SNA Orange County Midsize Avis

[new_hotwire_user]

I will be booking a car on HOTWIRE in California. It isn't big spring break or vacation time and I was wondering.

Do prices go DOWN as you get closer to the date you are going to book or can they just as easily go up?

Not sure if there are tricks to booking and when the 'optimal' point is away from your planned trip to book...any tips?

Thanks in advance for the help and sorry if this question has been asked over and over and over again...

[Colfax]

Welcome to BetterBidding, new_hotwire_user.

There's no best time to bid for a rental car. Prices can go up or down at any time.

If you want more assistance please start a thread in the board's Rental Car section, including the city, travel dates, car class, and the best rate you've found so far.

[new_hotwire_user]

Thanks for the reply...

I got my car this weekend on HOTWIRE so this is a moot point at this point.

Thanks again!

[thereuare]

Historical datapoints can be helpful as well. Why not share the details of your purchase with the board... perhaps the information could help another user in their research.

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

[new_hotwire_user]

To close out this discussion...

I monitored rental cars in Orange County California at John Wayne Airport on Hotwire for about a week and a half. Prices seemed to fluctuate about a $1 per day up and down with no real recognizable trend in when they went up or down.

I needed a car for 7 days.

I ended up getting a mid-size car for $25.95 per day total. The lowest I had seen (and missed BTW) was $24.95 for that same mid-size car.

Some of the full-size pricing fluctated about $2-4 per day depending on when I looked.

I just went out there to see what the pricing is today (3 days to rental) and the mid-size is still $25.95 per day. But a standard SUV has dropped about $7-8 per day...not that I needed or wanted a gas hog...

So my not so technical experiment in my small little world yielded that pricing seemed to be somewhat flat for the car I was looking at. The reason I started this thread was because I didn't know if in an 'off-peak' vacation time if prices would drop right at the end with surpluses of cars available...they still might and I'll continue to check this week just out of curiosity...but the next time I rent may have some professional sports team playing in the area and no cars available...

I'm happy with an ~$52% savings from Avis that I recieved thru Hotwire...anything more would be gambling and greed IMO and I'm simply too conservative to risk things I guess.

Hope this can help someone else in the future.

Thanks again.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the follow-up!

Did i get the dates right in your topic title? (5/8-5/15??)

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