Pumpy

I've successfully used Priceline and Hotwire for hotels but never a car rental. Anything I should be aware of before renting?

Andrew

Yes: don't expect to get the same amazing savings on a rental car that you do with hotels on Priceline/Hotwire. Expect to save 20% or 25% at most, less if you are savy enough to check for the best deals on your own first (AAA, Costco for example).

I rented a car once with Priceline (hotels many times) and it was fine. But, as with the hotel, you are completely locked into it, whereas you can make normal rental car reservations without even giving a credit card. If you get to the airport and they say they won't have any cars for two hours (has happened to me), what do you do? If you booked on your own, you can go to another rental car desk and see if they have any cars; if you used Priceline, you are stuck waiting.

It's a little harder to figure your savings when doing a rental car with, say, Priceline, because the taxes are so high and not quite as obvious as hotel taxes. I like to figure out a minimum of how much I need to save on the rental, minus Priceline's fee, and use that figure to set my bid.

Andrew

JRP

Andrew used the best term, "Stuck". We reserved with Priceline in February for a week in Palm Springs. Due to an emergency at the last minute, we had to change our travel date by one week. Even after an appeal with American Express we were "Stuck" with the bill. We thought that reserving the following week might provide a little leverage on the appeal. No chance! The savings were not worth the utter lack of customer service and consideration. As the saying goes, "Never say never", but it would take an extreme situation for me to use Priceline again for a car rental.

CaliNurse

I had somewhat better luck. Rented a car (at Little Rock airport) via Priceline bid, for less than half of the best deal I'd found on other sites. They offered me free upgrade when I got there. This was through Thrifty.

travelinwifey

I've had pretty good luck too. Typically Priceline will be about $5-7 cheaper per day than hotwire. Not always, but maybe one out of the last 5 car rentals had the hotwire rate the same as the Priceline rate for me. Also check websites before you bid as sometimes Hotwire rates offer no savings at all. I've also had several rentals that were more than 50% off. San Diego is a good city for Priceline car discounts.

Gretchen

I have saved as much as 50% with PL but am always aware that my dates are set in stone. I start with Expedia, then Hotwire (where I can get the extra tax amount) and then bid on PL, knowing what the add-ons will be.

caribtraveler

I've used Priceline for car rentals several times. The savings are not as nice as the hotel savings. Depending on which state, some of the savings were better than others. There have been times where they didn't have my car size, but then they upgraded us to a bigger car. Bottom line: never any problems for us.
Also, using Priceline is not reserving. You bid, you win, you've bought. It's non-refundable and non-changeable. Clearly stated on their website. You shouldn't use if you can't accept that.
I have not used Hotwire.

rkkwan

That's the whole idea of using Hotwire or Priceline. You get a discount by prepaying, no refund.

It also makes sense that the discount for cars are less than hotels. There are unlimited number of hotels, theoretically, that one can end up with in most zones; while both PL and HW only uses name-brand car rentals. And you can specify airport rental locations. So, you have no risk of getting a no-name rental from a far away lot, unlike for hotels.

jlm_mi

Actually, that's a commonly perceived risk of hotels that really doesn't pan out. There aren't "unlimited" hotel options. Hotel regions are clearly defined, and there is a specific total number of hotels that fall geographically within those boundaries. Certainly not all of them will participate with priceline, so that limits your options further. A little research on bidding help websites (www.betterbidding.com and www.biddingfortravel.com) will help you determine, in most areas, a very limited list of hotel possibilities for each star level and zone, leaving little chance of getting stuck with something horrible, unless you are willing to risk a bid combination that has something horrible as a possible outcome.

Cars are still less risky - few people are so picky as to care which brand/model of midsize car they drive for a few days, so there are more options that will satisfy. Many people are pickier about their hotel amenities/location/style, so there is more room for dissatisfaction.

rkkwan

Of course I know there are limited hotels that PL and HW use. I have been advising people to use BFT and BB for years, and on how to bid. I was just making the same point that car rental has even less risk.

Kal

Alohaaaa,
I've used both P'line and Hotwire for rental cars on Kauai our last three trips and never had a problem with either.

