Travelers who value cheap fares and are committed to finding cheap auto rentals have sometimes found that they can rent cars away from airports for as little as one third of the airport rate.
Local taxes and airport concession fees are often the reasons why off airport locations sometimes prove to be much cheaper when renting cars.
Airport rental fees cover rental car companies cost of renting airport facilities and using shuttle services where necessary to take customers to and from the terminal. However, these fees are also sometimes used to fund local projects that do not have anything to do with car rental activities.
The additional airport fees and taxes place airport based car rental locations at a price disadvantage. While this may offer a savvy traveler the potential to save, some cities (such as Denver) airports are so far away from offsite car rental locations that it does not make sense to go to the expense of taking a taxi to an off-airport location.
If you are only going to rent a car for a couple of days, then the additional expense of taking a taxi to an offsite location may offset any car rental savings. However, if you are going to rent a car for several days, you may easily find that you can save big bucks.
Another consideration when deciding where to rent a car is your schedule, as the travel time from an offsite car rental location back to the airport might make you miss your flight, particularly if you are running late.