Costco Travel Car Rentals Price Hike

[Meglen]

So 2 months ago I was pricing out rental cars for our Oct 9th-17th Disney trip and the sticker shock of 450-500$ was alot to swallow. So we went with costco with free cancellations and got the rate of 430$ for a full size car. Just checked same site same car its up to 668$. yikes... I hope if anyone wanted a car rental they got it before this price hike went.

Has anyone found better rates with other sites? I have used all the regular discount codes and such and Costco seemed to be the best.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

The only thing I have found to be cheaper is Undercover Tourist. If you add anything to your cart (even an AMC drink coupon), they seem to have really good rates on Budget. My only issue is that I couldn't link it to my FastBreak account and I wasn't willing to wait in line, so I cancelled it and paid more for an Alamo reservation I had previously made with Costco.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Don’t forget, I think... Enterprise Dollar and Alamo are at the Car Care Center on Disney Property...

 

[becauseimnew]

Yeah, the car shortage has these prices out of control. But be happy you planned ahead and can get a reservation. We are going to Glacier NP this summer, we made car reservations in late Feb and I tried to make a change in late April but there weren't any cars available. So I have to keep my current reservation.

 

[OregonDisDad]

I suggest checking the Undercover tourist website. I was able to save several hundred dollars by booking a short hotel stay (a night at the beginning of the trip because we are arriving late). They give big discounts for some companies when you bundle.

 

[Meglen]

Don’t forget, I think... Enterprise Dollar and Alamo are at the Car Care Center on Disney Property...

The Car care center was way more expensive saddly

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Don’t forget, I think... Enterprise Dollar and Alamo are at the Car Care Center on Disney Property...

Enterprise, National, and Alamo are at the CCC. All three are part of parent company Enterprise Holding. Dollar has a different parent company (Hertz).

 

[LadybugsMum]

The only thing I have found to be cheaper is ******************. If you add anything to your cart (even an AMC drink coupon), they seem to have really good rates on Budget. My only issue is that I couldn't link it to my FastBreak account and I wasn't willing to wait in line, so I cancelled it and paid more for an Alamo reservation I had previously made with Costco.

Do they only do Budget? Or do they also book Avis, Alamo, or National?

 

[NotUrsula]

Counterintuitive as it seems, right now some of the best rates to be had are corporate contract rates, because they are locked. (In normal times that tended to make them higher-cost for everything other than single weekday rentals.) If you have access to an employer rate, try it.

 

[Spartan86]

Counterintuitive as it seems, right now some of the best rates to be had are corporate contract rates, because they are locked. (In normal times that tended to make them higher-cost for everything other than single weekday rentals.) If you have access to an employer rate, try it.

Agree. We are currently in a 1 week rental with Hertz on a corporate deal. Much better rate than our usual Costco, which typically beats most.

 

[staceyj2]

The only thing I have found to be cheaper is ******************. If you add anything to your cart (even an AMC drink coupon), they seem to have really good rates on Budget. My only issue is that I couldn't link it to my FastBreak account and I wasn't willing to wait in line, so I cancelled it and paid more for an Alamo reservation I had previously made with Costco.

I agree. For now I am keeping the reservation because it is so much cheaper than anything else I can find but it is a real bummer that I can't add my fastbreak #.

 

[kmrobins03]

Rental cars are very expensive right now. I don’t think you will find a cheaper price.

 

[Meglen]

Agree. We are currently in a 1 week rental with Hertz on a corporate deal. Much better rate than our usual Costco, which typically beats most.

I had my husband look at his work discounts and he did indeed have a Hertz corporate code so I just saved 160$! thank you everyone for the info.! Also how is hertz skip the line system? I signed us up for the gold membership thing, but if im honest I have never actually rented a car before at the air port .

 

[Spartan86]

I had my husband look at his work discounts and he did indeed have a Hertz corporate code so I just saved 160$! thank you everyone for the info.! Also how is hertz skip the line system? I signed us up for the gold membership thing, but if im honest I have never actually rented a car before at the air port .

Glad it worked out! We are on the plane home having dropped our Hertz car this afternoon. If this is your first Gold rental (it was ours) they will need to verify/swipe the credit card you entered in your gold profile. We went straight to the garage, our name was on the Gold board with “see agent”. The gold kiosk was empty at 9:30 AM so it was very quick. We were then told to go to the Gold Aisle and pick a car. Worked out fine. Total charge was exactly as expected. One caveat: Hertz ran a pre-approval on my card of $497 for a $296 rental. That exceeds what any car company has ever pre approved. I noticed about an hour after drop the reversal had been issued. Not a problem as I don’t get anywhere near a limit on a card but something to anticipate.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

Do they only do Budget? Or do they also book Avis, Alamo, or National?

They quote multiple vendors, but Budget was always cheapest for me.

 

[Spartan86]

Do they only do Budget? Or do they also book Avis, Alamo, or National?

Alamo, Avis, Budget and Enterprise. As @disneyeveryyear said Budget seems to be the overwhelming favorite. We rent occasionally at SEA and have had Enterprise there a few times - pre Covid.