Hertz Rental Norway - twice as dear if I book under Hertz Gold Plus

[OZDUCK]

(Well almost twice as dear.)

I am looking at booking a car in Norway for about 16 days in August. Booking directly through Hertz (the cheapest vehicles on most sites) rather than a site like rentalcars.com is almost the same price. I thought I would try joining up to Hertz Gold Plus which supposedly offered a 5% discount. If I try a booking as Gold Plus member the price rises from about $1,444 to about $2,200 plus I lose the basic CDW & Theft Insurance that is included in the lower price. I intend to buy rental car excess insurance from someone like iCarHire.

Is this just Hertz making a windfall profit to offset the "rewards" in their program? Both bookings are being done throuth their .au portal.

Edit: Well treat me as confused. I had another look 30 minutes later and it is now back to the original price, including basic CDW & Theft Ins. included!

 

[Daver6]

I saw same strange results when booking Hertz for South Africa. It was counter intuitive, but adding certain insurance actually lowered the total rental fees.

 

[drron]

And as I have reported with Avis Sydney-putting my Preferred number in always increases the price.Not though if I book through the UK site.

 

[amaroo]

Same same for me for Italy, Spain, Mexico, USA ... I’ve overcome the issue by booking with Europcar, Avis, and a local firm in Mexico

 

[Daver6]

I should add, the reason it increased the price for me is my Hertz profile states to not include any of those extras (which in turn bring the price down).

 

[OZDUCK]

I should add, the reason it increased the price for me is my Hertz profile states to not include any of those extras (which in turn bring the price down).

My profile does say to include the basic CDW etc. But it was excluded from the first quote then the second one had them all back in again and the price reduced. I'll assume that it was just a mismatch until their systems were updated.

 

[tgh]

I have a Hertz rental coming up in Norway in a few weeks
There are a few anecdotal stories about of dodgy post hire damage claims ( including #2 son.)
I suspect that the Narvik Hertz perpetrator is going to be a tiny little surprised when I rock in sometime soon and ask him for the evidence.

 

[PDog]

Added an extra day to our UK hire car last night and the price dropped by £29
Maybe the longer stay switched to a better rate?
But I also found that using my hertz gold membership was more expensive than booking as a guest when I did the original booking

 

[Flashback]

You can still contact Hertz and have your GPR number added BTW, I do it regularly as it's often cheaper for me booking via AU than the UK site.

 

[opusman]

A couple of years ago I had a group C (VW golf) booked for 3 days from Hertz (pick-up in Bergen city, return to the airport) and the cost was 2952 NOK (about $500).

 

[Isochronous]

Rental car pricing is very odd and it explains why third party sites like vroomvroomvroom and Autoslash have become increasingly popular. Recently I've been using Sixt which has been a positive experience, consistent upgrades and usually cheaper than Avis/Hertz.

 

[OZDUCK]

Rental car pricing is very odd and it explains why third party sites like vroomvroomvroom and Autoslash have become increasingly popular. Recently I've been using Sixt which has been a positive experience, consistent upgrades and usually cheaper than Avis/Hertz.

I agree, in the end I went with a third party which had much cheaper rates for the same rental.

 

[prozac]

Added an extra day to our UK hire car last night and the price dropped by £29
Maybe the longer stay switched to a better rate?
But I also found that using my hertz gold membership was more expensive than booking as a guest when I did the original booking

I recently found if renting in UK for longer than 28 days it is possible to request a quote from their long term rent called Hertz 28+. Hire for a Skoda Octavia Wagon 28 days was £889.06 (Price per 28 days inc VAT, Insurance and Road Tax). Excess £1,000 which I presume is covered by the right Amex card or a good travel insurance policy.

Frustration in dealing with Hertz for a Euro rental after response from Hertz Australia insist I cannot lease a car in Europe without CDW (as in my profile). Looks like I will be going back to Sixt who are not afraid to provide class upgrades.
This experience also had me looking at alternatives, one being a Dutch company dealing in "short-leasing". How does € 1.095,00 a month sound for a Merc C180 AMG on minimum 30 day hire?

