Car rentals for Aulani

[Anal Annie]

OK so I found this place on the transportation board today - rentalcodes.com and I put in a rate alert with about 6 different car rental agencies for our week at Aulani. Most of the rates right now seemed to be running $340ish + for a "full size" for a week on Oahu so I put in that I was looking to beat $295 with all the fees. I just got an email for a deal with Thrifty for $272 incl. tax. Do we think that's a good rate for a week in Hawaii? Should I jump on it? I just did this earlier today & didn't expect a response so quickly!! I've never used Thrifty before....anybody know of any pros / cons VS using Hertz or Enterprise or National or Alamo? How 'bout their location at the Honolulu airport? I am assuming they'd have a desk / shuttle thing near baggage claim, right? The deal is only good for a little while...like TODAY for an hour or two... I don't normally rent cars like this...I am assuming I could grab this then keep watching & if I find another deal I can cancel & book the better deal if it comes along, right? I mean, it's not rocket science, right? People do this kind of thing all the time to find the best deal, right?!

 

[nordkin]

They are located off the airport property and the others are a short walk across a street from baggage claim. I did a Google search and they are not getting very good reviews on Yelp. We used Hertz with our corporate rate and paid $231 for a week last week.

 

[Anal Annie]

They are located off the airport property and the others are a short walk across a street from baggage claim. I did a Google search and they are not getting very good reviews on Yelp. We used Hertz with our corporate rate and paid $231 for a week last week.

Thanks...I never use Yelp. Closer is better than across the street too I guess...and $231 sounds better too. I wasn't sure if cars in HI would go that low or not. Somebody told me he paid about $500 for a week at Christmas when he was at Aulani!! I don't have a corporate account with anybody so need to find a code. I can wait to see if any of the other car agencies pop up on this alert thing. Maybe I should set it a little lower? I put $295 'cuz everything was $340+ with the taxes & stuff for an intermediate / standard / full size. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to shoot for $250 huh?

 

[donkthemagicllama]

Best I could do last week (for full size SUV) was 415$ all in for 1 week from national. Couldn't have been happier with them.

Could have got it for $400 a little earlier, but the price went up before I pulled the trigger.

With national anyway, you can book and cancel to your hearts content with no penalties. They've got some discount codes right on their website. I think you can get better rates if you join emerald club which is usually free.

 

[donkthemagicllama]

just checked, and for feb 4-11, national SUV is 689 for emerald club... not sure why it got so expensive... when are you going?

 

[Cinderpamela]

We got an amazing rental car price for our trip to Aulani last August through Costco travel www.costcotravel.com .... so if you are a costco member I would for sure check out their rates.

I would definitely keep checking back on the rates though as there seems to be a time when the rates drop and then they start going up again. I would just keep booking the cheaper rate and then canceling the old ressie.

 

[Cruise04]

The rates for cars when I'm going to be there - Feb 10-17 - are ridiculous and I had been going back and forth on if I was going to get a car. Got a great rate when I found out I could use the code from work. But the lowest I had seen was $450 and they were going as high as $750 for that week. I was dumbfounded. I knew it'd be expensive but I wasn't thinking it would be THAT expensive.

 

[DVCismyhappyplace]

I second Costco for car rentals. I usually get great deals there.

You can also try http://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com/

 

[Anal Annie]

Yes, I've rented through Costco Travel before and I've been watching their rates. We'll want like full size kind of car and several weeks ago (before I actually had our ressies) they were about $285 then they went up and now are running around $340ish with all the fees & taxes. So I am hoping they'll come down again. That's why I set some price alerts on rentalcodes.com - hoping to get to under $300 for a bottom line.

Cinderpamela - we're also going in August...do you remember about how far out you found your deal? I'm thinking it's probably still a little early.

 

[Anal Annie]

I second Costco for car rentals. I usually get great deals there.

