Priceline Car Rental

[mrsstats]

Anyone ever used Priceline for a car rental? Was it a good experience I have used them for hotels with no problems but not yet for a car. Thanks.

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

I have used it and had no problems at all. The car rental company did a very hard upsell for their insurance however.

 

[hercamore]

Hi,

My one and only experience with Priceline car rental was retning a fullsize from Hertz a month ago in Pensacola, Fl.

I get to the counter and the clerk notices I am priceline and she says most of her customers that day used priceline.

No problems with rental. They did somewhat push insurance thinking I knew nothing about it.

We received a nice Tauras with 6K miles and no hassle checking back in. Definitely use P again..

herc.

 

[jwestpfahl]

Priceline is a great way to rent a used car in Florida. I wound up paying $29/day for a Lincoln Town Car 2 years back. I would recommend looking at the biddingfortravle.com website for more information about priceline bidding. They will have what other people have been able to bid for on the site.

 

[Straitlover]

Does anyone know if your rental includes 2 drives? Or would you ahve to pay an additional fee for a second driver?

If you have to pay an additional fee, I may just stick w/ my Alamo reservation.

 

[icydog]

At least at Hertz you must pay for the additionaL DRIVER. I found this out the hard way at the Hertz desk at MCO on Sunday. In order to add me to the contract the lady said it would cost $7 a day extra. I thought this was ridiculous when we are only paying 28 for a premium car. Too high % of rental costs for my taste. The prob;em is that while we are here at the Boardwalk I have to relay on my dh to take me anywhere. He hates to shop so this means no outlets or Florida Mall this trip. I am more than a little aggravated.

 

[wdisneelvr]

I've used Priceline with no problems as well. I've never even had a rental agent make any comments about using Priceline for the rental. They just punch up your receipt and your on your way. Never been pushed for extra insurance either way on renting. Guess it all depends on who you get for checking out the car.

I've gotten Hertz mostly for my Priceline bids. It also depends on what time of year you are bidding as to when prices are higher or lower. Just watch the bidding boards or check out the rental car websites.

If you don't get want you want the first bid, keep on trying. Sometimes I've gotten my best deals (cheapest) when bidding on a car about 2-4 days out. Of course I have a few back-ups just incase nothing comes thru.

Good luck!

 

[icydog]

Something I found out through trialand error is that if I can't get a full sized car I bid a couple of dollars more and get a premium. For example I bid $25 for a full size but was turned down. I then bid $28 for a premium since I couldn't raise my bid on the full size according to their rules. It was accepted. I guess they had lots of premiums available and were able to let them go cheap.
IlovePL for renting cars but be aware that it doesn't include the extra driver.

 

[princessmomma]

So let me get this straight, if the PL bid is $28 /day for the car and you are renting for 2 days what would be your final total for renting the car?

What are the automatic add-ons? insurance?
mileage?
Priceline service charge $5.95?

 

[nicolep91]

I just bid for a rental car on Priceline today and it was accepted. $19 a day for a mid-size through Avis. This is the breakdown of my charges:
9 days x $19.00 = $171.00
Taxes & Fees = $62.19
Total charges = $233.19

I was very happy with this price since the lowest I had found with codes/coupons for my dates was $260.

 

[Boo Mc]

Do they force you to pay for a second driver or do you only pay if you're really going to have a second driver? Do all of the car companies have a second driver fee?

 

[Tigger Fans!]

I haven't tried Priceline for a rental car yet but my family has used them for hotel/airfare.

For comparison.....the best one week rental rate I found was at Thrifty. In early December their rate for Standard size - 7 day rental - was $94.88. If you go to www.rentalcars.com first there are a couple of links that you click on for extra savings (one gives another 10% off rental which brought the total down to $85.39). IF I remember correctly their other rates were: economy $79.88 and midsize $84.88.

We haven't rented from Thrifty in Orlando but my DH has rented from them several times on business trips with no problems. I'm still checking rates daily.

TTFN!