SFO San Francisco

Hi all,

I'm desperately trying to book a car from May 27 to May 31 at San Francisco International airport. I notice the prices are high everywhere, ranging around $48-60 for a compact car. I have unsuccessfully bid on several classes from Economy to Midsize at $13 to $20 per day. I'm getting nowhere. Is it because the prices are already so high and it's a holiday weekend?

Any help you all can provide would be great.

Thanks,

Eric

Welcome to BetterBidding!

What is the best rate you're able to get thru conventional booking channels? (use our Car Rental Checker to help in your search)

What is the best rate offered thru HOTWIRE? (and is that a "hot RATE" where the name of the rental company isn't shown until after purchase)

Let us know the above and we'll advise accordingly.

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

Priceline offers an Economy car for $69/day through Alamo. After checking my calendar, it seems that May 25th is Memorial Day, so we're not even using the car during that "popular travel" weekend. Travelocity lists an Economy car for $67/day with Dollar or Thrifty. Expedia offers that same rate. Hotwire was experiencing errors when I just tried my search.

Thanks for the help in advance!

What are the hours you're using for pick-up / drop-off (there's a reason i'm asking)

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

I need to pick the car up at 9 pm and drop it off at 6 pm. The time on Sunday is flexible, though if I book through 9 pm I'll still want to drop it off early.

Thanks in advance!

Eric

What are the hours you're using for pick-up / drop-off (there's a reason i'm asking)

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

If you change your drop-off to 6/1/9 at 11pm the price for the economy rental drops to ~$29/day and even though you're renting for an extra day it comes out cheaper since the price drops since you've now entered the "weekly rate".

While you can't do this with a direct rental since the car rentel company will cancel the weekly rate and bill you at the daily rate, PRICELINE and HOTWIRE rentals are pre-paid and each states that you can return the car early but won't receive a refund for any unused portion of your rental.

Current when printed from PRICELINE:

You can always return your car earlier than your scheduled drop-off time but priceline cannot issue any refunds for unused time. Our rental car partners choose whether to accept your offer based on the exact combination of pick-up date, drop-off date, car type and location you select while on our website. As a result, your accepted price reflects savings that may not have been offered to you with any other combination. We know our no refunds policy is strict, but it's the agreement that keeps this great service available and the reason the major car rental companies allow you to save so much money with priceline.

Current when printed from HOTWIRE:

And if you return your car early, you will not receive any refund for unused portions of your reservation.

However, this isn't to say that the car rental company will know the terms of your PRICELINE / HOTWIRE purchase, so although i woudn't expect to have to straigthenn out the bill under by returning the car early, it woudln't surprise if it was necessary to do so. As long as you understand this may be possible, you might want to consider changing your drop-off to a day later (it actually needs to be 1 day later + 2hours)

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

Your thoughts?

Well that sounds great! I had already played around with the idea of returning it early since we will only need it through lunch on Sunday, but were scheduling it through dinner that same day. I suppose I should give the pre-paid name-my-own price a go. Would the same apply to a hotel for the same dates?

Eric,

If you can delay your pickup by 3.5 hours, from 9pm on Weds 5/27 to 12:30am on Thurs 5/28, HOTWIRE's Compact drops from $67.95/day to $27.95/day. It's so much cheaper because your rental term then falls entirely inside the "Weekend Rate" timeframe. I'm used to weekend rates starting later on Thursday, like at noon, but I'm getting that $27.95 rate on Hotwire with a 12:30 am pickup on Thursday.

It's also possible you can win a Compact for less than $27.95 on PRICELINE if you can delay your pickup by 3.5 hours.

By any chance are you staying at a hotel near the airport on 5/27? If so you could take a free shuttle to the hotel, relax a few hours, then shuttle back to the airport at midnight to pick up your car.

I suppose I should give the pre-paid name-my-own price a go. Would the same apply to a hotel for the same dates?

I won't say "Never", but I've never seen an example of that happening. Some hotels have a two-night minimum stay requirement and you can't win the hotel bidding for just one night. But an additional discount for 5 nights vs 4 nights...I haven't seen that on PRICELINE.

Colfax, nice job :)

If you book as per Colfax's method and book after midnite on Thursday, i would think there a good chance that since this is prepaid you coudl probably even show up ~10pm or so and have them honor the rate... if not you could also kill some time at the airport (but not at the bar given you'll be picking up a rental :) )

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

Let us know how it goes.

Alamo has been running a special for $10/weekend day rate. It's no longer advertised on their website but the contract ID still works.

When I search for Thursday 6pm-Sunday 6pm I see a base rate of $30 for compact, total of $54.66 with taxes. Not sure how early you could pick up on Thursday and still get the weekend rate...

Book on alamo.com, pick "More options", and use contract ID 7014730

This would just leave you to fend for yourself on Wednesday night... maybe Colfax's idea would still work? A one night rental picked up after midnight Thursday morning? You'd have to go back to the airport Thursday night to switch cars but the savings might be worth it.

Just a 'warning' for anyone following this thread now or in the future...

If you book direct with the rental company and return the car early, they have the right to (and often do) reset the rate based upon the actual time you rented (ie- if you booked an extra day in order to get a 'weekly rate' but return the car early, which would not have resulted in a higher 'non-weekly rate', the rental company will adjust your rate to the higher rate upon your return)... PRICELINE and HOTWIRE are both pre-paid and <currently> each of their terms state that you can return the car early (but won't receive a refund for any unused days). So if extending your rental in order to obtain a lower rate, this should only be done thru a PRICELINE or HOTWIRE purchase... not directly with the rental company.

That's a really good point. I've heard from people using the "weekend special" direct from Alamo that the terms of the rental are being VERY strictly adhered to, since the rate is specifically to use up excess inventory on the weekends, not necessarily to turn a profit. So early/late returns are being assessed a high rate change.

However, I have used it at least once so far myself - stuck to the rental times strictly - and have had great success. The rate ends on May 31 though, unfortunately.

Hi all,

I haven't really had any luck with the car rental. The cheapest SFO prices are still around $67/day and weekend prices aren't much better.

Eric