Got mid sized and full sized cars for anywhere from $15/day to about $23/day if I recall correctly..and this is during the very busy Dec/Jan hi season.

I did have to wait for about an hour one trip but I was waiting with people who had regularly booked rentals too.

But as mentioned above, "you book it-you bought it."

I believe they do offer some sort of trip cancelation for car rentals, too?

Brookside

I regularly use Priceline for car rentals, always at a dramatic price reduction.

Location dictates your savings. For example, I've always had great success at the Tampa and Atlanta airports. I learned that their inventory of cars usually exceeds the demand at these locations. Surplus inventory = good bargains! However, the opposite appears to be true at other locations such as the Las Vegas airpot. I've *never* been able to get a good deal there.

I establish a risk threshold before bidding. If I can get a full-size vehicle at 50% savings, I will gladly exchange amenities like the ability to cancel should my travel plans change. But if the savings end up only being a few dollars, it isn't worth it to me.

And, for what it's worth, I've *never* been treated negatively by rental car companies for being a Priceline customer. The rental car companies treat me as courteously as any other customer. I've been upgraded several times when my particular vehicle wasn't available and always have a pleasant experience.

Priceline transactions are final and non-refundable, so if this is an issue with you, don't try it. And, as the previous posters have stated, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the strategies, etc, found on the BFT and BB sites.

yk

An example from recent experience:

1-day car rental at Kansas City Airport:
Rental price from Hertz (with no discount) for a compact - $94 + tax
Hotwire for a compact - $4.95 + tax

I booked via Hotwire, and got the car at Hertz. Total cost $22.50

[I tried bidding on PL to see if I could get it cheaper than Hotwire, and the answer was no.]

caribtraveler

Here are 2 recent wins for me.

Atlanta Airport in April '06:
Priceline win: $14/day Hertz mid-size, total $52.02
Hertz website $27.99/day, total $83.63.

SW Florida Int. Airport September '05:
Priceline win: $20/day full size Avis, total $171.72
Avis website total: $225.94

GoTravel

I rent on hotwire and always get a full size sedan for about $19 per day.

travelinwifey

Here's some recent bids w/in the last year for us:

All premium cars except St Petersburg
San Diego 5/19 2 nights $27, hotwire $35
Savannah 3/14 4 nights $35, hotwire $41
St Petersburg 3/2 9 nights full size $25, hotwire only $1 more at $26/day
San Diego New Year's weekend $35, hotwire $40

Intrepid1

"The savings were not worth the utter lack of customer service and consideration..."

I believe both Priceline and HotWire make it quite CLEAR that once you have paid there are no refunds, changes, etc.

Lack of customer service in this case apparently means "I didn't get my way" is that it?

Andrew

I just looked at a Hotwire rental car for a trip I'm taking in August, and I must admit: I'm surprised at how cheap the car rental seems compared to what I can get on my own. I know that on past trips I've never seen savings like this, even when I had a successful Priceline bid. I will try doing a Priceline bid for under Hotwire's price and see how I do; otherwise, I'll probably go for it.

Has anyone been involuntarily "upgraded" by Hotwire/Priceline to a bigger car? I'll have to read the Hotwire and Priceline TOS carefully to see if they are allowed to do that. That would be one worry: with the high gas prices now, I for sure would NOT want a gas guzzler when I'd reserved a compact car. That's basically going to double the price of my rental.

Andrew

rkkwan

Andrew - Even with a regular rental, you don't really get guaranteed a particular size of car anyways. The rental company can always upgrade you, and there's not much you can do anyways if they don't have your compact on the lot.

travelinwifey

Hi Andrew, yes, we've been upgraded twice on Priceline bids, only because the car we reserved was sold out. It's been a while though. One was in Maui several years ago when our full size car was sold out, we received an SUV (wouldn't take that now because of fuel costs) and another was in San Diego last year, the car we reserved was s/o and the agent was trying to get us to purchase the updrade, we refused and got the next size up anyways. That was a full size to premium car. The car was too big (long) it was hard to navigate. We thought we were getting a nice deal but I see why the car hadn't been taken