TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Hertz at SXM RENEGES on price of rental

We have rented from Hertz for over 40 years and I am a gold member. We reserved a car back in May, 2021 for pickup in April 2022 for $204. About a week ago, Hertz SXM sends us a now contract priced at $370!!!!!! Their excuse is they no longer rent the class of car we reserved. Hertz International is no help at all. This really floors me. What next?

I don't think Hertz on SXM is actually affiliated with the US Hertz at all. I guess you rent from someone else. I guess you should be glad they didn't try to pull a different price on you when you arrived on island.

Good that they notified you of that change. I'll be reserving my car through them shortly for our may trip.

A price change like this has never happened in the forty years I have rented from Hertz. They operate under the name of Hertz, we rented it on Hertz.com. They are affiliated with Hertz, as an agent of some sort.

we used them for years as well. not anymore ...use Lesley

Horizon Car rental

There are at least 2 posts on the SXM facebook groups pertaining to the same thing. Perhaps you are one of them? Up-charge in both cases due to the class of car rented NOT being available. One person indicated the price they were charged versus what they were quoted was well over DOUBLE the original price. $516 to the NEW rate of $1234 for the same time period. Something is NOT right.

I have rented from Kenny’s Car Rental for May 21 thru June 4th. Used them in the past and always a great experience.

It was some time ago (20 yrs.?) but we rented from Hertz SXM and when we arrived they had no cars. We ended up renting from someone else (of course @ a higher price) so when we got home I contacted Hertz USA and explained what had happened. They explained that Hertz SXM was not directly affiliated with them but were allowed to use the name. I responded that the name was "everything" and they paid me the cost difference. I hope you have some luck with Hertz USA.

I agree. The name is "everything".

Probably the problem is you went through Hertz.com and not direct with HertzSXM as Hertz SXM is privatly owned and operated by a local and just using the Hertz name. Hertz.com was probably not aware of the actual vehicles HertzSXM has in invertory. Doesn't matter to me as I have always been sattisfied with them and will continue to use them but one has to do what they feel comfortable with.

We had booked our December rental with the local Hertz agency last July and our January rental through the .com site in March, the locally booked rental went up about 25 percent while the .com rental more than doubled. We were notified by email shortly before our first trip. They did discount the locally booked rental to close to the original quote but the discount offered for the .com rental was still far more than the quote. They also indicated that the small car I had booked was not in their inventory, when I did pick up the car however I ended up with a Yaris😡.

Very poor business practice IMO, we will be looking elsewhere now as a matter of principle. Have used them for years, 7 times in fact after Irma and during Covid when there were few people coming. Nice way to treat a loyal customer.

Unity Car Rental. I have been renting from Michael for over 20 years. Always great prices and cars.

same thing happened to us in dec/jan....we actually had 2 1-week reservations made months in advance on hertz.com with very good pricing due to corporate discount...a couple of weeks before arrival received new confirmation from SXM office, but with much higher rates (almost 3x on one, 2x on the other)

contacted SXM office and was given the same "originally booked car class not available" excuse, but they gave us a courtesy discount to make the rate slightly more palatable...wound up keeping the first rental period, but used another company for second

Sounds like miscomunication between Hertz.com and the independent HertzSXM.

If they discontinued that class, then they should give you something slightly above that class for the same rate, I sure would expect that in the US.

Did they have a ownership or management change recently? It seems there is an increase in Hertz issues on island. I actually considered them on the last trip and was for our next but.....will see how the story goes.
I know in the US there has been a rental car shortage but that did not seem to be an issue for SXM, as they don't turn their cars that fast. Rates have remained nearly the same in Mexico as well.

Cheers,

Todd, The owners are the same but there is a women named Reina running things. I have never seen her before. The people I've dealt with in the past have been neutered.

That is so offensive.

It looks like Hertz emails people about a month prior about a rate change, is that correct? I have a good rate I booked a while ago as well with Hertz. Has anyone had a recent reservation with Hertz that had a good rate and didn't have this issue recently?

We had a similar experience in December with Hertz. We reserved our car in March or April for $129 over a week through Hertz.com. It was a great deal, and we confirmed it more than once. We then got an email from the local Hertz office in SXM in November with a new higher price of $203. After contacting the SXM office, I was told they did not have the class of car I had reserved and this was the price for what was available. The main Hertz customer service was no help.

After emailing back and forth, the SXM Hertz office lowered the price to $182 and ensured me I was getting a larger car than originally reserved. Although I wasn't really happy, there wasn't much I could do and $182 was cheaper than anything else available. When we finally arrived and rented the car, the cost had actually gone down to $160. I'm not sure why, but we ended up paying that for the week. Other than the price issue, the rental was fine.

