Car rental for long stay is expensive on priceline

[gripenberg]

Hi,

I am just trying to rent a car between 9th of march to the 27th of march. Both Priceline and Hotwire are very expensive when trying to rent a car for long stay. It is much better to go through Orbitz. They use all major car rental companies and they also get cheaper for long stay since it is a different price for week rental then day rental.

It seems to me that either priceline and hotwire dont deal with week rental which makes the price too high.

Just a hint cause I have noticed it now while checking around and trying to bid on price line..

[thereuare]

This is why we developed the Car Rental Checker tool... users should always check other rates before bidding on priceline (no matter what the product: air, hotels, cars).

Also remember that this board is an affiliate of Orbitz and can use the support.

We request users consult our SUPPORT PAGE before booking their online travel arangements.

[LoneStar]

It is the exception rather than the rule to save money with a priceline or hotwire car reservation. This is especially true when you consider that a priceline/hotwire reservation is non-changable, non-refundable, and that "regular" car reservations are usually remarkably flexible.

Also, don't forget to try to discount the Orbitz rates. Motor club discounts are still common, and you can find a host of other discount numbers on the web. Coupons also often help. I often use the ones from the Entertainment Book, but there are lots of other car coupons out there, too.

Finally, if you're REALLY bargain hunting, don't forget to check the individual car rental sites for further promos not listed on Orbitz or the other CRS sytstems.

[djohannw]

Just a word of caution in terms of Orbitz (which I still find VERY nice to get an overview of rates): Make sure you check with the car-rental websites as well. Especially with Dollar I made the experience that they consistently beat the Orbitz-price by about a dollar a day...

Greetings - Dirk

[mbstone]

I am just trying to rent a car between 9th of march to the 27th of march. Both Priceline and Hotwire are very expensive when trying to rent a car for long stay.

I don't find this to be true at all. For me the optimum time period is 7-10 days at a time and the optimum time before hand to bid is 4-24 hours.

[AztecWolverine]

I've gotten great rates with Hotwire for rental cars -- top notch cars with top companies at rock bottom prices. I don't know why the poster claimed that Hotwire and Priceline don't give good deals....

It's very risky to wait until the last minute to rent a car -- I've had friends who had to hire expensive cabs because no cars were available, with any company, at a busy time, when there were special events in town.

[bbbb]

Weather it be 1 day or 8 days I have alway saved some good $$. The cars have all been very nice without any issues.

[LoneStar]

I rent probably 25 cars a year in the US in various locations, and I would say that on 23 or 24 of them, I can get better prices booked directly than I can with priceline or hotwire. These opaque services simply do not offer the no-brainer, drop-dead discounts that you can often get on urban hotels for their car rental product.

I will admit to being very "aggressive" in searching for car rental deals, however. I go to flyertalk.com for the latest and greatest discount codes and coupons, as well as checking Orbitz and the individual car rental websites (Especially closer to arrival). On average, I probably spend 15 to 30 minutes total time on each reservation. When rates seem extremely high to me by historical standards, I can spend more than an hour hunting for a better deal (still a heck of a lot easier than the "old days," when you had to CALL the companies individually!).

There is no one strategy that works for car rentals -- sometimes booking far in advance is best, sometimes just a couple of days before (always lock in the best non-prepaid rate you can, because you can always cancel it if cheaper rates become available later). I would say that I would NEVER bid for a car rental more than a couple of weeks ahead of time unless the deal was drop-dead phenomental because the odds favor a cheaper rate later being available directly from the companies. And if you don't want to go through the trouble of searching for and entering discount codes and coupons, both priceline and hotwire offer decent rates. You generally won't be ripped off. You will, however, how a much less flexible reservation, and you generally won't get the deepest possible discount.