.000 | one of the top requested topics on the show,

00:01:43.600 | saving and getting deals on rental cars.

00:01:46.440 | And to do that, I'm joined by Jonathan Weinberg,

00:01:49.080 | who is the most knowledgeable person

00:01:50.960 | I have ever met on the topic.

00:01:53.000 | That's probably because over a decade ago,

00:01:55.160 | he took his knack for gaming the system

00:01:57.560 | and started Auto Slash, a company dedicated

00:02:00.920 | to finding customers the best possible deals

00:02:03.440 | when they rent a car.

00:02:04.640 | And to date, they've saved customers over $100 million.

00:02:08.160 | We're gonna cover so much in this conversation,

00:02:11.760 | including discount codes for cheaper rentals,

00:02:14.560 | when you should look off airport to save,

00:02:16.920 | how signing up for different rental company programs

00:02:19.400 | can save you a ton of time at pickup,

00:02:21.640 | and whether you need to prepay for gas

00:02:23.840 | or get that costly insurance policy from the agency.

00:02:26.880 | And that's not even scratching the surface.

00:02:29.040 | I seriously have pages of notes and questions

00:02:31.840 | because I wanna cover it all so you can save

00:02:34.480 | as much as possible on your next rental.

00:02:37.200 | So let's jump in.

00:02:38.480 | (upbeat music)

00:02:41.080 | Jonathan, thank you so much for being here.

00:02:46.360 | - Thanks for having me.

00:02:47.480 | - Yeah, I'm excited.

00:02:48.360 | We've gotten a lot of requests to talk about rental cars

00:02:52.000 | and specifically a couple of requests

00:02:53.680 | to have you on as a guest.

00:02:55.080 | Someone actually emailed me and said,

00:02:56.520 | "Could you get Jonathan on?"

00:02:58.120 | I heard him on a podcast, it was great.

00:02:59.600 | I have a lot more questions, bring him on.

00:03:01.680 | So you were one of the top requested people

00:03:04.480 | on one of the top requested topics.

00:03:06.040 | It is awesome to have you here.

00:03:07.560 | - I love it, thank you.

00:03:08.800 | Thanks for having me.

00:03:09.840 | - So I feel like a lot of people have hotels

00:03:13.760 | and flights figured out,

00:03:14.840 | but they still don't know much about rental cars.

00:03:18.120 | I feel like the past two years

00:03:19.920 | have been a bit crazy for travel.

00:03:22.200 | What is the state of rental cars today?

00:03:23.920 | I've heard you a year or two ago say

00:03:25.800 | we're in this rental car apocalypse,

00:03:27.400 | but have things changed?

00:03:28.880 | Where are we now?

00:03:29.880 | - Yeah, we actually coined the term rental car apocalypse.

00:03:32.080 | We were way out ahead of this thing.

00:03:33.800 | We were seeing sort of the bleeding edge

00:03:35.840 | of the problems in 2021 as spring came along

00:03:40.280 | and people started to get vaccinated

00:03:42.520 | and the whole rental car industry

00:03:43.680 | just basically imploded at that point.

00:03:45.480 | It was almost impossible to find rentals

00:03:47.440 | and things were going for $250 a day.

00:03:49.680 | People were renting U-Haul trucks

00:03:51.440 | because they couldn't find rental cars.

00:03:54.120 | The good news is that things

00:03:55.160 | have gotten significantly better.

00:03:57.600 | We're definitely not back to quote unquote normal.

00:04:01.120 | Rates are still much higher than average,

00:04:03.360 | but the inventory situation has let up a little bit.

00:04:06.600 | The rental car industry,

00:04:07.680 | if we just do a little bit of mini history

00:04:10.280 | going back to the beginning of COVID,

00:04:12.280 | when COVID first hit,

00:04:14.040 | the rental car companies saw their demand drop

00:04:16.080 | about by up to 90%

00:04:18.080 | and they basically went into survival mode.

00:04:20.800 | They had to sell off as many cars as they could

00:04:22.880 | as quickly as they could just in order to survive.

00:04:25.440 | And Hertz still lives today,

00:04:28.280 | but they went through a bankruptcy

00:04:29.840 | and the existing shareholders were basically wiped out.

00:04:32.240 | So, and there were a couple of other smaller companies

00:04:35.000 | that either went through reorganization or bankruptcy.

00:04:38.040 | So the industry was reeling from that.

00:04:40.800 | But for the most part,

00:04:41.720 | the industry sold off inventory that it had to

00:04:44.600 | and it got healthy

00:04:46.000 | and demand was sort of right size

00:04:47.720 | for what the inventory was at the time.

00:04:51.480 | But if you fast forward to 2021,

00:04:53.320 | people started to get vaccinated.

00:04:54.800 | They were just tired of being at home.

00:04:56.280 | They wanted to get out

00:04:57.760 | and the demand just completely outstripped the supply.

00:05:01.440 | And the rental car companies just assumed

00:05:03.040 | that they'd be able to acquire more vehicles

00:05:04.920 | when that demand came back.

00:05:07.000 | But the problem is that that idea ran headlong

00:05:09.120 | into the reality of this semiconductor shortage,

00:05:12.160 | this chip shortage.

00:05:13.480 | And for those of you who don't know,

00:05:15.960 | there are, the average car has anywhere

00:05:19.200 | from 1,000 to 2,000 computer chips in it.

00:05:22.240 | And if you can't get those computer chips,

00:05:24.120 | you're basically just looking at a giant doorstop

00:05:26.400 | with four wheels.

00:05:27.560 | And that's essentially what was happening

00:05:28.880 | with the auto manufacturers.

00:05:30.120 | These cars were sitting on the lots half completed

00:05:32.760 | and they just literally couldn't get them

00:05:34.120 | into the dealerships in a completed way.

00:05:37.760 | And that was affecting the entire auto industry

00:05:40.120 | and no one more so than the rental car companies

00:05:43.880 | who needed these vehicles to service this demand

00:05:45.840 | that was quickly coming back.

00:05:47.520 | - And so are we still in this state

00:05:49.800 | or what are things like now?

00:05:50.800 | I remember hearing, you know, states,

00:05:52.920 | entire states were sold out of rental cars.

00:05:55.880 | People were nervous that you'd show up and there's no car.

00:05:58.680 | Is it a little better now or a lot better?

00:06:00.800 | - You know, it's a little better,

00:06:02.320 | but interestingly that the problems

00:06:03.920 | have sort of moved and morphed.

00:06:06.560 | Now there are strangely entire countries

00:06:08.920 | that are sold out of rental cars.

00:06:10.080 | And by that, I mean that almost the entire country of Canada

00:06:14.600 | it's almost impossible to find a rental car.

00:06:17.320 | Places like Calgary and Vancouver and Victoria and Toronto,

00:06:21.280 | just massive shortage of rental cars right now.

00:06:23.800 | And we're not quite sure why Canada is being hit so hard,

00:06:27.080 | but the US, the lower 48 states are in better shape,

00:06:32.080 | save for the national park areas, Glacier National Park,

00:06:35.720 | Bozeman, Montana, anywhere around the national park,

00:06:38.680 | people are really wanna get out in the great outdoors.

00:06:41.680 | And I think that COVID has sort of shifted

00:06:44.240 | demand patterns a little bit less.

00:06:45.560 | People are traveling overseas,

00:06:46.840 | more people wanna travel domestically

00:06:48.840 | and we're seeing super tight availability

00:06:50.600 | around the national parks.

00:06:51.840 | I'm actually going to Glacier National Park tomorrow.

00:06:54.760 | And because I couldn't find a rental car

00:06:57.040 | around Glacier Airport, I ended up flying up to Calgary

00:07:00.200 | and then ended up kind of morphing it

00:07:03.200 | into a trip to Banff and Glacier

00:07:05.000 | because rental cars were better availability

00:07:08.480 | and better pricing up in Canada than they were

00:07:11.520 | here in the US.

00:07:12.360 | But even up in Calgary now,

00:07:14.040 | it's impossible to find a rental car.

00:07:15.760 | So I just got lucky when I was looking.

00:07:18.040 | - So you just said something that's interesting.

00:07:19.440 | I feel like rental cars historically,

00:07:21.200 | maybe prior to the pandemic, were always this thing

00:07:23.200 | where it's like, well, I'm gonna book my flight,

00:07:24.400 | I'll book my hotels,

00:07:25.320 | and then I'm just gonna go get a rental car.

00:07:27.360 | And I assume that it was actually a cheaper total package

00:07:31.400 | for you to go somewhere else,

00:07:33.160 | but you wouldn't have known that

00:07:34.160 | if you didn't look at the rental cars in advance.

00:07:36.840 | Where do rental cars fit in this?

00:07:38.320 | Do you think there's something people should be looking at

00:07:40.280 | before they even consider their flight or hotel

00:07:42.280 | all at the same time?

00:07:44.240 | - Oh, absolutely.

00:07:45.080 | I mean, rental cars historically have been

00:07:47.320 | what I like to say,

00:07:48.960 | the red-headed stepchild to the travel industry

00:07:51.400 | and no ding against redheads out there.

00:07:55.360 | But people typically would go,

00:07:57.280 | and as you said, they'd book their flight, their hotel,

00:07:59.480 | and rental cars, they'd book it when they got around to it.

00:08:01.400 | Well, you really need to turn that process on its head now.

00:08:04.000 | You need to look at rental car pricing

00:08:05.920 | and even more so availability first

00:08:08.680 | before you even book your flight.

00:08:10.760 | Last year, we had a lot of people who were telling us

00:08:13.720 | that they went and they booked flights,

00:08:15.680 | and then they realized that they couldn't get a rental car,

00:08:18.440 | especially in areas like Florida and Phoenix and Las Vegas.

00:08:21.120 | And they basically canceled the trip

00:08:22.400 | because they didn't wanna be landlocked,

00:08:23.920 | they didn't wanna be stuck at a resort

00:08:25.680 | or not able to get around.

00:08:27.200 | So people essentially just,

00:08:28.880 | thankfully there was a flight flexibility

00:08:31.560 | in terms of cancellations and rebooking.

00:08:33.320 | So they decided to just move their trip

00:08:35.320 | later in the season

00:08:37.600 | because they couldn't get a car

00:08:39.280 | at the time that they originally wanted to go.

00:08:41.560 | So people are starting to realize

00:08:42.920 | that the old rules don't apply anymore.

00:08:46.560 | The rental cars used to go for as little as $6, $8 a day,

00:08:51.040 | no longer.

00:08:51.880 | You're looking at basically 80 to $100 a day

00:08:54.480 | in many areas of the country.

00:08:56.320 | And if you're looking for like a minivan

00:08:57.880 | or a full-size SUV,

00:08:59.080 | anything that seats more than five people,

00:09:01.480 | good luck with that

00:09:02.320 | because you're gonna be paying through the nose

00:09:04.080 | if you can find one at all.

00:09:05.360 | - Wow.

00:09:06.200 | And I live in the Bay Area where we have three airports.

00:09:07.920 | So I'm just thinking, gosh, I don't usually fly here,

00:09:10.000 | but if I did,

00:09:11.120 | it would at least be worth checking all three airports

00:09:13.720 | 'cause you might pay $50 more to fly to one,

00:09:15.960 | but you might save 30, $40 a day on a rental car

00:09:18.720 | if you need a car in the first place.

00:09:20.520 | - Absolutely.

00:09:21.360 | And we always recommend to people that,

00:09:23.040 | check multiple options.

00:09:24.120 | That includes both airport and off airport.

00:09:27.320 | You can fly into the airport

00:09:29.200 | and if you're arriving during normal business hours,

00:09:32.280 | you can take an Uber or Lyft

00:09:33.560 | and head to an off airport location,

00:09:35.800 | oftentimes save a significant amount of money.

00:09:39.120 | But the flip side is also true.

00:09:41.160 | People who will typically look to rent off airport,

00:09:44.280 | off airport isn't always cheaper

00:09:46.560 | and it's always worth checking the airports as well.

00:09:48.720 | So you wanna kind of cast a wider net

00:09:51.120 | and oftentimes that can save you

00:09:52.720 | a significant amount of money.

00:09:54.360 | - Yeah, and one thing I think I realized is off airport,

00:09:57.320 | sometimes it's not, the opening hours

00:09:59.400 | aren't as great as the airport.

00:10:00.600 | The airport might be open 24/7,

00:10:02.520 | but you book off airport and you schedule a 9 p.m. pickup,

00:10:06.120 | maybe it's open, but check how late it's open

00:10:08.200 | 'cause if your flight's delayed and you can't get the car,

00:10:10.440 | it might be a little bit of a pain.

00:10:11.920 | - Yeah, general rule of thumb is off airport locations

00:10:14.200 | are typically open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

00:10:16.480 | And it's interesting, one thing that changed with COVID

00:10:18.720 | and I'm not quite sure why this is,

00:10:21.120 | but 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. was normal operating hours,

00:10:23.840 | but a lot of locations were seeing 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

00:10:26.240 | In fact, San Francisco, the city of San Francisco,

00:10:28.800 | there are no rental car, off airport rental car locations

00:10:31.520 | that are open past 5 p.m.

00:10:33.320 | And that was not the case pre-COVID.

00:10:35.320 | So for whatever reason, they just decided

00:10:38.080 | to kind of scale back their operating hours

00:10:40.920 | and we're seeing that in a number of different cities.

00:10:43.440 | - So I wanna walk through a bit of the process

00:10:45.600 | of all the things, you know, you gotta book the car,

00:10:47.320 | you gotta show up and rent it,

00:10:48.440 | maybe you wanna return it late.

00:10:50.200 | So I'll start with when you're just searching,

00:10:52.600 | I wanna understand what is it about rental cars

00:10:55.160 | and maybe the way the backend inventory works

00:10:57.680 | that makes it so hard.

00:10:59.280 | I know sometimes I'm looking for a car,

00:11:01.160 | I go to a rental car website,

00:11:02.760 | and if you wanna search off airport,

00:11:04.520 | you know, I think at Enterprise,

00:11:05.440 | you have to search airport or location

00:11:07.520 | by location by location.

00:11:09.240 | I know there's aggregators to search,

00:11:10.760 | but before we even get in,

00:11:12.280 | is there a reason why rental car searching

00:11:14.920 | is so much harder than maybe flights or hotels?

00:11:17.920 | - We've had people ask us before,

00:11:19.360 | can I do kind of like a flexible search

00:11:21.640 | and show me the cheapest rental car within an entire state?

00:11:24.840 | But it's not so easy because you're typically searching

00:11:27.600 | for anywhere up to, you know, 25 vehicles per search.

00:11:31.640 | The date and time make a difference

00:11:33.640 | in terms of when you're picking up, when you're returning.

00:11:36.440 | There can be a huge amount of results that come back.

00:11:38.800 | So rental car searching is a fairly intensive process.

00:11:42.640 | Unlike a flight where, you know,

00:11:44.360 | there's a limited number of flights per day,

00:11:46.720 | there's a limited number of, you know, your cabins,

00:11:48.720 | your either, you know, business class, premium economy,

00:11:51.880 | economy with rental cars,

00:11:53.360 | you've got like 50 different vehicle types.

00:11:56.200 | Changing the pickup time by even a few minutes

00:11:58.960 | can change the price.

00:12:00.400 | And then you've got, you know,

00:12:02.480 | sometimes hundreds of locations in a particular area.

00:12:05.400 | So typically a rental car search will operate

00:12:07.320 | up to 25 miles from a given radius,

00:12:10.560 | but there isn't any way to do a true flexible date search

00:12:14.560 | or flexible location search with rental cars

00:12:16.520 | just because the amount of data

00:12:18.040 | that's coming back is tremendous.

00:12:19.240 | And that's one of the things that, you know,

00:12:20.480 | we deal with at AutoSlash is, you know,

00:12:22.280 | how to take this gigantic results set

00:12:24.720 | and make sense out of it

00:12:26.160 | and try to return the most accurate results to folks

00:12:29.800 | that are as close a match

00:12:31.800 | to what they were looking for as possible.

00:12:33.280 | Like, for example, you know,

00:12:35.960 | should we return a result that is 10 miles away

00:12:39.440 | from the location the user requested if it's, you know,

00:12:43.280 | 20% less or does the user care more about convenience

00:12:47.040 | than they care about price?

