Avis adds $10 rental extension fee to offset “cost of reorganizing our fleet”

by Christopher Elliott on October 2, 2009

avis1When Drew Tipton tried to add a few more days to his Avis rental, he expected to pay the daily rate. But wait, what’s this on the bill? A $10 rental extension fee?

Yes, I believe it is.

What’s a rental extension fee?

Tipton wondered. I did, too. So he asked.

Now, I have to say, the following form response from Avis is art.

Good art? Bad art? You decide.

Reports such as yours are most appreciated, since they help us target and correct areas of service which might be improved.

Any difficulties or problems encountered are a concern to us, and we apologize most sincerely for the inconvenience you were caused. I am sorry that you feel our agent did not inform you of this additional cost.

With the current economic situations, the rental car industry is tightening up in many ways. The rental extension fee offsets our cost of reorganizing our fleet to meet the needs of the other confirmed reservations. We do this by looking at the reservations in the system and moving our fleet to where they are needed most based on the reservations in the system.

Although we realize that we cannot make up for the disappointing experience, we do appreciate your contacting us.

If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know. Thank you for choosing Avis and we hope to see you at one of our rental counters very soon.

Tipton has his own opinion: “It’s PURE profit on their part,” he told me.

Maybe, but wouldn’t you pay $10 just to get one of those form letters? Well, maybe not.

(Photo: schmense/Flickr Creative Commons)

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Tagged as: Avis, extension, Fee, surcharge

  • John

    I guess I can understand this from the Avis side if he extended after he picked up the car. They plan out their fleet based on reservations and his car may have already been reserved by someone else for the days he’s extending. They would then need to either bring in another vehicle or “walk” the person if they didn’t have anything else in the fleet. Either way bringing in a vehicle or walking the person adds an expense that they didn’t have.

    Unlike a hotel room … they may not be able to just say no

  • Bill

    You could break out fees for just about everything, but it becomes unmanageable. For example, on a car rental, you could have:
    reservation fee
    credit card processing fee
    car cleaning fee
    bus transport fee (at airports).
    washroom cleaning fee (for the washrooms at the rental office)
    chair rental – for when you are waiting.
    door hinge lubrication fee
    sunlight filtration fee (curtains in the rental office)

    The point is, just charge so much a day or so much a week and so much for extra days and be done with it. You can drive people crazy with your efforts to get extra fees.

    What if renters had fees too?

    - waiting too long for a car fee (when you don’t have enough service agents)
    - fee for going back in line and pointing out all the dents that you didn’t document fee (this is a big one – at Hertz anyway).
    - camera fee (taking pictures of the car when I rented and when I returned it)

    You know, when taking my car in for servicing, they have the availability of a rental car. They have a sign which says you must present a fuel receipt from a station within one mile of the dealership upon return. ONE mile! This is budget, by the way. See if I ever rent a car from them, anywhere.

  • Kevin

    It’s sad to read about new fees all the time, but I have to agree with how John looked at Avis’ point of view. And really, in the event that an extension requires that an employee get into a car in another place and drive it to the origin of the extended rental, that process will cost more than $10. Compared the fees airlines charge for changes, $10 is modest and affordable.
    Still, we should all cry foul, just to keep this from being a slippery slope.

  • MikeZ

    Wait a minute. Why do the agencies have those massive computer systems? A big part of it is what’s called fleet management. Trust me, it doesn’t cost $10 in computer time to “reorganize” their fleet if you change your plans.

    Best time to remember this: when you’ve reserved (and been guaranteed) a specific class of car — only to arrive at the desk and be told “oh, we don’t have any of those available.”

    Hmmm, I guess they didn’t reorganize their fleet in time for you. But you don’t have to worry; they’re still $10 richer.

    I agree with Chris: their level of creativity in coming up with this one is pure art. Spelled BS.

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