KOA Kona Compact Budget

[bluepig]

I'll be on the Big Island of Hawaii for 4 days in May, renting from Hilo (ITO) airport.

I need the car from May 19 (afternoon) through May 23 (morning). I'm still debating whether to use the opaque services for pickup/dropoff from ITO as I'm considering doing a 1-way rental and returning in Kona (KOA).

I may not need the opaque services if I can do the following:

Renting for a week (5/19 through 5/26) appears to give me a better total cost (including taxes/fees) by about $50 vs renting just for 5/19-5/23 and paying for 4 days -- this applies for most of the major rental companies (booking through their websites or Expedia), whether I look at a 1-way rental or pickup/dropoff at the same airport.

Is anyone aware of any fees that the rental companies would charge for returning a car EARLY? I would like to rent for 5/19-5/26 and then just plan to return by 5/23. Is there any chance that upon return they would recalculate my rate for the 4 days?

ITO-KOA is not one of the combinations of cities that allows 1-way rentals for Name Your Own Price on Priceline.

A check of Hotwire suggests I could find my 5/19-5/23 rental for about $125 if I pickup/return at the same location. If I can get a 1-way rental for about $50-75 more than this by using the weekly rate, I would certainly go for it (and so far the weekly rate through National by using VacationOutlet.com's discount code seems to be around $190).

Thanks!

[thereuare]

Is there any chance that upon return they would recalculate my rate for the 4 days?

It is likely that they would.

[bluepig]

Used your PRICELINE link. Started bidding at $13/day Economy (rejected), rebid using a different account for $15/day Economy (rejected), rebid at $16/day Compact and was accepted by Budget. Total including taxes = $47.92.

Comparable rate on budget.com is $86/day (seriously?!?!?)= $201 incl tax/fees.

Comparable rate on HOTWIRE was $21.95/day = $61 incl tax/fees.

Note to those who saw my other thread about a 1-way rental from Hilo to Kona: decided to use my company corporate rate with National, Hilo-Kona 1-way for 5/19-5/21, then switch cars at Kona for 5/21-5/23 to avoid paying the higher rate for the full 4 days. This second leg of the car rental ended up being a good bit cheaper than we thought it'd be, with total car rental cost about $135. This is marginally more expensive than Hotwire's estimated Hilo-Hilo rate of about $120, and for $15 extra, we save 2.5 hours driving back to Hilo.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win!

Thank you for sharing your results with the board and for using our PRICELINE links to begin your bidding.

Glad you found an inexpensive way to make this work for your plans.

Have a great trip.