00:12:48.360 | You know, that's the type of questions

00:12:50.320 | that we struggle with all the time.

00:12:51.920 | It's like, how do you surface the most accurate results

00:12:54.240 | for those users that is, you know,

00:12:56.240 | most likely to meet their needs?

00:12:57.960 | - One hack, and I think I heard it from you

00:12:59.960 | on another podcast was that if you are trying to rent a car

00:13:03.960 | and save money and you look off airport,

00:13:05.960 | sometimes you can actually,

00:13:07.280 | you might have to be inconvenienced on the pickup,

00:13:09.840 | but you might not pay any extra to return it to the airport.

00:13:12.400 | So you might be able to avoid half the inconvenience.

00:13:15.360 | - Right, and there's so many different permutations

00:13:17.400 | if you think about it,

00:13:18.240 | because you can rent off airport, return on airport.

00:13:21.120 | You can rent off airport, return off airport.

00:13:23.080 | You can rent on, return on, rent on, return off.

00:13:26.560 | I mean, and you know, there's all sorts of, you know,

00:13:28.440 | you can play around with different locations.

00:13:30.160 | So it's a question of, okay,

00:13:31.360 | well, how far do I want to take an Uber

00:13:33.120 | and how much is it going to save me?

00:13:34.400 | You know, is it worth taking Uber 25 minutes away?

00:13:38.160 | But, you know, if you need, if you're going on a road trip

00:13:40.480 | and you're going to have that car for two weeks

00:13:42.000 | and you save yourself $800, you know,

00:13:43.960 | it's almost like a no brainer,

00:13:45.320 | but yet we have customers that say,

00:13:47.200 | "Hey, I don't want to take an Uber for 25 minutes

00:13:49.800 | and I'll pay the extra $800."

00:13:52.240 | That's not me.

00:13:53.080 | I'm a cheap SOB, but you know, hey, it's like, you know,

00:13:56.040 | whatever the customer wants.

00:13:57.560 | - And is there a way to search airport

00:14:00.240 | and off airport anywhere?

00:14:01.760 | I haven't ever seen that.

00:14:03.080 | How does that work?

00:14:03.920 | Is it just two searches?

00:14:05.480 | - Typically two searches.

00:14:06.440 | That's something that we're actually working on

00:14:07.800 | so people can let us know that, you know, airport,

00:14:11.000 | off airport and airport will work for them.

00:14:12.800 | We can do a flexible search,

00:14:14.440 | but we kind of do that automatically.

00:14:16.400 | Auto search works a little bit differently

00:14:18.080 | from other websites in the sense that

00:14:19.920 | if you put in a request to our site

00:14:22.160 | and we don't find availability,

00:14:23.680 | we will automatically switch that request

00:14:26.200 | to where we do find availability.

00:14:27.640 | So for example, if you're requesting a car off airport

00:14:30.320 | and you're looking to pick it up at eight o'clock PM,

00:14:32.720 | you know, off airport location to close,

00:14:34.560 | we'll automatically move it to the airport

00:14:36.000 | or we'll adjust your time.

00:14:37.400 | If you're looking to pick up a minivan at the airport,

00:14:39.920 | there's no minivans available,

00:14:41.440 | we'll switch your request off airport.

00:14:43.120 | If you go to any other car rental website,

00:14:44.720 | they basically just say, "Sorry, no results found."

00:14:47.440 | We've actually got a team behind the scenes,

00:14:49.280 | sort of a magician behind the curtain

00:14:51.320 | that looks at your request and says,

00:14:52.360 | "Hey, why didn't this request return any availability?

00:14:55.840 | What can we do to get this person into a vehicle?"

00:14:58.760 | So that's something where we're kind of mating

00:15:01.400 | the human touch along with the technology

00:15:03.240 | in order to find customers the best deal,

00:15:04.960 | or in some cases, find any deal.

00:15:06.520 | Because these folks, many of them,

00:15:08.960 | they're, you know, we're like their 10th stop.

00:15:11.000 | They've gone to 10 other websites,

00:15:12.440 | they're looking for availability.

00:15:14.400 | All 10 websites say, "No availability found."

00:15:17.280 | AutoSlash will come back and say,

00:15:18.280 | "Hey, we adjusted your request slightly.

00:15:20.640 | We've actually did find availability.

00:15:22.400 | You may have to pick up a little bit earlier.

00:15:24.080 | You may have to drop off a little bit later.

00:15:26.080 | You may have to switch vehicle types,

00:15:28.000 | but here's the closest match to what we could find

00:15:30.480 | to what you originally requested."

00:15:32.240 | - That's great.

00:15:33.080 | And you said people search all over.

00:15:34.200 | Does it actually matter with rental cars

00:15:36.400 | where you end up ultimately booking?

00:15:38.240 | Obviously, I know you'd probably prefer

00:15:40.120 | everyone book on AutoSlash,

00:15:41.320 | but are there different rates on different sites,

00:15:44.400 | whether it's directly with the agency or on an OTA?

00:15:48.000 | - It can make a difference.

00:15:49.560 | We try to have the best rates in the industry,

00:15:52.280 | prepaid rates versus post-pay rates.

00:15:55.800 | We're not a big fan of prepaid rates,

00:15:57.560 | at least not ones that you can't cancel without a penalty.

00:16:01.680 | We believe that pay later is a much better option

00:16:05.040 | because you can cancel and rebook

00:16:07.520 | anytime a better deal comes along.

00:16:08.920 | And that's one of the primary things

00:16:10.680 | that we've kind of pioneered a niche for ourselves with that.

00:16:15.680 | But yes, you can save money in some cases,

00:16:18.160 | things like Priceline Express deals or Hotwire Hot Deals.

00:16:21.320 | If you're willing to lock yourself in,

00:16:22.680 | you can plan a better deal.

00:16:24.600 | So yeah, it does make a difference where you book

00:16:27.320 | and what price you're gonna get.

00:16:29.160 | Ultimately though, the rental is gonna be confirmed

00:16:32.400 | with the car rental company.

00:16:33.400 | You're gonna get a confirmation number

00:16:34.760 | from the car rental company.

00:16:36.120 | So it doesn't really matter

00:16:38.560 | where the initial booking was made.

00:16:40.680 | You're gonna be able to take advantage of the benefits

00:16:43.480 | that are afforded to you by the rental car company,

00:16:46.760 | as long as you can like enter your loyalty number.

00:16:49.080 | And that's something that you can do through auto slash,

00:16:51.320 | you can skip the counter with National,

00:16:53.080 | with Hertz, with Avis, you can earn points,

00:16:55.320 | you can get upgrades, that sort of thing.

00:16:57.680 | The rules are a little bit different with prepaid rentals,

00:16:59.720 | but ultimately it does make a difference

00:17:02.600 | where you book is the short answer.

00:17:04.120 | - Yep, and one thing I've noticed

00:17:05.400 | when I was booking rental cars

00:17:06.560 | is that the various discounts from programs,

00:17:09.840 | whether it's Amex or your employer or Costco

00:17:12.120 | or something like that,

00:17:13.440 | without those rates, like they can have a huge impact.

00:17:16.800 | Is it almost fair to say,

00:17:18.880 | like if you're not booking with any of those

00:17:20.880 | and you're eligible,

00:17:21.720 | you're probably not gonna get the best rate?

00:17:24.240 | - Oh, absolutely.

00:17:25.080 | If you're not using a discount code,

00:17:26.360 | you're leaving money on the table.

00:17:28.200 | If your employer has a discount code,

00:17:30.200 | it's certainly one place that I would start.

00:17:32.820 | The great thing about auto slash though,

00:17:35.560 | for those people who don't have an employer discount code

00:17:37.880 | or even who do have one,

00:17:39.480 | but it may not necessarily be the best deal,

00:17:42.140 | is that you use auto slash,

00:17:43.640 | because what we do is we give you a bunch of checkboxes

00:17:46.920 | through our wizard, we call it our quote wizard.

00:17:49.920 | And that's just like a little mini interview

00:17:51.360 | that takes you through what your rental needs are.

00:17:54.480 | And if you're a member of Costco, AAA, AARP,

00:17:58.040 | United Airlines Frequent Flyer Program,

00:18:00.160 | whatever organizations that are out there

00:18:02.280 | that may provide a discount,

00:18:04.080 | you can just check those boxes

00:18:05.280 | and we'll compare all those rates side by side.

00:18:07.520 | In addition to all the coupons and discount codes

00:18:10.360 | that the rental car companies publish on their own websites,

00:18:12.960 | and some of them that were not well known,

00:18:15.600 | they publish them on their Twitter feeds,

00:18:17.040 | or we get them an email,

00:18:18.240 | or we find them through other customers

00:18:20.280 | will let us know sometimes.

00:18:21.320 | So computers are very good at doing

00:18:24.320 | a lot of analysis very quickly.

00:18:26.120 | So yeah, you could break out your Google sheet or Excel,

00:18:29.840 | and you can start searching through AAA.com

00:18:32.280 | and costcotravel.com and AARP and Expedia and Priceline,

00:18:36.320 | but you're just gonna end up wasting a lot of time

00:18:38.640 | and you're probably not gonna end up

00:18:39.920 | finding the lowest rate possible.

00:18:42.440 | AutoSearch can do that in about 30 seconds

00:18:44.240 | and then send you an email.

00:18:45.160 | So it saves you not only money, but time as well.

00:18:49.360 | You kind of get your life back

00:18:50.560 | and not have to bother with that.

00:18:51.880 | We've had a lot of customers who've told us,

00:18:53.840 | "Hey, I used to go and spend a half an hour

00:18:56.120 | "at least on each rental trying to find the best deal.

00:18:58.480 | "And then I realized that I couldn't beat you guys

00:19:01.560 | "at the end of the day.

00:19:02.400 | "So I just stopped trying."

00:19:03.480 | I mean, that's what we love to hear

00:19:05.240 | when people really realize the utility of the service.

00:19:08.240 | - Yeah, do you actually need to have

00:19:09.600 | all those discounts in advance?

00:19:10.960 | Or could I say, "Hey, search the Costco rate

00:19:12.880 | "or the AAA rate.

00:19:14.020 | "And if you happen to save me $300 on a rental

00:19:16.960 | "over the course of a week,

00:19:18.360 | "it's worth it to just go sign up for AAA

00:19:20.400 | "or sign up for a Costco membership."

00:19:22.680 | - Yeah, AAA is a no brainer.

00:19:24.560 | I mean, AAA is very inexpensive

00:19:26.000 | and sometimes the rate can be cut in half, literally.

00:19:30.160 | Costco is, I would say, a close number two.

00:19:33.640 | Costco has some great deals

00:19:35.120 | with some of the major rental car companies.

00:19:37.120 | The interesting thing though,

00:19:38.040 | is that Costco works with certain companies

00:19:40.460 | and AAA works with other companies.

00:19:42.040 | So for example, AAA currently works with Dollar Thrifty

00:19:44.960 | and Hertz, all part of the Hertz organization.

00:19:47.720 | Whereas Costco Travel works with Enterprise,

00:19:51.240 | Alamo, Avis, and Budget.

00:19:53.440 | So it may turn out that the AAA discount is great,

00:19:57.240 | but Hertz has a much better deal through AAA

00:19:59.880 | or another discount.

00:20:00.720 | So you really wanna cast a wide net and check both,

00:20:04.980 | and as well as check other discounts

00:20:07.320 | that you may be eligible for,

00:20:08.400 | because you just never know

00:20:09.880 | where you're gonna find the best deal.

00:20:11.540 | Especially these days, availability can be pretty tight.

00:20:14.480 | So if you're looking for a minivan or a full-size SUV,

00:20:16.960 | it may turn out that only one company

00:20:19.680 | that Costco Travel works with has a full-size SUV

00:20:22.200 | and the price is exorbitantly high.

00:20:24.800 | Whereas Hertz, Dollar Thrifty all have full-size SUVs

00:20:27.200 | and one of them turns out to be a much better deal.

00:20:29.280 | So you really wanna do your homework there.

00:20:32.440 | - I've talked to a lot of people recently

00:20:34.120 | who historically have used their employer codes

00:20:38.400 | and then maybe they don't work at that company anymore.

00:20:39.880 | They keep using them.

00:20:40.880 | Maybe they wanna search online for them

00:20:42.480 | and they've been kind of, at least in the recent past,

00:20:45.080 | getting kind of called out and it's like,

00:20:46.320 | "Hey, can you show us that you work here?"

00:20:47.960 | And they get in trouble.

00:20:49.060 | Is that something that's changing

00:20:50.360 | or how have you seen people handle those situations

00:20:53.100 | or is it even worth the risk?

00:20:54.840 | - It's absolutely changing.

00:20:56.520 | Here in New York City where I live,

00:20:59.140 | Avis has got this big honking sign

00:21:01.440 | right in the front of their rental desk over there

00:21:03.920 | that says you will absolutely need to show

00:21:06.120 | some form of proof of employment

00:21:07.920 | if you're using a corporate discount code.

00:21:10.320 | I know a few folks who have gotten called out on that

00:21:12.960 | and ended up having to pay like five times the rate

00:21:15.160 | because they couldn't show proof of employment.

00:21:17.880 | In fact, Avis and Budget, I believe both,

00:21:20.920 | they actually have warning on their website now.

00:21:23.020 | When you put in a corporate discount code,

00:21:24.640 | it warns you that you will be required to show proof

00:21:28.000 | and they will send you follow-up emails as well.

00:21:30.720 | Back in the days when rental car rates were $20, $30 a day

00:21:34.480 | and the corporate rate was maybe $15 a day,

00:21:37.080 | they were just happy for the business.

00:21:38.320 | But now it's a significant difference.

00:21:41.020 | Rental car rates can be $125 a day

00:21:43.320 | and you've got some corporate discount code

00:21:44.880 | that knocks it down to a rock bottom price.

00:21:47.480 | The rental car companies realize

00:21:48.640 | how much they're leaving on the table

00:21:50.380 | and they're very sensitive to that

00:21:53.000 | and they're telling their staff specifically,

00:21:55.680 | hey, enforce these rules,

00:21:58.160 | make sure that people are not taking advantage of the system.

00:22:01.680 | So people are getting called out,

00:22:03.000 | they are running into issues,

00:22:04.620 | they're either being denied or they're being forced to pay

00:22:07.520 | the walk-up rate, which can be fairly significant.

00:22:10.220 | So is it worth it?

00:22:12.500 | Everyone's gotta make their own calculation.

00:22:14.280 | Obviously, if you're renting at an airport

00:22:16.280 | where you can skip the rental car counter,

00:22:18.320 | there often is less scrutiny, but that's not a guarantee

00:22:20.900 | that they're not gonna check the exit booth

00:22:22.720 | or something like that.

00:22:24.360 | Rental car companies do have security departments.

00:22:26.840 | They have been known to put renters on the do not rent list

00:22:29.600 | for fraudulently using codes that they're not eligible for.

00:22:34.280 | But it's a personal decision at the end of the day, I feel.

00:22:38.080 | I mean, we never use corporate discount codes.

00:22:40.280 | We're only using discount codes

00:22:41.680 | that are available to the general public.

00:22:43.920 | But I certainly will acknowledge

00:22:45.660 | that you can save a significant amount of money.

00:22:47.880 | Ideally, you'd use a corporate discount code

00:22:50.160 | that you're eligible for,

00:22:51.360 | but there are lots of folks out there

00:22:52.920 | who will just search random websites and plug codes in.

00:22:56.480 | And there is an element of risk to that.

00:22:58.440 | - Yep, I haven't taken on that risk since leaving Google,

00:23:01.700 | but the Google rate was so good.

00:23:03.600 | And I even still have my badge.

00:23:05.040 | And I'm like, ah, maybe it's worth it, but I'm not sure.

00:23:08.480 | I also know the Google rate included car insurance,

00:23:11.120 | like it included the coverage.

00:23:12.920 | And my understanding is that somebody,

00:23:15.320 | maybe even Google's picking up that bill,

00:23:17.000 | and that if you were in an accident, it could be a problem.

00:23:19.040 | Is that also true?

00:23:20.680 | - Yeah, that's absolutely true.

00:23:22.720 | You know, there are corporate rates

00:23:24.440 | that include a collision damage waiver

00:23:26.520 | and liability in many cases.

00:23:28.200 | And everything is, you know, hunky dory

00:23:30.280 | until you go along and you get into an accident.

