Question for National / Avis experts

[Kim&Chris]

My family will be renting a van from the Philly area and driving to WDW in early December.

At this point, the best rental price I can find for an 11 day/2 hour rental with unlimited mileage is $600.39 through Avis.

However, I've noticed some incredible mini-van rates on both websites for rentals in September and October. National has a mini van for $229 / week if you rent by October...that's an awesome price!!!

Here's my question.....is it realistic to think that either National or Avis will have similar "sales" in December? I'd LOVE to reduce our expenses by a couple of hundred bucks (more $$ to spend in the "world" ).

Thanks!!

 

[drusba]

This is a "you won't know until it happens" situation. Good deals mainly depend on how well reservations are going for the period; if they are going poorly for the car company then likely you will see some last minute (1 to 2 months before a date) price slashing such as is occurring now. Best to just keep checking regularly (make a ressie to assure having one and then cancel if you later find better deal). Note, I cannot say that the $600 deal you can get is all that bad for a van. Is that with all taxes and fees? If it is then it is not much worse than that $229 a week rate you saw which is without taxes and fees (that often add $50 to $60 or more per week to a rate). In addition, another company to check is Dollar which generally has discount rates more often than others. Very important to keep checking the car agencies' internet sites regularly -- good deals can suddenly show up and then be gone two days later.

 

[cindala]

That's about the same price we paid for a mini van in 1998 from Avis for the same amount of time. We rented it over the July 4th holiday.

You have to keep in mind that December might be considered a busier time to rent because of the holidays than September or October, and there may not be the same discounts available. Still, like drusba said, that's not a bad rate if it includes all the taxes and fees.