II & Marriott Hertz Gold Membership

I really have never valued the Hertz Gold Membership too much as I have rented in the past a lot from Avis and not Hertz.

But recently I have been renting a lot from Hertz and thought I would share a Hertz experience. I didn't know this - but maybe I'm not as Hertz educated as others..

I reserved a Hertz car, got an email confirmation back with the confirmation # and the body of the email saying "Your car is confirmed"... Showed up at the rental counter and was told, sorry sir there are no cars and it doesn't matter you have a reservation or not.

Now I am well seasoned with Marriott pulling the reservation-but-no-availability routine, and I am not Hertz educated, so I didn't doubt the nice lady. I was a little disappointed when she told me it was 5:50 PM and they close at 6:00 PM so I need to get out - there are no cars.

Being enterprising I decided to educate myself on Hertz policies. After a few days I called the corporate number and asked if they could help explain why an email saying "Your car is confirmed" means there may or may not be a car for you when you show at the counter and there are no Gold Member benefits with regards to reservation guarantees.

The nice corporate lady explained to me that is indeed the case, Gold Service like what Marriott and my Employer offers really doesn't mean or guarantee anything, nor does the confirmation email. She further explained that maintaining an accurate inventory with reservations is just way to challenging - there are scenarios beyond their control. Ah - I said (literally - no joke here), I've heard and played this game with Marriott too. I said I have been booted on confirmed Marriott reservations and Marriott did nothing to help - seems very similar.

So giving a "confirmed" reservation and not honoring it is nothing new in the travel industry as Marriott does this too. So I asked the nice lady from Hertz corporate, Marriott really promotes their perks and things like the Hertz #1 gold membership - what you're telling me is this service is really not worth anything with respect to reservations and she confirmed this.

But I said, one thing I don't understand is Marriott promotes their own Platinum Elite Perk that they will reserve a room when it's sold out if you give them 48 hours notice. Suddenly the nice Hertz corporate lady perked up and said, "Oh yeah we have that too - if you're a Hertz Platinum member. We will guarantee your reservation and you will have a car if you're a Hertz Plat member with 48 hours notice"

So anyways- thought I would share - wouldn't it be nice (better) if Marriott's Elite membership included a Hertz Platinum membership to guarantee something as basic as car reservations? The Hertz Gold membership is limited value at best especially when considering a reservation + Gold does not equal a confirmed car.

I don't understand when you say Marriott does not offer any help or give any compensation if they do not honor a confirmed reservation. That is simply not true.

Ive been Hertz Gold for over 20 years now and never experienced not getting a car. Most locations that have gold service, the car is waiting in the stall with my name on the board, no need to go to the desk.

What location was this?


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I' ve had Trouble at a "neighborhood" Hertz and I was a Presedential club member which I found to be of little value. They didn't have a full size I requested with over 48 hours notice and tried to give me a compact car. Another issue I ran into was their failure to provide a guaranteed upgrade, a benefit supposedly guaranteed at that level. Whenever I inquired, I was told there was no availability. So much for guaranteed.