Priceline & rental cars
 

I need a rental car for Portland OR, Th-Mon, August 5-9, and the posted rates are atrocious. I read all the old messages here about using Priceline and other discount sites, but still can't get the rate below $42/day. If I didn't have that danged Thursday, then I could get down to about $24/day on weekend rates.

Anyway, here is my question:
If I wait until 4-5 days ahead of my leaving, is the price available through Priceline likely to go down...or not?
I've never used Priceline before. Thanks.

Where are you wanting to pick the car up? I assume the airport? I did a quick search for you on orbitz and found several that were under $40 so I would check there. For me, it is always much easier than priceline because you are able to make more of the decisions yourself.

I had checked Orbitz earlier and I did again just now. It's still no bargain, and I will keep searching. I knocked a couple of dollars off per day at www.rentalcars.com...but still...

Try this...I tried and got an average of about $27 a day for Portland International Airport.

Go to Budget.com and under the Discount BCD code, type V268100.

I got a total rate of about $132 for an economy for your dates and $139 for a Compact. Hope this helps!!

Sorry, meant $35 a day...is the day over yet?

Oooh, your first message had me excited there for a minuute. I've gotten as low as $31.99/day but with plenty of Oregon taxes, that bumps it up quite a bit. I'm thinking that $140 including everything is more than enough to spend for four days, for Pete's sakes! When the last time I rented in Colorado in February was $20/day, the Portland rate is ridiculous....

Don't feel so bad. I was considering the same thing you are (Using Priceline for a car rental) because I need a car for a week next month in NYC. The cheapest I got including taxes was $254 for a compact and that was including a discount!!

Yikes! I bet it's because you are moving, right? I saw your exchange about that with Scarlett on another thread.
Actually, I should start posting about my upcoming trip to NYC in late October, except I THINK I know what to do with that, and then of course I KNOW the expert Howard, who can advise me so expertly, even though I live deep in the heart of Texas!

kk, there was a very recent posting on biddingfortravel.com about a rental car at Portland Airport. They got it for $25/day midsize! Note that the bid was made only two days before the rental began...I'd book now, try Priceline this week and perhaps again just before your trip. Also, this person rented Thur-Sun, so almost the same situation as you:

POR - Midsize accepted 7/22-7/25 for $25/day
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Failed bid:

$18/day for compact

Successful bid:

$25/day for midsize

Your Offer Price: $25.00
Total Rental Days: 3
Subtotal: $75.00
Taxes & Fees: $25.67
Total Charges: $100.67

Thanks, Joan!
I tried $25 on a mid-size and priceline.com said no, so when I went up to $29, I got a deal.
A tiny bit more than I wanted, but now I am all set, and no longer a newbie in this kind of negotiation. Now I can quit playing around with the websites and get back to work, ho ho ho.
Anyway, the jump up to mid-size seemed to do the trick for some reason. I'd rather have that anyway than the economy and compact cars that I bid for earlier. Again, my thanks, and to all of you for replying as well. Now please just keep your fingers crossed for me that I accomplish my mission in Portland, which will help my future career very much!

:-D Glad that worked! Best of luck!