Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?
Personally, I hate:
- Over Priced Insurance
- Rip-off Airport Prices
- Sweaty Shuttle Bus
- Long Lines at Counter
- Poor UI/UX when booking
We're trying to fix this and want to hear HN's opinions.
- Over Priced Insurance
- Rip-off Airport Prices
- Sweaty Shuttle Bus
- Long Lines at Counter
- Poor UI/UX when booking
We're trying to fix this and want to hear HN's opinions.
On the web site, cars are listed by class. I care about models, not classes. I see the example car, google it to determine if I like it, choose it, and then... show up at the place and find I'm given some horrid substitute that I don't know much about. Oh, it's a "full size sedan" and all such cars are interchangable? No, really, they are not.
It is super-important that I know exactly what I will end up driving. I'd like to know the options, trim level, and ideally even the color.
Best would probably be that I check a box for every acceptable model, with a minor discount if I check lots of boxes. (being non-picky makes my order easy to fulfill) This way I can exclude models that I hate, and I have plenty of time to research all the different choices in advance.
Our car was in the shop for the better part of a month this summer and I was considering just buying a new one. I'd heard lots of good thing about the BMW 3 Series but hadn't ever driven one. Hey, since I need to rent a car anyway, why not grab one o' those for a week to see it I like it?
So I find a national chain that advertises them. I get my rental confirmation with a big picture and the words BMW 3 Series on it. I call the local office just to make sure they'll have one ready for me. The answer? We don't rent BMWs.
Yes, they have a couple. But no, you can't have one. They're reserved for a special program exclusively for bmw owners. No BMW, no BMW rental.
But that doesn't stop them putting a picture of one one the homepage of their site or 'renting' one to you.
Awesome.
When I choose a model, I choose that model for a reason. I get frustrated when I get a car that doesn't have features in the way I'd expect.
If I were buying the car, maybe I'd have time to get used to the placement of controls and the handling. If I'm renting for a short period of time, I don't have as much time to get used to the quirks of a particular vehicle. I want the experience to be as close to cars I'm familiar with, so I care about the model. This is even more important in cities with a lot of traffic and congestion.
Whether the experience is positive or not almost always comes down to the car I get stuck with.
Not being able to return it at any time.
Getting charged for a full two days when only renting for a day and an hour.
Reserving the vehicle online weeks before, then getting to the rental office and finding that the requested vehicle won't be available for an hour or more until it's returned by the previous renter or sent over from another rental office.
Getting a vehicle that's damaged in some way that isn't visible, like grinding in the tranny, which only becomes obvious after having started one's journey.
The fear involved with reporting problems like the aforementioned problem with the tranny, out of fear of being blamed for causing the pre-existing problem, and then getting charged for it.
I book online, declined insurance, chose the car I wanted, I don't need your upsell and you telling me that I really should have insurance, which is a bunch of BS as I already have a ton.
As some have already mentioned the shuttle bus is a slight annoyance, you calling them 'sweaty shuttle buses' is leading the conversation. I've never been on a shuttle bus that I felt was sweaty.
I've always thought a curb-side service would be amazing, but haven't figured out how to make that work.
The fuel pricing hasn't been a massive issue, with the exception that again, the rental car companies try to up sell you on their hair-brained and over-priced 'pre-purchase' options.
You mention you book online. Do you find that process tedious? I agree overall it always had a godaddy vibe where I feel as if they're trying to upsell me on everything- but find that more annoying from a UX point.
Standing at a counter having an absurd conversation that we've all had dozens of times. Saying no to the insurance. Saying no to the GPS. Waiting in line. Paying. Having the contract explained, again.
- You rent a car online, the website gives you a price and reservation You are not charged, when you get there, you are charged at least two times the original amount you saw on the website even when the reservation clearly states the amount will not change. (That happens in all reservation websites)
- They know you are probably coming from a long flight and use that as a tool to make you pay and go away; That said, I saw them purposely making lines longer at every rental booth, at the same time. When I asked why they were doing that they said '... we are closing some unneeded booths at this time'. They want you to be tired. They even had one employee, not using an uniform, which clearly worked for all companies, he was the one coordinating the lines.
