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Comment by slaw | Hacker News Reader

https://www.kayak.com/cars/San-Jose,Costa-Rica-c30707/2025-1...

You can go to the last page and book rental. Only at the airport counter you will learn, there are extra fees you need to pay.

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I did that — picked a booking, it redirected me to Expedia and showed a $0 rental! But then when I changed my region on the top bar from US to "Rest of Europe", that booking no longer worked. When I then search (on Expedia) for the same location and dates, I get very believable prices (200-300 EUR). When I change the region back to the US and search again directly on Expedia, I see the same scam $0 offer as previously.

I think this supports precisely my point — in EU all the fees are presented such that you can get the service without any hidden costs

LOL there is literally a "$0 total" deal ($0.24 rounded down). At least it's REALLY obvious it's a scam:

  Due today: $0.00
  Due at car rental counter: $0.24
  Car rental: $0.20 Scg - lpf $0.01Scg - iva $0.03"

I'm guessing there is some crazy location fee, mandatory insurance at an inflated price and/or "oops the car you booked isn't available"?

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