Car Rental- Priceline, Hotwire, or other Discount Vendor?
 

What is your experience with car rental using the bidding features, especially. This would be in for in airport at Reno, NV.

Thanks!

I've used Priceline for Hawaii, and it was great. We didn't have any problems, but I think the rental car market is very competitive in Hawaii, so there are some really great deals available on Priceline.

They're fine...but you are locked into paying for it whether you pick it up or not....hotwire and priceline use all the major car rental companies.

But check Dollar, I have often found it cheaper on Dollar's own website, with a discount code from BJ's or similar.

Thanks, both of you. I've been looking for a week off and on and am rather disappointed at the costs and taxes added. No good deals.

I'll keep looking. Ironic, you said Dollar, because that's what the driver perfers- but I don't find them in the airport there.

I'll keep trying, I have a little time.

Priceline doesn't seem to be giving the discounts they used to. Take hotwire's price and bid $3-5 less. Also try Expedia, they've beat both Priceline and Hotwire in the past for me. Have been unsuccessful in using Priceline for car rentals in Phoenix and Orlando this past week.

Ps, yes, Priceline is still really good for Hawaii, other places not so much:)

Check Orbitz.com for your dates and you will get a grid with all the majors. Then, if you are a Costco member do a search for car deals on their web site. Use the best Costco coupon with the car company with the lowest price that you found on Orbitz. This should produce the best deal if you don't want to use hotwire. One last thing, Enterprise, and smaller car rental companys are not included on the Orbitz grid so you may want to do a comparison check on them too.

I've found cheaper prices on the car rental sites themselves than what hotwire lists. I would look at hotwire first and then go to the individual sites of the top 3 cheapest listed. Also, if you Google for something like "Hertz car rental coupon code", you will get a ton of codes you can enter to decrease your cost. I recently did this with Thrifty and saved $100.

Check here
http://www.carrentals.com/?ref=83citysearchcarrental
Dollar and several others are $125/week with tax about $165

Thanks, all of you. I mean it.

I'm definitely not doing Hotwire, and I see you are right on your links too.
Much better.

THANK YOU!

I just rented from Dollar for a week in Phoenix. I did it nearly two months ahead and it was $90 for the week, plus Phoenix's awful add-ons for a grand total of $150. Hotwire, Orbitz, Costco, and everything I tried with various codes was way higher -- mostly double in cost. I was glad I booked when I did. For fun I checked with Dollar about a week before we went and it had DOUBLED in cost -- to about what all the others wanted originally. And oddly enough, none of the special codes from various sites worked on Dollar's website to get it any lower than their own "special sale" rate on their website.

We're paying $97 for a two day car rental in Phoenix this weekend...

Yes, I think you are right, NeoPatrick too- the timing! I think I better do it today.

Aren't the add-ons now just Godawful. Chicago is going to go to highest in the country on hotels and in various other aspects too. We may go to an 11% salex tax on everything as well.

I think our days of renting cars at the drop of a hat for day trips out of far-flung places, may be coming to an end.

I bid twice on hotwire this week as suggested and on Priceline too, a couple of weeks ago and last week- and got no go's- no acceptance on any of them.

So I did the links and all else here too, even Orbitz, and didn't find anything that great for RNO airport. Moderately good, but not great. I was just going to accept one.

Anyway instead, first, and what was going to be my last time, I just did a Priceline bid that I never thought would be accepted- not by a long shot- and got a full sized car for $17 per day. The whole thing accepted for 5 plus days will come to $121 with all the taxes.

I'm satisfied, and feel like I lucked out this time.

Thanks everyone, you really helped.

I did Priceline once for a car rental in Hawaii. I got a great deal on a compact car, but they gave me a car with no power windows or locks and it had a ton of miles on it. Maybe I would have got that same car if I would have booked directly through the rental agency, I can't say for sure, but that's the only time I've had such a cheap car.

The best deal I've found recently is through Costco.com if you have a membership.

I'll report back when I return about the car rental etc.

I've used Priceline probably 50 times for rooms and never once got a room that was "less" than the rooms at full price.

I'll let you know about the car we get.

SO is surprisingly estatic about the whole, he read the print out contract etc. last night, and this is less than 1/2 of what the bottom line price was calling the same vendor direct or online to that vendor- so we shall see.

Actually, it is only $40 more than the cost of the shuttle for the two of us between Reno and Lake Tahoe, and we wouldn't even have any car or options for separate day trips with that agenda. And the parking is free too at Harvey's.

So, I'm satisfied.

I do not have a Costco or a Sam's Club either, anymore. I just have too many great stores near me that I don't have to pay any forward fees for, and also my buying is much diminished in the last 4 years overall.

Does Priceline still NOT do oneway rentals?

And bggirl, my rental car in Phoenix from Dollar I just got also had crank windows (who knew they still made cars like that?) and no power door locks. It was a Ford Focus, right class of car that I rented. Otherwise the car was great. I don't think getting that would have anything to do with booking by Hotwire or Priceline.

Regarding those rental car add-on fees, that one in Phoenix was literally over 65%! The percentage goes down as the total amount increases as some are flat fees rather than percentages. They add on for everything from licensing, airport facility charges, even for their sports stadium. In fact I think there was a fee in there that provided their employees with Starbucks during the morning shifts. LOL

You know, NeoPatrick, I didn't even look at that aspect, but no, I can't say that I had any menu pull down or choice for doing a one-way, now that you mention it.

The add ons, in this case are approximately $40 out of the the $121 total.

Chicago hotels and D.C. hotels are over 17% and I think the Chicago hotels with resort fees and extra flat rate added may get to something like 30% soon. So if any of you are thinking about going to Chicago, go now. It's not out of the box, that it might go to 40% with state, city, and county all with unapproved budgets that are, if they were private, be in bankruptcy. Daley is proposing "leasing" out (99 years, ha ha) the parking meters to private enterprise. He has already sold or leased the skyway, I believe.

I may be too late on this but I was in Tahoe this past June.

We rented a car from Dollar (on line) for about $50. and picked it up at the Reno airport and returned it in Tahoe at the place that used to be Caesar's Palace...cannot remember the new name but I do remember it had "blue" in it. I did not pay any extra fee.

That's a one way, and we needed two ways for sure- back to Reno was actually more important in the time frame. But that still was a good price for a one way, despite the length (you didn't say) of the rental.