00:23:32.320 | And then all of a sudden, you know,

00:23:33.600 | the corporation gets a report and says, you know,

00:23:36.280 | this former employee or this person who was never an employee

00:23:40.560 | made a claim against the, and they're asking the,

00:23:43.240 | you know, Hertz is asking the company to, you know,

00:23:45.240 | kind of like foot a large bill

00:23:47.200 | and people start to investigate.

00:23:48.840 | And that's where you can get up front in some trouble.

00:23:50.560 | So, you know, if you're gonna use a corporate discount code,

00:23:53.840 | certainly don't use one that includes insurance

00:23:55.600 | because you can't rely on the insurance paying out

00:23:59.240 | if you have an accident.

00:24:00.080 | You're kind of playing with fire there.

00:24:02.120 | - I wanna get to insurance, but you mentioned earlier

00:24:03.880 | that the time you pick up actually matters.

00:24:06.200 | How does that, what if you find a better rate

00:24:09.760 | two hours before you land,

00:24:11.440 | but you know, you're not gonna be there?

00:24:14.240 | How much does when you book the time matter?

00:24:16.920 | - No, time can matter significantly.

00:24:19.960 | There's a lot of different dynamics to this.

00:24:22.560 | So I don't wanna get too far in the weeds,

00:24:24.000 | but I'll bring up a couple of different scenarios.

00:24:27.320 | There are different rate plans.

00:24:28.600 | So for example, there are weekend rates

00:24:30.200 | where if you pick up after like 3 p.m. on Thursday

00:24:32.960 | and drop off before, you know, noon on Monday,

00:24:36.480 | you'll be on a weekend rate plan.

00:24:37.800 | Whereas if you're picking up earlier than that,

00:24:39.840 | you're on what's called a weekly rate plan

00:24:41.760 | or daily rate plan.

00:24:43.240 | A lot of times when you're on the border

00:24:44.760 | between these daily, weekly, monthly rates,

00:24:48.360 | the rates can change significantly,

00:24:50.480 | sometimes much higher, sometimes much lower.

00:24:53.080 | So it always pays to play around a little bit.

00:24:55.200 | We recommend that people try adding a day,

00:24:57.240 | subtracting a day.

00:24:58.600 | You know, if you have flexibility,

00:25:00.160 | it's always worth playing around with the dates a little bit,

00:25:02.280 | especially if you're not picking up at an airport,

00:25:04.960 | those, you know, your arrival and departure times

00:25:07.320 | are not fixed.

00:25:08.240 | Even playing with the pickup time by a half an hour.

00:25:12.360 | We noticed a few years back

00:25:14.360 | that certain rental car companies were offering lower rates

00:25:16.440 | if you picked up on the half an hour instead of on the hour.

00:25:19.480 | And that goes back to the rental car companies

00:25:21.600 | gaming each other.

00:25:22.800 | There are automated rate shopping systems out there.

00:25:26.840 | There's actually a company called Rate Highway

00:25:28.520 | that many rental car companies use,

00:25:30.520 | or they had their own internal departments to do this.

00:25:32.680 | And what they do is they're constantly reshopping

00:25:34.960 | each other's rates.

00:25:36.240 | And they will go and they will check to see,

00:25:38.920 | like Hertz will check to see what Enterprise has

00:25:41.360 | for a one week rental picking up at LAX.

00:25:43.960 | And if Enterprise is priced at like $300 a week,

00:25:46.840 | Hertz will price it at 290 a week.

00:25:48.560 | And then Enterprise will recheck Hertz

00:25:50.200 | and realize it's 290 and Enterprise will be 285.

00:25:53.280 | And it's sort of a game of leapfrog.

00:25:55.320 | And sometimes it's a race to the bottom.

00:25:57.240 | And we actually will see rates fluctuate

00:26:01.160 | quite substantially.

00:26:02.160 | And I was shocked when I first got into this industry,

00:26:05.000 | I built like a proof of concept tool

00:26:06.440 | to see how well AutoSlash would perform.

00:26:08.880 | We knew that there was some rate volatility

00:26:10.760 | and my business partner said,

00:26:12.720 | but how much rate volatility actually is there?

00:26:14.760 | And I said, I'm not really sure.

00:26:16.480 | I said, well, why don't we try to build a tool

00:26:19.080 | and test that out?

00:26:19.920 | And I was shocked the rates were all over the place.

00:26:21.720 | And I thought the tool was broken.

00:26:23.240 | So I actually went and repriced everything by hand

00:26:25.280 | and plugged it into Excel.

00:26:26.360 | And I didn't really understand why rates were all over.

00:26:29.720 | And it took me until a few years later to really understand

00:26:32.800 | that the rental car companies

00:26:33.800 | are very competitive with each other.

00:26:36.640 | And there are basically three major rental car companies.

00:26:39.720 | You've got Hertz, which owns Dollar Thrifty.

00:26:42.040 | You've got Enterprise, which owns Alamo National.

00:26:44.760 | And then you've got Avis, which owns Budget and Payless.

00:26:47.320 | And each of these three companies has various brands

00:26:50.360 | that they're positioning at different segments,

00:26:52.280 | different price points in the market.

00:26:54.240 | But that said, they're all competing with one another

00:26:57.080 | and sometimes even intra-brand.

00:26:58.880 | And if you can recheck prices frequently,

00:27:03.600 | that's something that you can use to your advantage.

00:27:05.400 | And with the rental car companies reshopping each other,

00:27:09.440 | they're trying to get one over on each other.

00:27:11.720 | They're trying to get a leg up

00:27:13.040 | in terms of being able to steer

00:27:15.280 | a little bit more business their way.

00:27:17.000 | And that sometimes means playing around

00:27:18.920 | with the pickup times, the drop-off times,

00:27:21.040 | the vehicle types.

00:27:22.600 | There's a lot of ways that the rental car companies

00:27:24.440 | kind of game things in order to pull in more business.

00:27:27.000 | And the savvy renter can use that to their advantage

00:27:29.560 | in order to try to find a better deal.

00:27:31.600 | - So let's say you find a rate that's 30 minutes earlier

00:27:34.960 | or two hours earlier, and you don't show up on time.

00:27:38.160 | Is it okay if you show up that day,

00:27:39.920 | but it's not the exact time you booked it?

00:27:42.160 | - Right, so if you book with the major rental car companies,

00:27:44.360 | the big three or the nine brands that comprise the big three,

00:27:47.920 | you can pretty much show up anytime you want that day.

00:27:51.120 | So if you have booked a reservation

00:27:54.000 | for a 12 o'clock pickup, you can show up at 7 p.m.

00:27:57.000 | and no one's gonna say boo about it.

00:27:59.440 | In fact, you can show up for a 12 o'clock reservation

00:28:02.200 | at 9 a.m. and they're not gonna say,

00:28:04.520 | "Oh, wait, we have to get your car ready for you."

00:28:07.000 | There's no getting your car ready.

00:28:08.280 | You show up and they give you one of 100 cars

00:28:11.320 | that are sitting on the lot.

00:28:13.000 | It's not like when you make the reservation,

00:28:14.640 | they put this car aside for Chris.

00:28:17.000 | Chris wants an intermediate car.

00:28:18.280 | Okay, this Toyota Corolla over here is gonna be for Chris.

00:28:21.040 | No, it's like you show up and go grab whatever you want.

00:28:25.160 | I mean, if it's National or Alamo

00:28:26.920 | or even Hertz Ultimate Choice,

00:28:28.480 | they just let you loose in the lot

00:28:29.680 | and you grab whatever's there.

00:28:30.720 | And maybe there's no midsize cars there.

00:28:32.400 | So they say, "Oh, grab a full size."

00:28:33.920 | It's a very loosey-goosey type system,

00:28:37.400 | which is good for renters

00:28:38.760 | because it means there's a lot of flexibility

00:28:40.480 | in terms of what you can do.

00:28:42.440 | But it also means that in some cases,

00:28:44.840 | there's overbooking situations that,

00:28:46.920 | we can talk about that later.

00:28:48.080 | But specifically with regard to pickup and drop-off times,

00:28:52.080 | within 24 hours, you have a lot of flexibility

00:28:55.720 | in terms of when you can pick up.

00:28:57.440 | The discount brands, they're not quite as flexible.

00:29:00.760 | There may be like a two-hour window or a three-hour window.

00:29:03.960 | And outside the U.S., it can be different as well.

00:29:06.040 | But if we're talking about renting in the U.S. or Canada

00:29:08.600 | with the major companies,

00:29:10.560 | you can show up anytime you want.

00:29:12.040 | And if you happen to show up earlier than your reservation,

00:29:14.680 | you can pick up the car.

00:29:16.640 | You just have to keep in mind

00:29:17.720 | that rentals are priced on a 24-hour day.

00:29:19.680 | So if you're picking up at 3 p.m.

00:29:21.400 | and dropping off at 3 p.m. three days later,

00:29:23.840 | and then you arrive five hours early,

00:29:25.960 | well, you're probably gonna end up paying

00:29:27.200 | for an extra day there.

00:29:28.120 | So that can come into play.

00:29:30.720 | - Are there any brands that,

00:29:32.120 | if you need to drop the car off a couple hours late,

00:29:34.840 | are better than others?

00:29:35.920 | I know sometimes I've needed a car for like 26 hours,

00:29:38.520 | and I'm like, "God, is there a way to avoid

00:29:40.680 | "having to pay for two days?"

00:29:42.520 | - So the general rule of thumb is that

00:29:44.280 | the first hour, you're gonna pay a third of the daily rate.

00:29:47.080 | The second hour, you're gonna pay

00:29:48.760 | two-thirds of the daily rate.

00:29:50.400 | And by the third hour,

00:29:51.240 | you're basically paying for an entire extra day.

00:29:54.160 | There is a little bit of variability

00:29:55.640 | between rental car company and location,

00:29:59.120 | but that's the general rule of thumb

00:30:00.880 | in terms of how they price it out.

00:30:03.680 | - Is there any grace period at all?

00:30:05.200 | Like, I know Hertz sometimes gives you

00:30:07.200 | like 59 minutes free or something.

00:30:09.320 | - 29 minutes is the grace period for pretty much all.

00:30:13.000 | So as soon as you hit that 30-minute mark,

00:30:16.160 | they're adding extra charges.

00:30:19.040 | So if you can get there within 29 minutes of your,

00:30:21.560 | and remember, it's not your scheduled return time,

00:30:24.240 | it's 29 minutes from the time you picked up.

00:30:27.880 | So if you're scheduled to pick up at 3 p.m.

00:30:30.040 | and scheduled to return at 3 p.m.,

00:30:31.920 | but you picked up at 2.45 p.m.,

00:30:33.720 | well, you just cut 15 minutes off of your grace period.

00:30:37.800 | So you've gotta make sure that

00:30:39.560 | it's related to when you picked up.

00:30:41.160 | And likewise, if you picked up a half an hour later

00:30:44.320 | than your scheduled time,

00:30:45.240 | well, you've got an extra half an hour buffer there,

00:30:47.480 | plus the 29 minute grace period.

00:30:49.120 | So definitely pay attention to

00:30:52.040 | not necessarily what you booked,

00:30:53.560 | but what the checkout time is on your rental car contract.

00:30:57.320 | - And do any of the discount programs,

00:30:58.760 | whether it's USAA or AAA or anything,

00:31:01.720 | include extra grace periods?

00:31:03.880 | - So the Amex Platinum CDP,

00:31:07.200 | Amex Platinum Discount Code with Hertz,

00:31:08.920 | includes a four-hour grace period.

00:31:11.480 | But it's important to remember that

00:31:12.840 | that's priced in to the rental when you book it.

00:31:15.400 | So for example, if you book a three-day and four-hour rental,

00:31:19.680 | you're only paying for three days.

00:31:21.320 | It doesn't mean that you can book a three-day

00:31:23.000 | and four-hour rental and then show up three days

00:31:25.880 | and eight hours later and think that you're,

00:31:28.200 | oh, okay, my scheduled return time is,

00:31:30.840 | it's not 12 p.m., it's 4 p.m., but you show up at 7.30.

00:31:34.160 | Well, you've already used the grace period

00:31:35.880 | in terms of how they priced it in the original booking.

00:31:38.240 | So, but that's how it works.

00:31:40.240 | You can, and that can save you a significant amount of money

00:31:43.280 | because oftentimes, if you're kind of ending up

00:31:47.400 | in an extra day, or even if you're renting

00:31:50.360 | on a weekend rental and it kind of throws you

00:31:53.800 | into a weekly rental with that extra four hours,

00:31:56.920 | by using the Amex Platinum CDP,

00:31:59.440 | that can make a huge difference in terms of what the rate is

00:32:02.400 | when you're on those borders between different rate types.

00:32:05.240 | - And will you guys, is that one of the options

00:32:07.360 | when I'm searching on AutoSlash?

00:32:09.400 | - It is, yep. - Cool.

00:32:10.680 | And then last one on the rate times,

00:32:12.720 | is it ever cheaper to add,

00:32:14.160 | like let's say I'm renting for six days,

00:32:16.360 | is it ever cheaper to add a seventh and make it a week?

00:32:18.800 | Or how does the weekly rental rate work?

00:32:21.400 | - Absolutely, but it's usually not six to seven.

00:32:25.000 | It's usually renting from like between four and five days.

00:32:28.640 | So typically, anything five days or greater

00:32:31.680 | is considered a weekly rental in rental car industry,

00:32:35.640 | but it's slightly more granular than that.

00:32:39.680 | Anything above, remember we said earlier

00:32:41.720 | that if you return three hours late, then it's an extra day.

00:32:46.000 | So really anything that's four days and three hours

00:32:49.080 | or greater is basically means you're renting for five days

00:32:52.440 | and that's throws you into a weekly rate.

00:32:54.440 | So for example, a four day and two hour rental

00:32:59.440 | is essentially a daily rental rate,

00:33:02.720 | but four days and six hours is a weekly rental.

00:33:06.480 | So that's something where you definitely wanna try

00:33:09.480 | to add a little bit of time or add an extra day or so

00:33:12.080 | and price it out because it can make a significant difference.

00:33:15.320 | - That's great.

00:33:16.400 | We jumped into a bunch of different areas,

00:33:18.920 | but you talked about the three major brands.

00:33:21.680 | I'm curious, two questions.

00:33:22.880 | One, how do they stack up?

00:33:24.760 | Like I know what the difference is between flying on Spirit

00:33:28.840 | and flying on virtually any other airline.

00:33:31.480 | What is the difference?

00:33:32.640 | Yeah, I know, it's not something I wanna experience again,

00:33:35.320 | but what's the difference

00:33:36.480 | between these different rental car brands?

00:33:38.440 | Like what makes a four or five star brand

00:33:41.440 | versus a two star brand?

00:33:42.560 | I know you guys rate them on the site,

00:33:44.440 | but I don't know if I totally understand

00:33:46.640 | what would change my experience.

00:33:48.600 | - Well, from our perspective,

00:33:49.560 | National really sets the standard.

00:33:51.680 | Far and away, National is the best experience,

00:33:55.120 | both from the perspective of being able

00:33:56.480 | to choose your own vehicle in the Emerald Isle,

00:33:59.720 | as well as just an overall service perspective.

00:34:02.480 | I tend to run for National when I can,

00:34:05.420 | when it's a good deal.

00:34:08.520 | I find that National's vehicle selection is the best.

00:34:10.760 | I find that they have late model cars.

00:34:13.720 | I find that overall, it's generally a non-event,

00:34:16.440 | which is exactly what you want when you're renting a car.

00:34:19.880 | I would say that Hertz follows closely behind.

00:34:22.520 | Hertz was not great

00:34:24.640 | until they introduced Hertz Ultimate Choice.

00:34:27.440 | Hertz Ultimate Choice is available

00:34:28.840 | at all the major airport locations

00:34:30.340 | that basically lets you choose your own vehicle,

00:34:32.720 | similar to the way that National does it.

00:34:34.620 | It's not quite as good as National's offering,

00:34:37.120 | but it is quite convenient

00:34:40.200 | and you'll get on your way fairly quickly.

00:34:43.120 | And I would say Avis comes in a close third,

00:34:47.500 | but Avis doesn't have a similar offering

00:34:48.960 | in terms of picking your own vehicle.

