KOA Kona Big Island Midsize Alamo

[dorkpie]

Started bidding yesterday for various sizes from $12-$17...no dice. HOTWIRE lowered their prices and I was going to accept their total of $137 but figured I might as well give priceline a shot. Went $10 less and first attempt today was accepted!

Your Offer Price: $17.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 4 days

Subtotal: $68.00

Taxes and Fees: $58.59

Total Charges: $126.59

Purchase completed through the PRICELINE link.

Thanks to all KOA-bound posters! =)

On a side note: is there a reason why taxes on priceline are so much higher than on hotwire? Hotwire had a daily rate of $24.95 and taxes of $37.06 for a total of $136.86 - 37% compared to 86% on priceline! I suppose it all balances out in the end, but shouldnt taxes and fees be standard and fixed by the local governments, policies, etc?

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

There are many taxes which get added on to car rentals, especially at airport locations, may of which are fixed and not percentage based. For example, at KOA (from Alamo):

Customer Facility Charge: $4.50/day

Concession Recovery 11.1%

Vehicle Surchage $3/day

Reg Fee and Weight Tax (not sure if this one is fixed or percentage)

Sales Tax 4.166%

So note that at least $7.50/day in taxes are fixed, regardless of rental cost. This could have a large effect on the percentage of taxes when looking at a vehicle that is $15/day vs. $25/day.

As well, was the HOTWIRE rental for an 'opaque' booking (shown in RED) or was it a retail booking (grayed-out in color)? I believe it may have been a retail listing (as is currently shown when searching HOTWIRE for this rental above), and booking fees are lower on retail booking vs. opaque bookings.

Thank you for sharing your win and using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding.

Have a great trip.

[dorkpie]

thanks for your explanation about the opaque vs retail options, but some things still dont make sense. I just tried again for the same reservation on hotwire, and now is showing a RED booking again (i'm pretty certain it was also RED on 10/22, as I did not see the same of the actual company).

Hotwire offer:

Daily rate : $34.95 x 4 days

Subtotal: $139.80

Taxes and Fees: $47.27

Compared to my Priceline win:

Daily rate: $17.00 x 4 days

Subtotal: $68.00

Taxes and Fees: $58.59

So ignoring any fixed costs, the taxes on my priceline rental are still much higher than the comparable hotwire offer, eventhough the priceline subtotal is less than half of hotwire's subtotal.

Dont mean to belabor the point and would be happy to move this to an alternate forum, but just trying to understand this discrepancy to help future bidding strategies and such.

cheers!

[thereuare]

It could be a bad formula used in the tax calculation or a difference in how each service calculates the 'fee' portion of the taxes and fees... but i'm guessing the former. One may not be including the Customer Facility Charge or the Vehicle Surcharge fees outlined above in their calculation. As we do see this from time to time, it's more the exception then the rule, so i don't think there will be clear cut answer as to why we're seeing the prices differences above, but more important to highlight that you always need to check the total price and not just the daily rate (regardless of whether it is a hotel room or a car rental)