Sticker Shock - Mini-Van Rentals! Advice Needed...

[Wendy31]

We are vacationing in June 2008 and will be driving from TN to FL. Our current mini-van is not trip-worthy, so we had planned to rent a mini-van for the trip.

My AAA agent quoted me $376.00 for a car for June 12th through June 25th. When I told her that we were interested in a mini-van, the price jumped to $870.00. For that, I'm thinking we might as well either fly or purchase a new van. We had wanted to keep our rental cost under $500.00 (under $600.00 at the most).

If we were going straight to Disney World, I probably would fly. However, we had planned to drive from TN to St. Augustine, FL and spend a couple of days on the beach before driving to Disney World.

I found a great price for a mini-van from Dollar Rental (around $400.00), but the closest facility to us is in Atlanta. We'd have to drive to Atlanta & either leave our car in Atlanta for the duration of our trip (& pay parking fees, I assume) or drive to Atlanta, pick up car, & then drive back to TN before continuing to FL. (We live about 2 1/2 hours from Atlanta.)

The other possibility is renting a mini-van here & then "dropping" it off at a rental facility in Orlando (paying a "drop" fee, of course) & then renting another mini-van for our return trip. However, if we did that, how would we get from the rental facility in Orlando to Disney World and vice versa?

Here are our plans -

Friday, June 13th - pick up rental vehicle
Saturday, June 14th - leave TN early (early) morning, drive to St. Augustine
Sunday, June 15th - St. Augustine
Monday, June 16th - leave St. Augustine, drive to Orlando, & check-in to the WL at WDW
Tuesday, June 17th - Monday, June 23rd - Disney World
Tuesday, June 24th - leave Orlando & drive back to TN (arriving back late)
Wednesday, June 25th - return rental vehicle

Anyway, $870.00 .... just wow!

Are there any tricks of the trade in getting some great deals on mini-van rentals?

Thanks for any help and suggestions!!

 

[slruud]

Just did a down and dirty Hotwire rental for your dates, and at $29/day, the total comes to $464 for a minivan. This would be from BNA, so it may not be valid from where you would pick it up. Good luck.

 

[Wendy31]

I just looked at Hotwire and got $55.95/day with a total cost of $820.32 - cheaper than AAA, but, still... wow.

I'm thinking it's because none of the inexpensive car rental facilities are located in our town.

Thanks for your help!

 

[sanibelover]

look at the rental car pages on mousesavers. Many of those codes are valid anywhere - not just in FLA. Be sure you get unlimited mileage or that would REALLY be a shock!!!

Good luck!

 

[NotUrsula]

If it is only your immediate family making the trip, why insist on a minivan? Vehicles that hold more than 5 passengers always command a stiff premium, and if you only have 4 passengers and a tight budget, there really is no reason to pay it.

 

[slruud]

Exactly where are you wanting to rent from. If you don't want to give that info, that's fine, but it would make it easier for usuns to help you.

 

[Wendy31]

Originally posted by slruud - Exactly where are you wanting to rent from. If you don't want to give that info, that's fine, but it would make it easier for usuns to help you

.

We're in Chattanooga, TN.

Originally posted by NotUrsula - If it is only your immediate family making the trip, why insist on a minivan? Vehicles that hold more than 5 passengers always command a stiff premium, and if you only have 4 passengers and a tight budget, there really is no reason to pay it.

It's really not the seats - it's the room for all the luggage we need... beach stuff, suitcases, pillows, the kids' "stuff", cooler, snacks, etc. Well, additionally, the trip to St. Augustine is about 7-8 hours, and the trip home from Orlando is about 11 hours - so we don't want to be too squished/uncomfortable. I suppose an SUV would be okay - except for the gas mileage. Just recently, we drove to Jackson, MS for my brother-in-law's college graduation. We had rented a basic sedan (Nissan Altima); however, when my husband went to pick it up, they didn't have anything ready for us & gave us a free upgrade to a Dodge Magnum for our trip - which is kind of like a station wagon. We were plenty comfortable and loved it - but I'm afraid all our luggage & "stuff" for our June trip wouldn't fit. But, anyway, no, our rental vehicle doesn't have to be a mini-van - just something roomy enough for us and all our luggage.

Originally posted by sanibelover - look at the rental car pages on mousesavers. Many of those codes are valid anywhere - not just in FLA. Be sure you get unlimited mileage or that would REALLY be a shock!!!

I've looked at Mousesavers. To me, it looked like a lot of the discount codes are for rental facilities in the Orlando area or for travel in the next couple of months. But I could have been missing something.

Thanks very much for the advice & help!

 

[dg39]

I also did a check for your dates using Budget at a local Chattanooga , Tn. location and a mini van with taxes came to $550.03. I don't know if its close to you or not,but try Budget and use BCB code X474200. Thats a code from Travelocity and no coupon is needed to show the rental agent.

 

[LizAgna]

I 2nd the Budget suggestion. We rented a Grand Caravan in 2006 for about the price that the PP said.

 

[Wendy31]

Thank you for the Budget suggestion & for the code! That helped a lot. When I went to their site & used that code, I got a quote for $611.13 which is more in line with what we were thinking.

We're also re-thinking our need for a mini-van. Like I mentioned previously, it's not the # of seats that we need - it's the luggage & storage room we need.

DH can get a discount through Enterprise (which is from where we rented previously), so, when he goes into work tomorrow, he is going to check to see what kind of deal he can get on a mini-van.

If we could be guaranteed that we could get a Dodge Magnum (which I know there are no guarantees), I think we'd be okay - luggage/storage wise.

I'm a little disappointed in AAA. I thought we'd be able to get a better rate since we were booking our trip with them. I thought that they might have a vacation + rental car kinda deal.

Thanks!!