Eujeanie

The Las Vegas rental car center is open 24/7. It is a huge international airport with flights arriving all times of the day and night.

jizen

I hate to say but it's a new norm in the post-covid era where some HLE locations fail to manage their inventory and never call customer about overbooking situations in advance. That's why more travelers start to book back up reservations.
For the first case, If I were you I would simply pick up at airport, pay the extra, or immediately check rates with other companies at the airport. You can also consider to use Turo as a last resort.
I don't know how it works in US, but consumer union or small claim court would be my choice to negotiate a refund in price differences. It's not worth ruining your whole vacation because of this.

Second case, it's all about the insurance coverage.
1, Immediately check LDW coverage with credit card insurance company and initiate a claim, I think major car insurance companies do not cover rentals outside of US/Canada, so the cc coverage may become primary. It's not like a major accident but the car was still damaged during your rental period, and rental companies at some places do make profit from damages and loss of use.
2, I believe it's not your fault. I had a flat tire once because the rental company did not properly inflate all tires. I complained over and over but the company still charged me for the tire. After that incident, I always bring a pen-type tire gauge and check the pressure before leaving the parking lot. Lot attendant even laughed at me and said it is not necessary, but I've learnt my lesson.
It's just an unfortunate event but insurance coverage is used for something like this to minimize losses.

bhomburg

Situation 1 can easily be avoided by prepaying the rental. Because if it's prepaid, you aren't simply holding a reservation but Hertz has a binding contract with you.and you have a way stronger leg to stand on. They'd probably would have had a car ferried over from the airport or inconvenienced someone else.
In similar circumstances (think FL the day before Thanksgiving, tons of demand, no cars), I received vehicles that were intended for other customers because I prepaid and I`ve never been left stranded. This is valid for hotels, too

Item 2: These things happen. And judging by how quickly they came across with the bill it apparently wasn't the first time this specific damage occurred. You're on the hook there, no doubt about it.
After being hit with costs after accidents where the guilty party was underinsured I never - NEVER - rent cars without a worry-free, zero-deductible all-inclusive package that will let me walk away from everything with no cost out of pocket anymore. I have a third-party policy (from here) that takes care of this even with small cash-only operators in remote places.

TIGA31328

No such thing as worry-free insurance. We rented a car in Dublin years ago, started to leave the airport and could smell the clutch, we never left the airport grounds and returned the car for an automatic, we only had the car for 10 minutes. No issues returning and leaving for home. We purchased the max rental insurance for both rentals. A month later we receive a bill for a new clutch on the first rental and that due to negligence their insurance would not cover anything. Some stern exchanges lasting months, they finally dropped it. Ridiculous how these foreign locations try to scam you, even if you have the insurance.

Airports are not always reliable either, I’ve had the no cars issue and take what they have or get nothing scenario in the past year at airport locations. Supply, demand, and people who rent to return to the same location, then return to another location and pay the drop fee are a huge problem.

brazilexpert

Facebook, Instagram place it all over the net.....similar thing happened to us in Porto, Portugal....
and worst my amex credit card did nothing , I lost the dispute!

cscasi

And even secondary LDW coverage will typically be primary coverage for rentals originating outside of the U.S.
Where did you come by this information? I
have researched several credit cards that provide LDW outside the USA, but are only secondary in coverage. Just curious as to which cards you are referring to.

notquiteaff

Is there any evidence that that is corporate policy and actually followed by corporate and licensee locations? Remember, we are talking about Hertz here.

seawolf

All US card that offers rental coverage becomes primary when outside US on the basis that US personal auto insurance don’t cover rentals outside of US/Canada.

It doesn’t increase your chances of getting a car. It just means you have a stronger case when taking them to (small claims) court after the fact.

rcowen

Re: car rental in Turks & Caicos.... I presume you were renting at PLS. The vehicles are usually old with plenty of miles on them so it's important for your protection to take a quick video of the exterior & interior of it. That said, we always rent from a local company (Grace Bay Rental). In one case, a hub cap was lost somewhere along one of our drives. I reported it when I returned the car and was told that it "happens lots of times" and don't worry about it. On subsequent trips, I've noted that hub caps are secured with zip ties. In another case, our battery died when we were going out for dinner at 6:00 PM on Saturday. I phoned their office expecting to hear a message that their offices were closed until Monday. Instead, the phone was answered and a mechanic arrived and we had a replacement battery installed within 30 minutes. We had an excellent dinner!

