hotwire and car rentals

[nutty4wdw]

has anyone used hotwire for a car rental. did you have any problems. i see the ressie is non refundable and non cancel. what car companies do they use the most. thanks for any help.

car rates are really high. never saw them this high for jan.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

The car rental agencies they use are listed on their website:

http://www.hotwire.com/car/index.jsp

Avis, National, Alamo, Budget, Enterprise and Hertz

There are two methods for booking between Hotwire and Priceline, the first is what they are known for, blind pricing. In this case, you get what you get, don't expect upgrades or additional services. You cannot use rewards programs associated with the agency you are assigned, there are no cancellations, etc. For standard booking where you pick the company and vehicle class, there is limited reason to use either of the sites mentioned before because the rates are almost equal to the direct rate with the agency.

As for pricing, the prices most people are seeing are where prices should have been to begin with, but because agencies overstocked with cars before the market collapse prices were suppressed. Agencies have been great at reducing vehicle capacity, much better then airlines have, thus they have been able to keep and even raise their prices to profit generating rates.

 

[littleaussie]

We booked with hotwire a week before our trip from 12/5-12/13 (8 days). My searches landed me at $200 for a mid-size using various coupons. Hotwire's prices was $154 (all taxes included) for midsize so I thought we'd go for it. We booked it and got Hertz.
Hertz has a shuttle you take to the rental agency, not on-site. We checked in smoothly and opted to go for an extra driver at $65 extra. We got a brand new Chevy HHR with 2 miles on it. It fit our 3 suitcases great and was roomy in the front. I'm not familiar enough with cars to know if this was a standard mid-size or bigger but it was great for 2 adults, 2 kids, 4 carry-ons and 3 suitcases.
I don't think I had the option to add a driver when I bought on hotwire, I think it was your basic, 1 driver, unlimited miles package. So the extra cost was a little high but circumstances required we needed 2 drivers.
I was happy with it and I would do it again. I've used hotwire a lot for motels and such and I am satisfied with how the system works.
I never priced 2 drivers on the other sites because I didn't know we would need that. That's the only note I will make of in the future but I would do it again.
Returning the car was very smooth, we were back at the airport shortly.
Good luck with whatever you decide.