A car rental vent

[hlbtimes2]

I know I've seen some threads about car rentals lately, so forgive me for starting my own. But, I need to vent!

I always use Alamo for the "hot deals". Rates are usually around $15-20 a day. Today the rates came out for our trip dates. Great, the rates are the normal ones I'm used to getting. I go to book it- if I get it from Friday to Tuesday- noon to noon, its $129. If I keep it an extra 7 hours (pick up at 10 am, drop off at 5pm- based on our flight times of course) it goes up to $257 for the same car. Why the heck are those 7 hours worth so much!? Its almost double for an extra 7 hours. I was expecting to pay for an extra day, or even 2- but double? What the......???

 

[AlabamaPrincesses]

I feel your pain... I have always rented cars in Florida and the rates are very low. The prices in CA are very high! The best deals I've found for rental cars in CA are through our insurance company group rates...USAA. I am hoping that the rates will go down as we get closer to our trip.

 

[bumbershoot]

Ugh, that's not fun!

Have you checked out hotwire or priceline? I haven't tried priceline yet (too chicken!) but we booked through hotwire in December, and I would again this trip if we wanted to bring the carseat (we don't, so we're taking Disneyland Express).

If you do look at hotwire, be sure to click through on the kind of car you want, even if the price doesn't look good. I don't know if it's just my dates or what, but it'll show one price (it's even been telling me that that price has gone up by $20/day!), then I click through and they say "good news, your rate has gone down from x to a". And that price (not the price on the main page of "compact car is this, economy car is this, mondo massive SUV is this, etc") is going down the closer our trip gets.

You won't know who you're getting until you agree to a price, but they only deal with the biggies. And you can get the TOTAL cost before you agree.

Anyway, it's worth a shot!

 

[disneynerd420]

The reason for this being is because that Alamo plans to have that vehicle back in their inventory by a certain time and available for rental for another customer. If it is not available for another customer who selected that model Alamo could lose money. It is for their protection.

 

[wdhinn89]

What if you try booking Friday - Wednesday and return it early?

The daily rate may be cheaper than the hourly

 

[hlbtimes2]

I ended up using priceline. I got a car, with tax and fees, for $132. It will be from Avis.

 

[bumbershoot]

Nice! We enjoyed our Avis experience. You might think about joining their program (whatever it's called), as the shuttle driver asked who was a member, and they got some perk while being driven to the Avis lot. Can't remember what it was, but she asked!

 

[hlbtimes2]

I'll sign up. But we are flying into long beach and all of the car rentals are right there- no shuttle needed!

 

[bumbershoot]

That makes it easier, doesn't it? We were at LAX.

 

[hlbtimes2]

We love long beach. Its so close and such a nice small airport. You can get in and out of there in no time! And its a direct flight from Seattle. We used to fly into JW/ Orange, but we always had a layover in SF, which just made the trip seem so much longer.

 

[wdhinn89]

We want to pick up a car in LGB and return it in San Diego and the prices are insane Hotwire does not do one ways either. I hope the prices go down closer to the date.

 

[DahliaRW]

One way rentals are always super expensive. They add a fee to it just for doing one way (last time we did it was a 10 day rental and the one way fee was something like $150).