All I can suggest is to ask for a discount considering the circumstances. It probably won't completely solve the problem, but it may help. We rented through Hertz.com because of a discount code that wasn't available through the local SXM Hertz website. If we ever rent through Hertz again, we'll certainly immediately confirm our rates with the local office rather than just assuming the Hertz.com price will be honored.

I edited what may be offensive but it is pretty obvious there IS a MAJOR problem with Hertz SXM and how they are running the business now. One or two complaints, maybe an isolated case but this seems to be happening WAY TOO MUCH!

I have a reservation for the end of April with them. Fingers crossed they don't mess with it.

Did you leave them a deposit when you did the original booking???

Damn, I missed the offensive part!

This is disconcerting as we just made a reservation. Perhaps inflation is finding its way onto the island and everyone should reconfirm their quotes with all providers.. We will and perhaps we will go with one of the "off brands" if necessary.

You make a reservation at an agreed upon rate, then that should be the rate. Period. Also, the off brands are actually the real brands on island. I have rented from eight different sources on island in my 19 years going, not one being a brand known in the US, never had a single issue. Relax, pick a sponsor and you won't be sorry.
Cheers, T

Yes. I recently reserved an economy/compact for June through the SXM website. They quoted me a rate for a mid-sized sedan with a 10% discount that was actually a few pennies less than the economy. I told them I didn't want a mid-sized car, and they told me their website hadn't been updated yet and they didn't have a compact. I waited about a week, and they had a new economy/compact on the website. I emailed back, asking if I could have that rather than the midsize. They gave me a new quote which was the same weekly rate I paid in November, which includes liability. Reina is the one who always responds to my emails, and I am very happy with the quote, which as Scubaman has frequently noted is less than anyone else due to the inclusion of liability. I am there for five weeks so they quote one contract for four weeks and another for one week because credit cards usually cover collision for only thirty days. I have no complaints whatsoever.

You're not the first person to talk about Hertz pulling shady stuff after the fact!! FORTY YEARS!!! I've said that at 20 years and many trips to SXM that we were still newbies!! God bless!! We found SAX car rental a few years ago. Service is amazing, lovely couple that owns it and handles everything hands on!! Rates are great !! Always new clean cars!! Cindy and Anil do a great job!! You'll be very please! https://saxcarrentals.com/?gclid=Cj...Yadmmc5yJCdZLAfzpiKjl-kcmN0aAvB_EALw_wcB

Just got my confirmed reservations with Hertz SXM for 3 weeks plus 4 days for a Corolla for this May. Total came to 702.94. Not worried. I also let them know of the remarks made on the TTOL forum about them.

Not taking either side here but........ with what the global economy
has been thru the past 24 months how could anyone guarantee to be able to hold a price for ELEVEN MONTHS. My construction company won't even quote a price on a new build today, everything is cost plus.

Is anyone required to put up a deposit to reserve their vehicle?? Been renting cars on SXM for 25 years and was never asked for a deposit. The cancellation rates are thru the roof with all the EHAS b/s. How can these folks guarantee anything??

No deposit with Hertz for mine.

SXMBND--very valid points. We looked at putting an awning on our back deck last fall, didn't really have the money to do it, and now the price for materials alone is up close to 50%...

My Hertz rental is very close to the same as last years rental from them for the same car class.

Mine is exactly the same as November

Having just added a new floor to our home starting March 21, yep, COGs has gone up. But in a rental car market, not sure it the same. Other than the fact that tourism and rentals are low and loss of income over the last 2 years is a goal. But the supply of cars is same and the demand is lower than precovid tourism levels...

That said, I just happened to look at prior rentals w Kenny dating back to 2016. Even with inflation, he's always been reasonable. Support local business. Plus Leslie is a cool dude.

That's why I rent from Hertz SXM. Locally owned and operated.

Part of the problem is the timing of the rate increases. If it happened a couple of months out, it may be different. But when it’s less than a month before the reservation, it limits alternatives.

Before reserving with Hertz, I contacted other companies for quotes. After Hertz increased the price, I reached back out to the other places. They’d all gone up from the original quotes.

Overall, if they want to reserve the right to potentially change the price of a reservation, that should be clearly stated when you book. Otherwise, it’s bait and switch.

Thanks Captain for kind support and good words , however the increase in the car rental rate are in general due to the fact that none of the Car suppliers were able to order and supply new cars to the Car Rental Companies for this High season , hence the demand is very huge now .

To be fair, it makes sense that rates will rise over time. I just didn’t see the supply demand equation as you presented it. I understand now though.

But still don’t think hertz tactic is sound. It seems orchestrated.

The booking confirmation for our rental even said "Rate is guaranteed." I guess that still leaves the option of raising a rate if the type of car changes, but it's still misleading. When we booked our parking at the airport, the confirmation mentioned that although we reserved a spot, the actual price would be determined on the date of arrival. If Hertz wants to make these changes, perhaps this is the approach they should take.