HELP with cheaper rental car on Maui!
 

Hi everyone,
I am trying to book my rental cars for my honeymoon in Hawaii this summer. I have booked a car through Alamo for $170 from Aug. 9-13 on the Big Island. The Maui rentals seem so expensive, though, the lowest I'm coming up with is around $300 for Aug. 13-20, checking all the major websites (Budget, Alamo, Hertz, Enterprise) etc.. Any suggestions?

Check out www.rentalcodes.com. It is not a booking agent, but a source for discount codes that you can plug into the sites for the major rental firms (Hertz, Avis, National, etc.). To use some of the codes, you must be a member of the respective "club," but not for all (there are codes for Walmart, etc.). I used discount codes for Vacation Outlet to get good deals from National on Maui and the Big Island.

If you have an airline frequent flyer membership, you also might be able to get a discount -- for example, I usually can get discounts by booking through united.com.

Good luck.

Thank you, I did try rentalcodes.com, but couldn't get any of them to work for me. I actually just went to Hotwire and booked it there. I got a mid-size from Budget for $236 for the week...the Budget website is charging almost $400 for the same dates for a mid-size!

Hi beachgirl86,
I would suggest a local place called By Word Of Mouth Rental Cars in Maui. We found them originally through a tavel book and used them on every trip to Maui (7 years)! They were $135/wk, three years ago plus tax. Their tax charges are not as high as cars rented at the airport and their service is great. After you pickup your luggage, you just call them on the airport phone, wait outside, and they are there within minutes to get you. They take you back at the end of your trip too. Their phone number is: 800-533-5929. Keep in mind they just have economy cars, nothing fancy, but if you're looking to save, I don't think you can beat their prices.
Funny, I just recommended them to another internet friend yesterday. You're not from Canada are you?

You can get a mid-sized for a weekly rqte of $180 through Budget by booking through
http://www.carrentalinhawaii.com/fleetinfo.htm

Word of Mouth is much like Island Rentals, or Aloha or Maui Cruiser in that they have older rental fleets. If you don't mind renting a 1997 Corolla, and you don't need air conditioning or you can't rent from one of the top agencies because you are under 25 or lack a credit card, then this is an option for you. I have not fopund the weekly rates for any of the local agencies to be any better than a good price from a national agency. If I can get a 2004 Dodge Neon for $150 a week, I see no incentive to rent an older car on my vacation.

Try http://www.biddingfortravel.com and research what other winning bids are for Maui under the car rental section. I got $20 a day mid-size for Oahu w/ National. That's the lowest anywhere. If you research, you should be able to get a decent rate and they only use the major rental companies. Also you name your price, so you don't really lose out, they either accept it or not.

I tried Priceline for the Big Island this week - for the first time. I had researched evereywhere, spending lot of hours researching, and I thought I had the rental rate down as low as I could get it - $23.00 per day for 13 days. Then I tried Priceline, placed one bid at $16.00 and got it. However, then I tried renting for Kauai and 3 bids didn't go through, so I have to wait a week before I am allowed to try again. However, I am pretty impressed with the price I have for BI. The car is with Alamo.
The other suggestion I have is to try expedia, orbitz, and travelocity. However, with them, the prices seem to vary day by day so if you cannot find a good price one day, don't give up.

You might try www.rentacarinmaui.com. We're using them for our trip in October.

As I mentioned, I rented from By Word Of Mouth on Maui five years in a row and the cars most certainly did have air conditioning and were all recent models with 30,000 or less. Most were Toyotas that gave very good gas mileage and were not any more or less beat up than cars from National Rental Agencies. If you're looking to save money, the local guy, in this case gives an additional option. However, on the BI, I did not find any local dealers that offered better rates.

I had good luck with price line $20 oahu, $30 Big Island for 4x4 suv, $16 economy Kauai. I checked bidding for travel and orbitz etc.. to see what the best rates were then bid under that. Planning the trip is half the fun.

AVOID RENTACARINMAUI.COM. Simply put, they should be renamed RENTAWRECKINMAUI.COM.

A large group from our company rented vehicles from them in January. They were all pieces of junk, mine specifically, having an expired Ohio license plate, cassette player that did not work and what looked like bullet holes on the side. Most everyone turned their cars back to them and rented alternate vehicles from brand name companies. The worst situation was that they had "lost" (yes, lost!) a car and could not deliver a car to one of my friends at the airport.

Simply put, they are not a professional company and it is a crapshoot that they will even show up with a car and if it is the one you rented (or expected). I noticed that nanajan rented from them for the Oct trip. I would HIGHLY recommend that you cancel that and watch your credit card to ensure that you get your money back. Those who did not get cars had to pester them continually to get their money back.

Ok, I've ranted enough....but they were the only BAD thing in our entire Maui trip.

I like checking rates at www.sidestep.com whenever we travel anywhere.
It gives you "best" rates with a number of companies and you chose. I often get rates lower than when accessing the company sites directly.
I am still looking for a better rate but right now I booked a minivan for December through sidestep and Dollar that is $200(for the week) lower than the closest competitor.