Hotwire - how often do they change car rental prices?
 

Does anybody know if this is a one-time amount set at a certain time or if it changes multiple times during the day?

ccolor:
It is hard to say sometimes you can find the same rate for a couple of days and others it may change by the time to click purchase, if your happy with what you are getting I'd say get it now or try priceline for a little less, this usually works for me. Hope this helps
Gina

I can't speak for rental cars, but when checking hotels, I've seen Hotwire RAISE the price when they detect you've checked rates before. Here's what I mean: I check the hotel price on Monday, it shows one price for a 3-star hotel. Next day, I check again and see a 3-star hotel is now $5/night more. Then I pop open a different browser (Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, so there is no Hotwire "cookie" they see on my computer to know I've come back again), check the same city/dates, and I get the original price again. Back to original browser, check again - still $5 higher.

If I ever use Hotwire again, I'll be careful when re-checking to delete the Hotwire cookies from my browser so I'm not charged a higher booking price.

Don't know how often they do, but just a couple days ago, it was showing 55.00 per day for a rental I was looking at.

Next day, it was down to 28.00.

I've also read something about the cookies they put on your computer. I'd double check that and erase it off your computer when checking more than once.

Thanks everybody - my price had gone up since I originally checked so I'll clean out the cookies and give it another try.

Try taking your lower amount, deducting 20%, then bidding that on Priceline. It generally works for me....

I've noticed that it does change - and I haven't found a pattern. Sometimes it's the same rate for several days, then goes up or down for a day, then back to the original one.

I was looking at car rental for SAN last night, and when I rechecked the rates tonight, it has gone up $5/day. I'll keep checking and book it when it goes back down.