You can also try http://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com/

Thanks...I'll bookmark this site...when I looked at their pricing chart it looks like our week on Oahu (8/7-14) splits between 2 different price points. Appears that the first few days will be at a higher rate and then on Aug. 11th the rates drop a little bit. The lowest rate came in at $271.98 which I already know is the Thrifty car agency that someone said gets iffy reviews. It's interesting to see that different agencies appear to tack on widely different amounts for taxes & fees. The Thrifty rental has a base of $235 & gives the final total of $271.98. Both Budget and Avis started with a base rate of $230 ($5 less than Thrifty) but their bottom lines were around $330ish so their fees are higher...

 

[joeabate]

we booked 1/9/13-1/17/13 through Hawaii Discount Car Rentals and got a "large" size Nissan Altima through Alamo. Cost was $275 for the 8 days. I was offered the same price from others but for an intermediate. It was what I was quoted and what I paid. They are, as most of the other companies a short shuttle ride up the street from the airport. Most of the others, Thrifty, Enterprise, etc... were all in a row on Nimitz Highway.

Would use them again! I price shopped for about a month and compared through Costco and Entertainment Book, but they beet everyone by quite a bit.

 

[eva]

They are located off the airport property and the others are a short walk across a street from baggage claim. I did a Google search and they are not getting very good reviews on Yelp. We used Hertz with our corporate rate and paid $231 for a week last week.

I assume that Thrifty has a shuttle from the airport to it's location. Any idea how far? We are booked with them at a steal. For 11 days in May I got a mid size for $215.

 

[Cruise04]

I won a Priceline bid last night for $20 a day and the car is with National. I had a booking through National that I was able to cancel. Maybe think about doing that. Book something so you have a back up but try Priceline the week before your trip. Just a suggestion.

 

[Anal Annie]

I won a Priceline bid last night for $20 a day and the car is with National. I had a booking through National that I was able to cancel. Maybe think about doing that. Book something so you have a back up but try Priceline the week before your trip. Just a suggestion.

National would be my first choice of all the agencies I think but I am a little leery of using the Priceline or Hotwire method. There is no backing out right? Once you book it it's yours. SOLD?! I went ahead & did a booking with Thrifty for $272 with taxes & fees for our week in August but am also not sold on them to rent from either. This is for a "full size" and most other agencies are still running around $340-350 for a "full size". When are you going? I think our dates cross price points. We arrive on Aug. 7th & leave for Maui on the 14th. I think it looks like the rates change around the 11th. I can't tell if my "week" is being based on both the higher and lower rates or if they're just using the starting date rate.

 

[Anal Annie]

I won a Priceline bid last night for $20 a day and the car is with National. I had a booking through National that I was able to cancel. Maybe think about doing that. Book something so you have a back up but try Priceline the week before your trip. Just a suggestion.

Questions....I've never used Priceline before. When I fill in the "name your own price" thing with $20 / day it comes back and says the bid is too low & it recommends going up to $28 to have a "good chance" of being accepted but then I upped it to only $25 and it "appears" like it will go thru because I don't get that message again - instead I'm getting a page with a form to fill out with the driver info. and credit card info etc... Am I interpreting this correctly - my $25 bid is going to be accepted somewhere? Even tho it recommended $28 I may get lucky with $25?! Is there a catch - I mean other than once you accept it you're stuck with it? There is no canceling, right? It says the car will be from either Alamo, Avis, Budget, Hertz or National. Wow. Why does this make me nervous?

 

[Cruise04]

Once it accepts your bid, you are stuck with it. I wondered when I saw that message too, but, no it does not mean it will accept it. I started at $20 and then tried $25 and it wouldn't take either. So I waited a week and tried $20 again. I've been doing this for 3 weeks now. Saturday I was a week away from my trip and tried it again and it took it at $20. I don't believe Thrifty is one of the rentals that it uses. There were like 4 or 5. And it says shuttle but it's not a shuttle, there's directions how to get to the rental place after it accepts your bid.

The thing though is you are charged immediately. But, for me, it saved me $105. So I couldn't beat it if it took it.

 

[ONealFamily]

We are there for 10 days. When I booked my intermediate SUV several months ago through Costco, the price was over $670 dollars. Two weeks ago, it was over $1000 and now it is down to $400.00 for 10 days. This was at Alamo via Costco. It was the cheapest for me.