Eliminate Expensive Taxes and Fees by Renting or Swapping Your Car at Non-Airport Locations

Car Rental Strategies, Car Rentals 101: Save Money and Time With Your Rental

The real price for renting a car at the airport is much higher than the daily rate. Most cities have decided that an easy way to raise revenues is by taxing out-of-towners when they come to rent their cars, resulting in astronomical taxes and fees at airport rental locations.

For example, a compact car at the San Diego airport might have a daily rate of $32/day, but the actual price you’ll pay is $49/day (over 50% higher). When rates are very low, the percentage difference can be ridiculous. An inexpensive $14/day rental in Atlanta winds up costing $34/day, 240% of the base rate.

When you have an expensive rental, these extra fees can add up. A week-long rental in Chicago over Thanksgiving has a base rate of $273/week, but the actual price you’ll pay at the airport is $436, $163 more.

You can save a significant portion of these fees and taxes, and sometimes get a lower base rental rate, if you rent at non-airport locations. It can be worthwhile to take one of several approaches to make your way from the airport to an off-airport rental location, before you rent your car.

For example, car rentals near (but not at) the Chicago airport, for the week discussed above, have base rates of $180/week and total charges of $200—less than half of what you’d pay at the airport. Prices in downtown Chicago have a slightly higher base rate of $270/week but with the lower fees and taxes. The total price is still only $340, a savings of over $100.

Take a cab or car service to an off-airport location. The simplest option is simply to take a cab or car ride service to a nearby off-airport location. In the Chicago example above, you could travel 5 miles to a nearby Hertz location and save $236 minus the cost of the cab ride. Generally, you can return the car at the airport for no additional fee (and without the extra effort of shuttling back to the airport from the off-airport location).
If you are getting in late and staying near the airport, go to your hotel first and rent the car the next morning. You can probably take advantage of a free airport shuttle to the hotel and avoid any car rental hassles immediately after your flight. The next morning, the car rental company might even offer free pick-up at your hotel, saving you the cost of that taxi or car ride. There is almost nowhere in the United States where Enterprise won’t come and pick you up. And you might even shave an entire day off the length of your rental.

Renting near your hotel can often make sense, even if you aren’t staying near the airport. Sometimes it is a better option to take a longer cab or car service ride to wherever you’re staying and get a rental from there. There may be a rental location within walking distance of, or even inside, your hotel. You can wind up shortening the length of your car rental by a day. And if you really don’t need your car for the first few days, you can shorten up the rental even longer and avoid paying any parking charges.
Rent at the airport and then swap your car at a different location. Sometimes there aren’t convenient locations near the airport or you are arriving late enough that non-airport locations are already closed. In that case, you can make two reservations—a single car rental day at the airport and a reservation for the rest of your trip at a location that is convenient to where you’ll be the next day (returning to the airport at the end of your trip). On the second day of your trip, you can swap out your car at the "neighborhood" location.

Both rentals wind up being one-way rentals, but in many cases, there will be no extra drop-off fees, as long as the second location is within the same metropolitan region as the airport.

If you are renting for between 6-7 days, this approach can be less effective. The “weekly” rental won’t often get any cheaper when you shorten it up by a single day and you’ll still need to pay the full price for the initial day. Even then, depending on the difference in rates, it can still save you significant amounts of money.

Disadvantages of these options

It takes extra time. It will take a little bit of time to take a short taxi ride or swap out your car. Particularly on shorter or less expensive rentals, it may not be worth your time. However, with the rise of airport car rental centers that are located far away from the arrival area, a taxi to a nearby car rental location may not take any more time than taking the airport shuttle to the official car rental garage.
Getting your car at an off-airport location usually takes some extra time at the counter. If you are a member of the car rental loyalty program, you can often go-directly-to-your-car at major airport locations. At off-airport locations, you’ll still typically get expedited counter service, but that's not as convenient as just going to your car and driving away. Of course, if you can’t take advantage of fast checkout, an off-airport location often lets you avoid the frequently long lines at airport locations.
Many less expensive rental companies only have airport locations. Most cars are rented at airports. Many of the “off-brand” car rental companies, and even larger programs like National or Alamo, may only have a location at the airport. Renting at non-airport locations usually means using Hertz, Avis, Budget, or Enterprise, and you might need to pay a higher rate than you would with a different company.
Sometimes, one-way charges are a problem. Most of the time, you can pick up near the airport or in downtown and drop off at the airport, for no extra fee. However, this isn’t always the case. If not, your options can be much less convenient or much more expensive.