DaLuc Posted December 8, 2009 Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 Hiya,I'm looking to rent a car from 12/23 1:00am - 1/1 1pm from Washington Dulles airport. On HOTWIRE there is a car available (I only need a super economy, whatever is cheapest) for these dates for $204.71 total.When I start bidding on PRICELINE it seems that I have to bid a per day amount, which quickly adds up to more than any other rental website (HOTWIRE was the cheapest I found). For example:Priceline Your Offer Price: $20.00 (per day)Total Rental Days: 10 days (9 days and 11 hours)Subtotal: $200.00Taxes and Fees: $72.30Total Charges: $272.30I don't understand. Is priceline really not a better deal? Do I just need to bid much less per day? I'd love a rental for only $150 or less...Can you suggest a bidding strategy for PRICELINE? I've only used them for hotels before, never rental cars.Thanks! Link to comment
thereuare Posted December 8, 2009 Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 What is the daily rate (before taxes and fees) for the HOTWIRE rental?Why are you using $20 as the PRICELINE amount? Have you submitted any bid yet at PRICELINE which were rejected? Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
DaLuc Posted December 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Hi,Hotwire has cars from $18.76/day for $232 total, which is the same as Alamo on Priceline (main site) and also on carrentals.com...I used $20 on priceline when i was mock bidding because it was the first dollar amount that didn't give me "the you are bidding too low" warning message page.Also carrentals.com says that it is $232/week total vs hotwire's $18.76/day is $232 total.Just ran another hotwire search for Dulles airport specifically (instead of washington dc all airports) and came upon a car for $17.50/day $194.94 total.Thanks for your help!! Link to comment
DaLuc Posted December 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 I just searched the BB forums and found:When I check your Denver dates on Hotwire they have no opaque inventory except SUV class. For all other car classes Hotwire routes you to a conventional retail booking (where you know the car rental company's name in advance) at full retail price. On Hotwire you can tell if a rental car offering is opaque or retail by the color of the listing. Opaque listings are in red. Retail listings are in gray.Hotwire and Priceline work with the same rental car companies. If Hotwire doesn't have opaque inventory for your dates then Priceline probably doesn't either.I think Priceline is routing you to their retail section because they don't have anything opaque in your car class now, no matter how high you bid.Your 11-day rental term could be part of the problem. When I check just your first 7 days Hotwire offers an opaque option (in red) for several more car classes than they offer for 11 days.I am assuming that the cars I'm finding in HOTWIRE are retail deals since they are all in grey (until I get up to the SUV class).Does this mean that PRICELINE most likely won't have anything for me either?Thanks! Link to comment
thereuare Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 PRICELINE and HOTWIRE are different companies, so one may have inventory while the other may not, HOWEVER, the lack of 'opaque' inventory at HOTWIRE is likely indicative of a peak timeframe for car rentals, so from that standpoint the amount of available inventory on PRICELINE may be low (or non-existent)I used $20 on priceline when i was mock bidding because it was the first dollar amount that didn't give me "the you are bidding too low" warning message page.The "bid too low" message is meaningless and shouldn't be used to determine a bidding strategy... we have seen bids accepted even when this message was present. You can't assume $20 would be an accepted price (or the lowest acceptable price) simply because the 'red warning message' went away, and therefore can't make the conclusion that PRICELINE wouldn't offer a better deal than a 'retail' purchase (although given the inventory issue above, it is certainly possible)Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
DaLuc Posted December 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Hi, thanks for the quick reply.So I've bid on PRICELINE up to $10/day, doing as it says and changing the car class for each re-bid. How does that work? Do they also search for the lower class cars as well?I was expecting the car bidding to be intricate like hotel bidding is, but it seems pretty easy! Link to comment
thereuare Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 PRICELINE will not upgrade your car rental bid to a higher class car... you'll only win the car class that you're bidding on.Thanks for using our PRICELINE links for your bidding. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
DaLuc Posted December 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 So what's a basic bidding strategy for Priceline then? I had assumed if you started at $5 for an economy, and then $7 for a compact, etc, that they would automatically keep bidding on the lower class for you, but I guess I'm wrong.Hints? Tips? Tricks?Thanks!! Link to comment
thereuare Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 If HOTWIRE is at $17-$18 for an economy/compact, $5-$7 on PRICELINE isn't going to likely cut it.What car class do you want? What is your maximum bid for that class of car?Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
DaLuc Posted December 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Hi,There are only two of us traveling, with light baggage, so we usually try to get the cheapest possible car. As long as it has four wheels and gets us from point a-b then that's all that matters.We'd like to pay no more that $140 total including taxes for 12/23 1am to 1/1 12noon from IAD.So if priceline is supposed to save up to 40% then this might be that time of year that it's only saving 3%?Thanks Link to comment
thereuare Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 We'd like to pay no more that $140 total including taxes for 12/23 1am to 1/1 12noon from IADHow much is $140 'all-in' equal to on a bid amount basis?So if priceline is supposed to save up to 40% then this might be that time of year that it's only saving 3%?Just because 40% off failed not sure where your next guess is that you'll only save 3%... there is a lot of space between 3%-40%. However, you have to remember that car rental companies use the opaque providers to sell excess inventory... rates don't see too bad, but if demand is high, rental agencies may believe they can sell most of their cars on their own, and not offer much (or any) inventory to the discount providers.Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
DaLuc Posted December 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Ended up booking directly through Alamo for $221.67 total including taxes. Bummer because if I'd booked it when I first started looking I'd have had an even better rate at $180 or so. Oh well, next time I have to remember that you don't actually pre-pay for rental cars!!I used these for the good discount: Contract ID#: 7014927 and Coupon Code: AF3475JDG Thanks for all your help!! Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Register now, we have a huge community of travel enthusiasts to answer any questions you might have.
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountAlready have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now