Question re: rental counters' operating hours & PL/HW

[Jasmine]

OK this might be a stupid question but HW and PL both should take into account the business hours of airport car rental counters in relation to my desired drop off and pick up times right?

I'm looking to reserve a car for 2 weeks from the aiport in Ontario, CA. Due to an early flight back home (@ 6:55am) I would like to return the car no later than 5:30am. I've checked the hours of all 8 rental companies located at the airport and only 3 are open that early in the morning. They are the three HW partners (Avis, Budget & Hertz). However with PL, when I check for rates (not using the naming my own price feature), it shows National ("in-terminal") as a possibility even though National doesn't open until 6:30am??

The HW rate is $16/day for a compact. I'm sure I can do better through PL naming my own price but I'm worried I'll wind up with a place that opens too late. Will I be guaranteed to get a place in the airport through PL? Or would they automatically search for other nearby locations with the required business hours? I want to avoid having to take a shuttle off site.

Thanks.

[thenewbie]

Will the rental car counter be open when I get there?

Priceline only shows your rental car offer to our rental car partners who have operating hours matching the pick-up and drop-off times you selected while on our website. If none of our partners have operating hours at your location at the times you choose, we will not be able to process your offer. Since hours change, priceline cannot show the hours available at each rental location.

Our rental car partners monitor flight arrival times and will often extend operating hours to accommodate delayed flights. If your flight is delayed or cancelled and the rental counter is closed when you arrive, your rental company will hold your reservation up to twenty-four hours following your scheduled pick-up time.

[lowballer]

Usually if you return when the counter is closed, you can use a drop box. To see if this is an option, pretend to make conventional reservations on the agencys' own Web sites with your early return time. Or call the counters directly and ask. I wouldn't mention PL/HW. I just tried this with Hertz at ONT, and it works. (It opens at 5.30, but will price a reservation returning at 4am.)

Then when using PL/HW, just put in a later return time, when everything is open. I can't imagine being charged extra for returning early on the same day, as long as the return time you specified doesn't result in an extra days' charge.

[thereuare]

I recently had a similar reservation (was booking direct because of the limited hours of the rental counters) and although the hours of the rental counter didn't open until 6am, there was a shuttle which began at 5:30am and the shuttle driver was able to check the car in, although i don't recall if we were able to get a receipt.

Not sure if the above would hold true for your own rental, but it was a new experience for me.

I'll also add that when searching Hotwire i was able to get results/no results by adjusting the drop-off time by 30 minutes... so they definately do take it into consideration.

[Jasmine]

Thanks for the replies. Makes me feel more confident about bidding on PL. I will start a separate thread to report the results.