Huge overnight jump in taxes and fees?

[123slb]

Has anyone ever experienced a situation where placing the same Priceline bid for a rental car 24 hours later, resulted in a different amount for taxes and fees?

I'm bidding for San Juan, Puerto Rico everyday, without increasing the amount of the bid.

I bid August 29, and the taxes and fees were $19.21. I bid August 30, and the taxes and fees were $49.40 on the same exact bid.

Any thoughts?

I'm bidding for a compact car for six days, Sept. 3 - 9, 2009.

I have back-up reservations booked through your links to Thrifty ($152.06) and Hotwire ($145.20). The reason I made two was because booking directly through Enterprise resulted in a "no availability" message. But booking through Hotwire and choosing Enterprise gave me a reservation. Can I trust it?

[thereuare]

I can't explain the jump in taxes/fees unless there is a new airport concession fee or tax that has gone into effect. If you run a HOTWIRE search for the same period and can find a rate near the same price, how do the fees/taxes compare?

As far as the Enterprise reservation, is it for a 'standard' (economy, compact, midsize, etc) vehicle or some type of specialy (SUV, convertible, minivan, etc) car?

Thanks for using the support page links :)

[123slb]

The HOTWIRE itinerary confirmation (for a compact car, as was the Enterprise attempt) shows taxes and fees at $19.30. That's approximately what the PRICELINE bids listed up until Sunday. Then -BAM- the Priceline fees went above $50 dollars for the exact same bid. Then this morning I tried again and the fees are $28.15! It's really weird. Possibly moot, however, since I don't think Priceline's going to accept my bid.

Why doesn't HOTWIRE charge me for my rental car reservation? The confirmation thanks me for booking through Hotwire and says rental charges will be billed by Enterprise when I return the car. Don't they have prepaid car rentals like their hotel products?

[thereuare]

Just like PRICELINE has an "opaque" (bidding) and "non-opaque" (retail) for hotels, for car rentals HOTWIRE will show you a "retail" rate within the opaque car rental listings if they don't have anything available thru the 'opaque' product.

Thanks for using our PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links.

[123slb]

Sorry if I don't know much about how car rentals work, I'm a rookie for sure. OK, that explains it about Hotwire not being prepaid and why I could choose Enterprise by name. So, do you think it's all right to trust the Hotwire confirmation about the Enterprise car, even though Enterprise itself gave me a "no availability" for the same time, place and car when I tried to book it directly?

It seems likely that Hotwire will make the reservation and let the customer repent at leisure when standing at the counter with no car in sight.

To recap, using the board's support links, I attempted to book a compact car with Enterprise for Sept. 3 - 9, 2009 from SJU. Told it was not available. I went through Hotwire, which gave me retail options, chose Enterprise and received a confirmation for a compact car Sept. 3 - 9, 2009 from SJU.

Would you trust Hotwire to make Enterprise deliver? We're only talking about a $7 savings over my Thrifty confirmation. And is there any downside to keeping both confirmations until I'm actually standing in the San Juan airport trying to pick one up? No money has changed hands and no credit card numbers were taken, yet.

Do I post this as a Hotwire "win" under rental cars? Thanks for sharing all your invaluable experience and assistance!

[thereuare]

Yes, i think that entreprise will deliver a vehicle... if they're out of compact cars then they'll deliver a higher car class (midsize, fullsize, etc)

As you point out, no money has traded hands and there is no penalty for a 'no show' so car companies typically overbook knowing that "x %" will not show up... just as airlines overbook (and have systems in place to bump passengers if everyone decides to show up) as do hotels (and guests are 'walked' to a nearby hotel). While 'bumping' and 'walking' do occur when projections are wrong, they happen much less than the airfare/hotels overbook, as they're projections are usually pretty good. While car copanies don't typically walk you to another car rental company nor offer you copensation to come back later in the day for a car, they generally do have other cars in their fleet which are available and will give you an upgraded vehicle. With this noted, i will comment that i once showed up with a car rental direct booking and the simply didn't have any vehicles available, so we waited about 20 minutes for the next car to be returned, they gave it a quick clean, and we were on our way... so things can/do go wrong sometimes, but it wouldn't be a HOTWIRE specific situation should that occur for you with this stay.

No need to post as a 'win' since it's a "retail" purchase and not opaque.

[123slb]

Thanks for the hand holding, and I'm out of tries for a Priceline win, so Enterprise, here we come. Glad I got the HOTWIRE reservation when I did, cause prices have gone up. Now if tropical storm Erika will just track a lot farther south . . . lookin' kinda wet in PR for the next few days. :)

[123slb]

Hey, thanks, thereuare,

It was just like you said. Enterprise was really crowded when we showed up; I got nervous looking at all the waiting folks and told them I was heading for Thrifty. They asked me to allow them to prove their good service and in 20 minutes I was riding off in a midsize upgrade.

[thereuare]

Glad it all worked out well for you... hope you had a good trip.