 

[Flashback]

I recently found if renting in UK for longer than 28 days it is possible to request a quote from their long term rent called Hertz 28+. Hire for a Skoda Octavia Wagon 28 days was £889.06 (Price per 28 days inc VAT, Insurance and Road Tax). Excess £1,000 which I presume is covered by the right Amex card or a good travel insurance policy.

Frustration in dealing with Hertz for a Euro rental after response from Hertz Australia insist I cannot lease a car in Europe without CDW (as in my profile). Looks like I will be going back to Sixt who are not afraid to provide class upgrades.
This experience also had me looking at alternatives, one being a Dutch company dealing in "short-leasing". How does € 1.095,00 a month sound for a Merc C180 AMG on minimum 30 day hire?

Last year I rented a lot in the UK, Hertz 28+ gave me no decent prices so I still came out ahead by doing weekly rentals and just e-mailing every week asking them to rollover my rental so I didn't have to drive out and swap the car.

 

[OZDUCK]

Actually there was a 'good service' story about my Hertz Rental in Norway last year. When I dropped the car back at Oslo Airport I said that I had scratched the alloys on the drivers side. I got too close to some high kerbs in Haugesund. He actually shook my hand and said that I was the first person who have ever admitted putting scratches on the wheels. Initially he said not to worry as I had full insurance but I pointed out that I still had an excess and instead had extra insurance with a on-line company. He took the photos of the scratches and we parted amicably.

I was waiting for the repair charges to come through so I could claim back on the other policy - but they have never turned up. It seems that he must have quietly wiped the record after I walked away.

 

[Flashback]

Actually there was a 'good service' story about my Hertz Rental in Norway last year. When I dropped the car back at Oslo Airport I said that I had scratched the alloys on the drivers side. I got too close to some high kerbs in Haugesund. He actually shook my hand and said that I was the first person who have ever admitted putting scratches on the wheels. Initially he said not to worry as I had full insurance but I pointed out that I still had an excess and instead had extra insurance with a on-line company. He took the photos of the scratches and we parted amicably.

I was waiting for the repair charges to come through so I could claim back on the other policy - but they have never turned up. It seems that he must have quietly wiped the record after I walked away.

The whole thing with these car rental companies is a scam anyway, they charge you for it but then never actually get the repairs done == pure profit centre. I had one try it on with me once, and I said until they can provide evidence the 'issue' was fixed by enacting repairs, my insurance company would not pay them. They dropped the 'claim' of damage after that.

 

[Mattg]

The whole thing with these car rental companies is a scam anyway, they charge you for it but then never actually get the repairs done == pure profit centre. I had one try it on with me once, and I said until they can provide evidence the 'issue' was fixed by enacting repairs, my insurance company would not pay them. They dropped the 'claim' of damage after that.

I guess you could argue that unrepaired damage affects the resale value of the car?

(I'm sure the depreciation on the car is far less than the amount of the charge though..)

 

[Flashback]

I guess you could argue that unrepaired damage affects the resale value of the car?

(I'm sure the depreciation on the car is far less than the amount of the charge though..)

Most of the companies that do dodgy things like that will never get to resell as they run them into the ground! Read reviews on some of the cheap Spanish ones where you can rent for a week for €20

They make more on their insurance upsell, which if you don't take mysteriously runs into lots of damage spotted ok return... The state of the cars will attest to that!

 

[Beano]

I've never felt I was being overcharged by Hertz in the UK, but then company discount applies. I have lots of loyalty points with Hertz so managed to have a 10 day hire in the UK for GBP100 for a Skoda Octavia, which is the highest I could get on points. I didn't take out damage excess insurance which is covered by my travel insurance. I should also say there was some company discount in that. On the matter of damage, at another time, I was pinged for a swelling on a tyre on an Audi A3-- lots of money and paid it at drop off. Later claimed on travel insurance which said they wouldn't pay until they received a damage report. I applied to Hertz for a damage report but insurance payed out before the report arrived. When it did arrive Hertz said they had overcharged and I got a discount. Had to pay back to the insurance company the difference. Was that the right thing to do?

 

[travelbee26]

Rental car pricing is very odd and it explains why third party sites like vroomvroomvroom and Autoslash have become increasingly popular. Recently I've been using Sixt which has been a positive experience, consistent upgrades and usually cheaper than Avis/Hertz.

I’ve found Sixt to be a great company to deal with overseas.