- All car rentals practice the EXACT same price. They created some gimmicks (GPS/insurance/amenities) to change the bottom line a little bit, but the price is exactly the same, they even share the parking space and employees, it's all a big lie.
- Somehow there is not a single car rental near those airports every time, I think that's intentional;
- I've been to some of the worst airports in Africa and was better treated in those countries than in that airport while renting a car;
- They will try to push you into the crappiest car they have, they will give you a better car if you complain. They somehow thought I would put my family to travel around florida in a 10y/o crown victoria.
I don't have a doubt the Orlando Airport car rental is some kind of cartel.
I drove it in first/second to another station, on the clutch a fair bit to get the special smell, and then ended the rental early, walked upstairs to Avis, and got a suitable Audi. (I don't like driving manuals in cities, I especially hate vw clutches and golfs in general, and I don't like driving without satnav in foreign countries where I have no data coverage and where the car has no good place to put my phone for google maps use.)
I usually book on priceline and have just come to expect that I'll end up swiping my card for upwards of 100% more money than the prices I was quoted. (Airport fees, taxes of all kinds, insurance, other fees I've never heard of, etc...)
Have the major credit card agreements on file and don't offer me lucrative (for you) insurance that I absolutely don't need - my credit card provides it.
In the UI, the total price should be highlighted so I know how much it will cost me in total. The per-day cost is good to know too, but I really just care about how much it's going to cost at the end of the day.
The shuttle bus is, imo, unavoidable (though it'd better have air conditioning/heating).
Hertz is copying the airlines by having kiosks so you can avoid long lines at the counter.
What I hate is when I get a car which is dirty, especially the side mirrors or glass in general (safety issue). I do not fucking want to have to wash the car when I get off a plane at 11pm to not have massive internal glare.
Insurance is only an issue for morons.
Counter lines are solved for elites.
Prices at Hertz and Avis are sometimes high, but not usually out of the realm of reasonableness for at least one of them.
Silvercar is the correct solution to all car rentals, but it's not in enough cities yet. Consistently "ok" prices (if a little high), great cars, great service. No need for anything other than this, IMO.
SFO has the airtrain/car pez dispenser, but I never need to rent a car at SFO.
At airports with big on-site car vending machines, you're not going to generally be able to do that at any scale without being arrested, and you'll probably be inferior to my current experience of walking across to the car vending area gold stalls, going to the number which was emailed to me, picking up my car, and driving off.
It might be more of an issue at smaller airports with no onsite cars, or where at certain hours all the shuttles are infrequent.
Not everyone who rents a vehicle is doing it while traveling. A lot of people living in cities only need a vehicle once or twice a year, for example. They don't own a car otherwise, and thus don't have insurance that may cover rental cars. And not all of them have a credit card that includes insurance, or if they do, it may not offer sufficient coverage.
If you rent frequently enough that you dislike the fee, and don't have a car/insurance, either get a real credit card, or you're probably doing it wrong.
LAX and LAS are pretty cheap places to rent cars usually (from Avis/Hertz/etc.).
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jun/22/car-hire-fuel-h...
> Holidaymakers hiring a car abroad this summer are being warned about a worsening car rental rip-off – firms that make you pay up front for a full tank of fuel, then insist you return the car empty.
It's a good comparison. The obnoxious thing about taxis has always been the uncertainty, the wait, the unpleasantness, and of course the stress of the thing.
Turn it into a trivial exercise in using an app and you can eliminate all of these things, although I imagine liability will be a significantly larger problem.
I agree on the taxi thing but I think the use case of a car rental and a taxi are quite different.
This, I think, is the biggest problem. You get told your rental costs 100 Euros on a website, you do that and turn up and suddenly you're looking at paying two or three times that on top of a deposit which must be paid by a credit card and may well be above your limit.
I think this is largely a problem with holiday destinations trying to fleece unwary tourists, I've had good experiences with local van hire companies who make things straightforward.