Where do I start for a rental car?

[kimwim8]

What companies do I call or checkout online. What should I be looking for? We're a family of 4. August 13 - 20th.

What is the easiest get in the car/get out of the airport company to deal with?

Do you get any insurance?

We have the entertainment book and I'm subscribed to Mousesavers...what other discounts are out there?

Do the rates go down or up the longer I wait to book, or does that not apply to rental cars?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[szymon]

Some answers to your questions:

- start by checking some of your Entertainment Book coupons and then see if any of the Mousesavers deals can beat it.
- For easiest "get out of the airport", join Hertz #1 Club Gold or National Emerald Club - there you can go directly to your car and drive out.
- Check with your credit card company, and auto insurance company for insurance - most likely you won't need to buy anything additional.
- Rates change hourly for rental cars - no way to predict if they'll go up or down. Good news though is if you book directly on the web site of a major rental car company, you can cancel without penalty. So just book the cheapest, check periodically, and rebook if rates fall.

I didn't have time to do too much research for your dates, but Alamo has a full size car for under $250 for your dates. That's a little high but you can grab it as a "backup plan" in case rates increase.

Szymon

 

[tkldisney]

I would also check with Alamo, Dollar, & Avis. (All inside MCO terminal) Alamo now offers online checkin (but, not with any coupons) You can also join their club and bypass the inside counter and go to the counter in the garage. It's a lot faster. I know Avis offers counter bypass with their club but they tend to be more expensive. Dollar I'm not sure about, they do have some good rates and like I siad they are in the terminal.
The only thing about Hertz, it's a shuttle to their lot. You have to wait for bus, then load your luggage, then offload your luggage, then load again in your car! Their rates are pretty high too! My dh's company used to use them but they switched to Avis.

 

[2boyshere]

I always seem to find the best rates recently with Alamo. The entertainment coupons work well. The line for check in is always long though. I usually go get in line and send DH and 2 DS's to get luggage and meet me downstairs.

 

[mill4023]

I like Travelocity for comparing rental rates.
Check for your dates to get a general idea of who has the best deals. Then go directly to those company's websites and try all the codes from Mousesavers. Like someone said, if you book online directly with the company, there is no penalty for cancelling if a better rate comes along.

I don't know if this is always true, but I can tell you what the rates did for our minivan rental for spring break. I booked about 4 months in advance and got a rate of $750 for 2 weeks with an 8 passenger minivan. I kept checking rates several times a week after that. For a while, they were slowly going up. It was as high as $900 at one point. Then about a month before our trip, the rates started going down quickly. Over the course of a week, the rate seemed to drop a bit every day. Each time, I made a new reservation and cancelled the old one. I ended up with a rate of $430. After that, the rates went back up to over $800.

Alamo ended up being the best deal for us. The only thing I didn't like about them was that they pushed really hard to try to get us to buy insurance from them. Check your own personal car insurance policy because most of the time, it will cover you while you are renting a car.

Oh, I can't comment on Alamo in Orlando because we flew into Tampa because of cheaper airfare. The Alamo in Tampa required a shuttle to get to, but the service was fast and there were no long lines.