I need a car rental tutorial!!!

[ekatiel]

This is not Orlando related, but I figured you guys would be good people to ask. We need to rent a car in Chicago (we're flying into Midway) from August 1-11th. The cheapest I've been able to find is $327 for an economy or compact with taxes, etc, included (both Hotwire and Southwest had this deal-- I think it was with Dollar Rent A Car).

I feel totally lost trying to figure out what a good deal is, etc . First of all, the "weekly" rates confuse me to no end-- it seems like even if you put in that you want the car for a week, it still ends up more money than the weekly rates. Secondly, taxes and fees seem to be pretty high, and some of the sites show you the taxes and fees in the quoted prices and some do not (so it's hard to tell if you're comparing apples to apples). Anyhow, can someove explain to me how this all works ?? Also, I'd like to try and bid on Priceline, but it makes you put in a "daily" rate, minus taxes and fees, so how do you know how much to bid? I'm probably making this way more complicated than it should be, but I'd like to get the best deal possible. $300+ is a good chunk of change! Thanks to anyone willing to help !--Katie

 

[cwby22]

Hi Katie, Sorry I won't be much help but I checked Avis and Alamo, those are the two I usually use, and both were over $400. I've never used Priceline so I can't help you with that. I'd suggest to just keep checking prices because they do go up and down. Also, you can go to mousesavers.com and get discount codes for car rental companies. That may help to. Good Luck

 

[ekatiel]

Thanks for the advice-- I acutally just checked the rates again, and I can't find anything under $400 now! I guess $327 was good deal . My plan is to check back often and try to snag something closer to $300. --Katie