One Way Rental?

[Bowen9475]

Where have people gotten the best rates on one way rentals? We are flying into Tampa on Thursday night, November 8 and flying home from Orlando on Monday morning November 12. Finding prices to be pretty high for 3 1/2 days.

 

[JimMIA]

My experience with one-way is that you have to really closely check all the companies for your dates. On one trip to CA, I got one-way dropoff fees ranging from $0 to $400. And, obviously, the rates from company to company will vary quite a bit too -- especially for a short rental.

Also check various categories of cars. Sometimes rates for one level will be very high but other types of cars are much less. Dropoff fees also vary by category, so check everything.

There are no shortcuts.

 

[sam_gordon]

I thought Florida didn't do one way drop off fees. Did that change?

 

[Capt_BJ]

there is a myth the Florida law prohibits one way fee .... not true.

OFTEN there is no fee ... but it is NOT proscribed. Often waved on busy routes like MCO to Port Canaveral because of all the competition or it simply gets buried in the daily rate and not called out ....

Having just gone thru the one way rental dance again I can tell you from experience the rates for this change by the hour!!!! We live an hour from the airport but when we go away for 'extended periods', rather than park at the airport we will try to do one way rentals from Cocoa/Melbourne. Our last go round the car when we departed was $40 and the car when we returned was twice this .... both times search for best price and we ended up with different companies on either end. On one side Mrs found a price ... came to ask me if OK and then went to book and price had changed by the time she was back ....

p.s. on our return recently I stood in line at Budget at MCO for a hour trying to get my reserved car (no, not in their frequent renter program obviously .... but that may change!) It made UBER/limo look a WHOLE LOT more attractive.

 

[bumbershoot]

It changes depending on what the rental agency wants/needs. There's no rule. Just keep checking, book when it's acceptable, and keep checking as long as your reservation can be changed/cancelled.

 

[SteveH]

We went from Orland to Clearwater Beach in a rental through Costco. Best rate was to to return to the airport, we dropped it off at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport as it wasn't much more then dropping off at Tampa.

 

[writerguyfl]

It's probably not the one-way aspect that's causing the high price...it's the fact that you're traveling over a holiday weekend.

I have two one-way, intra-Florida rentals next week. One is $8/day and the other is $28. Bargains are still out there. You just need to be flexible to find them. Obviously, that's not possible when you have flights. You're really stuck with what the rental companies are offering.

I'd follow bumbershoot's advice. Check and recheck.

there is a myth the Florida law prohibits one way fee .... not true.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone saying it was a law. In the past, many companies have advertised that they don't have one-way fees. It's mostly just marketing. Instead of the one-way fee, they simply charge more on the daily rate.

 

[Huff]

OP, are you staying onsite? Do you need a rental for your stay? Possibly rent one way to MCO and ride MDE to/from your resort. About $65 is what I'm seeing and you won't pay parking.

I use Hotwire or Costco.

 

[NJ Goofy]

I was basically trying to do the opposite of what you're doing. The one-way car rates were crazy, when we went to the Port we only paid $25 more. Rates I was getting were $150.00 to $200.00 more than a round trip rate. I finally gave up and booked my return flight out of MCO. I'm renting the car at the Dolphin, when I return it we'll take LYft to the airport.

 

[Bowen9475]

OP, are you staying onsite? Do you need a rental for your stay? Possibly rent one way to MCO and ride MDE to/from your resort. About $65 is what I'm seeing and you won't pay parking.

I use Hotwire or Costco.

No, we are not staying onsite for this trip or I would do as you suggest.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

The closer your trip gets the better the pricing will be so keep checking. I believe Dollar charges a drop off fee now or at least they did a few months ago.

 

[JohnneeO]

We flew into TPA last year on Nov 4th, and were staying at various hotels in the WDW area (see my signature for details) until Nov. 15, flying out of MCO. Here's what we did.

I ended up booking two rentals. The first was a one-way rental with Avis from TPA to the Hilton Disney Springs, that I was dropping off literally a few hours after landing. Then I immediately rented another vehicle from the Avis desk at the Hilton, and returned that to MCO at the end of trip

The reason I did it this way was that if I kept the same car that I rented from TPA for the entire stay, the TPA airport taxes and fees were being charged for the entire rental. It was the same base rate to rent a car from 11/4 to 11/15 whether I picked it up at TPA or the DS Hilton (and returning at MCO), but the overall cost was much less if I picked it up at DS.

The other issue I had with the one way rental was mileage fees. Some car classes had mileage fees, but others didn't. I ended up with a minivan from TPA to DS b/c it was the same overall cost as a smaller vehicle with a lower base rate that also had mileage fees.