Car rental advice...Looking for less...

[hsmamato2]

Hi- I've been thinking about this for a while now, I have a rental car booked for almost 14 days, total base each week is 147.92- total w/fees is 388.87- I keep seeing posts about great rates, and coupons, been to mousesavers 100 times, When I checked today, the rates had almost doubled! We're going at an "off peak" time- is there any better tips out there that I'm missing? SOme posters have said 9.99 a day! How are you guys finding these deasl?
Thanks so much for any advice- I hate to overpay, and I'd like to know if we are getting higher rates than others....

 

[rie'smom]

Gee, I'd like to find 9.99/day too. We've prepaid through Alamo and have 15% off the lowest rate-still about 250.00 for 7 days-not bad but would love a lower rate.

 

[hsmamato2]

I didn't do the prepay thing,b/c I wanted to check on rates still, but they're not dropping, I think it's too late to prepay an existing ressie-I'll have to check- But should I?

 

[MyGoofy26]

Maybe it's just the timing of my trip, but I'm having rotten luck this time finding a good deal. I've always been able to find a week for under $100 and this time the prices just won't come down. Alamo I could almost ALWAYS find something relatively cheap, but so far National has been the best and it's still close to $150 for the week. I have 2 reservations right now - a week from MCO, and just 2 days from the Car Care Center. It's still $80 for those 2 days, but since we don't actually need the car the full time might as well save the money.

I don't know if I'm just suffering from a lack of efficient memory, LOL, but it seems like the taxes and fees are higher than they used to be. I don't remember them adding close to 40% onto the final cost. I know they were always there, but it seems like more than usual these days.

 

[NotUrsula]

I think that the taxes and fees have gone up a little, but it's only about 3% in the past year or so. Fees are generally up. (Among other things, a huge rental fleet was wiped out in NOLA by Katrina. MSY is a regional airport that serves an area for 200 miles around it in all directions, lots of rental car traffic there.)

Never judge a rate by the base rate, what counts is the bottom line. I don't even bother looking at the before-taxes rate. If you don't mind doing a shuttle from the airport, Priceline is an excellent resource for low rates at non-holiday times. Be very careful to give yourself leeway on your dropoff time, though; the companies usually don't give any grace period on Priceline rates.