6 CAR RENTAL SECRETS HERTZ, BUDGET & ENTERPRISE Don't Want You to Know! (2020 UPDATED)

Thanks, Matt - you do seem to cover it all.

I've rented at least 20 cars in the last year and the best advice I can offer is to be kind, patient and genuine with the car rental agent (in person specifically). Acknowledge their efforts and time and be grateful. I've been upgraded on every, single rental in the last year, sometimes just a grade up sometimes from a compact to a midsized suv and even a couple premium and luxury upgrades. It pays to be a decent human being, especially now.

I would suggest an updated video on this. Covid has done a number on car rental prices.

I work in sales for Hertz inside of an airport. Everything you said is true, BUT if you would’ve told us you weren’t comfortable with the price, we have full control over how much we want to charge you a day since we make commission. We are taught to even cut prices in half if the customer is unhappy.

I’ve always used enterprise. Their customer service is top notch. When I rented from them last month, I was upgraded from a sedan to an Audi Q7 just for being polite and patient while he was dealing with less than pleasant customers.

I worked in various fields of the automotive industry and including car rental. Everything he said is spot on. The only thing I will say is getting the insurance is worth it. I’ve had customers literally total the rental and with the coverage they bought didn’t have to pay a dime and didn’t go on their record.

Re: rental car insurance. I personally recommend it. Saved me tons of grief. My son rented a mini van, chose the rental company optional insurance at my insistence, then photographed every square inch of the car for our own protection. Had the van 4 days while staying at a hotel waiting for escrow to close and move in our home. One night there was a rowdy party and a lot of parking lot activity. When we turned in the van, they noticed a huge dent in the roof above the driver’s side door. My son had not photographed the roof! Don’t know if it was pre-existing or a result of the partyiers. Would have been thousands to repair. We walked away hassle free. PS. I’ve read where some rental car companies KNOW OF pre-existing damage, conveniently do not record it on your initial inspection, then ding you when the car is turned in. There have been instances where companies have done this scam several times using the same car. Therefore, I consider their optional insurance on a par with a solid password on your computer: mandatory. Don’t “cheap out”!

There might be something to this Autoslash. I had a car reserved for $370 for 4 days through Enterprise and, through Autoslash, received a quote for a different branch just a few miles down the road for $270. I'm impressed! Thanks Matt!

Just wanted to say that I saved about $134 today just by following your car rental advice! Thank you so much, really, thank you for putting in the work on behalf of all of us who don’t know these things 💖💖

Just saw your video. Excellent tips. As a former car rental employee the insurance tip is important, while working for Enterprise a nice elderly lady rented a car and declined the insurance ten minutes after leaving she was in an accident. She was fine just scared but since she refused insurance she had to pay $500 before she could get another car. Keep up the great work.

Hi Matt, I stumbled on to your channel on moments before renting a car on line. I watched this video and took your advise and booked with auto slash. My price dropped from $32 per day to $15.25 per day. Thank you for that! Also took insurance through auto slash. 7 days insurance for $63. Thanks again for the free advise.

* Best Thing about Airport Rental locations, they are typically open 24hrs 365. Beats waiting for the rental place to open again or making it b4/after closing time

You need to be extremely careful with taking the 3rd party insurance through another company versus the car rental dealership themselves. While it may be cheaper, there are a hell of a lot of restrictions regarding what they will or will not cover. Always remember that you get what you pay for.

Holy moly!!! I am so glad that I found you!! I have a 5-day trip to Hawaii coming up in June, and the car rental prices are ridiculous!! All of the companies are charging $700+ for a 5-day car rental!!! I was about to give up and not bother renting a car when I found you! I used the website that you recommended, and boom! The price dropped from $700+ to $300!!! I almost can't believe it!!! I am so thankful and grateful!!! I will be using that website for all of my future car rentals!!

Thanks Matt. We told ourselves that when we ever needed to rent a car...again, we would try your "secrets". WOW...it worked like a charm!