00:34:50.320 | So typically they're assigning you a vehicle.

00:34:52.240 | They have something similar where you can choose it

00:34:54.400 | in the app, but it never quite works seamlessly.

00:34:58.180 | So that's something that I think Avis

00:34:59.720 | could definitely put some work into

00:35:01.400 | and develop a similar service.

00:35:03.260 | Rounding out the next tier down,

00:35:06.840 | I would say that Alamo and Budget are pretty comparable.

00:35:09.920 | I'm pretty happy with Alamo.

00:35:11.680 | Alamo is similar to National.

00:35:14.080 | They let you choose your own vehicle.

00:35:15.800 | So for example, if you reserved a standard SUV,

00:35:18.600 | they'll send you out to the lot

00:35:19.880 | and there'll be a row of 50 standard SUVs

00:35:22.940 | and you can go choose from those.

00:35:24.800 | Got pretty convenient kiosks

00:35:26.260 | where you can just go check in.

00:35:27.360 | You don't have to wait out line.

00:35:28.760 | That makes it convenient.

00:35:30.740 | Budget offers what they call fast break service,

00:35:32.860 | which will either a separate line

00:35:34.860 | or you can go directly to the rental car lot

00:35:37.240 | so that'll get you on your way quicker.

00:35:38.600 | But it's not quite as seamless

00:35:40.120 | as the major companies, as far as Hertz and National.

00:35:45.120 | And then you've got Dollar, Thrifty, Payless.

00:35:49.360 | These are the more deep discount brands.

00:35:51.960 | The savings can be significant there.

00:35:53.560 | Some of them do offer express service

00:35:55.380 | to let you get on your way more quickly,

00:35:57.340 | but the vehicles tend not to be as low mileage

00:36:01.040 | and as recent vintage.

00:36:02.540 | And the service levels tend to be a little bit longer.

00:36:05.880 | And waiting on line can also be a significant issue.

00:36:09.680 | Theoretically, you can take advantage

00:36:11.280 | of these loyalty programs.

00:36:13.000 | Dollar has express service.

00:36:16.320 | Thrifty has blue chip.

00:36:17.760 | Budget has fast break,

00:36:18.880 | but they're not quite as consistent

00:36:20.960 | as some of the major companies are

00:36:23.360 | in terms of getting you on your way quickly.

00:36:25.560 | You can wait on line in many cases.

00:36:27.720 | - So is it safe to say the more premium brand you rent with,

00:36:30.640 | the primary benefit is being able to pick your own car

00:36:33.960 | and being able to skip the line?

00:36:35.320 | Are there other benefits to think about?

00:36:37.480 | - Yeah, that's correct.

00:36:38.600 | Other benefits include earning points

00:36:42.080 | or credits for free days.

00:36:43.600 | National has one of the best programs out there

00:36:46.360 | in terms of getting rental car credits

00:36:48.360 | and earning free days.

00:36:49.640 | They also have a program called One-Two Free,

00:36:52.560 | which means that if you have two completed rentals,

00:36:56.720 | you can get a third day for free,

00:36:58.520 | which is pretty generous.

00:37:00.480 | Hertz has devalued their program

00:37:02.280 | many times over the years.

00:37:03.920 | Davis's program, they do offer points,

00:37:06.240 | but those points are not worth a whole lot.

00:37:09.960 | In many cases, you can do better

00:37:11.280 | by crediting your rentals to frequent flyer programs

00:37:14.880 | and hotel programs and that sort of thing.

00:37:17.440 | So I would say that the upgrades are significant

00:37:21.880 | in terms of being able to choose your own vehicle.

00:37:23.680 | You can reserve a mid-sized car

00:37:25.160 | and oftentimes drive away in a full-size or premium car,

00:37:29.000 | even an SUV.

00:37:30.840 | But being able to skip the counter from my perspective

00:37:33.600 | is number one, because during COVID, you see these lines,

00:37:37.360 | there can be 20, 30, 50 people waiting on line

00:37:40.800 | and it can be two hours to get a car.

00:37:43.320 | Time is money.

00:37:44.160 | I don't really wanna be standing around in an airport

00:37:45.960 | waiting to get my vehicle.

00:37:48.200 | And it's really nice to be able to walk

00:37:50.080 | into the Atlanta Car Rental Center

00:37:52.160 | and see a line of 50 people walk right past them,

00:37:54.320 | walk to the lot, jump in a car, speed off.

00:37:56.720 | And before these guys even move one line placement,

00:38:01.440 | you're already in the exit booth and on your way.

00:38:03.640 | So it's nice.

00:38:05.680 | It's something that we recommend

00:38:06.760 | to all of our customers doing.

00:38:07.840 | It's a no-brainer.

00:38:09.160 | Your rental car programs are free to sign up for.

00:38:11.200 | I'm not really sure why anyone would not do it,

00:38:13.720 | but people can sometimes,

00:38:16.240 | they don't think about it ahead of time

00:38:17.760 | and then they end up paying for it, fortunately.

00:38:20.200 | - And what about the loyalty programs

00:38:21.600 | with kind of status that you can earn,

00:38:23.240 | whether it's by renting a lot or through a credit card,

00:38:26.120 | do the status loyalty programs do much?

00:38:29.080 | - The status programs will get you better vehicles.

00:38:31.760 | In some cases, National's executive program

00:38:33.800 | is pretty good.

00:38:35.920 | You definitely have nicer vehicles

00:38:37.480 | in the executive section.

00:38:38.440 | Hertz has the President's Circle option.

00:38:42.240 | So for example, if you're a Capital One Venture X

00:38:44.360 | cardholder, you'll get upgraded to Hertz President's Circle.

00:38:49.000 | If you're a Visa Infinite cardholder,

00:38:50.760 | you can get National Emerald Club Executive.

00:38:53.560 | It does make a difference.

00:38:54.480 | And as far as these credit cards,

00:38:57.800 | it may be cards that you already have in your wallet already.

00:39:00.440 | So it is a no brainer just to upgrade your status

00:39:03.720 | or sign up if you're not already a member

00:39:05.720 | and get that status.

00:39:07.040 | And they will also match status membership.

00:39:09.800 | So you can email them and you can show proof of a status

00:39:13.720 | with at least status of one company.

00:39:15.920 | And they oftentimes will upgrade you

00:39:17.560 | and then you can use that status upgrade to a third company.

00:39:19.880 | So it is pretty easy to do.

00:39:22.720 | The rental car companies,

00:39:23.960 | the status doesn't cost them anything.

00:39:25.400 | They want you to rent from them.

00:39:27.840 | They feel like, okay,

00:39:28.800 | if we give you Emerald Club Executive status,

00:39:31.880 | you're more likely to rent from us

00:39:33.360 | because you think you're gonna get a better vehicle.

00:39:35.760 | And in fact, you are.

00:39:36.960 | So they would rather have a lot of elite members

00:39:40.600 | and get a lot more business

00:39:41.800 | than being stingy with the statuses.

00:39:46.320 | - So when you skip the line,

00:39:47.600 | you go out to the lot, you see 30, 40 cars.

00:39:50.200 | I always struggle.

00:39:51.040 | I'm looking here, I'm like,

00:39:51.880 | I don't know anything about these brands.

00:39:52.880 | How do you decide which of the nine different

00:39:56.280 | mid-size or intermediate or full-size cars to pick from?

00:39:59.360 | Is there some rule of thumb?

00:40:00.720 | How do you pick a car?

00:40:02.120 | - You know, I've got my own personal preferences.

00:40:03.680 | I mean, if I see a BMW or Mercedes there,

00:40:05.840 | you know, I'm probably making a beeline for that.

00:40:08.440 | I enjoy driving SUVs more than I do sedans.

00:40:11.120 | So, you know, that's definitely something I'm looking for.

00:40:15.560 | Jeeps are always nice.

00:40:17.000 | Some people don't like the driving, but I enjoy them.

00:40:19.960 | Sometimes you see convertibles

00:40:21.280 | in ultimate choice and executive area.

00:40:24.800 | But, you know, if you've got a lot of similar vehicles,

00:40:27.440 | a lot of times, you know, you walk out there

00:40:29.000 | and it's a sea of Camrys or a sea of Ultimas,

00:40:31.600 | and they all kind of look similar.

00:40:33.480 | A lot of times I'll open up the door,

00:40:35.040 | I'll look at the mileage.

00:40:36.600 | It's not always easy to tell from the outside

00:40:38.600 | which ones have, you know, 3,000 miles on it

00:40:40.880 | versus 33,000 miles on it.

00:40:42.640 | So I'll look at that.

00:40:44.040 | Oftentimes I'll also look at the tires.

00:40:48.120 | You can tell very quickly how much wear a car has

00:40:51.560 | by how much tread is left in the tires.

00:40:53.200 | And in fact, even in a dark lot,

00:40:55.040 | I don't even need to look at it.

00:40:56.320 | I can actually take my hand

00:40:57.360 | and I can kind of put my fingers in there

00:40:59.240 | and I can see how much tread is left in the tire,

00:41:01.440 | especially if I'm driving in an area

00:41:03.320 | where it's going to be raining or snowy.

00:41:06.240 | You definitely want to make sure

00:41:07.320 | that you drive out of the lot

00:41:08.600 | with something that has a lot of tread on it.

00:41:10.320 | You don't want to have ball tires

00:41:11.920 | and go skidding across the highway.

00:41:13.320 | So it's definitely something I consider,

00:41:16.520 | especially in bad weather.

00:41:19.240 | And then the other thing is just, you know,

00:41:21.040 | in terms of amenities,

00:41:22.400 | some of these vehicles are better outfitted

00:41:24.680 | in terms of their entertainment systems.

00:41:26.280 | Do they have Bluetooth?

00:41:27.280 | Can I pair my phone to it?

00:41:29.040 | Do they have an AUX port if I want to plug in,

00:41:30.880 | you know, my phone or something else?

00:41:33.960 | So it's a lot of times a matter of personal preference,

00:41:36.560 | but I would say go for the low mileage vehicles

00:41:39.000 | and go for something that, you know,

00:41:40.840 | has the amenities that you'd like to be driving.

00:41:44.200 | - Yeah, I think sometimes I forget

00:41:45.560 | that you can just open the door and look,

00:41:46.840 | is there a little Bluetooth sticker?

00:41:48.120 | Is there a USB charging port?

00:41:49.760 | All those kinds of things.

00:41:50.600 | So like, that's a great tip.

00:41:52.560 | What do you think of the kind of

00:41:55.040 | non-traditional rental car companies,

00:41:56.720 | maybe the Silvercar, the Turo,

00:41:58.800 | or things that kind of don't usually show up in the search,

00:42:01.200 | but have a different experience?

00:42:03.080 | - Well, you mentioned Silvercar first.

00:42:04.800 | Silvercar was a good idea.

00:42:06.440 | I liked them.

00:42:07.840 | I liked them much more when they were at convenient airports

00:42:11.000 | and now they've sort of been banished

00:42:12.600 | to Audi dealerships in many cases in far flung areas.

00:42:17.400 | I don't really see Silvercar as being something

00:42:20.160 | that's gonna be relevant in the future.

00:42:23.160 | I think that they're sort of a backwater at this point.

00:42:26.320 | You know, they still exist

00:42:27.360 | and it's great for dealership rentals

00:42:29.720 | if you live close to a dealership,

00:42:31.000 | but you're not gonna be landing at an airport

00:42:33.280 | and then running over to the Silvercar dealership

00:42:35.240 | in most cases just because they're not that convenient.

00:42:38.000 | Turo is a good option.

00:42:41.560 | You can get a better deal.

00:42:42.880 | I think that people sometimes, you know,

00:42:45.160 | have one experience and they say,

00:42:46.560 | oh, you know, I rented from Turo and it was great

00:42:49.160 | or it was terrible or I got a great deal

00:42:50.880 | and I'll never rent from another,

00:42:52.080 | the major rental car companies again.

00:42:53.480 | But, you know, the reality is that you need to always check

00:42:56.080 | and see what the availability and what the pricing is.

00:42:58.600 | I mean, on one hand, Turo could be way less

00:43:01.080 | than renting from a traditional car rental company.

00:43:03.280 | In other cases, it could end up being a lot more,

00:43:06.280 | but you also have some risk with Turo as well.

00:43:08.560 | And this is, we saw this a lot with COVID,

00:43:10.360 | especially in Hawaii where people were renting

00:43:12.160 | from Turo hosts, as they call them,

00:43:14.960 | and the host was canceling on them

00:43:16.960 | either at the last minute,

00:43:18.160 | meaning the day that they're flying in or within a week.

00:43:20.800 | And because the Turo host realized

00:43:22.680 | that they could get a lot more money for their car

00:43:24.400 | when rental car prices were, you know,

00:43:26.640 | streaking into the stratosphere,

00:43:28.560 | these Turo hosts who had, you know,

00:43:31.240 | rented the car for let's say 40 bucks a day

00:43:33.080 | had sellers remorse and realized they could rent the car

00:43:35.080 | for $90 a day.

00:43:36.480 | So they would just cancel on the existing renter

00:43:38.720 | and say, sorry, car wasn't available.

00:43:40.720 | And then the renter would be stuck

00:43:41.840 | and then there would be nothing available

00:43:43.480 | through the traditional rental car companies

00:43:45.120 | or prices would be much higher.

00:43:47.080 | So it's something that you do need to take into account.

00:43:49.880 | It can be convenient.

00:43:52.040 | Sometimes the Turo hosts are willing to drop off cars

00:43:54.520 | at airports or at different locations.

00:43:56.880 | Other times you've got to, you know,

00:43:58.680 | wait around for them and, you know,

00:44:00.040 | maybe they're a little late in arriving.

00:44:01.680 | So, you know, it's not right for everyone,

00:44:04.240 | but it can be a good deal in certain cases.

00:44:06.480 | So it's worth shopping around,

00:44:07.880 | but it's definitely a little bit more effort.

00:44:09.440 | You're not gonna, you know, land at the airport,

00:44:11.440 | jump on the shuttle bus and be on your way.

00:44:13.240 | And, you know, in two minutes,

00:44:14.680 | like you would with some of the more convenient

00:44:17.240 | airport rental car companies.

00:44:19.560 | Another one that we really like

00:44:21.200 | that we started to work with recently

00:44:22.520 | at Auto Slash is called Kite, K-Y-T-E.

00:44:25.480 | And Kite's got a pretty awesome model.

00:44:27.760 | They will drop off the car at your home or business to you.

00:44:32.400 | They call them Kite surfers.

00:44:33.720 | They're basically gig workers

00:44:35.400 | and they will bring the car from a nearby lot

00:44:37.960 | and they'll drop it off.

00:44:38.880 | I use them here in New York City all the time.

00:44:41.960 | I schedule a drop off for let's say 10 a.m.

00:44:44.400 | someone shows up in front of my apartment building

00:44:46.440 | with the car.

00:44:47.920 | I quickly show them my driver's license.

00:44:49.640 | I sign on my phone and then I just drive off.

00:44:53.800 | And then I schedule the return for whenever I want.

00:44:56.680 | Someone will be here to pick up the car again.

00:44:58.640 | There's no rental office.

00:44:59.920 | I don't, I never wait on line.

00:45:02.000 | Super convenient.

00:45:03.040 | They fill up the tank at market rate.

00:45:05.920 | They charge you for the actual price of the tolls.

00:45:08.040 | You really don't have to do anything.

00:45:09.160 | It's just kind of a no brainer.

00:45:11.360 | So it's a really convenient service.

00:45:13.240 | I believe they're in 13 cities right now.

00:45:16.000 | Primarily operate off airport,

00:45:17.840 | but I believe at LAX in San Francisco,

00:45:20.440 | they have some options for a nearby lot

00:45:23.880 | where you can pick up the car from them

00:45:25.640 | where they stage those cars.

00:45:26.800 | So I think it's a company that is new,

00:45:30.480 | but I expect some pretty significant things

00:45:32.840 | for them in the future.

00:45:33.680 | So worth checking out.

00:45:35.600 | - What do you think about when you're booking,

00:45:37.440 | and I don't know if this shows up on auto slash,

00:45:38.960 | but sometimes it's like,

00:45:39.800 | we're not gonna tell you which company this is,

00:45:41.320 | but the rate's better.

00:45:42.600 | - Yeah, so those are called,

00:45:43.760 | are known as what's called opaque rentals.

