December 2023 Rental Car Thread

[Akck]

The only thing I’ve seen is the rates going in the wrong direction.

 

[otterlychaotic]

Costco had a nice dip earlier last week for my mid-December trip dates. I've grabbed a couple rates (one from Alamo, one from Avis) and am going to keep monitoring the Costco site for more dips. Enterprise currently has a pretty nice discount for compact through full-size cars right now.

The other "reasonable" things I've found is using the AAA Deals page on Hertz to get a AAA rate on Hertz, those prices are pretty good right now.

And then you can link your Amazon Prime with Avis & Budget to get a little bit better rate than normal but also get a Amazon gift card in cashback for a portion of the rental as well.

But realistically, it's hard to beat Costco for the convenience and price, especially since they only deal with four really good rental companies for MCO that all offer some sort of skip the counter type program.

 

[Akck]

I just got a compact SUV for $399. It has been in the $410-430 range. My original reservation was for $394, but that was when we planned to stay at the airport, since we land close to midnight. The Hyatt at the airport went up to $250+, so we opted to stay off airport to save over $100 and get the rental just after midnight.

 

[jensen]

I just got a compact SUV for $399. It has been in the $410-430 range. My original reservation was for $394, but that was when we planned to stay at the airport, since we land close to midnight. The Hyatt at the airport went up to $250+, so we opted to stay off airport to save over $100 and get the rental just after midnight.

What rental car agency did you use?

 

[Akck]

What rental car agency did you use?

Alamo through Costco.

 

[Akck]

Costco came through again. We’re back down to $394 for the compact SUV from Alamo. It’s only $5 down, but it’s still a savings.

 

[otterlychaotic]

Not sure about others but I've seen a pretty steep increase in prices out of most companies for my travel period in mid-December recently. It's been kinda rough for about the last 4 or 5 days, outside a brief period of like 6 hours two days when Enterprise greatly dropped their prices.

Thankfully I've got a couple reservations saved so I only have to worry about trying to get a better deal vs needing to find an acceptable rate in the first place. I guess I'm in the "bad zone" where it's close enough that the early booking rates aren't there but at the same time the last minute rates haven't started to show up either. Hopefully there are some better rates over the next week or two. Especially Alamo, I love the company but their rates have been the highest for me when looking directly at the rental companies or if using Costco.

 

[Rich M]

My rates finally started going down today. Not a great decline but at least something. Hoping it keeps going down.

 

[otterlychaotic]

Through Costco, Enterprise has shown some good prices recently for brief periods of time but each time when I go to make a reservation the price has jumped up. Not sure exactly what is going on there but it is frustrating to think I'm jumping on a good deal only to be told that the price is now actually like $30-$50 higher. I don't think it's anything nefarious (leave that to the actually sketchy "bait & switch" booking sites) but either I have had extremely bad timing luck over the last couple of days with the rates jumping in the 30 seconds it takes to go through the couple of pages to book or Costco's system of Enterprise prices are showing erroneous/old prices until the system goes to actually connect with the Enterprise site to book.

 

[Maliki2]

I was looking for Dec 30th-Jan 9th. Price doubles if I add 30, 31 and 9. Cut it down to 1-8 and got it for 306.

 

[SWofDisorder]

I finally go my rate under $500 for my dates of 11/29 to 12/8. Its for a compact SUV that I am not thrilled for but glad its starting to go down a bit

We are also at $498 with Cosco for compact SUV for 8 days.

 

[Lynne G]

Just got my second week in December SUV with Costco Alamo, down to $475. Started at $525, then hovered at $498, but late last night, saw that lowest so far price. Crazy rate even with that $25 drop. I had an SUV for two weeks at the end of September, and paid $398, with Costco Alamo reservation. Must be much busier the December week I’m going.

Still, I’ll do that look, hope find better, cancel old rate, book new, until the day before I leave.

 

[keishashadow]

I ck daily my res Holding steady. 2 weeks starting 11/25 $590 for midsize hertz thru car rental savers

With DHs Corp code Avis & sitting on a split rental surrounding a cruise. Priced oddly, no drop charges involved???

2nd part, a week picking up on 12/1 is $265 for midsize. That is picking up in cocoa beach & dropping at mco

Just 2day rental starting 11/25 @ mco is $153. Assume that’s an availability issue as the Saturday after thanksgiving early pick up since no drop charge

Getting to point there doesn’t seem to be any predictable patterns

 

[keishashadow]

Enterprise has shown some good prices recently for brief periods of time bu

Is that via a shuttle, pick up or @ MCO?

 

[Akck]

Rates from Costco took another dip over the weekend. We now have a compact SUV from Alamo for $367. There was also a full-size car for $343 from Alamo. Both rates are getting closer to the $300 area where I was hoping to get.

 

[Southernswthrt]

Haven't checked the rates in a while, but I was able to get a Full Size car with Alamo thru Costco for 373. I'm happy with that as my previous reservation was 490. I will check more frequently as we get closer.

 

[Akck]

When rates drop through Costco, I also check via Autoslash. This time, after I submitted, I noticed a new box where Germany was listed as issuing my drivers license. The link provided, showed a rate via Priceline of $266 for a midsize SUV through Budget, but when I changed the license issued box to United States, the rate jumped to $443. I wonder what would happen if I left Germany in the box? Would I get the rental for $266 or would they switch it to $443?

 

[Herding_Cats]

I was looking for Dec 30th-Jan 9th. Price doubles if I add 30, 31 and 9. Cut it down to 1-8 and got it for 306.

We are renting 31st-9th, and it is going to save us (as of right now) almost $100 to get a 1-day Alamo rental from MCO and return at the Car Care Center, and then pick up another rental from the 1st-9th while we are still at the CCC and return it to MCO. If we weren't staying offsite the first night I would be very tempted to use the Mears shuttle and just pick up a rental from the CCC on like the 2nd or 3rd.

 

[SWofDisorder]

Make sure to check your booking. Our compact SUV on costco is down in price by $90 this morning.

 

[SWofDisorder]

When rates drop through Costco, I also check via Autoslash. This time, after I submitted, I noticed a new box where Germany was listed as issuing my drivers license. The link provided, showed a rate via Priceline of $266 for a midsize SUV through Budget, but when I changed the license issued box to United States, the rate jumped to $443. I wonder what would happen if I left Germany in the box? Would I get the rental for $266 or would they switch it to $443?

I hold a DL from the Netherlands and used it for an international price which was super cheap. But they did verify my DL at the counter as I was not allowed go to the garage service on the international reservation. If you have a license from another country, give it a go.