Wondering how car rental companies determine how much you should pay for your rental? Car rental companies follow a formula to determine this. As a customer, it usually is difficult to determine how rental companies come up with their prices but you can always calculate the rates by reading the information below and by applying a bit of mathematics.
You can request the rates for a vehicle you are planning to rent. Usually, car rental places have daily, weekly and monthly rates. The next step is for you to choose the kind of insurance plan for the rental. Most companies provide several types of coverage so you should choose wisely. If your own insurance covers rentals then there is no more need for you to get an insurance plan for your rental.
If you are planning to rent a car for three days, you should get the rates under the daily rate category and multiply that by the number of days - in this case three days. After that, you can add your insurance plan for the rental and multiply that by three as well. When done, add these numbers.
What about tax? This usually depends which state you are in. In California for example, the tax is about 10%. You can now multiply your expected price by 10% or by the sales tax indicated by the state where you are in and then add the result to your expected price. Let's say that your expected price is $50 and the sales tax in the state you are in is 10%, you should multiply the two numbers. ($50 x 0.10 = 5) then add the result to the expected price to get the total price ($50 + 5 = $55).
You should keep in mind that rates can change without you being notified so it is always better to ask your car rental company of choice if their rates have changed. They will gladly tell you about price changes. Doing this will prevent you from getting any surprises.
Car rental companies compute car rental costs basically the same way as the computation notes shown above.
