четверг, 12 февраля 2015 г.
Many travelers, for example, have corporate rates through their companies. For those that don t, age
In the U.S, Arizona, Texas and Florida seem to add some of the highest mandatory extra fees but the additional charges are pretty significant in other locations. Sales taxes make sense, and sometimes there are additional state taxes or voter-approved surcharges hotels in tucson arizona to fund everything from a convention center (Boston) to a Stadium (Phoenix).
However, some of these additional fees such as facilities charges, concession fees, airport fees, vehicle license fees, energy recovery fees, shuttle bus fees . might well be considered costs of doing business.
(At one point years ago, Alamo Rent a Car in Hawaii instituted a MANDATORY cleaning fee for all cars upon return, whether or not there was even a grain of sand or a speck of dirt in the vehicle. Fortunately, traveler outrage eventually took care of that one.)
With most car reservation systems and travel agent GDSs (global distribution systems), these extra charges do show up in the estimated total shown on the screen, if not in the base rate. So why not include them in the basic rate?
Many travelers, for example, have corporate rates through their companies. For those that don t, agents can request AAA, AARP or consortium rates. A travel agent or an individual traveler with access to discount codes can try a few different corporate numbers to see which rate comes out lower.
All of these discounts, ranging from five percent to flat rates that can almost cut a rental price in half, have one thing in common — They don t apply on many surcharges. This means, that the customer facility fee, vehicle licensing fee and so on are not discounted and all go directly to the rental hotels in tucson arizona car company s bottom hotels in tucson arizona line.
Plus, I believe we can expect more fees. It s easy for voters to vote to tax someone else (i.e. business travelers and tourists). In Phoenix for example, all rental car drivers hotels in tucson arizona pay a fee to help pay for the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. There are plenty of examples and I m sure there will be more.
These fees don t even include the real optional items — extra drivers, insurance, add-ons like ski racks and child seats or fuel. (On a side note: I ve always found the buy a full tank of gas particularly annoying. First, you may not use a whole tank and second, it s a little stress inducing to try to run a tank down to empty, especially in an unfamiliar car, so most drivers are likely to pay for gas they don t use.)
While it would be nice to see a company break from the mold and offer all-inclusive hotels in tucson arizona pricing, that seems unlikely, because their advertised hotels in tucson arizona rates would look so much higher. So expect the fees and surcharges to continue and for new ones to be added as quickly as municipalities, states and the companies themselves can conjure them up.
The airport rental location I deal with most is Phoenix and the taxes and fees are, simply put, outrageous. Most recently I scored a standard-size hotels in tucson arizona (Ford Fusion or similar) Enterprise car for $18 per day (during hotels in tucson arizona the week no less!), or an excellent $36, but with taxes and fees the total was $63, or 75% greater than the cost of the car alone. Hertz has a compact available this weekend for a respectable $22.49 but again, with taxes and fees, the total is $81.32, which represents a whopping 81% markup. Renting off-airport isn t much better (in my experience) as Enterprise (in particular) simply charges a higher per-day rate off-airport then they do on-airport. (But the markup with taxes and fees is, admittedly, much lower than on-airport.) PHX is taxing the hell out of renters to pay for their fancy-schmancy rental car facility (which is pretty nice) and their NFL stadium. Dallas (Love Field DFW) is the only city in which I ve rented a car where they actually called their stadium fee a Stadium Fee right in the quote and on the contract. It didn t make me like it any more but at least they had the balls to call it what it was, unlike hotels in tucson arizona some other cities which create euphemisms for such charges.
I feel your pain, and Phoenix calls it a stadium tax too. (Have been booking a lot of cars for the Fiesta Bowl Curiously enough, despite the tax on EVERY renter, tickets for that bowl game at the NFL stadium are higher than even Rose Bowl tickets, hotels in tucson arizona up to $255 each.)
I hadn t seen it referred to as a Stadium Tax ; I suppose hotels in tucson arizona I wasn t paying close attention. Thank you for pointing that out. I did see a Cactus League Spring Training tax for an off-airport hotels in tucson arizona Enterprise car (in Tempe) of about $1.24 per day. Off-airport the total taxes and fees were about 25% but the per-day car rental was significantly higher than at the airport. hotels in tucson arizona The fact that Fiesta Bowl tickets are more expensive hotels in tucson arizona than Rose Bowl tickets does not surprise me; that time of year is a major money-maker for the area. After Fiesta Bowl is slows down again until Spring Training.
Whenever possible, pick up your rental car at an off-airport location (Hertz and Enterprise have many of these). The taxes/fees are MUCH less. The only catch is that they can t pick you up or drop you off at the airport. However, they can pick you up or drop you off at a hotel or other location that offers an airport hotels in tucson arizona shuttle.
hotels in tucson arizona There s a difference between hotels in tucson arizona a mandatory fee, an optional fee, and taxes. When a good or service is advertised, the price should include mandatory fees. The most important mandatory fee is the base price, but that by itself is insufficient as one cannot pay only that base price fee. Sometimes a merchant will impose a such-and-such tax recovery fee. That fee is not a tax as the tax is imposed on the merchant, not the purchaser, and as such is part of the merchant s cost of doing business, constitutes a mandatory fee, and ought to be included in the advertised price.
Optional fees should not be included in the advertised price (but should be disclosed) . . . provided that a fee truly is optional. For example, some people will complain about mandatory parking fees at hotels. I don t drive, and I typically walk to hotels and never pay a parking fee. While most people may drive, and perceive a parking fee as mandatory, such fees are in fact optional since the patron could have chosen not to drive a car.
Taxes need not be included in an advertised price since the government imposes taxes at a uniform rate. That is, the same tax would be imposed whether one does business with vendor A or with vendor B, and thus there is no comparison shopping to be had. But these need to be real taxes imposed on purchasers, not fees that a merchant has decided hotels in tucson arizona to charge as a means for recovering the taxes imposed on the merchant. hotels in tucson arizona Nonetheless, the responsible vendor will disclose hotels in tucson arizona the amount or rate of tax so that the consumer will be prepared (though most advertisements do not disclose such taxes, probably under the assumption that everyone knows that sales tax will be added to the advertised price).
What s the big idea? Consumer Traveler is the policy site of Travelers United . This is a blog about travel and ideas - and how those ideas affect you . While you're here, please hotels in tucson arizona sign up for our daily newsletter hotels in tucson arizona or our
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