Taxes and fees on a two-day compact car rental at SEA airport, over 45 percent taxes/fees of $75 USD

[Rmay635703]

I try to always book directly with the hotel I want to stay at but sadly google is now substituting Expedias phone under the hotels listing, Expedia charged me $75 of taxes, talked to the motel and taxes are only $7 and they got about half what I paid.

Considering they have repeatedly been sued on just this issue how do I get at the least a refund?

 

[The Critic]

Uber would have been more expensive usually, unless you don't do anything other than work and hotel (and work more free overtime in the hotel). Having a car you can goof off after work and relax somewhere else instead of just not wanting to go out. That's the secret.

In major metropolitan areas, if you are staying downtown, it is almost always cheaper to use lyft/uber than to rent a vehicle. Our company gives us discretion but ownership over our expenses.

Original poster's experience is in-line with most airport rentals.

Also, keep in mind that mileage and fuel must be reported on rentals -- using it for "personal use" after work hours (if that's even a thing during business travel), is a grey area.

 

[53' Stude]

And? This is nothing new for the last 20+ years I’ve had to travel.

Exactly!

GON: come to the Pittsburgh Intl Airport and you will have lots of of taxes to pay!

 

[mk378]

yes but the actual tax is 7.7%, the rest are added on by the rental company.

Exactly. "Concession Recovery" and "Facility Charge" might be related to the rent the company pays to the airport. Yes if you want the convenience of renting a car at an airport instead of off-site, that airport will want some of the action. "Energy Recovery" must be the electric bill for the office. And "License recovery", of course any car on the road needs a license. Traditionally, businesses would roll these sort of costs into the initially quoted price.

When they break them out as separate line items added after the fact, they are free to inflate them beyond the actual cost and the customer will blame someone else.

 

[RocketRod69]

Ultra-Blue Seattle is taxing businesses out of the city. Record homelessness and crime on top of that. Just an example of what 2 decades of liberal government can do for us.
We were in France for Le Mans in 2023 and rental cars were surprisingly inexpensive.

 

[4WD]

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-most-expensive-car-rental-among-major-cities/3488462/

 

[PandaBear]

In major metropolitan areas, if you are staying downtown, it is almost always cheaper to use lyft/uber than to rent a vehicle. Our company gives us discretion but ownership over our expenses.

Original poster's experience is in-line with most airport rentals.

Also, keep in mind that mileage and fuel must be reported on rentals -- using it for "personal use" after work hours (if that's even a thing during business travel), is a grey area.

I do agree it is typical for business travel. After reading what Astro said about the ATS, I can see why they are that price instead of priceline cheap like mine. Government regulation ain't free, someone has to pay for all the work to be compliance.

About rental car after hours: team building and team dinner after work is also part of business travel and I would imagine if they reimburse your meal they should also pay for your rental use to these meals. Obviously things can get abused and one former coworker decided to rent a minivan and put 600 extra miles on it during weekend of a business trip (I'm sure he was just doing a bro trip during that weekend), and the HR decline it, paying him only what they pay the average and typical amount of other coworkers on the same trip.

I have also worked in a place where you could exchange 1 business class ticket to 2 economy and bring a family along. This likely is to help single parents on business trip and they cost about the same anyways. They didn't say whether you can use rental car during the off hours but since most rental miles are unlimited, if your gas reimbursement is not too far off they likely don't mind. They specifically forbid entertainment expense and meals for others however.

 

[JHZR2]

Quite the opposite, the locals have say, and they chose to tax the non locals. Its quite ingenious when you think about it.

Doubt the locals have say either. All the time whatever is being paid for, half of the population doesn’t want.

So when you see a stadium reclamation fund, for a sports stadium that the locality took bonds to pay for because they couldn’t afford, in order to make
Some billionaire team owner richer, and half thenpopulation didn’t want it to begin with,..

Makes me wonder if it’s really the locals…?!?

 

[JHZR2]

No, all those fees are added on by the airport. It’s not the rental company that decides to tack on all the fees.

Further, the OP is limited in what rental companies he can choose - he can’t do Priceline, he has to go through the Defense Travel System (the bane of every Active Duty Traveler) to be compliant with DOD travel regulations, which are thousands of pages of Byzantine rules and requirements in the interest of “value to the taxpayer” and “proper accounting”.

Rental cars is one of the better working things in DTS

Not sure the taxes are any different, other than the govt rental surcharge which is now done away with, if doing Priceline or the most Byzantine travel system… and I’ve had times where the prices are actually better!

 

[The Critic]

About rental car after hours: team building and team dinner after work is also part of business travel and I would imagine if they reimburse your meal they should also pay for your rental use to these meals.

They do, but an uber/lyft ride to/from those events (especially if shared) is almost always cheaper than the cumulative cost of a rental, overnight parking and fuel.

I have also worked in a place where you could exchange 1 business class ticket to 2 economy and bring a family along.

I have never worked at a Fortune 100 company that would pay for anything beyond the cheapest Economy ticket.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Doubt the locals have say either. All the time whatever is being paid for, half of the population doesn’t want.

So when you see a stadium reclamation fund, for a sports stadium that the locality took bonds to pay for because they couldn’t afford, in order to make
Some billionaire team owner richer, and half thenpopulation didn’t want it to begin with,..

Makes me wonder if it’s really the locals…?!?

Well on the sports team stuff we agree. I remember living in Charlotte when they funded all kinds of new stuff downtown including a stadium which seemingly no one local wanted.

However I lived on a SC barrier island for a while. Full time population was about 10K residents. Summer population influx was about 150K. They had F&B tax, occupancy tax, and any real estate that was not owner occupied by an island resident paid 3X property tax. Whenever they wanted more money for something they simply raised those taxes. The only ones at the council meetings arguing against it were the realtors. So in that case, for sure it was the locals.

 

[Brons2]

I find it's often better to rent a car off airport and just take an Uber to the rental location. Or even a city bus, or a train when I was in Spain last fall.

 

[eljefino]

When I flew into Vegas two years ago we took an Uber from the airport to an in-town rental car agency. $72. Turned the car in, took uber back into town, but not to the airport. $25. The airport fees were the difference.