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Washington Dulles Rental 12/23-1/1


DaLuc
By DaLuc,
in

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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: $200.00

Taxes and Fees: $72.30

Total Charges: $272.30

I 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!

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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!!

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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!

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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

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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

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We'd like to pay no more that $140 total including taxes for 12/23 1am to 1/1 12noon from IAD
How 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

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  • 2 weeks later...

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!!

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