00:45:45.880 | And basically those come with significant penalties

00:45:49.200 | in terms of cancellation.

00:45:50.760 | Actually, they come with the penalty of no cancellation.

00:45:53.720 | Essentially you pay them and they tell you

00:45:57.360 | which rental car company it is after your book,

00:45:59.760 | and then you are not allowed to cancel

00:46:02.040 | or refund your reservation

00:46:03.480 | or change it even under any circumstances.

00:46:05.640 | So if you're absolutely 100% sure

00:46:08.600 | that you're gonna be going on the trip

00:46:10.840 | and you're gonna need that rental car,

00:46:12.960 | it can be a good deal.

00:46:14.480 | If you're happy with all the choices at the bottom tier,

00:46:18.120 | you know, it may be like Fox, Payless, Advantage.

00:46:21.800 | If you're not happy with one of those three companies,

00:46:24.640 | then don't rent from them because in Murphy's law,

00:46:26.960 | you're probably gonna end up with a company

00:46:28.120 | that you don't like.

00:46:29.840 | I have less of an issue if it's, you know,

00:46:31.360 | one of the top tier companies,

00:46:32.800 | it could be Avis, National or Hertz.

00:46:35.320 | Or for example, sometimes the tier is Dollar Thrifty

00:46:37.960 | or Alamo, you know, all decent companies,

00:46:40.200 | you can save a significant amount of money in some cases.

00:46:43.280 | But then again, you can also check AutoSlash first.

00:46:45.320 | And it may turn out that just because it's an opaque deal

00:46:48.480 | that is better than the rack rate,

00:46:50.160 | AutoSlash may be able to find you a AAA discount rate

00:46:52.680 | or Costco and the price ends up being better.

00:46:54.960 | So, you know, they have their place.

00:46:57.560 | We tend to shy away from them,

00:46:59.160 | but especially booking last minute where, you know,

00:47:02.520 | it's unlikely that you'll be able to find a better deal

00:47:04.720 | by repricing it, you know, for another few days.

00:47:07.640 | It could be worthwhile.

00:47:09.120 | But the important thing to remember with those rentals

00:47:11.000 | is that you cannot skip the counter.

00:47:12.480 | You have to go to the rental car company.

00:47:13.880 | So if you show up and there's 50 people online,

00:47:16.640 | there's no way to skip.

00:47:17.920 | You're not gonna earn loyalty points.

00:47:20.240 | You're not gonna get upgrades.

00:47:21.280 | You're not gonna be able to choose your own car.

00:47:22.680 | So it's more of a, you know,

00:47:24.840 | of a deep discount leisure type rental.

00:47:26.800 | And you have to understand

00:47:28.320 | what you're getting yourself into if you take that deal.

00:47:30.840 | - There's one other kind of rental car company

00:47:32.360 | that I don't know if I understand.

00:47:33.720 | And maybe it's unique to LAX,

00:47:35.320 | but I was helping our au pair try to book a car in LA.

00:47:38.760 | And I found all these random rental car companies

00:47:41.160 | that had some kind of search on their website,

00:47:43.320 | but when you book, it almost seemed like

00:47:44.920 | you were just kind of submitting a form online.

00:47:47.480 | And I wish I knew the names of them,

00:47:48.800 | but they seem to have rental cars.

00:47:50.360 | They seem to have competitive prices,

00:47:51.800 | but I just kind of felt like I was filling out a web form

00:47:54.640 | and I had no conviction that the car would actually show up

00:47:57.880 | or that the company even existed.

00:47:59.400 | Have you seen any of these?

00:48:00.440 | Are they real?

00:48:01.280 | Are they trustworthy?

00:48:02.800 | - Well, you're right to worry.

00:48:04.840 | I think that typically these are broker websites

00:48:07.640 | and what they're doing is they're taking your request

00:48:09.760 | and they're farming it out

00:48:10.600 | to a bunch of little small mom and pop type

00:48:12.920 | rental car companies around the LAX area.

00:48:15.240 | And then they're sending you quotes.

00:48:17.640 | Those quotes may be significantly less

00:48:19.560 | than what you can get with the major companies,

00:48:21.480 | but they also come with some significant caveats

00:48:23.480 | in terms of you may end up getting a vehicle

00:48:26.800 | that's much higher mileage, much older.

00:48:29.680 | The service levels are not gonna be great.

00:48:31.920 | You may end up being on the hard sell in terms of insurance.

00:48:35.520 | They may force you to take insurance

00:48:37.160 | even if you already have insurance

00:48:39.000 | through, for example, your credit card

00:48:40.360 | or your personal auto insurance policy.

00:48:42.240 | So these are sort of the bottom feeders

00:48:45.520 | in the rental car industry.

00:48:46.440 | It's something that we definitely tell people

00:48:49.320 | to shy away from.

00:48:50.880 | There really isn't, in this day and age,

00:48:52.440 | any reason why you can't get an instant price

00:48:55.480 | and rent with a company that is reputable.

00:48:58.960 | I'm not saying that these companies are not reputable,

00:49:01.280 | but in some cases, they're all small shops

00:49:06.240 | that may have significant issues.

00:49:08.320 | So you have to be very careful.

00:49:10.960 | If you look at the Better Business Bureau ratings

00:49:13.040 | and the consumer boards,

00:49:15.400 | you'll find that some of these companies are very uneven

00:49:18.520 | and it's hard to know exactly who you're renting from

00:49:20.360 | because they change names, they move around.

00:49:22.600 | One company represents another.

00:49:24.080 | You think you're renting with company A,

00:49:25.440 | but it's actually being serviced by company B.

00:49:27.280 | So there can be issues with those.

00:49:29.920 | - Okay, so let's talk about, you get to the airport.

00:49:33.040 | You know, one thing that I think COVID has left

00:49:34.800 | as a fear in my mind,

00:49:35.840 | and maybe you'll say the fear is gone,

00:49:38.040 | don't stop worrying about it,

00:49:38.960 | is that you show up and there's no car available.

00:49:40.880 | Is that still a thing

00:49:41.960 | where car rental companies oversell their inventory

00:49:44.880 | and you show up and there's nothing there?

00:49:46.640 | - It is a thing.

00:49:47.600 | I like to tell people that the vast majority of renters,

00:49:52.080 | the number of people who show up

00:49:54.320 | and they don't have a car available to them

00:49:56.440 | is a fraction of 1%.

00:49:59.200 | That's a little consolation though

00:50:00.560 | when you are the 0.002% of the people that show up

00:50:05.560 | and all of a sudden the rental car company

00:50:07.160 | has mismanaged their inventory and they run out.

00:50:10.120 | They do often oversell their inventory.

00:50:13.440 | The no-show rate in the rental car industry

00:50:15.120 | can be upwards of 30%.

00:50:17.400 | So they're going to oversell to a certain degree

00:50:19.920 | to try to get as close to 100% utilization as they can.

00:50:23.560 | Usually it's not an issue.

00:50:24.680 | Some companies are better than others with it,

00:50:27.600 | but it can happen.

00:50:28.960 | Sometimes what you end up having to do

00:50:30.440 | is wait around until more cars come back.

00:50:33.320 | We've seen situations where you have 20, 30 people online

00:50:36.680 | and no one's getting a car for two hours.

00:50:39.600 | It does happen.

00:50:41.080 | It's uncommon.

00:50:42.120 | People sometimes ask me,

00:50:44.160 | well, should I book with multiple companies

00:50:46.920 | in order to increase my chance of getting a vehicle?

00:50:50.080 | That's a hard one to answer.

00:50:52.240 | I hesitate because I don't want to exacerbate the problem

00:50:56.000 | in the industry and lots of people

00:50:58.280 | making multiple reservations

00:50:59.640 | that they're not going to show up for

00:51:01.040 | is really just compounding the problem.

00:51:04.000 | But in some cases, if you have to be somewhere,

00:51:06.840 | if you're traveling to a wedding

00:51:08.360 | and you're flying in two hours before the wedding starts

00:51:11.160 | and you just can't take any chances,

00:51:13.800 | hey, a backup reservation

00:51:14.800 | might not be the worst thing in the world.

00:51:16.160 | So it's one of those things

00:51:18.320 | where everyone's got to make a personal decision.

00:51:20.320 | But I will say that it's not good for the industry

00:51:22.920 | if lots of people are booking

00:51:24.960 | and no showing all over the place.

00:51:26.840 | - Is there anything you can do

00:51:27.960 | to guarantee you'll have a car,

00:51:29.360 | call ahead, maybe prepay,

00:51:31.360 | have status with the rental car company?

00:51:33.760 | - So first of all,

00:51:34.600 | prepaying doesn't really guarantee you anything.

00:51:37.040 | It's not like someone who shows up

00:51:39.560 | with a pay later reservation,

00:51:41.120 | shows up and they have one car left

00:51:44.040 | and the rental car agent says,

00:51:45.320 | oh no, no, I'm sorry.

00:51:46.600 | I have a Mr. Chris Hutchins coming in

00:51:49.160 | and he's got a prepaid reservation.

00:51:50.440 | I'm putting this car aside for him.

00:51:52.520 | It doesn't really work that way.

00:51:53.800 | Whoever is first at the rental car counter,

00:51:55.680 | if they've got vehicles,

00:51:56.680 | they're gonna give it to you.

00:51:58.520 | So if you show up with a prepaid reservation,

00:52:00.080 | yeah, I mean, they need to get a car for you

00:52:03.160 | one way or another,

00:52:04.000 | but it doesn't mean you wouldn't necessarily have to wait.

00:52:06.640 | Status does make a difference

00:52:08.040 | and the ability to skip the counter makes a difference.

00:52:10.840 | So even if you have just base status

00:52:13.440 | with the car rental company,

00:52:14.320 | if there's 20 people online

00:52:16.080 | and they've got three cars in the lot,

00:52:18.040 | hey, if you walk past that line

00:52:19.480 | and not have to wait for someone to service you,

00:52:22.440 | you can grab one of those three cars

00:52:23.920 | that are sitting in the executive aisle

00:52:26.440 | or ultimate choice or whatever and drive off.

00:52:29.120 | And those people that are waiting online

00:52:30.760 | inside the rental car center,

00:52:31.960 | they're still waiting.

00:52:34.040 | So, and higher status can help.

00:52:36.080 | It's not a guarantee,

00:52:37.120 | but it's something that does make a difference.

00:52:40.160 | Calling ahead can sometimes help.

00:52:42.320 | If for no other reason

00:52:44.520 | than the rental car company can tell you that,

00:52:46.160 | hey, we don't expect there'll be any problem.

00:52:48.280 | We have lots of cars in the lot,

00:52:49.520 | or, hey, we're short on cars.

00:52:52.360 | You may have to wait.

00:52:54.000 | It would be better if you could show up

00:52:55.160 | a little bit earlier, that sort of thing.

00:52:56.880 | So calling is not a bad idea,

00:53:00.600 | especially if you're renting at an off airport location

00:53:02.920 | because they typically have smaller fleets.

00:53:04.760 | So the local staff can advise you what the situation is.

00:53:08.840 | - And if you did show up and there was no cars,

00:53:10.880 | what would you do?

00:53:12.000 | - The rental car company is obligated

00:53:14.040 | to find you a vehicle.

00:53:15.480 | I mean, a rental car reservation is a binding contract,

00:53:18.520 | but that said, they can't make cars show up out of thin air.

00:53:22.640 | In some cases, you're waiting around

00:53:24.080 | for other people to return vehicles.

00:53:26.160 | In other cases, they may be able to move vehicles

00:53:29.280 | from another location,

00:53:30.200 | or they may be able to send you to a nearby location.

00:53:32.880 | Technically, the rental car company

00:53:35.320 | should pay for cab or Uber fare

00:53:37.440 | if you've got to go to a different location,

00:53:39.200 | or they should take some money off the rental.

00:53:41.480 | Consumers, a lot of times the rental car company employees

00:53:44.880 | just don't want to deal with the situation.

00:53:46.520 | They're like, sorry, we ran out of cars,

00:53:47.960 | and there's nothing we can do.

00:53:50.400 | I mean, that's true to some degree,

00:53:51.880 | but the reality is that the rental car company

00:53:53.760 | has to provide you with a vehicle

00:53:55.760 | if you have a confirmed reservation,

00:53:57.400 | and they really should do everything in their power

00:54:00.400 | to try to find you a vehicle.

00:54:01.520 | The entire area sold out,

00:54:04.080 | you just can't get blood from a stone,

00:54:05.640 | but if a nearby location five miles away has a vehicle,

00:54:09.520 | they should be able to send you over there.

00:54:10.960 | I mean, it's one of those cases

00:54:12.000 | where the squeaky wheel gets the grease,

00:54:13.640 | so we definitely recommend pushing the rental car staff

00:54:17.920 | and letting them know that, hey, I'm not leaving here.

00:54:20.200 | I need a vehicle.

00:54:21.440 | You need to come up with some sort of option,

00:54:23.120 | and that also includes if the rental car company

00:54:25.440 | doesn't have the vehicle you reserved.

00:54:28.520 | Let's say you reserved a compact car,

00:54:30.400 | and they say, well, we have no compact cars.

00:54:32.120 | All we have is this compact SUV or this minivan or whatever,

00:54:37.640 | and there'll be an upgrade charge for that.

00:54:39.760 | Like, no, there's no upgrade charge.

00:54:41.520 | Like, if you don't have the vehicle class that I reserved,

00:54:44.040 | you need to upgrade me to what you do have at no charge.

00:54:47.760 | We see this sometimes with different locations,

00:54:50.640 | and we tell our customers, no, you should push back.

00:54:53.680 | The rental car company is obligated to give you a vehicle,

00:54:56.400 | and if they can't provide the vehicle

00:54:57.640 | that you initially reserved,

00:54:59.040 | they should provide you a vehicle at the same cost,

00:55:01.760 | even if that is a significant upgrade

00:55:03.560 | for what you initially had booked.

00:55:05.880 | - This happened to a friend of mine one time.

00:55:07.000 | They got to the rental car counter, and they're like,

00:55:08.520 | oh, man, I got a free upgrade to a Suburban

00:55:11.040 | from what I thought would be like a Nissan Altima,

00:55:14.080 | but I was like, well, gas prices are pretty expensive.

00:55:15.920 | That just became a more expensive rental.

00:55:17.840 | Do you think you could negotiate a discount

00:55:19.440 | in that circumstance, saying this is gonna cost me more

00:55:21.800 | because of the cost of fuel?

00:55:23.440 | - Absolutely, and in some cases,

00:55:24.840 | you can ask the rental car company

00:55:26.000 | to throw in a tank of gas,

00:55:28.600 | because prepaid fuel is one option

00:55:31.080 | that the rental car companies will offer you.

00:55:33.680 | It's never a good deal,

00:55:35.680 | but it's something that you can say,

00:55:36.680 | hey, throw in a tank of gas,

00:55:38.120 | because this gas guzzler is not what I reserved,

00:55:41.000 | and it's gonna cost me a lot more,

00:55:42.760 | so I'm willing to drive it around if that's all you have,

00:55:45.480 | but it shouldn't be at my expense.

00:55:48.000 | It should be at your expense.

00:55:49.760 | Likewise, there's similar situations

00:55:51.400 | where you'll show up at the rental car desk,

00:55:53.360 | and they'll say, hey, you rented a compact car.

00:55:56.520 | We can offer you a full-size car

00:55:57.960 | for only another $5 a day,

00:56:01.840 | but what they don't tell you

00:56:02.680 | is they don't have the compact car that you reserved.

00:56:04.600 | They only have full-size cars,

00:56:05.920 | so if you push back and say,

00:56:08.680 | I'm not interested in upgrading,

00:56:10.080 | or do you even have the compact car

00:56:11.680 | that you initially reserved,

00:56:13.120 | a lot of times they'll admit,

00:56:14.080 | hey, we're at a compact car,

00:56:15.320 | so why would you pay an upgrade fee

00:56:17.040 | when they have to give it to you anyway?

00:56:18.280 | So that's another little hack

00:56:20.240 | that you should be aware of.

00:56:21.960 | - And you just mentioned never pay for prepaid fuel.

00:56:24.240 | I just wanna reiterate that,

00:56:25.520 | 'cause it came off pretty quick,

00:56:26.560 | 'cause that sounds like it's never a deal,

00:56:28.040 | even if you know you're gonna need to drive a lot.

