Florida Car Rental Tips

[ratnrol]

First time poster and member of BetterBidding.

Here are the details of my trip:

Arrive at Orlando airport 16-Mar-10. Stay and play until 20-Mar-10.

Drive to Miami 20-Mar-10 and drop off car near port.

Stay the night and board the ship 21-Mar-10

Depart ship in Miami 28-Mar-10

Pick-up rental and return it to Orlando airport 31-Mar-10 (some more sight seeing between 28th and 31st).

I have a quote directly from Budget to pick up the rental at MCO and drop it off at M3M. Then another from M3M back to MCO.

The more I learn about PRICELINE and HOTWIRE I am wondering if I should look at a different option.

1.) Bid on two different car rentals in Orlando:

a.) Rental 1: MCO to MCO. I have read about some greats rates on this forum

b.) Rental 2: MCO to Miami

2.) Bid on car rental from Miami back to Orlando

I will need to find a car rental company with rentals close to the Miami port. Hoping to find one with a shuttle.

This seems like a lot of effort.

[pres001]

I am not sure about the ins and outs of Priceline bidding for one way rentals or non airport drop offs, but I have cruised out of Miami and I remember many of the rental car companies had downtown Miami drop offs with free shuttles to the port.

I have a couple more things for you to consider, just to confuse you even more. You could look for a cheap hotel, Priceline could help you there too, near the Miami airport. That way you could either drop your car off at the airport car rental and take a taxi to the port for about $30. Or, you could look for a hotel with free parking, keep your car until the morning of your cruise and return it downtown and shuttle to the port.

It does make some sense to me to break up your rental the way you are contemplating. Since you will be in Orlando for a good chunk of the time, if you can get a cheap Priceline bid for that portion of your trip you will probably be cheaper off in the long run.

It seems like a real headache to me to have to drop off a car at one rental company and get to another one if you have off airport locations. I am not that familiar with MCO to know how many rental companies are on site. You could end up taking a shuttle from one rental return back to he airport to pick up another shuttle to your next rental company.

[thereuare]

You could try to beat each leg of your rental, but you would have to try to rend from MCO to MIA (airport) and then MIA to MCO as PRICELINE does not have one-way rentals to Downtown Miami.

I don't think one rental car for the entire period would be worthwhile as you'll not only be paying for the rental while on the cruise, but for parking as well. What is the cost (including taxes and fees) of your two rentals above?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[ratnrol]

Pres001, thanks. We plan to investigate using some reward points from SPG and possibly airmiles to book our Miami hotel. If this does not work out, we will try PL for sure. Good point about one rental company location to another at MCO. I was incorrectly making an assumption they are side by side. Food for thought.

thereuare, here is what I have been quoted from Budget using a corporate discount.

Rental 1:

Pick-up Location: MCO

Pick-up Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 04:00 PM

Drop-off Location: M3M (Miami, 665 SW 8th St, MIAMI, FL 33130 US)

Drop-off Date: Sun, Mar 21, 2010 08:00 AM

Total Cost excluding taxes 309.28 USD

Class E car (Impala or equal)

Rental 2:

Pick-up Location: M3M (Miami, 665 SW 8th St, MIAMI, FL 33130 US)

Pick-up Date: Sun, Mar 28, 2010 08:00 AM

Drop-off Location: Orlando, 1 Airport Blvd Terminals A&B, ORLANDO, FL 32827 US

Drop-off Date: Wed, Mar 31, 2010 04:00 PM

Total Cost excluding taxes 217.55 USD

Class E car (Impala or equal)

I have read on this forum that some have been successful in bidding on full size cars (bigger than Class E) for ~$10-15 / day.

For comparison purposes, here is what I was looking at using the numbers above for Rental 1:

- 309.28 / 6 days = $51.55 / day

- One of these 6 days was spent in Miami

- 5 days x $51.55 = 257.73

So the method to my madness of breaking the rental up for the first leg was based on the following assumptions:

- If I was successful bidding at $15 / day for the same car, it would cost me $75 (5 x $15)

- That equates to $182.73 savings ($257.73 - 75)

Yes, you are right, I did see that I would have to drop the MCO to MIA rental off at the MIA airport. Not ideal. MIA does appear to be close to the port our ship sails from. We would need to get a cab or shuttle from MIA to our hotel, yet to be named.

