Renting a car with Priceline...
 

We are going to be in Orlando, Florida for 10 days at the end of April and wondered if anyone had any suggestions or luck with renting a car from Priceline. I have never tried and would appreciate any feedback, thanks alot.

as with most priceline newbies, you would do well to read thoroughly the advice on biddingfortravel.com. thing about your rental that may prove to be a problem is that it's longer than a week, and so you'll get hit for daily rates for the 3 extra days. if the price on pl proves too much for the extra days, you might consider renting from an off airport location, close to your hotel, on the 4th day of your stay, and returning at the airport, or vice versa. read carefully about re-bids, etc. you still have plenty of time, but while you're doing it, consider holding a reservation with a reputable company with a credit card, so that, if all else fails, at least you'll have that. another good website is BNM.com, where you can do a rate comparision. there's also rentalcodes.com where you can get applicable rate codes for orlando. have a great time.

I have tried bidding for cars on Priceline a few times and gotten a successful bid only once. I think I saved almost exactly 20% including the taxes/fees over doing it myself. Don't expect to save nearly as much with a Priceline rental car as you would on a hotel. In fact, I'm not sure it's worth doing if you do your homework and find other discounts and coupons on conventional rental cars without Priceline.

You can almost always change/cancel a rental car on your own but you can't with Priceline. If you get to the airport and you are told there is a three-hour backup for cars, you're stuck waiting. On your own, you can go to another agency and get almost exactly the same kind of car. Really have to think about how much that small savings is worth to you in terms of possible large inconvenience.


I'd pick a maximum car bid price based on the *total* after taxes/fees and compare it to your best price on your own (after you plug in your PL bid, it tells you the tax/fees total). Work backwards to figure out how much to bid. I wouldn't expect to save more than 20% off the total rental price. If you have some time, you can try bidding lower.

Andrew

Be sure to compare rates- Florida is full of cheap rental car bargains. Look at Alamo- I've gotten their weekly $129 specials. :)

I've used Priceline for rental cars twice in the last 6 months. I have elite memberships at National, Avis, Hertz and Budget, and my daily rate in Boston on PL was $33/day versus best rate of $46 with the others; last month I got a brand new Cadillac Coupe deVille in Los Angeles for $15 less per day than the midsize rate with National or Hertz.
Both rentals ended up being thru National, but were markedly lower than what I could get thru my Emerald Club connection.

I'm a BIG fan of PL for cars.
I don't use it for hotels, though (don't like their selection) or air (because I need specific times).

I was able to Priceline a van on Orlando for $36/day a year ago. I like to check hotwire first, and then lowball a priceline bid, maybe $5 less than HW's rate.

I HAVE had successfull bids at Priceline for cars, but have since found a new website and appreciate its service more:

http://www.pcpages.com/rentalcodes/

It takes some time to plug in various codes posted from the fore-mentioned website to the various car rental agencies, but I have received some terrific deal$.

Good luck!

I just rented a car from Dollar (which is located in the airport in Orlando not offsite) during one of the most expensive times to rent (Christmas-New Years Eve) and got an amazing rate. Try plugging in the code FLTVL and see what you get. I ended up paying $202 (including taxes and all the extras) for a Dodge Stratus when everyone else was charging me about $500.

I often rent cars on PL and have saved as much as 50%. I usually check a site like Travelocity for the going rate. Then I look on Hotwire for their best rate--they give a total rental price which includes taxes so I can ascertain what that added fee will be. Then I bid on PL, knowing that the taxes will be added. The person that mentioned cheap Florida rentals is correct also so you might check individual sites too.

I've rented cars from Hotwire, but not Priceline. I'm sure one part of my experience will be the same for either company: Make certain you reserve for the length of time you need the car.

Any early returns mean no refund. Any late returns mean HEFTY extra charges.

I rent a fair number of cars during the year for my leisure travels and on only one occasion has Priceline beat what I could get on my own. I typically book well in advance and rent from Hertz, Avis, or National. Between airline FF program, AAA, and other discount codes, coupons from the car rental firms, and special offers, I have no need for Priceline rental cars. Their hotel program is much better.