Priceline Rental - What Am I Doing Wrong?

[bmw745ion19s]

So lastnight I tried Priceline for a car rental for the first time and failed. I was pretty disappointed about it after having great luck with hotels on there. Im hoping you all can tell me what I did wrong as I was planning to use it again (or try to) in the near future.

I used priceline and not hotwire for the rental because it was for a girlfriend of mine who is 23. The friend I plan to try to use it for next is also 23 so no hotwire then either.

The rental was a same day, and one day rental. 4/4-4/5

Hotwires going rate was around $22 for a fullsize and slightly less for a standard or midsize.

According to the good n great chance price recc. on priceline I was well within to over their recc. range.

So I bid up to $35 on priceline for a midsize and kept getting rejected. Also the date tech changed from the 4th to the 5th at midnight as her flight was arriving very late.

The cities were PBI to MIA.

Any insight is appreciated on why I might have failed.

[Colfax]

I can only speculate why your bids were rejected. A couple possibilities:

1) Priceline had cars available but only from companies that rent to 25+. If you correctly entered your friend's age as 23 those companies would have been excluded from Priceline's search.

2) You were doing same day bidding. If rentals were stronger than anticipated the local companies might have cut off bidding for the rest of the day, anticipating they could move their remaining stock at full retail.

p.s. Lately Hertz has been running "No surcharge for 21-24" promotions. I don't know if there's one going on right now, but maybe worth investigating.

[thereuare]

Hotwires going rate was around $22 for a fullsize and slightly less for a standard or midsize.

So I bid up to $35 on priceline for a midsize and kept getting rejected.

Even if the 'right' price was $20, you're calculating an underage driver fee of $15, and the actual fee can be more then this. Also, the fact that this was a one way rental could be a factor as well.