00:56:30.360 | - Yeah, so the rental car companies

00:56:31.360 | will try to entice you to purchase prepaid tank of gas,

00:56:36.280 | but what you need to realize

00:56:37.400 | is that you're purchasing the entire tank of gas.

00:56:39.520 | So if they say that this particular vehicle

00:56:42.040 | has a 18-gallon tank,

00:56:44.320 | they're charging you for 18 gallons

00:56:46.320 | at whatever their prevailing rate is,

00:56:47.880 | and they may say, well, we're giving it to you

00:56:50.040 | below the average price of the area,

00:56:51.840 | but remember that unless you use every drop

00:56:54.240 | of that 18 gallons,

00:56:56.080 | and you drive back into the rental car lot on fumes,

00:56:59.000 | you're basically leaving money on the table.

00:57:00.720 | It's rare that you can time it

00:57:03.400 | so that you come back exactly empty.

00:57:06.320 | And in many cases, you can do much better

00:57:10.280 | if you use something like GasBuddy,

00:57:11.560 | or even if you're a Costco member,

00:57:13.560 | you can get discounted gas there.

00:57:15.040 | So it's something that, it's a convenient option,

00:57:18.840 | but it's definitely not the most cost-effective option.

00:57:20.800 | We recommend that people fill up themselves,

00:57:23.820 | either on the way back to the rental car location,

00:57:25.600 | or if you've got an early morning flight,

00:57:27.080 | fill up the car the night before.

00:57:29.440 | Generally, as long as you're within 10 miles or so

00:57:32.040 | at the airport, the car's still gonna register full

00:57:35.360 | when you roll into the location.

00:57:38.200 | - Let's talk about the one other big thing

00:57:39.480 | people are always trying to sell you,

00:57:40.560 | which seems like insurance.

00:57:42.060 | I've always operated on the assumption,

00:57:44.400 | just use my credit card that includes

00:57:46.000 | primary rental coverage, decline everything.

00:57:48.840 | Is that generally a good plan?

00:57:51.200 | - Yes, primary car rental credit cards,

00:57:55.000 | primary car rental insurance cards

00:57:57.120 | are definitely the number one way

00:57:59.080 | to avoid the rental car company's pricey insurance.

00:58:03.020 | What most people don't realize is that

00:58:04.560 | if you own your own car,

00:58:06.200 | you're almost certainly covered when renting,

00:58:08.640 | and that includes for both collision and for liability.

00:58:12.740 | Credit card insurance also will help.

00:58:16.880 | In many cases, the non-premium cards

00:58:19.720 | provide secondary insurance,

00:58:21.120 | and that essentially means that the credit card

00:58:23.680 | will not pay out until your personal insurance

00:58:27.240 | pays out first.

00:58:28.440 | But the premium cards typically include

00:58:30.540 | primary car rental insurance,

00:58:31.720 | which means you do not have to file a claim

00:58:33.400 | with your personal insurance company,

00:58:35.160 | and the credit card company insurance will pay out first.

00:58:38.640 | And the better cards have excellent insurance.

00:58:42.740 | There is really no reason to pay for the pricey insurance

00:58:46.080 | offered by the car rental companies.

00:58:47.880 | That said, if you don't own your own vehicle,

00:58:52.240 | it probably means you don't have liability insurance,

00:58:54.720 | and your credit card insurance,

00:58:56.000 | while it will cover you for damage done to the rental car,

00:58:59.040 | it will not cover you for the accident that you had

00:59:01.820 | where your rear-ended a $90,000 Mercedes,

00:59:04.480 | and that insurance company is coming after you

00:59:08.500 | for the damage done to their vehicle,

00:59:10.440 | and/or if there were injuries

00:59:12.960 | to the other parties in the accident.

00:59:15.620 | So you are taking a risk

00:59:17.600 | if you don't have liability insurance,

00:59:19.160 | and unfortunately, credit cards

00:59:20.520 | do not provide liability insurance.

00:59:23.000 | It's rare that you find a third-party company

00:59:24.880 | that will provide it.

00:59:25.720 | So that's something that you may have no choice but to take

00:59:28.280 | from the car rental company.

00:59:29.720 | Otherwise, you're adding some risk to your own situation.

00:59:33.720 | - So if you don't own a car,

00:59:35.000 | you can still get the liability coverage from the rental car

00:59:38.160 | and decline the collision coverage, correct?

00:59:41.400 | - That is correct.

00:59:42.560 | - And is there any policy if you're a frequent renter

00:59:45.120 | and you don't own a car?

00:59:46.080 | Is there like a non-owner car policy

00:59:48.220 | that'll cover you in other cars?

00:59:50.160 | - Sounds like you've done your research.

00:59:51.600 | Yes, there are non-owner policies,

00:59:53.440 | and if you are a frequent renter,

00:59:55.320 | it's definitely something that's worth looking into.

00:59:58.080 | Non-owner policies will cover you

00:59:59.800 | for both collision and liability.

01:00:01.660 | Typically, I would say that if you rent

01:00:05.200 | more than about five times a year,

01:00:06.840 | a non-owner policy can make a difference,

01:00:08.920 | and they will provide you with that coverage,

01:00:12.760 | the liability coverage and collision coverage.

01:00:15.720 | And if your credit card has coverage,

01:00:17.640 | it will provide an extra layer on top of that as well.

01:00:21.320 | - Yeah, I'll flag one thing.

01:00:22.160 | I was looking at cars.

01:00:23.000 | This is again for my au pair's trip,

01:00:24.680 | and she was going to California and Nevada.

01:00:27.580 | And in Nevada, I believe all the rental cars

01:00:30.200 | come with some base liability coverage,

01:00:32.760 | which depending on your financial situation

01:00:34.760 | might just not be enough.

01:00:36.000 | And so I do wanna ask about excess liability.

01:00:41.000 | Do you ever need more liability coverage

01:00:42.920 | than maybe what is included if it's mandated by a state?

01:00:46.200 | - It's important to remember that the rental car companies

01:00:49.000 | provide whatever the state mandated minimum is.

01:00:51.880 | And in California, that's essentially zero.

01:00:54.920 | California is somewhat unique in that regard,

01:00:57.280 | but even in other states

01:00:58.440 | where let's say it's $25,000 liability,

01:01:01.320 | not only is it low,

01:01:02.840 | but it also doesn't stop the car rental company

01:01:04.920 | from coming after you.

01:01:05.840 | So for example, if let's say you get into an accident

01:01:08.600 | and you total someone else's car,

01:01:10.460 | and then there's a claim against the liability insurance,

01:01:13.840 | that's the rental car company's liability insurance.

01:01:16.120 | The rental car company owns the vehicle that is insured

01:01:19.080 | and they are the ones who are the beneficiary of it.

01:01:22.280 | So if there's nothing stopping Avis from coming after you

01:01:26.280 | and saying, "Hey, yeah, our liability policy

01:01:28.760 | "covered 25,000 of this $40,000 claim,

01:01:31.900 | "but we're gonna come after you for the entire amount

01:01:34.640 | "because you weren't the insured, we were the insured."

01:01:37.920 | So they could charge you

01:01:39.220 | for the entire amount of the claim there,

01:01:41.440 | or they could just charge you for the difference

01:01:43.360 | between what the insured amount was

01:01:45.520 | and what the overage is.

01:01:47.400 | There's no guarantee,

01:01:48.900 | and you are not the primary beneficiary of that insurance.

01:01:53.120 | Unlike if you take the policy from the car rental company,

01:01:56.120 | that typically will provide you

01:01:57.320 | with up to a million dollars in coverage.

01:01:59.040 | That's a pretty standard amount.

01:02:01.380 | - And what about,

01:02:02.220 | one thing I heard you talk about in the past

01:02:03.320 | that I didn't quite grasp,

01:02:04.320 | if you book with points,

01:02:05.720 | then you're not actually putting the rental on your card.

01:02:08.300 | So are you actually still covered

01:02:09.660 | even if you're paying the taxes

01:02:10.920 | by your credit card's coverage?

01:02:12.600 | - You know, there's a lot of debate online about this.

01:02:14.540 | Well, you know, if you didn't pay

01:02:15.960 | for the entire amount of the rental on your card,

01:02:19.120 | then technically, you know, are you covered?

01:02:22.000 | We've never gotten a definitive answer from this.

01:02:24.760 | The credit card companies don't typically,

01:02:27.720 | you know, wanna create a ruling, a precedent.

01:02:31.000 | But by and large, what we found is that

01:02:32.960 | if you use the card for the deposit

01:02:34.800 | and there's some form of fee put on the card,

01:02:37.140 | even if it's just the taxes,

01:02:39.400 | the credit card company insurance will kick in.

01:02:42.440 | The other thing that I sometimes recommend is,

01:02:43.960 | let's say you rent on points

01:02:45.780 | and it's like a three-day rental.

01:02:49.380 | You could just, let's say you have an accident with the car,

01:02:51.520 | you could just return a day late

01:02:52.760 | and then that's gonna put some charge on the card.

01:02:55.360 | Or let's say the card is total,

01:02:56.720 | what you could do is you could take some options,

01:02:59.120 | add satellite radio or add a prepaid, you know,

01:03:02.340 | tank of gas or something like that.

01:03:03.680 | And I said, you know,

01:03:04.960 | previously don't take the prepaid fuel,

01:03:07.440 | but hey, if that's a way to, you know,

01:03:08.840 | on a points booking to add some sort of tangible amount

01:03:12.040 | onto the credit card

01:03:12.880 | so the rental car company can say,

01:03:14.080 | "Hey, you did put the rental on your credit card

01:03:17.520 | "in terms of a charge."

01:03:18.840 | That may be the difference between, you know,

01:03:20.560 | getting paid or not.

01:03:22.100 | It's not something I really think about all that often

01:03:24.740 | in terms of, will my credit card cover me

01:03:27.040 | if I was on a points booking?

01:03:29.600 | But it can, you know, get into the legalese

01:03:32.720 | in terms of what's covered and what's not.

01:03:35.400 | - What about, I know Amex has a rental car coverage,

01:03:37.640 | they actually cost money.

01:03:38.920 | And I keep, I never understand why anyone would use that

01:03:41.120 | if assuming they had another card that included coverage.

01:03:44.680 | Is there ever a use case where that makes sense?

01:03:47.280 | - You know, the Amex coverage is called Amex PCRP

01:03:50.400 | or Premium Car Rental Protection.

01:03:52.040 | And the way it works is that you opt into it.

01:03:54.380 | And anytime you rent,

01:03:55.780 | they're gonna charge your card for that amount.

01:03:58.240 | It can be worthwhile

01:04:01.520 | if you have no other coverage available

01:04:03.560 | because it is primary insurance

01:04:06.560 | and they'll charge you per rental, not per day.

01:04:09.140 | So it can work out well.

01:04:10.920 | But that said, I mean,

01:04:12.120 | some of the better cards out there like the Chase Sapphire,

01:04:15.200 | the Chase Inc, United Mileage Plus Explorer,

01:04:17.840 | the ones that offer primary car rental protection,

01:04:20.460 | that coverage is as good or better

01:04:21.920 | than what Amex offers as a paid fee.

01:04:25.400 | I personally use the Chase Inc cards when I'm renting.

01:04:28.320 | I think it's excellent coverage

01:04:29.560 | and I've never had an issue with any claim being denied.

01:04:32.180 | So that's something that I feel is easy to recommend

01:04:37.180 | and I would not recommend the Amex coverage,

01:04:40.080 | especially 'cause there's an additional fee.

01:04:41.980 | You're basically,

01:04:43.080 | you're getting a premium card to get those benefits.

01:04:45.840 | Why not take advantage of those benefits?

01:04:47.920 | - What about all these extra fees?

01:04:49.100 | So I know if I've had an extra driver,

01:04:51.560 | there've been times in the past I've had to pay

01:04:54.040 | when I was younger than I think 25, I had to pay fees.

01:04:56.880 | Are there any ways to get rid of those fees,

01:04:58.680 | avoid those fees, kind of get the rental down,

01:05:01.640 | even things like renting a car seat?

01:05:03.840 | - The best way for under 25 renters

01:05:06.140 | to avoid that underage fee is to rent with Hertz

01:05:08.560 | and be a member of AAA.

01:05:10.720 | AAA members as young as 20 years old

01:05:13.360 | can rent from Hertz with the AAA discount code.

01:05:16.400 | It's not enough to just be a member of AAA,

01:05:18.400 | you have to rent using the AAA discount code

01:05:20.840 | and that will waive the underage fee,

01:05:22.760 | at least in the U.S. for drivers 20 to 24 years old.

01:05:27.520 | It's not as easy with the other companies.

01:05:29.640 | You have to either be on some sort of corporate discount

01:05:32.440 | to waive the fee in other cases.

01:05:36.800 | Hertz far and away, I think they're really targeted

01:05:40.480 | that under 25 segment and quite successfully.

01:05:44.080 | So between the ability to waive the underage fees

01:05:46.920 | as well as the discount you get with AAA,

01:05:49.840 | it's a no brainer for young drivers to sign up for AAA.

01:05:54.520 | You also mentioned car seat.

01:05:56.000 | Another nice thing about AAA discount

01:05:57.860 | is that it will give you one free child seat per rental

01:06:01.840 | and that can add up to up to $65.

01:06:04.080 | So if you're renting, if the car seat is, let's say,

01:06:06.880 | 13.99 a day in a one week rental,

01:06:10.000 | you can easily pay for the cost of the AAA membership.

01:06:13.440 | So it's quite a good deal.

01:06:16.120 | And that doesn't even take into account

01:06:18.680 | the fact that if you have a problem with the rental car,

01:06:21.240 | you've got roadside service, if you get locked out,

01:06:23.400 | if you run out of gas, if you get a flat tire.

01:06:26.320 | A lot of people will call the rental car company

01:06:28.440 | if they have a flat tire and the rental car company

01:06:30.160 | is like, "Sure, no problem.

01:06:31.000 | "We'll send out a tow truck for you."

01:06:32.920 | But what they don't realize is that

01:06:34.640 | rental car companies offer what they call roadside service

01:06:37.400 | as an additional fee.

01:06:38.720 | And that's akin to a AAA type service.

01:06:41.080 | And if they send out a tow truck to you,

01:06:43.040 | they're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

01:06:44.920 | They're probably gonna charge you for that tow

01:06:47.920 | and for the time and probably for the new tire as well.

01:06:51.800 | Whereas if you've got AAA, hey, you call AAA.

01:06:54.400 | Let's say, the tire has just got a nail in it or whatever.

01:06:57.440 | AAA will tow you to the nearest garage.

01:06:59.240 | They'll plug the hole.

01:07:00.620 | You return the car, not a big deal, no additional charge.

01:07:04.820 | Whereas if you go to the rental car company,

01:07:07.560 | you can end up paying three, $400

01:07:09.440 | by the time the hole's said and done.

01:07:11.000 | So it's definitely something

01:07:12.240 | that you need to take into account.

01:07:14.240 | - What about extra drivers?

01:07:15.400 | I know the one thing that I had,

01:07:17.240 | this is probably a two-part thing.

01:07:19.320 | We were picking up a car in Park City

01:07:20.840 | and it was me and my dad.

01:07:22.360 | And we looked and we were like, "Gosh, the line is so long."

01:07:26.000 | But there was no way to even add an extra.

01:07:27.880 | So first off, there was an extra driver fee

01:07:29.320 | that I would have loved to avoid.

01:07:31.000 | Second off, there was no way that we could figure out

01:07:33.420 | how to add the extra driver after the fact or in advance.

01:07:37.040 | So we were gonna have to wait in the line.

01:07:38.960 | For either of those,

01:07:39.800 | is there anything we could have done differently?

01:07:41.480 | - So it's a two-part answer here.

01:07:42.980 | So first off, for avoiding the extra driver fee,

01:07:47.240 | if you are a AAA member,

01:07:48.440 | you automatically get an extra driver.

01:07:51.280 | Technically, that driver also has to be a AAA member,

01:07:54.500 | but the reality is that there's spotting enforcement on that.

01:07:59.120 | If you are a Costco member

01:08:00.400 | and you're renting with the Costco discount code

01:08:02.080 | with Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise,

01:08:05.760 | there is also an included additional driver.

