Quick question, I'm a car rental noob and am starting to compare prices for our 10 day trip at the end of April. I have no idea what is a decent price for the time period. When you are saying you got a price of xx dollars (say a week for $120), do you mean for the rental alone, or are you talking about the total cost (including all the fees, etc.). I'm seeing that for my dates (4/21-5/1) the best rate I can find is about $187 a week, but then the "est grand total" rate is more like $360 after fees/taxes. Which doesn't seem nearly as good a price!
I usually look at the per day price since the taxes and fees are a way of life at MCO and they don't change.
In order to save money (I think that is what this post is all about), you need to be vigilant in searching for good deals. If you dont have the time, or think that it is not worth it, you will not get the best deal.
See my post #65 and #69 on this thread. We have booked two cars for our upcoming trip. I went from $29.80/day for a Toyota Corolla (midsize-National KLM) to $9.71/day for a Nissan Altima (full size/Dollar City Code).
Since then I have rebooked with Dollar using
AAA discount and now I am at $8.99/day for a Nissan Altima (full size/Dollar City Code w/AAA 10% discount code)) and $19.49 for a Dodge Caravan (mini van//Dollar City Code w/10% AAA discount code). I could not pass up the low Van price, so we cancelled the second full size. These are the lowest prices I have ever seen in at least the last 8-10 years, especially the van.
If you look at these cars right now on the Dollar site using City Code the Altima would be $45.31/day and the Van would be $67.42/day!!!! Outrageous!
However, when I re-booked I had to look 3-4 times per day. It takes 2 minutes to check very easy!! You never know when they will appear, but they change constantly; by the hour. For instance in my case, I booked the Altimas on 01/26 at 2:35 PM EST. I rebooked on 02/12 at 9:59 AM EST. I cancelled one Altima and booked the Van on 2/12 at 9:57 AM EST.
With the great rates that I have, I am still looking. Ok, maybe not that hard!!!
Your plan should be this: Look once in morning, at midday and before you retire for the night. Bookmark, this thread (or the thread of the month you are going, and maybe the threads of the month before and after). Also bookmark the rental agency(ies) you want to rent from. (I only use the agencies that are onsite at MCO). Keep with you the discount codes from Mousesavers.com or AAA. You will see from the initial visit to the Agency site whether the rates are low or not after you key in your trip info. If they are low, insert your code information for an even lower rate - then book your vehicle. After that, check with some frequency and re-book as necessary. This has been our tried and true method over the last several years. Also- once you book join the agency frequent user or preferred user membership so that you can bypass the counter or get in the faster preferred waiting line.
This method works EVERY TIME!! (Just my 2 cents)
Tim/Hawk
