Las Vegas Day 1: Car Rental Tips - Thrifty vs Payless

I made a booking online using google search and ended up using choosing Thrifty (with a wild card option) as Thrifty was the cheapest familiar name. Payless was actually the cheapest but since neither my husband nor I had have heard of Payless, we decided to pay a little more (at least we thought a little) and made a reservation with Thrifty instead.

When we arrived at the Car Rental Center in Las Vegas, there was a long queue at Thrifty and no queue at Payless and most of the other car rentals. We thought that it was because of the cheaper rates but I realized later that it was because the staff at Thrifty were busy "cross-selling" and "upselling" everything and anything they could at the counter. We thought that our transaction would go pretty quickly since we already made a reservation online but we were wrong. Our transaction took at least 15 minutes. Usually, car rental transaction take less than 10 minutes for us at the counter.

Below is a copy of our Thrifty reservation online:

VEHICLE PICKUP INFO

Date/Time : Saturday, June 22, 2013 @ 1:00 PM Location: LAS VEGAS - MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL Map Phone: (877) 283-0898

VEHICLE RETURN INFO

Date/Time: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 @ 9:00 PM Location: LAS VEGAS - MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL Map

PAYMENT INFO

Currency: U.S. DOLLAR Rate Code: STRW5 Your Rate: 1 Week at $96.90 per week. Unlimited mileage. Base Rate: $96.90

CHARGES

Estimated Mandatory Charges Rental Time Charge: $96.90 Airport Access Fee: $10.44 Facility Charge: $18.75 Rental Tax: $16.03 State Tax: $10.82 Vehicle License Fee: $7.50 Estimated Grand Total: $160.44

Thank you for renting from Thrifty

So what happened at the counter? First the lady told us that our "wild card" choice is a compact car. What a disappointment! The compact car rental for a week is actually a little cheaper @ US$95/week at the time of booking. So much for the wild card, but that was no big deal since it was only slightly cheaper. Then the Thrifty lady took advantage of the look of disappointment and offered us the Mustang convertible for an additional $15/day. She shared with us that it would only be an additional $75 for the 5 days rental and that the Mustang daily rental was $75/day. Needless to say, we were quite tempted but concerned on the overall rental price.

After that she started explaining to us the various car insurance and other options they had. I forgot the names of the car insurance and their respective prices but there were 3 choices, I will just give it my own names and a rough price guidance: 

1. Total Peace of Mind - US$30+ per day (covers everything) 

2. Partial Peace of Mind - US$20+ per day (excludes 24-hour Roadside Assistance which is $10+ per day)

3. Some Peace of Mind - $10+ per day day (includes 24-hour Roadside Assistance but exclude insurance coverage if you are hit by an uninsured driver, covers cost of car replacement)

She went on the explain how we would have to incur the cost for tow services if we have a flat tire during the car rental period. Since we were going to drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, we were quite concerned about the 24-hour  Roadside assistance. After some consideration, we decided on the some peace of mind package. 

Then she went on to mention about the additional driver option which was US$11.99 per day and tried to sell their wireless hotspot which was US$20/day and pre-paid fuel options and of course she tried to sell her GPS rental too. I could not remember the price since we brought our own Garmin GPS. If you do intend to rent a car, buy your own GPS and key in all the destination at home. It will save you a lot of money and effort. 

Guess what the entire rental for 5 days (excluding additional driver, GPS, hotspot and mustang convertible) came up to? $600+!! 

After we saw the total price, we figured that it would be cheaper for us to book a day tour to go to the Grand Canyon and take cab for our outlet shopping. We were a little embarrassed but decided to decline to proceed with the reservation. At least the Thrifty lady was kind enough to let us know that our reservation would automatically be cancelled if we chose not to pick up the car within 24 hours. That was more than $120+ per day for car rental! Almost the same price as a one night stay at the Venetian! Now we understand why everyone was taking such a long time at the counter. I wonder how many customers did what we did - decline to proceed. I have to admit that Thrifty has an excellent sales and marketing strategy!

We were about to give up the idea of car rental and take a cab to our hotel when I decided to give it one last shot by checking with Payless car rental since there was nobody in the queue. I did not have high hopes that we would get anything. 

The Payless gentleman at the counter was most helpful. I started off by sharing with him that the total rental cost at Thrifty was a lot higher than the initial quote after adding the insurance cost and showed him my initial Thrifty rental rates. He then did his calculation and came up with a total of $321.05 for a 5-day rental inclusive of insurance. We added the roadside assistance($3.99/day) for a total of $341. One more thing, Payless doesn't charge any additional fees for additional drivers. Overall, he only charged me $10/day for a silver 2013 Toyota Corolla with moon roof so that I could still get the rental for $300+. Since my rental worked out to be slightly less than $70/day, we decided to proceed with the rental for more flexibility. 

Here are some tips from my recent car rental experience:

• It is ok to bargain, especially a big car rental center like the one at Las Vegas where you have all the car rentals within walking distance. 
• Reserve the lowest car rental online so that you have something to work with in terms of bargaining.
• It is ok to reject a car reservation if the total price end up way higher than expected, there is no need to feel embarrassed.
• Long queue at the car rental does not necessarily mean that it has the best rate, in fact, it means it is unlikely that they would give you a free upgrade since they are unlikely to have spare cars sitting around.
• No queue after 2 pm at a car rental gives you a good chance to better car rental rates or free upgrades as the car rental is probably concerned that the car may not be rented out for the day.
• Don't bother with pre-paid fuel unless you are buying it out of convenience. It may be cheaper based on per litre price but the total litres will always end up more than if you refuel yourself because it is extremely unlikely that you would be returning the car with empty fuel and it is anyone's guess how many litres the car rental will bill you eventually. 
• Most car rentals charge for additional drivers but Payless does not. I am not sure if there are other car rentals who do not, so do drop me a note if you know of any others. 
• Ask if the rental includes roadside assistance. I had a flat tire with a rental in New York 10 years ago with Dollar car rental. It was a good thing I had roadside assistance with rental. I do not remember buying insurance since I was only driving it in the city. Like insurance, roadside assistance are for the "what-ifs" situation. We did not have any problems with our car rentals most of the time BUT one incident will make you appreciate having one. It took Dollar less than 20 mins to send someone down to change the tire and I was on the road again.
• Bring your own GPS (one with the country's map), it will save you a lot of time, fuel and money.