mljindiana

One more question while I'm waiting to rebid on Priceline...would it make sense to go ahead and reserve a full size SUV direct with the rental company, since I can cancel that rental when I get a bid accepted? The only reason I'm thinking of doing that is there are only 2 companies offering a Full Size SUV for $350/week (without fees and taxes). All of the other companies are priced at least $400 higher for the week before the fees and taxes. I don't usually see that much variance between companies although this is the first time I've rented a full size SUV. My thought was to grab the $350 reservation now, in case those 2 companies start to increase their pricing to match the competition. I will keep bidding on Priceline and hopefully get a lower bid accepted and cancel the $350 reservation. Any flaw in that logic?

OK, so my thought of $35 may have been a little low, but it wasn't completely off. After discussing it more tonight, I think we are just going to stick with the Fullsize SUV. But great suggestion to take 2 trips. It's about a 40 minute drive to our rental house, possibly a little more if there's traffic. I don't think that's worth it to me to save the money but I appreciate the idea. At this point I think I'm going to increase my bid daily and keep watching HOTWIRE also. I'm still hoping for under $40 but anything under $50 saves me from what I could have paid retail. Thanks for the advice.

OK, I read the message you sent. And I had previously clicked on those links before posting the initial question, since I noticed the links in your replies to others and wanted your site to get "credit". And I also used your Car Rental Checker in the Tools above. For the Full Size SUV, I came up with $50/day as the lowest amount using Priceline, Expedia, and Travelocity (found in your Car Rental Checker). Using Hotwire the quote was $46.95/day, which was a little higher than I expected based on the other sites. I think I'm following your guidance correctly, but feel free to point out something else I need to do before bidding.

I'm a little confused in trying to figure out what to bid. It appears that without any discount codes, I can rent a Full Size SUV from the Myrtle Beach airport 7/8-7/15 for $50/day through both Alamo and National. I hoped that would equate to a $35/day rate through Priceline, but started at $25 since I have plenty of time. I wasn't surprised it was rejected, but it came back with stating a reasonable bid would be $50 with a better chance of getting it if I went with $53. Budget, Avis, and Hertz all have rates closer to $90/day so will that skew the winning bid I can expect through Priceline? Is it reasonable to think that $35/day for a Full Size SUV is possible? We also have the option of renting 2 cars instead of the Full Size SUV. If we did that, I would go with a convertible since our daughters have always wanted us to do that on vacation and just a standard or maybe even compact car. Our original intention was the full size SUV even though we only have 4 of us, because along with our suitcases we will have golf bags in hard travel cases. We found out the hard way during our Spring Break trip last year that fitting those hard cases in most trunks is quite difficult. Once we arrive at our house rental though, we can easily get by with a regular car as the bags are substantially smaller without the hard case. So what would be a reasonable expectation for renting one convertible plus one standard car? And what about one convertible plus one compact car? thanks for your help.