car rental in orlando

[renderman7]

hey there all,

I am planning to hit orlando in may for 2 weeks, and was wondering if anyone had any car rental places that are cheap.

I refuse to pay anymore than 600 bucks, because its only taking me too and from the parks.

I found this place CARRENTALREPUBLIC.NET but I am not sure if they are good.

any help is appreciated.

thanks

[travelcoupons]

Check mouseavers.com or rentalcodes.com for discount codes. Book the lowest rate you can find now & keep checking as your date approaches. Rates fluctuate up and down every day. Most likely as your date approaches, a better rate will come up. But it is important to have something booked (which you can cancel if you later find a better rate), in case rates don't come down.
Worst case scenerio, when your date gets near if you haven't found something cheaper, then try on priceline.com or hotwire.com . But since anything booked on these sites is non-cancelable you only want to use them as a last resort.

[aubriee]

Keep an eye on the May rental car thread here: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3017463. People post any discount codes they find. As your trip gets closer the prices should come down (usually the week or two just prior to your trip). Most places let you book, cancel, and rebook repeatedly without any fees. I'm going down in May also, but while I'm keeping an eye on the May rental car thread for codes, I am not really concerned this early. My rental car for my Sept trip dropped just a day or two before my trip and then for our Oct/Nov trip a few weeks ago, it dropped about a week out. Last May a friend I met down there got a full size car for like $98.00 for the week, but it didn't drop that low until like the night before we left. She just cancelled her previous reservation and rebooked.

[Quicklabs]

I'm watching for them to come down, too. I wonder if the storms on the East Coast have negatively impacted supply of rental cars. I've never seen the costs so high.

[OKW Lover]

Car rental prices this far out are usually pretty high. We normally make a car rental reservation once we've got our flights booked at whatever the prevailing rate is. Then we monitor the price and re-book if it goes down.

[rwdavis2]

Although it's kind of involved we have gotten great deals this year by doing this:

Go to KLM Airlines site and sign up for a frequent flier account.

That will then give you access to their "partners". One of which is National Car Rental. That will list a code you use when booking National. Make sure you sign up for National's Emerald Isle. It's free and gets you out of the airport must faster.

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

I am going in May also but only for 8 nites. I found a discount code on these boards for Budget that I used and cut my price from 700 something to 359.00 on a minivan (6 people) for that time period. This was just last weekend.

[renderman7]

Originally Posted by WILDERNESS FAN 55

I am going in May also but only for 8 nites. I found a discount code on these boards for Budget that I used and cut my price from 700 something to 359.00 on a minivan (6 people) for that time period. This was just last weekend.

wow, that sounds like a great deal. i am still looking for some kind of awesome deal. the problem is all the websites offer up what seems to be a great offer, but then they say you need insurance and boom the cost doubles..

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

Originally Posted by renderman7

wow, that sounds like a great deal. i am still looking for some kind of awesome deal. the problem is all the websites offer up what seems to be a great offer, but then they say you need insurance and boom the cost doubles..

Budget (nor any of the usual suspects tells me I NEED insurance. ) They want me to buy their insurance but, of course, I don't need it since covered on my regular policy.

[renderman7]

Originally Posted by WILDERNESS FAN 55

Budget (nor any of the usual suspects tells me I NEED insurance. ) They want me to buy their insurance but, of course, I don't need it since covered on my regular policy.

well I am not American, so I don't have car insurance for over there. rented a car in seattle a few weeks back, total car hire was 99 bucks. with all the insurance they wanted to throw onto it, came to 750.. was astounded at the price

[bumbershoot]

Originally Posted by renderman7

wow, that sounds like a great deal. i am still looking for some kind of awesome deal. the problem is all the websites offer up what seems to be a great offer, but then they say you need insurance and boom the cost doubles..

You need to research what the insurance does for you and IF you need it. No one here knows what type of car insurance you have, and if your policy covers rental vehicles, so only you can do this.

I can count the number of times I/we have gotten the insurance on a rental car on one hand. We get it when we rent a moving van (our car insurance doesn't cover that), but almost never on a car.


We are going in Feb, and I don't expect to see the rates drop until January, personally. Booking for May is just WAY too early to find the deals. Now, I've booked the best rate I can find, that we would be willing to pay (but I'm not expecting to pay for it), but I'll continue to check and recheck until I get a rate I *want*.

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

Originally Posted by renderman7

well I am not American, so I don't have car insurance for over there. rented a car in seattle a few weeks back, total car hire was 99 bucks. with all the insurance they wanted to throw onto it, came to 750.. was astounded at the price

WOW. Even though I got this pretty decent rate I'm still checking. If I see anything that will help you I'll post it

[KodakFigment]

Originally Posted by renderman7

well I am not American, so I don't have car insurance for over there.

Not answering your question, but suggesting a few places to get more info... Try looking at the international forums here on the Dis. I did a quick search in the UK forum and found lots of good info about reducing the cost of renting in the US.

Try flyertalk.com for the same idea. Why do all the legwork yourself when others have been through the research already? Good Luck

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Originally Posted by renderman7

well I am not American, so I don't have car insurance for over there. rented a car in seattle a few weeks back, total car hire was 99 bucks. with all the insurance they wanted to throw onto it, came to 750.. was astounded at the price

You don't specify where you are from, but here's a perspective from a non-American as well (we live in Canada).

Before our first offsite trip in January 2012, I contacted our insurance broker to ask him about what kind of coverage our personal auto policy may have for rental vehicles outside of our country of residence. Turns out most policies in Canada have a special clause (which adds a very minimal amount to the yearly premium.....less than $20 if memory serves me correctly) which extends our personal auto coverage to a rental car for short periods of time (long enough to cover most family vacations).

When we get to the counter, and are asked to add on the additional insurance, we simply tell them that our personal auto policy extends to any rental we use while on vacation. And that's the end of the story.

Would be worth having a chat with your broker before building those excessive costs into the budget.

Also check with your credit card to see if they provide any insurance as part of your card agreement, and with your travel insurance provider (for our August 2012 trip, we had full rental car insurance through our travel insurance.......the name of the insuring company was VacationGuard).