Confessions of a former Enterprise manager

Consumerist has a great post, an insider’s perspective on renting cars from Enterprise. Everything’s negotiable.

Even knowing that, I still won’t rent from them. But for those who don’t mind the undignified “walkaround” of the vehicle and hard sell of insurance, you may benefit from the tips.

    1. Enterprise doesn’t have any set prices. That rate you got when you called in was either the full retail rate, or the first number that popped into the agent’s head. There are three main categories of rentals: personal (retail), corporate, and insurance, but on every single contract that goes out the agent manually types out how much you pay per day and he has authority to make it pretty much whatever he thinks you should pay.

    2. By now everyone knows that you don’t need that extra rental insurance

    Call for a reservation, say your car was totaled and you need a replacement; your insurance company is cutting you a check for $25.00 per day flat so you need something for under $25. Tell the agent that your insurance company is State Farm, or Farmers, or someone big–the big insurance companies have the best rates

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. HLE’s will do the same thing with rates, they’ll match whatever the insurance company is paying you …

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