Need Car rental advice...PLEASE

[Heidi Lou]

We were thinking about taking a trip down to disney easter weekend and staying off the grounds and just doing things at the resorts or downtown disney as a relaxing trip,,,,however, every rental car looks like it would be about &280 for 4 days! That just seems like a ton,,, any advice on how to get a discounted rate? Please....the trip depands on it

 

[Ranger111]

Well, that's $70 per day, and I am assuming that is with taxes and fees, so while high, unfortunately that is not unreasonable for a holiday period -- esp. that holiday period.

Also, don't know what car you are pricing, but a Kia Rio will be less than a Caddy Escalade....

Go to the transportation board on these disboard forums and look for the rental thread for your month (April, March?) and see if you can see any deals...

 

[HookdonWDW]

Look at pricing for 7 days instead of 4. Weekly rates may be lower, and most weekly rates start at 5 days.

 

[Ranger111]

Look at pricing for 7 days instead of 4. Weekly rates may be lower, and most weekly rates start at 5 days.

Just know that if you get a weekly rate, and return it early -- ie -- four days -- odds are 97.7 percent (I may be off a percent or 20), that your weekly rate will be invalidated and you will end-up paying what will most likely be a highly-inflated daily rate that will most likely be much higher than the $70 per day you now have -- check the transportation forum...

 

[Heidi Lou]

thanks for the advice. y'all. I know about different cars being different prices...i dont know how someone could not know that so definitley already NOT pricing the Cadillac but thanks. This was the rate for the cheapest car. Just throwing this out there for any advice!

 

[klmrph]

Did you check Priceline or Hotwire?

 

[Zim]

Check prices EVERY day. They've been consistently around $239 for four days for us around Easter break, but then one Wednesday morning they all dropped to about $24 a day so I redid a ressie for a total of $139. Don't get discouraged.... hold something now in case prices go up, then watch and rebook if prices drop and cancel your previous reservation. I've read here where prices drop about six weeks prior to the trip time, which would have been about the time I found the good deal, and then again a few days prior to traveling. Good luck!

 

[klmrph]

I would also recommend looking over on flyertalk.com in the car rental section to try different companies and codes.

 

[sarasmom97]

If you are are Costco member, try Costco Travel. I got a great deal on an Avis rental car for spring break week.

 

[disneychrista]

Weekly rates always seem to be cheaper. If you only need the four days either drive it around the extra days or let it sit in the driveway until it is time to return.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

I am also renting Easter week for 4 nights from the 8th-12th. Been looking daily and everywhere has been in the mid $200s. I found a really good rate last year at carrentalsavers.com so was mostly checking there. Yesterday on a whim I went on Expedia and got a rate of $19 a day so with fees it was $140 for a full sized car! I checked back this evening and it was back up but if you keep checking you'll find something.

 

[Mickey527]

If you don't mind driving home check out National for one way rentals. National needs cars to be driven out of FL every spring and you get great rates. I fly down one way every year in May and rent a car for the week then drive it back to CT. I have a car rented for this May 10 to the 20th for $64. My flight is $107 one way.

 

[dberger820]

Do NOT rent at an airport location as their prices are generally 30-40% higher due to business renters not caring as much about price. You can also generally reserve an intermediate (small midsize like Focus, Cruze) and upgrade for cheap at the rental location the day you pick up the vehicle. Entertainment books offer great discounts if they are sold in your area of the country. Another place few people know about that rent cars are most Toyota dealerships. I don't know how comparable their rates are, but its worth a look.

This is coming from 8 years with a rental company...

 

[Heidi Lou]

Thanks everyone! We emded up changing our dates over this and are instead just flying down memorial day weekend...we got he car for like $80 which is fine by me. We are picking it up at the airport due to our flight getting in at 1045 that friday night. Being that ihave never rented a rental car( that seems redundant but whatev) i am concerned. if it is a holiday weekend, can they give our car away evenb though we have paid for it already? i know that sounds dumb but i am truly concerned about this!

 

[Ranger111]

Thanks everyone! We emded up changing our dates over this and are instead just flying down memorial day weekend...we got he car for like $80 which is fine by me. We are picking it up at the airport due to our flight getting in at 1045 that friday night. Being that ihave never rented a rental car( that seems redundant but whatev) i am concerned. if it is a holiday weekend, can they give our car away evenb though we have paid for it already? i know that sounds dumb but i am truly concerned about this!

Of course they can. They might be totally and absolutely out of all cars -- that has become more common lately because of the lean inventories.

Will they -- probably not -- but they can and do.

Usually, they will offer to "upgrade" you to a "better car," without telling you about why, other than they like you -- sometimes that is good for you, sometimes not. Sometimes the upgrade is not really an upgrade, but a downgrade. Sometimes, it is a bigger car that uses a smidge more gasoline per mile. Or a bigger car that is harder to park. Or actually a small piece of junk that they claim is an upgrade.

But, oh, that "upgrade, downgrade"that nobody ever wants all of a sudden becomes one of the most precious cars on the planet.

You can get huffy, you can get mean, you can threaten to walk away, but, unless you have status -- and even that does not always help much -- they don't really care.

Again, will it happen, probably not. Will the plane divert to Ottawa, probably not, but sometimes things happen.

I have probably had it happen to me eight times in the past 30 years or so of business travel, more in the past year or two than ever before.

Last June, I was able to put my foot down and because of my status with National they actually ended up giving me a very nice car -- one I would have liked to rent anyway, so that was O.K.

The other times, I just had to wait -- once in San Francisco around 2004 or so -- for about 90 minutes....oh that was fun....

Not a lot you can do, the terms and conditions that you did not read, but you agreed to when you made the reservation basically allows them to do just about anything, including giving you a burro and a wagon and telling you to hit the road.

But again, you have lots of other things to worry about, I wouldn't worry about this.