HNL Oahu Compact National

I have used Priceline to bid on hotel rooms lots of times, but not rental cars. We are riding the train into SLO and want to rent a car to drive up to SF. We will be returning it back at SLO. We are a family of 4, so I am looking at a full size car, but don't know what a good starting bid would be.

Advertised Rates:

Budget: $40 a day for $171.60 total

Avis: $40.99 a day for $180.77 total

Thanks.

I have used Priceline to bid on hotel rooms lots of times...

traceyn

Posts: 2

Joined: 13-March 06

It would be appreciated if you shared your winning bids with the board... maybe the information will be able to help another user score a great deal at a hotel.

What rate is HOTWIRE showing?

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Hotwire:

Std. Size Car $34.95 $185.23 total Hotwire hot Deal (Airport counter)

Std. Size Car $39.99 $172.36 total Enterprise

Thereuare - I haven't used Priceline in almost 2 years because our vacations were to National Parks where we could drive to in one day and stay there. I was a member at "that other bidding board" for years and posted there. I promise to post my winning bids here for San Jose and SF when I make them as I have been using this board to get an idea of bids for those areas. I would promise to post for Carmel too, but I don't think I will using Priceline for that stay. And yes I will use your link for the Priceline bids. :)

With time on your side i would book a cancellable reservation with one of the companies above (we have links to most of them in our support page) to protect yourself from rates going up from here, and then try to lowball PRICELINE... maybe start at ~$18-$25 and bid that range for the next week or so, then gradually increase from there.

If you get any counteroffers along the way let us know, of if you see a change in the HOTWIRE rate or car direct rates, let us know that as well.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Let us know how it goes or if you have any questions regarding the above.

Ok. Thanks I will.

I have lots of time to bid this, but I thought I would just test the waters:

$10 Economy

$10 Compact

$11 Midsize

All rejected. Did use your PRICELINE link and will use it again on my next bids.

I have a cancelable backup reservation at Thrifty.

What is your daily rate thru Thrifty

Thanks for using our PRICELINE links to begin your bidding.

Keep us updated.

$23.33 per day/$140 for 6 days.

I did get that email from PRICELINE called Tips for Successful Bidding to HNL, telling me to increase my bid or bid on another model.

I haven't see the actual email so can't say for certain, but chances are that's not really a "tip" and more so a reminder that you're able to bid again. However, with your best alterate rate at $23 (and i'm assuming you're using some type of coupon for this rate?) there is a good chance you'll need to bid higher than $10-$11... although you do have plenty of time so you can continue to try lowballing it a bit, but even at $13-$15 i think you're still getting some nice discount vs. your back-up.

Also, if you haven't seen our comments previoulsly, please DON"T click the links priceline provides in any emails... please come to the board and use the PRICELINE links here to resume your bidding.

Thanks!

I went through someplace called DiscountHawaiiCarRental and requested a quote and Thrifty was the cheapest. The total is $168 with taxes, etc. for an economy car, so with Priceline's fees added in, you are correct, I could bid as high as $15 and still get a good discount. I figured I would lowball it for awhile. Thanks for your help. I will come back and bid again through the board PRICELINE link and keep this updated. :)

2/22/09

$12 Economy

$13 Compact

$14 Midsize

All rejected. I'll try again in a couple of days.

My family is traveling to Kona from 4/10 to 4/17 and is very interested what deal you may get from PRICELINE. Thanks also for the info on DiscountHawaiiCarRental.com. I followed your tip and made a reservation through them for a luxury car. The total for the week is only $338, including taxes, fees and no charge for additional driver. The cheapest rate I got from Expedia was $480, plus extra $10 per day for an additional driver!

Travelbee, I will keep updating this post with my bidding history and hopefully my win! :)

Glad you got a good deal through DiscountHawaiiCarRental.

Bid again today, all rejected:

$14 Economy

$15 Compact

$15 Midsize

$13 Economy

$13 Compact

$14 Midsize

All rejected, but I got an email from HOTWIRE that there was a price drop and sure enough on Hotwire the cars are about $10 less per day than before.

Also, this time when I got the "$13 would be a great price for your car" screen, but instead of the $25 and $26 they had listed before, the prices were $21 and $22 for the good and great chance prices. :)

I am going to wait another couple of days and bid again.

$14 Compact

$15 Mid Size

$15 Standard

All rejected, and what was really annoying was that all 3 times, it gave me that "we are still working on your request, please click the check my status button after several minutes" screen. So I had to sit and wait several more minutes for the "Sorry..." screen. Will try again midweek.

I really think the rate for the economy and compact is around $19 while the mid size and standard are around $21. I'm going to try to get another reservation for 3/9- 3/16; I'll post my winning bid (again).

Good luck with your bid and thanks in advance for posting what you get. :)

what was really annoying was that all 3 times, it gave me that "we are still working on your request, please click the check my status button after several minutes" screen.

Be thankful most requests are answered within 60 seconds are less... it used to be standard that you had to wait 15 minutes to get a response (making bidding for hotels with lots of re-bids a time consuming process!)

Bid again today, 3/15, all rejected:

$14 Compact

$15 for Mid Size and Std.

However, the screen with the good and great chance prices listed them as $20 and $21, down from $21 and $22 and there was a price drop on Hotwire to $22.95 for Compact and $23.95 for Mid Size. So I may get my price yet! :)

3/19

$14 Compact

$15 Mid Size

$16 Std.

All rejected.

Woohoo! Finally got it!

National Car Rental - Compact

Your Offer Price: $15.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 6 days(5 days and 18 hours)

Subtotal: $90.00

Taxes and Fees: $45.51

Total Charges: $135.51

Lowest Published Price: $166.53

Total Savings:* $31.02 (You saved 19%)

My reservation was for $168 total for an economy car, so we got an upgrade and paid less. :)

I also got offered a chance to upgrade to an Intermediate for $2 more a day, full size or std. for $3 more, convertible for $10 more or SUV for $11 more. We are sticking with the Compact though.

Used your PRICELINE link.

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see this finally paid for for you with good results... better car class and for less money :)

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and using our PRICLINE link to begin your bidding.

Have a great trip!