PL Car rental taxes are 100% of rental bid!

[headtrip]

I know that most people only post their car rental bid amount and not their total cost, but there is a problem with that because I have noticed that in many cases the fees and taxes on the rental is higher than the rental price by itself!

My latest bid was for a compact car x 4 days at PHX on Priceline:

$15 bid amount x 4 = $60

Priceline Fees & taxes = $67.50

Total $127.50

I realize I am not a frequent renter like I used to be, but 100% tax/fees the norm now?

25% to 30% of rental bid price used to be the norm. What has changed?

Thanks for reading!

~Steve

[thereuare]

While the PRICELINE / HOTWIRE fee has a little to do with it (more of an issue with lower priced rentals than higher priced rentals since the booking fee is a fixed amount), usually the bigger culprit are taxes...

Additional taxes on rental cars is often used as a source for 'airport redevelopment' funding. As i've mentioned elsewhere on the board, it's easy to get local voters to pass additional taxes to be added on to airport rentals since so few of the locals will ever rent a car from their home town airport (even in instances where they need a rental it would more likely be from a local 'in town' location)

Also, some of these airport fees/taxes (airport concession recovery fee, customer facility charge, surcharge, maintenance recovery fee) are fixed amounts and not percentage based... so for example a $5/day fee on a $15/day rental can amount to a big percentage (just like the fixed booking fee is a greater percentage on lower priced rentals than higher priced rentals)

[AmericaWestCMH]

Probably fairly normal. I just booked a rental car in Vegas. $20 for the car ($5/day for 4 days), taxes and fees were an additional $39.

[mbstone]

Probably fairly normal. I just booked a rental car in Vegas. $20 for the car ($5/day for 4 days), taxes and fees were an additional $39.

The 100% tax you pay in LAS is for the Consolidated Rent-A-Car facility -- many cities are building these to eliminate shuttle bus congestion, to reduce air pollution from all those shuttle buses, and most of all to make lots of money for the Local Airport Bureaucracy so the airport commissioners can fly first class all over the world on free junkets.

The LAS facility can be cheap and convenient -- they are open all night, there is a free shuttle to the airport, and it is convenient to city bus lines. I'm now a Vegas local and I often park my car at a casino that's on a city bus line that serves the rent-a-car facility. This gives me either free airport parking or free parking while I drive the rent-a-car.

PL/HW is far from the only way to rent cars at LAS (or anywhere else). I have had good luck with AAA and Costco car rental services, specifying a non-airport rental location. This of course saves big on airport taxes while obtaining very favorable rates (and you can drop the car for free at the airport). The only drawback is that you have to (1) get to the non-airport location (2) during its operating hours.