Hotwire Car Rental: Good Idea?
 

I can save $195 ($25 per day) on an 8-day car rental in Alaska if I book on Hotwire and prepay. I've never used Hotwire. Should I do it?

HTtY

We did it once in Hawaii - never again. The agency they used was one I hadn't heard of, and the cars - which were all supposed to be non-smoking - reeked of cigarette smoke.

Have you looked at booking through Costco?

We've done it and never had a problem, but we also haven't had to prepay.

We used Hotwire a number of time with no problem. Generally a second tier rental and sometimes off site but the cars always ran. The price was right.

We have used Hotwire with no problem. I use them to really compare quotes because they give the additional airport surcharges and a final total.

I have found Costco to have the best prices with payment at pickup and 2nd driver free. And if the rate goes down, it's easy to change reservation to take advantage of savings.

It looks like everyone else who used Hotwire had abetter experience than we did.

I've had good luck with Hotwire. My last rental in Dallas was with Hertz and I saved a lot of money. If it wasn't a big savings difference I would stick with a rental company you have used before.

We got a fantastic deal on a Hertz rental with Hotwire.

I've used Hotwire several times with no problem.

> the cars - which were all supposed to be non-smoking -
> reeked of cigarette smoke

Did you mention this within five minutes of picking up your car? No car rental agency can help it if someone violates the contract and smokes in a car that is supposed to be non-smoking. All they can do is remove the smell (if it "reeked," it should have been obvious fairly quickly) and then bill the previous renter for this. If you failed to mention that you were given a car that reeked of cigarette smoke, and that you will not rent from a car that is not what you paid for, then the rental agency has no incentive to do anything about it.

I check hotwire now; found a receipt (inside the glove box tucked into the car manual) that had a price half of what I paid for the previous week. And I had a good price already!

Many years ago in my Brooklyn neighborhood, hotwire was the most common way of renting a car.

My wife and I will be in Alaska about a month ahead of you.
(5/31 to 6/9). I did my rental car shopping on several websites and the best deal from the ANC airport was from Enterprise for about $322 (including fees/taxes) for 10 days.
I went through the Amtrak Guest Rewards website to get to Enterprise so I will get 500 AGR points as well.
The best deal I ever got on a rental car was bidding on Priceline for a car in Las Vegas.

We haven't used Hotwire , but we've had very good results with "name your own price" on Priceline, which only uses 5 nsjor brands of car rental agencies.

Thanks everybody.

I have an 8-day reservation with Thrifty using an AAA discount ($569 including taxes).

As July 3 draws closer I will check with Hotline, but I am reluctant to prepay $390 so far out.

During the time I will be in Alaska Priceline offers no bidding, Enterprise is in the Hertz range, and I am not a member of Costco.

HTtY

Sometimes the savings is worth the $55 cost of joining Costco [which can be done online], even if you don't go a store. They have some great travel deals on hotels, cruise etc.

And you can always shop online :)

Paul Rabe, of course we complained immediately - it didn't take 5 minutes to realize we couldn't live with one of those cars - all we had to do was open the door. And there is no way I know of to "remove the smell" - you can try to cover up the smell with air freshener, but that is about it. We went through the entire lot. There was just one car (of maybe 40) that didn't reek of cigarette smoke - a huge Cadillac. (We ended up driving that for two weeks!).

It was clear that they didn't care whether people smoked in the cars, as all of the cars (but one) were smokey. I think that's the kind of thing you get with off-brand car rentals.

Well, I guess to be fair, Hotwire is a "broker" and not the ultimate car rental agent. We haven't ever gotten an "off brand".

Very well, sounds like you handled it about as well as you could. Now what was the name and city of this off-brand rental agency that claims its cars are non-smoking but obviously doesn't enforce their rules? I'd certainly want to avoid such a company!

This was in Lihue, Hawaii, Paul. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the company. We go to Kauai every year and it's the only bad experience we've had with a car in Lihue. Of course, we haven't used Hotwire since. We typically use Hertz.