Forgot to book rental car for Hawaii, leaving the 25th and prices are $$!
 

We recently moved and I completely forgot to book our rental car for our upcoming trip to Maui! :( We will be there 10 days and the cheapest price I can find is $440 on Priceline! That is CRAZY!! Should I just keep watching it every day and hope that it goes down? Or book something when we arrive? I can't believe I forgot to do this... What are our other options? Public transit?

Yes you need a car. Go to kayak.com or hotwire or discounthawaii and book a cancellable, if expensive car now. Then start doing name your own price on priceline.

What would be a good price to "bet" on priceline? I meant to say that the cheapest I could find was $440 or $27 per day on Hotwire. Expedia is $90 per day...

$440 is a bargain compared to what will happen if you wait any longer.

I'm not clear - 10 days at $27 a day on Hotwire is $270, not $440?? I'd grab the Hotwire deal at $270, they only use the major car rental companies.

:( Should I just book the Hotwire amount? Kayak was in the $900 range... Or try for Priceline?

Not to mention.......... there are limited cars.All of the cars can sell out. Seriously. It is not as if they can bring some over from another city easy.

That happened to a friend who waited to long over the christmas holiday.

DO NOT WAIT until you get there>>

It's all the taxes that they add on. There's $170 in taxes added on... I'm gonna try Priceline.

costco has the best prices but supply is the issue...beware of super cheap guys by the airport yet they may be the only ones left...craigslist sometimes has private folks renting to guests...good luck...

Okay, I put $20 per day in Priceline and got it... Perhaps I should've tried a lower price at first? The total is $360. Wow, never thought I would be happy about paying $360 for a car rental in Hawaii for 10 days! At least it wasn't $900 though... Thanks all.

What are your options?

1) Book something incredibly expensive ($900) but cancellable just so you have something in case everything else falls through. Do that now and then proceed to #2 and 3 immediately.

2) Examine your itinerary and see if you can get away with no car for a few days to cut costs. If you are staying near the airport, take a cab and skip the rental car for the first few days or last few days.

3) Check into reputable off-airport locations.

4) Book with Hotwire

5) Book with Priceline

6) Wait longer and see what happens.

I put those in order of best idea to worst idea, in my opinion.

Just for information - Priceline just bought Kayak this week.
Maybe check Expedia.

Enterprise does have 2 off airport locations. http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental...aui-car-rental

Guys, she already booked on Priceline - "I put $20 per day in Priceline and got it".

just for future reference, we always use discounthawaiicarrentals.com and have paid under $300 for each 10 day trip

We get in at 10:30 pm on a sunday, so I didn't think that taking a taxi to the condo and picking up a car the next morning would be very easy. It also didn't change the rate much. Oregonmom, I usually pay much less when I book in advance. It just slipped my mind this time. Thanks again for the help but I did book something thru priceline.

I started typing my response (which took awhile due to distractions) before the OP came back and said she had booked on Priceline.

It's a decent price. Not the best, but darn good under last minute circumstance.

IMO, you lucked out. Don't fret about it anymore, or second guess yourself. "Darn good" under the circumstances, indeed.