Question of the Day - 04 November 2019

A few trips ago, I looked at renting a car at the airport.  Each company wanted me to pay early to save money and would charge a $50 fee for a cancellation.  Okay, I then tried not paying early and they still wanted to charge a fee for cancellation.  Lyft, Uber, metro, and just walking is a better deal.

I think that when you add casino parking fees to the cost of having a rental, there are even more reasons to using ride-share services.

Ray is right. It was the casino parking fees that became the tipping point for me and I assume lots of potential car renters. 

The taxes on rental cars are unbelievable. You think Las Vegas is bad? Go to Phoenix, or Reno. Let the people who directly use these services pay the taxes (e.g., the rental car tax that pays for spring training baseball facilities in Maricopa County should be paid for by the people who come to the games)

My mother was a gambler and from the age of 3 I remember being in Vegas at least every 4 months. I am over 50 now and mom is long gone but I can say that I know the path from the Airport to the strip or downtown pretty well. Still it has not stopped those $%^&* Cab drivers from trying to long haul me over 80% of the time then they moan/bitch and threaten when you tell them that they can take their tip money out of the over charged fare. I am sure the Vegas Taxi Commission has me on speed dial as I have had to complaints more often than not.

I love the concept of Uber and Lyft apps that ask where I am going and then give me a price. If the Uber driver wants to give me a tour of the city then so be it, but the price is the price and I tip the drivers well. 

At times I used to be able to get a car for 9.99/day from priceline as such it was cheaper than either the shuttle or cab ... if only to park the car - never use it - except to get back to the airport. Parking $$ has ended that.

Those outfits offer something far superior to hailing a cab, and for people who aren't driving all over the place, superior to renting a car, but they're making a huge mistake. That mistake is the notorious "surge pricing," which makes it twice or three times as expensive to ride during peak periods. I've heard dozens of people complain about it taking $12 to get to the Strip at 2 in the afternoon and $36 to make the same return trip at 7.

That, I think, offends people's sense of fairness. There's an intrinsic component to every service you buy, regardless of time period. That cost and price should be fixed and constant. Surge pricing is like car washes tripling their prices during a dust storm, or for that matter, restaurants charging double or triple from 6-8 pm. Or casinos raising the table limits to $25 when...oh, wait.

I wonder when this town will dial back the gouge-the-tourists memory. Surely some must be comprehending that Vegas regards them as mooing cash cows.

Venture capital subsidizes cheaper rides in what is, arguably, a Ponzi scheme.  It has an unsustainable business model with a high probability of going broke within a decade of it can no longer find suckers to invest.

We will see if Uber will be affected by the flat rate taxi fares from the airport that are coming next year.

while standing in line, I had plenty of time to study the sign detailing the additional fees. I was so impressed that I took a cell pic of it:
"Rental Rates do not include:
10% Airport Fee
7.75% Sales Tax
6% Recovery Fee
2% PCA Fee
$3 per day CFC Fee."
The last one is not for Chlorofluorocarbons in the air conditioner, as I first thought; but rather a "Consumer Facility Fee" imposed by the airport in addition to the Concession Recovery Fee--at MacCarran, probably for the privilege of using the (then) new integrated rental car facility.
Since I was a math major in an earlier incarnation, I can state with confidence that this adds up to 29.75% plus $3 per day; and, needless to say, none of this had been mentioned when I made the reservation. 
It was already booked, so I gritted my teeth and took it. But that really was the LAST time I rented a car at MacCarran Airport, and that was many years ago.
https://simplepleasurestravel.com/what-are-those-car-rental-fees/

That 6% is a "DMV fee" and there's a 4% "Recovery fee." Somehow the original post got garbled on entering. Now it adds up to 29.75%.
Sorry....

not long ago the lva had a topic re: car rentals and the liabilities involved with valet parking. seems like there's just too many catches to too many things involving rentals. rental loopholes abound and now toss in credit card usage rules and regs with their own set of loopholes and bingo. now pile on the parking fees and add the stress of vegas traffic, self parking and bango it's pretty much a no brainer. hello uber and lyft, surge pricing be damned. now the next concern is that your uber or lyft driver hasn't gone bongo and you're the unlucky one to climb into their backseat. 

So...If ride share is cutting back on the number of rental cars in Las Vegas, why are the fees so much more this year? Last November I rented a car from Dollar at $185 (all in). This month it is $285. Same car, same time, same number of days.