I will be at a conference in Clearwater immediately before my October trip. On my last full day there I will be renting a car from the Tampa airport, will drive up to WDW first thing the next morning, drop off our stuff at AoA and then drop the car off at the Car Care Center.
I did some pre-booking research today and apparently Enterprise would charge a $200 drop off fee, but Alamo would not. Is anyone familiar w/ drop off fees and why it would be charged w/ one company and not the other (since Enterprise owns Alamo)? I haven never done a one-way rental before and don’t want to be surprised after the fact!
There was some toying with the idea of keeping the car for our five day stay…but it would be $600 so we will go w/ the first plan of promptly dropping it off! 
I think it’s more common than not to have a 1 way rental extra fee. The only time I’ve seen it waived is when they are trying to reallocate inventory such as one way rentals out of FL after the snow birds leave in the spring.
Well, I just reserved the one at Alamo (the one that didn’t have the additional fee). I also took a screen shot of their FAQ (with the date & time on my computer) that states “If there is a drop charge fee, it will be disclosed when you book via the web site and is payable at time of pick up.”
There was nothing disclosed when I booked, so hopefully it won’t be a problem when I pick up the car in Tampa!
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I believe that to be true because any time I’ve been subjected to it it showed up in my booking screen. Probably smart to take the screenshots.
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Check National Rental Car. They have been at the Care Care Center for a long time and I don’t recall them having a drop off charge.
Their starting price was $60+ more than Alamo, but they did not have a drop off fee.
Drop fees will vary from location to location- even within the same company, not to mention parent companies- because the fee is specific to rebalancing needs for that particular fleet. “Alamo” is one brand but each location has a particular “zone” that they belong to and the cars are expected to circulate within. Returns across zones can be good or bad depending on whether the receiving location is infleeting or defleeting cars that particular day. All of which is to say, always read the fine print, every reservation will be different. And rebooking to get a better rate can change terms.
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