01:08:08.240 | If you are renting from various companies,

01:08:11.560 | for example, Avis, Budget, Alamo, National, Enterprise,

01:08:15.320 | they let spouses drive for free.

01:08:17.500 | And if you're renting in California,

01:08:20.440 | family members can drive for free.

01:08:21.880 | It's interesting, up until about a year ago,

01:08:23.980 | anyone could be an additional driver

01:08:25.920 | on a rental in California

01:08:27.040 | and the rental car companies were prohibited

01:08:29.240 | from charging an additional fee by law,

01:08:32.280 | but the rental car companies

01:08:33.400 | have been lobbying the state for a while.

01:08:36.520 | So they kind of neutered that policy a little bit.

01:08:39.400 | Now, family members can drive for free,

01:08:41.480 | but if it's a non-related person,

01:08:44.860 | that person will have to pay an additional driver fee

01:08:46.800 | unless, of course, it's waived

01:08:48.080 | through the additional discounts that I spoke about.

01:08:51.760 | So that's in terms of getting the fee waived.

01:08:56.160 | We've got a blog post on our site

01:08:57.760 | that goes through all the situations,

01:08:59.600 | where and when and how.

01:09:01.440 | Also, when we offer rentals to customers on our site,

01:09:04.600 | it'll tell you exactly which offerings

01:09:07.000 | include an additional driver,

01:09:08.480 | which offerings allow spouses to drive for free.

01:09:10.560 | So we try to be very transparent

01:09:12.460 | in terms of letting our customers know

01:09:13.880 | which deal provides which benefits.

01:09:16.440 | As far as actually adding the additional driver,

01:09:18.520 | if you are a loyalty member,

01:09:20.480 | meaning if you're using Hertz Ultimate Choice,

01:09:23.200 | National Emerald Club,

01:09:25.120 | if you're picking your own vehicle

01:09:27.320 | and driving to the exit booth,

01:09:28.440 | there's no need to wait in line.

01:09:29.840 | The additional driver can be added

01:09:31.920 | on the spot at the exit booth.

01:09:34.300 | So you don't need to wait in line

01:09:36.720 | and add the driver beforehand.

01:09:38.960 | It can be added at the contract.

01:09:40.280 | You just basically hand your driver's license

01:09:43.680 | through the window, as well as the additional driver,

01:09:45.560 | and they'll scan it right there at the exit booth.

01:09:47.200 | So it's pretty easy to do.

01:09:49.600 | You can even add an additional driver after the fact.

01:09:52.240 | So for example, let's say you are flying out to Las Vegas

01:09:56.080 | and your friend is not arriving until the following day

01:09:59.320 | and you will pick up the rental car,

01:10:01.100 | you could actually go back to the rental car office

01:10:03.340 | or any office of the same rental car company,

01:10:05.420 | and you can go and add that person

01:10:07.220 | to the rental car contract after the fact.

01:10:10.120 | And that means that if you're picking up at an airport,

01:10:12.880 | you could go to an off-airport location

01:10:14.620 | where it's not busy,

01:10:15.740 | and then the additional driver

01:10:16.920 | just has to show the driver's license.

01:10:18.360 | They will add the extra renter

01:10:20.240 | to the contract at that time.

01:10:21.480 | So there are a lot of different ways

01:10:23.240 | that you can slice and dice that.

01:10:25.760 | - I know nobody wants to wait in line,

01:10:27.320 | but I do wanna know, if you are gonna wait in line,

01:10:30.880 | is there any trick to score a free upgrade?

01:10:33.320 | - There's lots of tricks,

01:10:34.800 | but the best trick is being nice.

01:10:37.520 | It's walking up there with a smile on your face

01:10:39.720 | and asking if you can get a complimentary upgrade.

01:10:42.120 | If you have your heart set on an SUV

01:10:44.160 | and you've reserved a compact car,

01:10:46.240 | smile and ask them if it's possible to,

01:10:50.560 | they may have some SUVs available.

01:10:52.520 | You know, another little known trick

01:10:56.240 | is if you're in the lot

01:10:58.960 | and you're choosing your own vehicle,

01:11:00.800 | maybe there's a row of Camrys

01:11:02.600 | and there's really nothing appealing there.

01:11:04.600 | Those lot attendants have a lot of leeway

01:11:06.760 | in terms of what gets assigned to what area.

01:11:08.720 | So you can speak with a lot of attendants.

01:11:11.080 | There are people who have been known to provide a little tip

01:11:14.160 | or maybe a donut or something like that,

01:11:16.380 | or a muffin if it's early in the morning.

01:11:18.000 | You know, there's definitely ways

01:11:21.280 | to kind of get some special treatment there

01:11:24.400 | if you're creative about it.

01:11:25.880 | I needed a minivan.

01:11:28.600 | I had rented a mid-sized car and I really needed a minivan.

01:11:31.320 | And I spoke with one of the lot attendants

01:11:32.960 | and he hooked me up and it was definitely a good score.

01:11:37.240 | So, you know, these guys wield a lot of power,

01:11:40.200 | but I would say overall, if you're renting at an airport,

01:11:43.240 | you really want to be a member of the loyalty program

01:11:45.280 | because being able to choose your own vehicle

01:11:47.680 | is key and even if that vehicle that you're interested in

01:11:50.560 | is not in that area,

01:11:52.160 | you can get a little bit of leeway

01:11:55.440 | by working the lot a little bit.

01:11:57.360 | - Finally, you've got your car.

01:11:59.360 | What do you do if you see these dents, dengs?

01:12:01.880 | A lot of times the rental car person's like,

01:12:04.040 | "Oh no, it's so small, you don't have to worry about it."

01:12:06.560 | Is it important to document

01:12:07.800 | every little imperfection in the car?

01:12:10.040 | - If you're renting in the US

01:12:11.320 | and you're renting from a major company,

01:12:13.240 | you do not need to document every tiny little scratch

01:12:15.880 | and ding on the car.

01:12:17.380 | You're gonna have scuffs typically at the back

01:12:20.240 | where people were dragging luggage out of the trunk.

01:12:23.160 | People open up car doors and parking lots

01:12:25.680 | and ding the driver's side and the passenger side doors.

01:12:30.680 | The general rule of thumb is

01:12:32.040 | unless the dent is larger than a quarter,

01:12:34.480 | the rental car companies aren't gonna bother you about it.

01:12:37.800 | But that said, it's always good to protect yourself.

01:12:41.280 | I typically will either take pictures

01:12:43.560 | and/or just take a video.

01:12:44.840 | I put my iPhone into video mode

01:12:46.640 | and I literally just walk around the car

01:12:48.560 | and I take a video of the entire car.

01:12:51.100 | I take it from different angles.

01:12:52.560 | I make sure I catch the roof, the front windshield,

01:12:57.400 | and certainly any areas

01:12:58.960 | where there might be imperfections there.

01:13:01.800 | And I try to capture the fact that I'm at the rental lot

01:13:04.840 | and I try to capture the employee in the video as well.

01:13:07.720 | Obviously there's privacy issues,

01:13:09.120 | but I'm not trying to call anyone out,

01:13:10.920 | but I wanna make sure it's obvious

01:13:12.560 | that this is what the car looked like

01:13:14.080 | when I picked up the car.

01:13:16.080 | And this way, if you ever return the car

01:13:17.960 | and there's ever any question,

01:13:19.720 | you've got a video right there and say,

01:13:21.080 | "Look, I drove the car out of the lot.

01:13:23.760 | "This is the video.

01:13:24.600 | "It's a date, timestamp video

01:13:26.260 | "that shows exactly what the car looked like.

01:13:27.840 | "So how are you gonna accuse me of doing this dent

01:13:31.660 | "or the scratch over here?"

01:13:34.220 | So that's number one.

01:13:35.260 | We also recommend doing the exact same thing

01:13:37.160 | at rental return.

01:13:38.500 | It's not uncommon.

01:13:40.560 | Well, I shouldn't say it's not uncommon.

01:13:42.040 | It has been known to happen

01:13:43.640 | where the rental car company will mail you days,

01:13:46.960 | weeks, even months later and say,

01:13:48.600 | "Hey, we found damage on a vehicle

01:13:50.060 | "that you previously returned.

01:13:51.740 | "We're now gonna charge you $1,400 for this big dent.

01:13:54.480 | "And you know for a fact that you returned the car

01:13:56.520 | "and there was no problem with it."

01:13:58.640 | Having a documented video or photos

01:14:01.860 | that show that you're in the return area

01:14:04.200 | may go a long way to be able to dispute

01:14:07.040 | those sorts of claims if and when they do come up.

01:14:10.160 | We also recommend taking a photo.

01:14:12.920 | We recommend taking your gas receipt

01:14:14.960 | and putting it on the dashboard

01:14:16.320 | and taking a photo of the dashboard,

01:14:18.560 | showing the mileage, the fuel level, and the gas receipt.

01:14:21.240 | This way, nobody can say you returned the car

01:14:23.480 | with less than a full tank of gas.

01:14:24.960 | No one can say that the mileage was wrong

01:14:29.240 | or that you drove an excessive amount of mileage.

01:14:30.920 | So these are like small things

01:14:32.480 | that you can do to protect yourself.

01:14:34.600 | By and large, most people return and never have any issues,

01:14:38.720 | but it's important to protect yourself

01:14:40.400 | in those situations where it might happen.

01:14:43.200 | - And you mentioned when you're in the US,

01:14:44.840 | how does all of this change internationally?

01:14:47.880 | - Well, it's important to remember that internationally,

01:14:50.760 | you may be renting from a large firm

01:14:53.760 | and that may be a corporate location.

01:14:55.560 | For example, in a lot of places in Europe,

01:14:57.960 | Hertz is basically, Hertz Europe is another company,

01:15:01.520 | but it's effectively part of Hertz Global Holdings.

01:15:04.960 | But then there are other places where

01:15:07.040 | you're basically renting for a franchise.

01:15:08.800 | It's a local company that is subcontracting

01:15:11.400 | with the major firm, be it Enterprise or Hertz or Avis,

01:15:14.560 | and they're basically putting the brand logo

01:15:19.080 | and they're using the reservation system,

01:15:20.480 | but it's essentially a local company.

01:15:22.320 | And the policies and the tactics that they use

01:15:27.000 | may be quite different.

01:15:28.280 | I'm always more careful.

01:15:29.680 | I'm more on my guard outside the US.

01:15:31.400 | I always take that extra time to take a full video,

01:15:36.400 | document every little scratch.

01:15:37.720 | We've definitely heard of situations outside the US

01:15:39.840 | where they'll go over the car

01:15:41.280 | with a fine tooth comb on return,

01:15:44.240 | and they'll try to get you for every little imperfection.

01:15:46.360 | So it's something that you wanna be extra careful

01:15:48.880 | of outside the US.

01:15:49.800 | But generally, the major companies within the US,

01:15:53.400 | they're really not.

01:15:54.240 | They have better things to do with their time

01:15:56.000 | than get you on every little ding and dent,

01:15:58.160 | but that can be quite different elsewhere.

01:16:00.760 | - Any other major scams or tricks or tips

01:16:03.680 | or hacks for international rentals?

01:16:05.840 | - I would say that, make sure you get a receipt.

01:16:08.320 | You really wanna check the rental car contract

01:16:11.120 | before you leave the rental car desk.

01:16:12.680 | Make sure that it matches with your originally quoted rate.

01:16:15.320 | And if there are any add-ons,

01:16:16.440 | make sure they're being charged correctly.

01:16:18.200 | And then you wanna get a receipt when you leave.

01:16:20.680 | And this goes not only for internationally,

01:16:22.280 | this goes for the US as well.

01:16:24.320 | There have been many cases recently documented

01:16:27.040 | where the rental car company says,

01:16:29.080 | "Oh, just leave the car, we'll send you an email receipt."

01:16:31.560 | And then the person leaves and gets on the flight home

01:16:33.360 | and realizes three days later,

01:16:34.560 | they never got an email receipt.

01:16:36.080 | And then all of a sudden,

01:16:36.920 | the fraud prevention department calls and says,

01:16:38.840 | "Hey, how come you never returned this car?"

01:16:40.720 | And the guy's like, "What are you talking about?

01:16:42.000 | "I returned the car three days ago.

01:16:43.160 | "Your agent checked it in."

01:16:45.320 | And they're like, "Well, we don't have any record

01:16:47.080 | "of you returning it."

01:16:48.080 | Well, the problem is that you left the lot

01:16:50.560 | without a printed receipt.

01:16:52.760 | So that can be problematic.

01:16:54.240 | So we really recommend taking an extra couple of minutes

01:16:57.280 | and getting a printed receipt.

01:16:59.080 | This way you have documented proof

01:17:00.520 | that you returned the vehicle.

01:17:02.240 | Again, going back to that video that I mentioned earlier

01:17:04.440 | to make sure you cover any damage claims,

01:17:07.720 | that'll also show that you returned the car,

01:17:09.680 | the videos and the photos are date, time stamped.

01:17:12.960 | You really wanna have just a little bit of extra evidence

01:17:15.000 | just in case things go sideways.

01:17:16.720 | And that's actually true if you're running internationally.

01:17:19.800 | - Okay, last international question.

01:17:21.160 | I was considering booking a rental car

01:17:23.320 | when we went on a trip to Cabo last year,

01:17:25.400 | and I was blown away that the rental cars

01:17:26.920 | were like a couple dollars a day.

01:17:29.160 | This was still in the middle of COVID

01:17:31.480 | when it seemed like all anyone could talk about

01:17:33.000 | was expensive rental cars.

01:17:34.640 | We ended up not renting a car, but is there some trick there?

01:17:38.120 | - Well, the trick is that the rental car companies

01:17:39.560 | will give you an abnormally low rate

01:17:42.280 | and they'll basically force the insurance on you.

01:17:44.880 | When renting in Mexico, liability insurance is mandatory

01:17:47.760 | and it technically is possible to get liability insurance

01:17:52.280 | on your own, but it's very challenging to do so.

01:17:55.640 | Some companies are better than others

01:17:57.040 | and some locations are better than others.

01:17:58.640 | Avis tends to be better.

01:18:00.760 | You'll see higher daily rates with Avis,

01:18:03.880 | but they will include liability insurance in their rates.

01:18:06.680 | Whereas with, for example, national,

01:18:08.800 | you might see like a $5 a day rate,

01:18:10.800 | but you're gonna end up paying $25 a day in liability.

01:18:13.640 | So usually there's no free lunch.

01:18:16.280 | If you see an abnormally low base rate,

01:18:19.400 | you're probably gonna end up paying for it elsewhere.

01:18:22.080 | - I think we hit like every question I had on car rentals.

01:18:24.480 | Hopefully if anyone's listening,

01:18:25.800 | that was all the questions you guys have ever written in

01:18:28.040 | and we covered it all.

01:18:30.240 | I wanna talk about two things.

01:18:31.560 | One, we talked about auto slash throughout

01:18:34.120 | this whole process.

01:18:35.960 | I wanna make sure people really get it

01:18:37.160 | because you don't have to actually use it

01:18:38.720 | to even book your reservation.

01:18:40.400 | You can actually just submit the reservation, right?

01:18:43.000 | - Right, you can use auto slash two ways.

01:18:45.280 | Number one is you can request a quote.

01:18:47.400 | We ask you where you're picking up,

01:18:48.880 | when you're picking up, where you're dropping off,

01:18:51.080 | and then we ask you which organizations you're a member of,

01:18:54.400 | which discounts you qualify for.

01:18:56.240 | So for example, if you're a AAA member or a Costco member,

01:18:59.300 | if you're a member of AARP, if you're old like me

01:19:01.480 | and you've got AARP membership,

01:19:02.680 | hey, that could get you a great deal.

01:19:04.400 | And then what we do is we send you an email

01:19:07.320 | within about five minutes, we crunch the numbers,

01:19:09.200 | we let you know where the best deal is.

01:19:11.560 | You could go and you could go and crunch the numbers

01:19:15.280 | yourself, you can go and go to 10 different websites

01:19:18.320 | and try to beat our rate.

01:19:20.000 | You can go and compare the AAA rate versus the Costco rate

01:19:22.960 | versus the AARP rate and maintain a spreadsheet,

01:19:25.620 | but it's unlikely you're gonna be able to find

01:19:27.680 | a lower rate than what we can offer.

01:19:29.200 | You're welcome to try.

