Should I still use Hotwire or Priceline for car rental?

[LD5]

Hopefully some of the experienced HOTWIRE and PRICELINE users can give me some tips.

We're planning a trip to Disneyland and San Diego in February. We need a minivan or SUV rental at LAX.

for 12 days. I checked around and the best price quoted so far is Payless Car Rental for about $435 total incl. taxes.

Registering on Payless' site gives you an additional 10% off the base rate so total is about $400.

PRICELINE and HOTWIRE quote about the same $435 rate. I didn't give Priceline any offers yet.

I called Payless and they charge $7 per child seat per day. We need 2.

I called a couple other big rental companies and they all seem to charge $9.95 per day per seat.

That's $6 per day difference.

Should I just rent from Payless directly and not worry about "no cancellations" with Priceline?

Should I put an aggressive bid in at Priceline that lowers the best price by $6 per day to account for the child seat difference?

Anyone have any good or bad experience with Payless? I'm probably paranoid but small rental companies have me concerned that they would charge me for everything that others wouldn't, like a door ding that was never there.

Any other tips on how I can squeeze some dollars out of my rental car?

Seems like car rental companies are getting more and more aggressive with the prices on their own sites lately.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

I think part of the difficulty in evaluating which way to go for this rental is the unknown fee for the car seats... x2. Have you considered bringing car seats from home? (not sure if if you own a car and/or car seats... although i'll add that traveling w/ them can be a pain, especially if you have lots of other luggage)

You basically have to decide what is more important... knowing your costs from the get-go OR the comfort that goes with working with one of the major players. I'm always concerned about 'marks' on the car regardless of who i rent from, but my bigger concern is what if i have car trouble while not near the rental location.. do they have enough support in place to get me assistance on the road and/or replace the car.

Let us know what you decide and if we can be of further help.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[LD5]

After some more research we decided to book with Alamo. They charge $10 per day for each child seat but they have a maximum charge of $49.95 per seat.

Therefore, if you are renting for over 5 days Alamo could be your best choice. I didn't notice that maximum charge for child seats adopted by any other rental company. Even companies like Payless have no limit, except they charge only about $7 per day. For those renting child seats, watch the child seat fees in addition to the car rental fee!

[thereuare]

Another example of why it pays to do your research and review the total cost of a rental, not just the 'surface' price... well done.

Glad you found something which works for your needs.

Enjoy your trip.