Priceline for Rental Cars?
 

I'm familiar with Priceline for air tickets, but don't know much about them for rental cars. Am thinking of using them for a trip next month. When you make a bid for a rental car, can you pick it up/return it anytime the days you select? Can they make you rent a day prior/after the date you want?


Also, if anyone has any experiences/tips they'd like to share, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

I haven't used them for car rental myself but have heard good reports from other people about Priceline car rentals.

Have you checked out www.biddingfortravel.com, there's lots of advice for car rentals on their site?

Yes, do go to BFT - there's a whole section there on rental cars.

I rented a car with Priceline once (used them many times for hotels). It was an OK experience. I had the car for almost a week and probably saved $20-$30 on the entire rental, though with Priceline I got a good Hertz car instead of a cheaper outfit like Dollar (yes, it can make a difference).

Still, I'm not sure I would rent a car with Priceline again, unless my dates were rock solid and it was at least a week rental. In my experience, it's hard to save very much with Priceline rental cars compared to, say, hotels. And unless I'm saving a significant amount of money, it's not worth being locked into a non-refundable/non-changeable car reservation. If you do your homework, you can usually find coupons or discounts on car rentals that make very close to the price you would pay on Priceline. Remember, you have to pay a Priceline service fee too, so factor that in when thinking about your bid price.

As for when you can return it: I'm sure you can return the car early, so I would make the rental for full days (if you pick up at 6PM and plan to return it at 1PM a week later, book to return it at 6PM anyway).

Andrew

Have had very good experiences, no complaints:) You can only pick up on the contract date. The specific hour does not matter. If you want to extend the rental, you will be paying top dollar (regrdless if it was a PL reservation or not).

I've used Priceline several times for car rentals with great success. You select your dates (not the rental agency) and the location where you want to pick up the car, meaning airport or "downtown". Start your bidding very low, then keep increasing your bid each day and see what happens. Through Priceline, I usually rent a compact car for around $20-$22 a day. Good luck!

I got a compact at San Francisco airport from hertz for $15 per day. That's 40% less than the web rate.

kcapuani, how can you increase your bid each day when there's a seven day lock-out if your bid is not accepted? Has this changed recently?

You can always re-bid if you change your rental dates, car type etc. I have re-bid within the 7 day period without making any changes other than raising my rate and have had my offer accepted. There is also the somewhat sneaky option of using a new login to increase your bid. It depends on how much you really want to save money on your car rental. I will re-bid several times if the rental is for 4 days or more.

We've bid 3 times with Priceline on car rentals. You need to put in your dates and also time and drop off times. You can only bid again a week later (no earlier) if your bid is not accepted. They can't make you change your dates or times once the bid has been accepted. You can bid again right away if you change the car class (a higher class I believe) or change your dates.
The savings are not as nice as with hotels as a previous poster mentioned. I think you probably get a better rate the closer to your rental date.
The research you need to do is a bit more time-consuming than with hotels because you need to check prices with Hotwire and the car companies Priceline uses just to make sure you don't overbid.
Our experience was perfectly fine. No problems at all.

I won a hotel on Priceline last month and they offered me a car for $14 a day which was about half of what I could have gotten on my own. The rental was with Hertz and worked out perfectly.

I have used Priceline for rental cars several times over the last 3 years and have gotten great deals. But this past March when we took a trip to Arizona, I was able to get a much better deal booking conventionally with Hertz through an online special they were offering.

Fortunately, I booked this offer because I could cancel 24 hours prior to the rental. I kept trying priceline for a better deal, but they were unable to get a lower price.

I would advise to get a reservation that you can cancel, then start bidding for a better price.

Here are my winning bids so you can get a idea:
**Miami airport this past July: $21/day for midsize from Budget. I ended up getting a fullsize because they didn't have any midsizes available that day.
My total charges were $128.42.
Hotwire Total Charges: $142.19 ($25.95/day)
Budget Web site Total Charges: $154.29

**Sacramento airport this past September: $17/day for midsize from Avis.
My total charges were $59.75
Hotwire: $17.95/day - Total: $63.41
Avis website: $86.97 - Total: $93.71

**Dallas airport this coming December: $15/day for midsize from National.
I bid for this back in October so I'm sure I could have gotten a better rate if I had waited a bit.
My total charges: $84.45 (taxes suck in Texas by the way)
Hotwire Total: $85.46
National Web Site Total: $93.84

caribtraveler, did you try to use any discounts or coupons before bidding Priceline? BiddingForTravel.com actually has links to rental car coupons and deals on one of their categories (near rental cars). But you can also get discounts for AAA and Costco, among many other places. I have found that, once I shop around for the best deal, the potential savings with a Priceline car rental just aren't worth being locked into a non-refundable rental. I'm far more willing to use Priceline for hotels because of the much higher potential savings.

When I have bid for rental cars in the past, I've first shopped around, then decided a minimum I must save for Priceline to be worthwhile, then started bidding below that. I probably want to save $50 minimum per rental to make it worth it. I wouldn't do it for the $9.50 you saved on your Sacramento rental...

Andrew

Yes I did shop around. Never tried Costco though. I don't always use Priceline. Those particular trips were set, no chance of canceling and best price found at the time I was looking. Thank you though.

Yes, you need to put in a pick up and drop off time on your bid, but your 24 hour period DOES NOT START until you pick up the car at the rental desk.:)

I have been checking Priceline and Hotwire for a rental on Maui Dec. 15-23 and have not found a deal better than what I got with Budget. I got a 20% off coupon from Mastercard, which I found out about from SmarterLiving.com. I need a full size car because there will be 4 adults on this trip. $23.75 per day. When I've tried Priceline and bid $18 per day, I get a message saying "average rates are $25. Your bid is too low and will probably not be accepted." Has anyone else encountered this message? Do you just ignore it and bid low anyway?

Pdxgirl, go to biddingfortravel.com and look at the prices for previous winning bids. Ignore priceline's message. This is addressed in biddingfortravel's faq. Personally since you still have another chance to bid I would lowball and try $16 first.

Yes, always ignore the low bid message. I've had my supposedly low bids accepted many times.

I have great luck with priceline for rental cars. The only problem is that I once had to extend me stay, as my flight was changed, so I kept the car a few hours over the time limit. I was charged nearly $100 for the extra day.

Otherwise, though, it's the cheapest way to rent.

You pick-up/drop-off the car on the days you specify. It's not like buying an airline ticket where priceline can give you something in a 24-hour period. Just like with any car rental, you have to return it before the time you pick it up so you don't incur the extra day charge.