My sister’s destination wedding is taking place in a few weeks and until last night we still hadn’t nailed down which car rental company we were going to use. But at about 10:30 pm last night we pulled the trigger and finalized our rental car plans.
I should also mention that while I know there is a skill to be learned when it comes to getting travel deals, I am not particularly skilled in this area. I generally know how to find good prices on most things I buy, but renting cars is something I haven’t had to do too much of.
What we were looking for in a rental car
- We are going to need the car for a full 7 days
- If we could find a good enough deal on a convertible we would get that. After all November is pretty nice in Florida.
- In-terminal pickup and drop off was much preferred.
- Unlimited miles would probably be best for the amount of driving we will be doing.
So, I started comparing prices just like I normally do and was getting ready to start digging for some coupon codes to see if I could find a little better price and then it happened… I found noticed that Hotwire had a “Hot Rate” deal for the car we were looking for. After seeing the prices of all the other car rental car websites, it just didn’t make sense that they were about half the average price of the others.
I called them up to see what the catch was. They explained that the only “catch’ is that I don’t know which rental car company we will be with until after we pay. That’s it? I verified that I would still be able to pick it up and return it in our airport and that we would have unlimited miles. So, with that price, I decided our bargain hunting was finished and would take it.
The prices I compared
| Company | Notes | Final Price |
| Budget.com | without coupon | $691.93 |
| Thrifty.com | without coupon | $690.47 |
| Priceline.com | without coupon | $651.57 |
| Sidestep.com | without coupon | $527.00 |
| Kayak.com | without coupon | $527.00 |
| CarRentals.com | without coupon | $526.49 |
| Travelocity.com | without coupon | $523.64 |
| Expedia.com | without coupon | $523.64 |
| Enterprise.com | (with coupon) | $498.47 |
| Hotwire.com | “Hot Rate” Deal | $269.97 |
As you can see, no one else was even in the ballpark with Hotwire’s “Hot Rate” deal. To be fair, I didn’t use a coupon for most of the other companies, which would have brought their prices down as well, but I would have been pretty surprised to find a 50% off coupon with any of them.
I will be back!
So, I am not sure how often Hotwire has the “Hot Rate” deals running and what the chances are of getting one for your trip, but I will surely make them my first stop when looking for the best price on a rental car in the future. If they don’t have a deal running, I probably would try digging deeper to find car rental discounts or the obvious: just rent a cheaper car!
A great deal
All in all, I am pretty excited because I feel like we pretty much got the cheapest price possible and I didn’t have to spend 4 hours comparing prices. We get to drive a convertible around for a week in Florida for the price of a Chevy Aveo. Now, we just have to pray that we get the model we want. She wants a VW Bug, I want a Mustang. I am guessing we will probably end up with a Sebring just like Michael Scott. Oh well, it is still a great deal and a convertible!
Have you gotten a Hotwire deal before? What other tips do you have to get a cheap rental car?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I am currently looking for a deal on renting a car for ~5 days in Vegas (going for a concert, warmth and R&R – not for the gambling). I have booked a hotel though hotwire – no issues.
I am probably going to book my rental through priceline.com. I am doing the bidding thing. If you have lots of lead time before your holiday, this is great – you bid on the price of your rental (you don’t know who you are renting from, but it will be someone at the airport in my case).
You are probably wondering what sort of rate you can get… just go to
http://www.betterbidding.com
(note – I am not affiliated with the site, but I use it)
Hi Bob! First, thanks for all the articles. I have enjoyed reading your blog. As far as Hotwire.com goes, it’s official–I love it! They have great deals on hotels as well. This selection system is basically the same as with the rental cars. You pick the desired star rating (1-6 stars) and general location, they show you several options with prices on each, then after payment you get to find out where you’re staying. My wife and I got an awesome deal on a stay at the downtown Charlotte, NC Hilton a couple months ago for just $45 (on a Friday, at that!). Even the cheapest Super 8 Motel in that area is more than twice that.
Bottom line, if you’re looking for a fantastic deal and are up for a little adventure, hotwire.com is definitely for you.
Hotwire gives you good pricing info, but I don’t use it for my final purchase. Here is what I do:
1) Look at Hotwire.com to determine the lowest prices for a car you want.
2) Go to Priceline.com and offer $3-4 less than the quoted Hotwire price.
3a) If your bid is accepted, great! You’re done!
3b) If your bid is declined, you have 2 options:
4a) Adjust your car up or down by one tier (e.g., economy to compact, mid-size to full size, etc.).
4b) Use a different credit/debit card and try again for a slightly higher price. You can do this step as many times as you want as long as you have additional credit/debit cards. You can’t also apply a mix of 4a and 4b.
For the most part, Hotwire and Priceline use the same rental car companies, so that shouldn’t be an issue. The only difference is that you have to put in your credit card info before your transaction. This process only takes a few extra minutes and should save you quite a bit.
CAVEAT EMPTOR: The one drawback from using these sites is that you pay immediately and your rental is set in stone. If something changes and your rental is no longer needed, you don’t get your money back. If there is any chance this may happen, you may consider using some other means to rent a car. There are plenty of coupon codes to be found on the internet if you want to rent directly through a rental car company at a discount. In which case, you are simply making a reservation and you don’t pay until you actually rent the car.
Thanks for linking to my article about how we found deep discounts on our car rental..
Normally we use Hotwire or a similar discounter to get our flights, hotels and car rentals. The only problem this time was that our car trip started in one location, and ended in another – which meant that we couldn’t use hotwire. hotwire only allows you to book roundtrips from the same location – or rent cars that will be returned to the same location. We were doing neither.
In the end we got a good deal on our rental going through the agency, but normally hotwire ends up getting us a better deal.
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