The vagaries of car rental pricing

[Kuestrian]

Does anyone have any experience or datapoints with rental prices for Sixt in the US, in particular?

I was about to book a long-term rental last week, and monitored prices whilst we finalised plans and dates. When comparing downtown locations and the airport (SFO) they were all in line but since then the airport price has jumped every few days and is now double the downtown price, which has remained low across all downtown locations, and even San Jose airport has the same price. However, SFO works out better for us due to the downtown locations closing early on the weekend so we’d have to drop it back and then kill time before our late flight out.

I found an article suggesting that Sixt in particular has very elastic pricing when it comes to geolocation but no matter where I VPN to the prices are within a similar range, so I have a decision to make about losing half a day of the holiday or paying double the price.

Has anyone beaten the pricing algorithms, or are they really based on true demand?

[davefl]

They’re not wholly based on demand as they vary wildly by the day and demand doesn’t. I had Sixt out of Miami more than double over a period of a week after I’d booked it.

If you want to see typical Avis random pricing over a 2 month period look at my thread here https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/avis-wierdness/

[Kuestrian]

Interesting thread. It does seem like they all just make it up as they go.

I was going to prepay and use it to trigger a BA voucher but I think I’ll choose the pay-at-desk option which only adds a fiver to the total but means I can track the prices at SFO in the meanwhile and jump on that of they ever dip back down.

Also your comment in your thread about being charged in USD unexpectedly has also made me think twice about the prepay plan!

[davefl]

It all depends on what country you’re renting in as well. I mentioned the other day that for a one way rental from Cape Town to Jo’burg Budget is more expensive than Avis, and pre-pay is more expensive than pay on arrival (with free cancellation). Both of those should be the opposite.

The beauty of computer algoriths is that no human understands them 🙂

And with any rental company, watch for post rental rip offs, doesn’t matter who you go with. Keep your final fill up receipt and fight if necessary via customer service and your credit card.

Going back to your original point, do you see the same elevated pricing if you start the rental downtown but drop off at SFO? It’s usually the origin that sets the price level, they’ll usually be glad to have a car dropped off back at the airport at no extra cost.

[Kuestrian]

Good tip about the receipt for the final fill-up, as that had never occurred to me.

I did look at doing a one-way but that went from £700 (downtown-downtown) to £2245 (downtown-SFO) ! SFO-SFO went from £750 last week and is now just under £1500.

[davefl]

That’s insane, however I did see the same kind of thing with Sixt from Miami to MCO as it got closer to the date I wanted, so voted with my wallet and went with Avis at a third of the price.

[Man of Kent]

I usually take a picture of the dash showing the tank full and also pictures all around the car to prove no damage if needed later.

[davefl]

Man of Kent wrote:

I usually take a picture of the dash showing the tank full and also pictures all around the car to prove no damage if needed later.

They’re increasingly using telematics to measure the fuel tank within a few percent of full and dash gauges aren’t always accurate. So a receipt showing you added fuel within 5-10 miles of the drop off helps your argument. Photo of the dash is essential though I agree.

One of my most recent Avis rentals warned me on their app when I was running low on fuel and tried to recommend filling stations. I was amazed. It also kept a running mileage indication on the app as well.