Car Rental Strategy...

[proud_canadian]

Hi there,

We are Canadian's flying into Tampa for our Florida vacation. We will need a rental car. I am completely lost on what is the best strategy for renting a rental car.

Is it best to price from the company's website directly (budget, avis, national, etc)?

Is it best to price from the canadian (.ca) or american (.com) sites?

Is it better to shop from travel websites like expedia or travelocity? And again, the american or canadian sites?

Is it better to buy these things as early as possible, or better to wait it out till we get closer?

There seems to be so much variation on cost out there, not sure where to get the best deal....

So, where do you get your car rentals from?

Thanks!

Edited to add my dates are not until September, but we're planners and want to get it organized asap. We can wait if it will save money though.

 

[Disbound]

You didn't mention when you were arriving but I'd suggest checking out the threads titled
"the official May (or June or whenever) 2010 care rental thread" here in transportation. Lots of great tips, information and codes to save money.

 

[dudspizza]

I make all of my own reservations from the car rental companies web site. I prefer National first, then Alamo.

You can use different corporate ID codes and combine them with coupon codes to save a ton of money.

Things to keep in mind
*you can ALWAYS cancel and rebook a car rental reservation if you find a lower rate, as long as you don't pre-pay.
*National has a club called Emerald Club that allows you to totally bypass the counter and go straight to the cars. The Mousesavers link below has a link to join the club for free.
*Alamo and National allow you to pick the car you want instead of handing you the keys to a particular car.

I use these two links when it comes to getting car rental rate codes and info.
http://www.mousesavers.com/rentalcar.html
http://carrentalsavers.com/

Best of luck.

Feel free to post your dates and I can run a quick check to see what I can find out there......

 

[proud_canadian]

Hi Sorry, forgot to mention, we are not going till September... but I'm a planner! Flights and hotel booked, so now just trying to figure out car and stroller rentals.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Also take a look at the mousesavers.com website. They have tons of ideas and coupon codes for getting the best deals.