I just appreciate that you actually understand how damage waiver works. Although I should let you know if you are home city employee at least for my rental car company you do not get commission for any add-ons. Although it may be different for other companies or airport locations.

Matt, what a timely video. Had reserved a car in Florida for a weeks vacation direct via Alamo. Almost $970 (with insurance for the week). Used AutoSlash. Booked the same size SUV (with insurance) for $501. JUST AWESOME. Many thanks.

Out of all the advice given (and all were good), the best was GET A PRINTED RECEIPT. Once you are given a printed receipt it is a lot harder (not impossible but close to) for the car rental company to charge you for cleaning, repairs, damage, etc. Also this serves as proof that the car was return and the employee who received it did not see the need for any additional charges.

Disclaimer. I am a former car rental manager. On several websites I have given my assistance to people in finding the best deal. I have even consulted with the owner of Autoslash when he was first starting. And I have the emails to prove it. Overall, your six tips were 100% spot on. I do have a 7th for you. Yes, you will always save money by prepaying for a rental. And yes, rental agents do make much of their money from add-ons. But there are some add-ons that have value, and there are some ways that rental agents make money that you didn't mention. Let me go through my number seven for you. Car rental agents make money from walk-ups as well. I left the car rental industry in 2007. And since then I have never paid a car rental at the lowest advertised rate utilizing any of the websites. I have beaten it, often significantly. This also works to get a better class of car than you paid for as well. I have this process: I book the lowest refundable rate I can find. I make sure that it's 100% refundable and that I will not have any issues if I no-show. Then when I land, with a printed copy of my rate, I will walk to all the rental companies located on the airport. I will walk up to the agent and say "can you beat this?" 95% of the time I will get an agent that will find me a cheaper rate because that walk up traffic is a commission walking out the door. Now this will not work if you have a reservation and you try to walk up to the same company that you hold a reservation for. So you need to make sure you have one safety reservation is what I call it at a rate that you can live with. Let's say that company is Avis. When you arrive at the airport you check Hertz, national, Alamo, advantage, Fox, budget or any other rental car company to see if they can beat that rate. If they don't, you stick with your safety reservation. If they do, and almost every single time they do at least give you added value for the same price, you can opt to stay or take the better rate. The 5% of the time that I do not get a better rate or get the same rate, it's because they are sold out in the entire airport, which is all too common right now. However in Las Vegas in early May, I was able to secure a rate $15 per day less than my reservation with this same process. There is one circumstance where using the website of the rental company is useful. If the company that you work for or the association that you are a member of has a discount, you need to at least investigate what that discount will get you. For example, if you need to pay for a second driver, many discounts will make that second driver free, include collision damage waiver insurance, include a free tank of gas, or provide other benefits on top of a discount. Your mileage may quite literally vary, but if you pay $15 a day more using a company rate then auto slash can give you, but it includes full insurance, additional drivers, it allows you a free tank of gas, you might very well come out significantly ahead. For example, it's been many years but there was a marketing company that had a negotiated rate with the company that I worked for. LDW first $5,000 was covered by the company rate, additional drivers were free, the rate also allowed the use of a debit card without additional fees, also allowed underage drivers without an additional fee. To top it all off, the rate also allowed them to return the gas at any level with no charge. But they were paying a flat $50 per day unlimited mileage. In some cities, New York for example, $50 per day at that time was fantastic. But in the off season in Hawaii, cars could be had as cheap as $15 per day. But an additional driver, underage driver, insurance would add $75 per day, you can see where the company and anyone using that code who was authorized could significantly save money.

HIGHLY recommend you take pictures of the vehicle or video inside/out when you pick up and drop off. Our rental was wet when we picked it up and something that looked like a water drop was actually a chip in the windshield. They tried to charge us $750 to fix it. And always get a receipt when you turn car in. My husband declined the insurance and when he asked for the receipt, they took forever to give it to him and insurance was conveniently added despite declining it.