Weird Hotwire Quotes....?

[Mikee]

Hi all from the UK...my 1st post here.... :)

I've been renting through Hotwire over the past 12 months and have had some very good deals. However, it seems things are a little weird at the moment (or maybe it's just me!) Anyway.....

Planning another trip to YUL (Montreal) in May and have noticed Hotwire prices have been sky high recently. In fact, no matter what days I request (even for November 2006), I'm getting full-size quotes of $38 - every rental period seems to give the same price.

Compare this to my last trip in Feb when I got a full-size for $18.95/day (Avis-inc OnStar) which is what I'd normally expect to pay through Hotwire.

Have just tried for a quote for 2 weeks in May and get Premium $27.95, Luxury $28.95 and Full-Size $29.95! This is only for a 6pm pick-up and drop-off - all other times are $35+!!

My last rental showed a similar difference in price depending on the pick-up time (5pm pick-up vs 5.30pm showed a $2/day increase).

Has anyone else come across this before? I'm wondering if I'm looking too far ahead for quotes and getting high prices as a result - maybe Hotwire doesn't recieve actual inventory from their partners more than a month out, at which point you start to see better quotes come through....

Anyway, I'm holding off booking as I only need a full-size and want it for $18.95/day (although I'm very tempted to try the premium/luxury for an extra $10).

Any advice or comments....?

-Mikee-

[thereuare]

Two aspects at work:

1) Winter (slow time) vs May (spring time which is much busier)

2) It's not that hotwire doesn't get 'real time' pricing, but the rental car company is using them to rent 'excess inventory'. So since it's a busier time of year (see number 1 above) there is little reason for them to give inventory to the opaque suppliers this early since there is a chance they may be able to rent the car themselves at a higher price/margin

[Mikee]

Well, seems that premium/luxury price was a pretty good deal as the price has now doubled for the same dates and time. Will keeps checking over the next month to see what else appears.

In the meantime, have reserved a full-size with Enterprise for $22/day which I can cancel if anything better comes along.

Thanks for the advice.

-Mikee-

[thereuare]

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