Vehicle rentals - Tips and Tricks

[Pumpkin1172]

We haven't really ever done a long vehicle rental while travelling. I've been researching and comparing prices. I do know that right now, rentals are extremely expensive and hard to find due to fleets being sold during covid, and now they are having a hard time purchasing vehicles due to low inventory north america wide.

For anyone who has recently rented a vehicle...do you have any tips or tricks to give me?

 

[LisaDKG]

I book using Costco Travel (online) and then check and check and rebook as the rate gets lower as my vacation date nears (this has always been the case even in these crazy times with rentals - even in Honolulu). The week before my rental I confirm my reservation with whichever company has won my low-price-lotto so I'm good to go at the counter or lot when I arrive to the airport.

 

[TammyLynn33]

Book way early , Use the same rental car company all the time , they will be more than happy to assist you if you are a member of their programs vs using a third party.
re-evaluate if you need a car of if you would be ok with Uber/ other options ..
good luck

 

[HersheyKiss]

Always sign up for the rental company's program that they offer. It will allow you (at most locations) to go in a much shorter, quicker line. Sometimes it literally takes hours standing in line to get your car. There is usually a special line for people with memberships (which are free) and you pretty much give them your ID and they hand you your car keys. When booking through Costco there will be a spot to put your membership number in. If you book through airmiles or expedia or anything like that you usually cannot use it.

 

[2Lunds]

Some provincial vehicle insurers offer rental car insurance at a fraction of what the rental companies charge. MB for example. Check into that as well.

 

[Lumpy1106]

www.autoslash.com
Book your rental with any company. Go to Autoslash and put in your details. It looks for better deals, and usually finds them. Rebook, update with Autoslash, repeat. I save $100s almost every time I use it.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Book way early , Use the same rental car company all the time , they will be more than happy to assist you if you are a member of their programs vs using a third party.
re-evaluate if you need a car of if you would be ok with Uber/ other options ..
good luck

I would love to just use Uber or other options...but we are planning to travel around Florida - Orlando, we have tickets to the Daytona 500 in Daytona, We want to see the Oilers play in Tampa while we are there, Miami. So we will need a rental. We have always just used uber/Lift in the past. So this is new territory for us. Exciting...but new and slightly terrifying lol

 

[pigletto]

We rent a vehicle every trip, sometimes twice a year and have never seen prices even half this high. None of my old tricks are working. Costco is usually my go to but the prices are outrageous. Try signing up with Autoslash. You fill in all your details and they find you the cheapest in the area.

My biggest tip would be don’t be afraid to go into the city a bit for a rental. The airport rentals are high but often they aren’t as bad in the residential areas. If you’re willing to Uber into the city a bit you could save hundreds for 20 mins inconvenience.

I always use rental companies I’ve heard of.. it’s too risky with some of the lesser known places . And use Google maps to check the location of the rental office so you can see the area it’s in .

We actually decided to skip a rental for one of the first times ever . We booked a car service to take us to universal , then to take us to Disney . We booked the new Mears Connect to go back to the airport. All in all that’s $200 usd with tips. Add another $100 for Ubers at Disney when we don’t feel like bussing or need to get somewhere quickly and we are still way ahead.
I had a car booked for part of the time for $300 picking it up in Orlando but I had to change dates and never found anything that cheap again.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

My biggest tip would be don’t be afraid to go into the city a bit for a rental. The airport rentals are high but often they aren’t as bad in the residential areas. If you’re willing to Uber into the city a bit you could save hundreds for 20 mins inconvenience.

I had not thought of that! I will be looking into that for sure!!!!

So many great tips on here!!!! I am so glad I asked!!!!

 

[Lumpy1106]

I had not thought of that! I will be looking into that for sure!!!!

So many great tips on here!!!! I am so glad I asked!!!!