01:19:31.140 | But the thing is, just because you have the best rate today

01:19:33.940 | doesn't mean you're gonna have the best rate tomorrow

01:19:35.740 | or next week or even the day before you pick up the car.

01:19:38.380 | And that's why we offer a tracking function.

01:19:40.260 | And essentially what happens is after you book your rental,

01:19:43.020 | you track your reservation with us

01:19:44.940 | and we will keep looking for better deals

01:19:46.660 | right up until the day that you pick up your car.

01:19:48.900 | Rental rates fluctuate all the time.

01:19:51.100 | We will find you the best deal upfront,

01:19:53.740 | but oftentimes the customers who do the best with us

01:19:56.620 | are the ones who are tracking their reservation with us.

01:19:58.980 | Some customers get three, four, five,

01:20:01.040 | sometimes 10 price drops over the course of a few months,

01:20:04.300 | and that can get the price down by upwards of 40%.

01:20:07.760 | And the great thing is you don't even have to book

01:20:09.640 | with AutoSlash to start with.

01:20:10.840 | You can book anywhere you want.

01:20:12.240 | If you're a big kayak fan,

01:20:13.960 | if you wanna book with Costco Travel,

01:20:15.480 | if you wanna book directly with National, go for it.

01:20:18.400 | Book your reservation wherever you want.

01:20:19.960 | Come to our website, click on Track My Rental,

01:20:22.360 | and it's a free service.

01:20:23.600 | We'll keep checking for better deals

01:20:25.440 | and we'll let you know if we can find a lower rate.

01:20:27.320 | So it's one of those things where it's a no-brainer.

01:20:29.820 | You have nothing to lose and everything to save.

01:20:32.540 | - And how do you guys make money?

01:20:34.220 | - We make a small commission on each rental.

01:20:36.180 | It doesn't cost the renter anything,

01:20:38.500 | but we work with various partners in the industry

01:20:40.700 | and we're making a small commission on the rental

01:20:43.580 | for the ability to go and find those great deals for you.

01:20:47.140 | - And how often do customers save money on price drops?

01:20:50.660 | Is this like one in a hundred people the price comes down

01:20:53.620 | or closer to almost everyone?

01:20:56.220 | - Two out of three people will save money

01:20:57.840 | on a rental via price drops

01:21:00.300 | if you're booking more than a week out.

01:21:02.360 | So the savings can be significant.

01:21:04.720 | Typically, we will save people up to 30%

01:21:07.400 | off their initial booking.

01:21:08.800 | You will likely save another 20%

01:21:10.920 | if you're tracking the price with us.

01:21:13.960 | - And is there any stat you guys track

01:21:16.160 | of all the total dollars you've saved people?

01:21:18.400 | - We've saved people over $100 million.

01:21:22.040 | We've been in business for about 12 years now

01:21:24.320 | and the savings exceed $100 million at this point.

01:21:27.420 | - That's amazing.

01:21:28.260 | Okay, so we talked all about rental cars,

01:21:29.740 | but I gotta ask, what about other things?

01:21:32.020 | Hotels, airfare, any tricks there?

01:21:34.340 | - It's interesting you mentioned hotels.

01:21:37.060 | We've got a new site called Hotel Slash.

01:21:39.460 | Hotel Slash is intended to get people great deals

01:21:42.540 | on hotels, just like cars.

01:21:44.420 | It works a little bit different in the hotel industry

01:21:46.380 | than car rentals.

01:21:48.100 | We're not applying coupons, discount codes.

01:21:50.820 | We're working with various partners in the industry

01:21:52.500 | to get the best possible deals for folks.

01:21:55.200 | But we're also offering,

01:21:56.560 | similarly to Auto Slash, a tracking function.

01:21:58.960 | And that works whether you're booked with us initially

01:22:01.280 | or if you booked elsewhere,

01:22:02.540 | if you wanna go book with Booking.com or Expedia,

01:22:06.160 | you can come and track your hotel reservation with us

01:22:08.840 | and we'll let you know if we find a better deal.

01:22:11.120 | It's a great way to save money.

01:22:12.860 | There is price volatility on the hotel side

01:22:15.480 | as well as the car rental side.

01:22:17.580 | So we help get a great wholesale rate up front

01:22:20.840 | and then we track the price of that rental.

01:22:22.680 | And if we find a better deal,

01:22:23.820 | we'll let you know so you can rebook.

01:22:25.520 | So it's a great way to save additional money.

01:22:28.640 | - I've always told a lot of people

01:22:29.800 | that if you're booking hotels,

01:22:31.160 | there's usually a decent advantage

01:22:33.360 | of trying to book directly

01:22:35.320 | because you wanna earn points,

01:22:36.920 | you wanna earn stuff like that.

01:22:38.040 | Is that the case with you guys?

01:22:39.480 | Can you still put in a loyalty number

01:22:41.000 | and earn points on your reservation?

01:22:43.280 | - So we don't offer the ability to put in a loyalty number,

01:22:45.480 | but oftentimes when you arrive at the hotel,

01:22:48.320 | you can ask to have them put the loyalty number

01:22:50.680 | on the reservation.

01:22:51.600 | It's not guaranteed.

01:22:52.720 | Some hotels will be willing to do it.

01:22:54.500 | Some hotels won't,

01:22:56.200 | but it's certainly something that you can try.

01:22:58.940 | As far as getting upgrades and that sort of thing,

01:23:02.200 | you can get an upgrade

01:23:03.240 | if you're using your loyalty membership.

01:23:05.320 | But then again, if we're able to save you 30%

01:23:07.240 | off the cost of the hotel reservation,

01:23:09.800 | you know, it may be worth the savings there.

01:23:12.000 | So we always recommend trying it both ways.

01:23:14.240 | And if you wanna book directly with the hotel,

01:23:16.120 | nothing stops you.

01:23:16.960 | You can always track it with us

01:23:18.520 | and we'll let you know if we find a better deal.

01:23:20.360 | If we find you a discount that's, you know,

01:23:22.080 | maybe 30 bucks off your existing reservation,

01:23:24.720 | maybe you decide it's not worth it,

01:23:26.000 | you wanna earn points.

01:23:27.240 | If we find your rate that's $350 lower

01:23:29.640 | than your current reservation,

01:23:31.200 | a lot of folks will be tempted by those savings.

01:23:33.400 | So, you know, we don't wanna tell folks

01:23:35.560 | what's right for them.

01:23:36.800 | We just wanna present the savings

01:23:38.120 | that everyone can make their own informed decision.

01:23:40.560 | - I just went to the website for AutoSlash

01:23:42.160 | and I realized, okay,

01:23:43.000 | that's why I never heard of HotelSlash.

01:23:44.320 | It's not promoted on the AutoSlash site.

01:23:46.960 | So I went to a HotelSlash and you need a code.

01:23:50.120 | Is that something that you could provide

01:23:51.960 | or how do people get to check this out?

01:23:54.600 | - So we're at the end of our beta stage right now.

01:23:57.560 | We're gonna be rolling out HotelSlash publicly pretty soon.

01:23:59.920 | It is gonna be a membership-based service,

01:24:02.600 | but we're offering an early access code

01:24:05.520 | for all the listeners for your blog.

01:24:07.080 | So you can put in an early access code of all the hacks.

01:24:10.840 | No spaces, A-L-L-T-H-E-H-A-C-K-S,

01:24:13.720 | just one long string.

01:24:15.920 | And that will get you a lifetime access to HotelSlash.

01:24:19.120 | You will never have to pay a membership fee.

01:24:21.400 | You can request a code

01:24:22.400 | and it'll automatically sign you up.

01:24:23.920 | And it's a great way to save money on hotels.

01:24:27.040 | We're signing up.

01:24:27.880 | Even if you're not looking to stay right now,

01:24:29.760 | you may be looking to reserve a hotel in the future.

01:24:33.240 | So signing up now will get you

01:24:34.640 | that free access grandfathered in forever.

01:24:37.240 | - That's amazing.

01:24:38.080 | Okay, I'll put the link to that.

01:24:39.240 | And a lot of the stuff we talked in the show notes,

01:24:41.240 | some of the blog posts you mentioned,

01:24:42.560 | I'll try to find it all so people have that all there.

01:24:45.840 | Any other favorite travel tricks,

01:24:48.200 | hacks that you're known for that friends always,

01:24:50.600 | you can share with your friends and family

01:24:51.960 | that we should share before we take off?

01:24:53.880 | - I can talk about two things.

01:24:55.080 | One on the flight side.

01:24:57.360 | So I think with flights, it's interesting.

01:25:00.760 | COVID has changed airline ticket bookings

01:25:04.240 | in the sense that you have a lot more flexibility

01:25:06.360 | with ticket changes and cancellations.

01:25:10.160 | And that provides an opportunity to do something similar

01:25:12.440 | to what AutoSlash does in terms of price tracking.

01:25:15.160 | Google flights is a great tool

01:25:16.720 | for tracking your flight pricing.

01:25:18.880 | If the price of your flight drops,

01:25:20.720 | you can often rebook it and get a credit.

01:25:24.360 | JetBlue, Southwest, United, you can take those funds

01:25:27.920 | and put them into a travel bank type of situation

01:25:30.880 | where you can use them for future flights.

01:25:33.200 | If it's within 24 hours and the price drops,

01:25:35.760 | you can just cancel it for free and rebook

01:25:37.920 | if it's a flight reservation in the US.

01:25:40.680 | Google flights lets you track flight prices

01:25:44.480 | on a specific day.

01:25:45.520 | You can even go down to a specific flight

01:25:47.240 | and a specific airline.

01:25:48.240 | So it's a pretty easy way.

01:25:49.800 | Once you book your flight,

01:25:50.680 | just go to Google flights and track that.

01:25:53.320 | You know, it's an opportunity to potentially save there.

01:25:56.120 | So that's one little flight hack that I like.

01:25:58.360 | And then on the car rental side,

01:26:01.680 | one thing we've been noticing recently

01:26:03.240 | is that the car rental companies

01:26:04.720 | are requiring minimum rental lengths.

01:26:07.600 | It may be that you go and try to reserve a reservation

01:26:10.160 | and you put in a three-day rental request

01:26:13.280 | and no availability comes back.

01:26:15.360 | And that's because

01:26:16.520 | with the limited inventory available right now,

01:26:18.680 | the car rental companies in many cases

01:26:20.200 | don't want to rent cars for shorter periods of time.

01:26:22.920 | So there may be, for example,

01:26:24.280 | a five-day minimum required in order to rent.

01:26:26.920 | But if you go to a site like carrentals.com or Expedia,

01:26:30.200 | you would never know that.

01:26:31.240 | You would just go put in your request.

01:26:32.760 | They would say, "Sorry, nothing's found."

01:26:34.640 | And you're kind of left to wonder why, you know,

01:26:37.280 | there are no cars in Atlanta for, you know,

01:26:39.360 | over the coming weekend.

01:26:41.520 | AutoSlush is a little bit different.

01:26:42.800 | What we do is we will take your request.

01:26:45.240 | If we find no inventory, we will try various tactics

01:26:48.120 | in order to try to make availability appear.

01:26:50.600 | And one of the things that we had to start doing

01:26:52.360 | during COVID is we realized that if we extend the rental

01:26:55.160 | by anywhere from a few hours to a few days,

01:26:58.160 | that we can make availability appear almost out of thin air.

01:27:01.840 | So if you come in and request a quote from AutoSlush

01:27:04.040 | for a three-day rental in,

01:27:05.680 | let's say, the Atlanta airport over the weekend,

01:27:08.360 | we'll come back to you and say,

01:27:09.200 | "Hey, we couldn't find any availability for three days,

01:27:11.320 | but we found availability for a five-day rental.

01:27:13.960 | So we extended your return time by two days.

01:27:16.800 | Oh, but great news.

01:27:17.960 | You can still return it at your originally intended time.

01:27:20.800 | And the likelihood is that the car rental company

01:27:22.520 | will refund you for the unused days."

01:27:24.280 | So it's a great way of gaming the system.

01:27:26.360 | If you can't find availability, you can do this yourself.

01:27:28.760 | You don't need to use AutoSlush.

01:27:30.240 | Go and just try to add a few days onto the rental

01:27:32.320 | until you see the inventory start showing up.

01:27:35.400 | And then again, like I said,

01:27:36.720 | just return it when you originally planned to.

01:27:38.720 | And nine times out of 10, you're gonna get back money

01:27:41.440 | for the unused portion of the rentals.

01:27:43.440 | It's a great hack to use.

01:27:45.240 | - That brings up one last question.

01:27:47.120 | Let's say you make a reservation.

01:27:48.160 | You've got this great rate,

01:27:49.600 | and you need to come in a day early or leave a day late.

01:27:53.560 | Is that something, can you change rental car reservations

01:27:56.320 | without having to go back and rebook them

01:27:58.040 | and take advantage of the rate you booked?

01:27:59.960 | Or how does that work?

01:28:01.320 | - You cannot change a reservation

01:28:04.000 | without having it repriced to current rental rates.

01:28:06.840 | In some cases, that may be the same.

01:28:09.360 | It may be better.

01:28:10.360 | It may be much worse.

01:28:11.720 | We recommend coming to AutoSlush and requesting a new quote

01:28:15.920 | because we'll rerun all those numbers

01:28:17.520 | with all the current discounts.

01:28:19.320 | That said, if you're initially booked

01:28:21.680 | for let's say a 7 p.m. pickup and you're now changed

01:28:24.320 | your flight, you're arriving at noon, no problem at all.

01:28:26.760 | As long as it's the same day,

01:28:28.280 | you can go and you can pick up as early as you want.

01:28:31.080 | If you're trying to pick up the previous day,

01:28:32.640 | that's more problematic.

01:28:33.760 | You're probably gonna have an issue

01:28:34.840 | and you probably need to rebook the rental.

01:28:36.880 | Returning late is no problem at all.

01:28:39.480 | You can generally just go and return anytime you want.

01:28:43.600 | Obviously, you should call the rental car company

01:28:45.520 | if it's more than 24 hours past the time

01:28:47.960 | that you're scheduled to return.

01:28:49.400 | But the rental car company oftentimes

01:28:50.880 | will be willing to extend the rental.

01:28:52.840 | If it's less than one day that you're extending,

01:28:55.480 | you can usually just return and the rental car company

01:28:58.480 | will adjust the price automatically.

01:29:00.720 | - This has been fantastic.

01:29:01.720 | Thank you so much.

01:29:02.600 | So many good deals.

01:29:03.520 | I hope everybody saves money on rental cars,

01:29:05.360 | especially over the coming summer

01:29:07.280 | where I know they're pretty expensive.

01:29:08.960 | Thanks so much for being here.

01:29:10.760 | - It's been a pleasure, Chris.

01:29:11.600 | Thanks for having me.

01:29:12.440 | (upbeat music)

01:29:15.020 | - I really hope you enjoyed this episode.

01:29:25.560 | And if so, then you can be thankful

01:29:27.680 | for your fellow listener, Josh,

01:29:29.240 | who suggested I invite Jonathan on the show.

01:29:31.760 | So thank you so much, Josh.

01:29:33.960 | This episode was fantastic.

01:29:36.200 | Also, if you missed it last week,

01:29:37.880 | All The Hacks is up for the People's Choice Podcast Awards.

01:29:41.200 | And I think I have a shot of winning with your help.

01:29:44.080 | This site is a bit of a pain,

01:29:45.800 | but all you have to do is create an account

01:29:47.940 | and you can quickly vote after that.

01:29:49.880 | So if you wanna support me in the show,

01:29:51.500 | please go to allthehacks.com/vote

01:29:54.460 | and you can vote for All The Hacks

01:29:55.860 | in the People's Choice Award and the Education category.

01:29:58.960 | As silly as it may sound,

01:30:00.560 | being an award-winning podcast

01:30:02.200 | really helps with recruiting the best guests for the show.

01:30:05.100 | So thank you so much in advance for your help.

01:30:07.760 | Finally, if you have feedback, questions,

01:30:09.680 | or just wanna say hi,

01:30:11.440 | I'm Chris@allthehacks.com,

01:30:13.560 | or you can DM me on Instagram or Twitter,

01:30:16.140 | and I'll see you next week.

01:30:17.560 | you

Rental Car Apocalypse: Everything You Need to Know to Survive It.

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