Currently, in the Budget quote above, I have selected to return the vehicle to a Budget location very close to port.

We have not made a decision whether we will stay another night in Miami when our ship docks on the 28th, but we will probably start heading back towards Orlando with some sight seeing on the way.

For comparison purposes, here is what I was looking at using the numbers above for Rental 2:

- $217.55 / 4 days = $54.39 / day

If I reserved a rental from MCO to MIA and had had to take a cab from MIA to my hotel, we are still talking about a couple hundred dollars. That's would pay for a couple day passes at Disney :)

[thereuare]

Perhaps i'm not following...

Isn't your current plan:

Rent from MCO and drop-off before cruise at Budget locatino near the board, then after cruise...

Pick up from Budget location near the port and return to MCO Airport location

And you're considering replacing the above with:

Pick-up and Drop-off the rental at MCO, keeping the car for the entire time your on the cruise

Is this not correct?

Also, what is the total including taxes and fees for Rental1 and Rental2 above?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[ratnrol]

Perhaps i'm not following...

Isn't your current plan:

Rent from MCO and drop-off before cruise at Budget locatino near the board, then after cruise...

Pick up from Budget location near the port and return to MCO Airport location

Sorry for the confusion. You are correct.

And you're considering replacing the above with:

Pick-up and Drop-off the rental at MCO, keeping the car for the entire time your on the cruise

This is where I lost you. I don't want to keep the rental for the 7 day cruise. I want to return it in Miami before the cruise leaves and pick-up it up when the cruise finishes. I have flip-flopped on the Miami return date (20th vs 21st).

I just found a new budget discount code for one week rental in Florida. The new rate is $193.52 all taxes in. This works out to be $32.95/day ($193.52 / 6 days). I am told the M3M location is a ~$20 cab fare to port. They do not offer a shuttle service.

Pick-Up - MCO

Tue, Mar 16, 2010 05:00 PM

Orlando Intl Airport

1 Airport Blvd Terminals A&B

ORLANDO, FL 32827 US

Drop-Off - M3M

Sun, Mar 21, 2010 11:30 AM

665 SW 8th St

MIAMI, FL 33130 US

Also, what is the total including taxes and fees for Rental1 and Rental2 above?

I double checked and all rates listed in Rental1 and Rental2 include taxes, etc and are the final cost.

Appreciate your patience. :)

[thereuare]

This is where I lost you. I don't want to keep the rental for the 7 day cruise. I want to return it in Miami before the cruise leaves and pick-up it up when the cruise finishes. I have flip-flopped on the Miami return date (20th vs 21st).

So is this discussion about whether or not you should keep the car rental until the 20th or 21st? I'm assuming there is more to this than that.

Please note from our support page that we're an affiliate of Budget Rent a Car (as well as many other rental companies)... please use our links to make any reservations.

[ratnrol]

So is this discussion about whether or not you should keep the car rental until the 20th or 21st? I'm assuming there is more to this than that.

Please note from our support page that we're an affiliate of Budget Rent a Car (as well as many other rental companies)... please use our links to make any reservations.

Sorry for being vague.

We will arrive in Miami on the 20th and stay the night. I can either drop off the vehicle on the 20th or the 21st. If the hotel I select is close to M3M, they may be able to shuttle me, otherwise we will require a cab from the rental drop off to our hotel and from the hotel to port.

In my calculations I was trying to convert everything into a day rate for comparison purposes and to address my indecision on when to return the rental when we arrive in Miami.

[thereuare]

So this is simply about keeping the car the extra day or not.

To make the numbers easy... what is the price price difference between renting the car the extra day or not? (be sure to actually calculate it... as often the total for a 5-7 day rentals are priced the same as it's treated as a weekly rental, although the daily rate may differ substantially because you're dividing the same total by either 5, 6, or 7 days.