I visit friends in Crested Butte almost every winter. Cars in Denver are REDICULOUSLY expensive if there is snow on the ground...but not in Colorado Springs. We checked one time and found we could save $1000 for the week AND get a large AWD SUV instead of a standard car. All we had to do was drive the car we picked up in Denver one hour south to Colorado Springs and trade it - we were driving through Colorado Springs anyway. I even told Avis I was going to do this in hopes they'd save me some trouble and give me the same price in Denver - and they wouldn't have to chase their cars all over CO. Their response; "go ahead, that sounds like a great idea." Uhhh...OK.

I don't know what the game is in FL, but based on all the places you are planning on going it's worth a look for sure.

 

[deedubb]

I have found Costco to be the cheapest, and you can book without having to pre-pay. That way, just keep checking, and if the price goes down, rebook and cancel your old reservation. Prices seem to be insane right now. I booked a full-sized car for 9 days for next July for Disneyland, to be picked up at SNA. When I booked in Aug, it was $374. Cheapest now is $700. I just checked Autoslash and everything is $750 or more, except for Fox rental cars, and I have read some bad reviews about them in the past.

 

[hcortesis]

Used to book with Avis direct. Then Costco. But now, "Air Canada Vacations" has absolutely the best prices that I can find. I'm only interested in on site companies at MCO and I'm pretty exclusive to Avis.

 

[Lori Williamson]

I have used everything mentioned above and $450 us is the best price I have found for our upcoming 5 days in california. Unreal, I have checked daily for 5 weeks not much change which is nuts. Even Fox is ridiculous price. Autoslash found me nothing better

 

[LisaDKG]

Used to book with Avis direct. Then Costco. But now, "Air Canada Vacations" has absolutely the best prices that I can find. I'm only interested in on site companies at MCO and I'm pretty exclusive to Avis.

Wow, I just checked and it is $200 cheaper for my Nov trip to WDW. Thanks for the tip!

 

[FigmentSpark]

We booked as soon as the rental was available (through Costco) a year out. My 2 weeks for $898 is now going for nearly $2500, but that's for travel in March.

I did see some lower prices back in Sept (for March), but those are up again this month.

My advice... keep checking and as you get within the 2 month and under timeframe, start checking every day and even multiple times a day. That's the way it worked in the Beforetimes, although, not much changed last year, so we'll see if it's still a workable strategy.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

Here's a new one to me that may be relevant for some.

For years and years I have booked my car rentals through costcotravel.com. Note the ".com", and not ".ca". My buddy who uses .ca and I, have always had the exact same price for rentals, in US dollars. Today we were booking our cars for our August 2022 trip and my price on .com was coming up over $1000 more in USD than his price on .ca in USD.

I just wanted to throw that out there that there could be a difference between the two, even though both are in USD and you reserve using the same Costco number.

 

[ElCray]

Used to book with Avis direct. Then Costco. But now, "Air Canada Vacations" has absolutely the best prices that I can find. I'm only interested in on site companies at MCO and I'm pretty exclusive to Avis.

Thanks for the aircanadavacations tip! I'm having trouble understanding the policy if we cancel. Does it revert to a credit or do we just lose the $$$?

 

[Aug2020distrip]

We just check once a week kind of thing and cancel/re book if we find a better price. I started off at $1700 for two weeks for a van, and am down to $1380. Will keep checking and hopefully it goes down even more!

 

[hcortesis]

Thanks for the aircanadavacations tip! I'm having trouble understanding the policy if we cancel. Does it revert to a credit or do we just lose the $$$?

You receive the credit on your C/C. (If that's how you booked it). Shows up almost instantly.

 

[ElCray]

You receive the credit on your C/C. (If that's how you booked it). Shows up almost instantly.

OMG I went on a booking binge this morning for our (hopefully) Year of Disney! We saved sooooo much money. E.g. I had a 6 day rental for March Break on Costco.ca for $540USD and got an upgraded car for $243CAD!!! I can't believe it!!!