Rental Car - Oahu
 

We are going to Oahu June 25 through July 11, 04. I am a research it to death kind of person, I have plan A,B,C, and D.2 just in case. With the Entertainment Book I have been running all of the coupons for all of the rental companies about once a week since January, following the book-a-good-price-and--cancel-it-if-you-get-a-better-one method. So far I've done pretty well, 16 Days of SUV for $574.00 USD after taxes. Yesterday though, Budget beat our previous best price for a car. Using the Entertainment coupon for 20% off we got a midsize car (grande am) for $388.72 after taxes (base price of $286.38 or 17.89 per day)Our price before was $414.66 after all taxes. The SUV was from Enterprise, they are all now sold out, but if you are looking for a car I'd head to budget with the entertainment coupon.

After all the research you've done, I'd hate to spoil it for you, but if you're staying in Waikiki you really don't need a car every day that you're there. The hotels charge significant fees for parking and parking around town is a premium. Renting a car on an as needed basis would probably work well and save you money and aggravation.

If you're not staying in Waikiki then disregard my above comments.

Ditto. We rented a car because we stayed in the North Shore. But when we visited Waikiki for a day, the car was nothing but a burden.

Thanks for the replies. We are not staying in Waikiki, way to busy for us. We ussually stay on Maui but thought we'd try a new island. This time we are staying in Kailua in a vacation rental. We couldn't imagine a hotel room for 16 days, tooooooo confining. There are 8 of us, two couples, a senior and three teenage girls, we need the room to spread out and for the price of a hotel room for 4 squished in one room we get a 4 bedroom house to lounge in. We plan on a couple trips to Waikiki but may even do them by public transportation or pay for the parking for a day, not much of a concern if you only do it a couple times. We also have friends who live on Oahu so we can gleen parking best bets from them. I thought the rates were good thou, not sure if they apply on the other islands thou, I should try just to see

try alamo, it had the best deal in the past visits i made, on all islands.

If you still prefer SUV, they go for as low as 30 a day (though usually a lil higher) on Priceline. You bid your desired daily rate, and you'll only be charged if your bid is accepted. You can check the latest winning bids at http://www.biddingfortravel.com

I'm from Canada, so the Priceline thing is a bit more complicated. Also, I just don't see why I would book a hotel room or car sight unseen, pay for it early, then have no way to cancel it if I found something better or had to cancel for any number of reasons. I'm sure folks have obtained a good deal here and there, but I think if you put time into the research you can do at least as well and keep your money and options on your side. Also, the priceline option does not apply to vacation rentals and we only stay in hotel rooms in Vegas.

Yes, I agree with you regarding hotels, would never book one blindly, except for maybe hotwire where some websites have done a great job at pinpointing which hotel it is.

As for car rental, I decided to bite the bullet and try priceline for once. Trip in Oahu in May...am very pleased, got a 3day midsize for $20 with national. I'm a research junkie too and that was the best could find since we overlapped weekend/weekday. For 16 days it sounds like you got a great deal.

I just got back from Oahu and we stayed in Waimanalo, just south of Kailua. We LOVED LOVED LOVED this side of the island. We are normally Kauai fans, but the east side of Oahu is BEAUTIFUL!!!! We ate at Boots and Kimo's in Kailua for breaksfat and wished we had gone there earlier in the trip b/c everyone in our group liked it so much!

As for a car rental, we first tried a company called Tradewinds (local company out of Oahu) I think the web address was tradwindsudrive.com. We found pretty good deals there. However, I am VERY much like you when it comes to reseraching. (I felt like a local after all the information I gathered) and continued to research rental car deals up until the night before we left. I found my parents a 7 pass. van for $290 throug Alamo. I came across some rentals codes that got them 15% off, another $15 off, and compliemntary secondary driver. The van worked well for them (they were also going to get an SUV).
I will be posting a trip report soon and will let you know when I do so you can browse the stuff we did. Yet, if you are anything like you me you will probably know all about it from your own research :))
If you want those rental codes let me know.

p.s. one thing to note about Alamo...they are an off site office. So leave plenty of time when you are dropping the car off so that you don't miss your flight....my husband almost did.

One more thing...we got a midsize car from Alamo for $165 (week all tax included). We also used the coupon codes which got us all the stuff my parents got for their van, plus a free upgrade to the midsize car.

Hi tahjai,
we are going to Hawaii this July and are still looking for a reasonable car rental. I would be very interested if you would post the Alamo codes.

Thanks for your help and info.

debjones: Try 6T and QV. Also, type "Alamo codes" in the search box at the top of this page. It works.