"Which Airports Have Highest Rental Car Fees, Rates?"

Friday, August 1, 2003

Which Airports Have Highest Rental Car Fees, Rates?
Travelocity Surveys 100 Cities
KPRC-TV Ch 2, Houston (TX)


DENVER -- When a $30-a-day rental car special ends up costing $40 or $50 a
day, it's enough to take your breath away, not to mention whatever money you
expected to save in the first place. 

But the growing problem is not the advertised rate, it's the taxes that
airports, cities, counties slap on your rental car bill. 

The online travel agency Travelocity said that on average, you can expect
those fees to add up to more than 24 percent.  

The worst cities for these hidden fees are Houston Bush Intercontinental,
where the taxes and fees add to almost 72 percent of the final rental car
bill, and then Dallas-Fort Worth where they top 61 percent. 

The top two are followed by Austin's Bergstrom International Airport,
Cleveland Hopkins International and Houston's smaller Hobby Airport. Four
out of the five are in Texas. All five of the cities with lowest fees are in
California. Sacramento comes in first with 7.7 percent followed by Palm
Springs, Fresno and three airports in the Los Angeles area. 

Travelocity points out that one reason for higher fees are stadium taxes
that local governments use to fund new facilities for local teams. So when
you travel to see your favorite team play an away game, you may be helping
to pay for new digs for a rival team. Minneapolis, Reno, San Antonio and
Phoenix all currently add between 3.25 and 6.2 percent to rental car bills
for stadiums. Cleveland tacks on a flat fee of $2. 

You can't do much about those fees and surcharges but you might give them
some thought when you think you've got a great rental car deal.

On the Web:

If you want to see how the top 100 airports stack up, check out
Travelocity's July 29, 2003 Rental Car Study.
 http://graphics.travelocity.com/i/polls/carpoll_files/frame.htm


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************