PaulSEA1

“Hertz” and the other rental car companies are more brands than companies. For the most part, except at major USA airports (like the OP at LAS) when you visit a location with a Hertz sign, you are dealing with an independent franchisee with no legal connection to Hertz. Those companies get an electronic communication daily with info from people who booked with Hertz advising them of online bookings for their location. Perhaps they have cars perhaps not. Hertz doesn’t care. Those companies then manually type your information into their proprietary system and make you a manual booking. This is why at most Hertz locations they spend so much time typing when they should have had all of your Gold information in the system already. A Hertz sign does not mean you’re renting from Hertz - you’re probably not.

The real area of profit in car renting is the insurance add-ons. Stories like the OPs about a ridiculous charge are what feed the profitable add ons. This is why the franchises hard sell the add ons and in some cases force you into them, like often in Mexico.

My strategy for my many international bookings is being willing to walk if the terms get too crazy. You just can’t rely on a rental car booking. Seinfeld pointed this out brilliantly decades ago. They can take a reservation, they just can’t hold a reservation.

Recently at the “Hertz” location at London Gatwick, the franchisee was out of gasoline powered cars and only sending out Teslas. Reservations be damned. Hertz at Gatwick had completely different terms and deductibles for the Teslas. Mileage was very limited and deducibles were higher. This on top of the major inconvenience of needing to find chargers for the vehicles.

My strategy:
#1: Avoid renting cars. Often the sum of taxi and Uber charges can be less than the car rental / parking / gas / headache cost. In Europe public transport is worth figuring out.
#2: When a rental is unavoidable, for example going to Zion, have a backup plan. A clue to a potential rental car shortage is high prices. If you’re seeing unusually high rental car prices it likely that there is a big event in town and cars will be out. High prices are a sign that you’ll have trouble no matter the rental company. Make other plans. Car rental companies simply don’t honor reservations when they oversell, and they oversell when prices are high.
#3: Pay using a credit card with a reliable record of paying claims. I’ve had two claims on my Amex Platinum. In both cases they paid promptly and in full, except for taxes.
#4: I never buy the supplemental insurances. If they demand that I buy them I usually walk out unless I’m totally stuck.
#5: Be able and willing to walk away from a car rental desk without a car.
#6: Repair scams are not that frequent. I’ve rented hundreds of times from some very “banana” agencies and _never_ had them fabricate damage that I didn’t actually cause or have happen on my watch. The OP had some bad luck with the tire cover falling off. His AMEX card would have paid for it. The agency won’t take my Amex? Walk. 100%.

Eujeanie

I disagree with your #2. I've never been outright denied a rental. Several times if Alamo was out, we had to walk over to National, same price. Same when Budget was out, they gave us one from the Avis aisle, same price.

But I always rent from an airport, if possible, Just so much more inventory. Not worth saving a few bucks, and do you really? Off site you have to pay to get there, they often have limited hours, then you have to pay again to go from there back to the airport anyway. I really find it hard to believe in the OP's Vegas situation that the airport was $700 more than the off-site - but since I don't rent off site, I have no frame of reference.

BA.GOLD

It always seems to be Hertz delivering appallingly bad service, or none at all, doesn't it. Personally I have never had a problem with Enterprise or Sixt and agree with the view expressed above that the mid market companies are the way to go, not the biggest or smallest, most expensive or cheapest. I've had issues with Hertz in the past, mostly around not getting the type of vehicle I had booked or once them not having a car at all for me and claiming, falsely, that they had sent me an SMS Text message cancelling my rental and so that made it all ok. Avis used to advertise themselves with the slogan "We Try Harder" Hertz don't seem to try at all.

weero

Way too much benefit of the doubt there.

They could have shuttled over a car from the airport, then those levies and fees do not apply. But that would have resembled work on their behalf ....

I don't think that happened. It was an unfit vehicle. If a wheel came off on the highway, the windscreen folded in, or the roof came off, it also wouldn't be a damage cause by the renter.

Dave Noble

There would have to be 2 people with time to do this plus it would have to be a shared fleet

The renter is responsible for checking any existing damage and ensuring it is recorded. If it isnt recorded, it didnt exist.the renter didn't indicate any existing issue

Eujeanie

I would like to know which Hertz location in Vegas the OP rented from....they range from Henderson to Summerlin, from North to South, looks like at least a dozen.

And what exactly did he do when his Zion trip was cancelled - turn around and fly home the next day?