Word: rental
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Travelers heading for the sun or the slopes this winter will probably notice a jump in the price of getting away from it all. The culprits this time are not the airlines but the leading U.S. car-rental agencies, which are imposing their first significant price increases in several years. Last week Hertz increased its rates as much as 5%, and Avis said it plans to do likewise within the year. Other rental agencies are expected to follow the industry leaders before long...
...rental companies are responding in part to a loss of revenue from one of their most expensive options: collision insurance. Until recently many car-rental customers paid as much as $13 a day for so-called collision-damage waivers to protect themselves against liability for any repair costs in case their vehicles were damaged. But many major credit-card companies now offer such coverage to their cardholders at no cost whenever they charge a rental. As a result, more and more consumers decline the pricey waivers. In the most sweeping move so far, American Express began offering the collision coverage...
...Rental-car firms have long maintained that CDWs are reasonably priced and that most of the revenues from them go toward repairing vehicles. But now at least some car-rental executives concede that the CDW has been a money-maker all along. The Hertz rate increase, says Russo, is "primarily designed to take care of the revenue loss" that will follow American Express green-card coverage...
...lemon of a deal at the usual rate of $10 or more a day. Robert Hunter, president of the National Insurance Consumer Organization, calculates that insurance companies can provide policyholders with comparable protection for about $1 a day. The CDW controversy began to heat up in 1987, when many rental agencies removed the ceiling on customer damage liability, which was typically $3,000, and began holding motorists responsible for the full value of the cars they were renting. That threat helped car-rental clerks persuade more customers to accept the CDW. Acknowledges Russell James, a vice president at Avis: "Many...
...members of the local hotel and restaurant union prevailed last week in contract talks that may open up a new category of employee benefits. The hotels agreed to set up a housing fund of up to $1 million to help their workers pay up-front fees for rental of apartments and down payments on houses. The concept of a worker housing fund is still so new, however, that the union will not be able to administer the money until Congress passes legislation to authorize...