Car Rental .....Best Booking Time ?

[wee-haggis]

I would appreciate hearing from folk as to when they booked their car rental (ieid they constantly book...then cancel,,then book again etc,etc )while watching for codes and better prices?
Generally,does the price of rentals decrease as you get closer to the dates you want.or the opposite ?
I did a little experiment with both Dollar and L&M and discovered when I punched in ficticious one week duration dates every day through the end of June,they stayed very reasonable until I hit the 1st July onward.
Is this because of how far in adance I'm looking at?
or
Because July is a peak month ?
or
Both ?
Anyone get good prices for minivan with Priceline or Hotwire ?

thanks

 

[frannn]

I always find I get a decent price when I reserve several months in advance, as the rates tend to go up in the months preceding my trip. The trend has been that the rates come down some a month or so prior to the trip, when rental car companies are running sales or supply of cars exceeds demand. I reserved a full size car from National in Feb this year for our Oct trip. Our rate is currently about 198 for 11 days. Prices have skyrocketed since then to about 450 for the same dates, but I expect they may go down somewhat in late Aug or Sept. My advice will always be to book something now, and hold it while looking for a better rate. If you are traveling during a holiday, rates may only spiral upward, as demand could be higher than the supply of cars. I don't expect my rate to go down for a couple months, if at all. This price is higher than previous years, but it seems that a lot of people are encountering that problem.

 

[DebbieB]

I go at non-peak times (early May, early December) and find that rates go down closer to the date. I think this is because there is not a big demand at that time. If you go during a big demand time, the price will go up as the date gets closer and they have fewer cars left. It's all about supply and demand, so there's no straight answer.