Who rents a car?

[We_love_WDW]

We are planning on renting a car this time and I was wondering how far in advance should we make a reservation? Is it cheaper to wait till the trip is closer?

 

[donaldsgirl]

We rent a car every visit. I look at hotwire.com and expedia.com for the very cheapest prices I can find on a midsize car. If you book with hotwire DO NOT pay for a hotwire special rate, I think that is what it is called. I will only book if I do not have to pay right then. I will shop around until I get the very cheapest price available (usually around $11.00 a day but that is in sept.) I will take my reservation to L & M Car rental, which is located in the airport car rental terminal and they will beat my reservation but give me the same price. We have always gotten a significant upgrade with them. Last visit, I had reserved a pontiac g-6 but got a Toyota Camry, the year before that I had done a g-6 but got a minivan for 10.00 a day. Pretty cool for just a few minutes work

 

[mopee3]

We always rent but have never used hotwire. Can you get deals at the Car Care Center? Or do you always have to rent at the airport?

Moe

 

[disneynutz]

We rent from Alamo at the Dolphin. We usually get a free upgrade from the counter staff and there is never any wait. Booking online early gets the best rate. If rates improve, you can switch to the better rate.

Bill

 

[DbleTheFun]

we rent every time too... like to hit the outlets a couple times during a trip, and it's nice to have the freedom. we book online early, and then watch the prices... Alamo has been great for us... I have never dared to rent from the smaller local agencies, and only trust the big national rental companies... to many horror stories to risk the few dollars worth of savings.

 

[We_love_WDW]

Anyone try Dollar? There seems to be a good rate.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We rent everytime too, and we use the National Emerald Isle plan through DH's company contract. It's always the cheapest we can find too.

 

[isavem98]

I used Priceline.com this time and got a rate that was half of the published rate on the other travel sites.

I waited until about 2 days before our trip and made the offer. $20 per day for a midsize car. It was a Mazda M5. $150 for 6 days that would have been $270.

Also our car was at National. No need to go off site for the car. Very nice!

Adam

 

[Sandisw]

We rent all the time and I probably change the reservation at least 5 times before I go to get the price down.

We go through National and use some of the coupon codes at mousesavers.com. We are members so get the Emerald Isle advantage (rent a midsize but get to take whatever is there--last time it was an SUV).

Then I keep checking. If the price is lower, I book and cancel the first. For December, I got the rate down all the way to $71.00 for 3 days (it started at $95.00).

We also, last summer, found it cheaper to get it at the Dolphin instead of MCO. DH wasn't with us so we took ME to the resort, picked up the car the next day, returned it the day before we left, and then took ME back to the airport.

Good luck!

 

[Chuck S]

When we fly, we rent a car. I use Alamo/National (check both sites, it varies as to which operating company is cheaper). I do not "pre-pay" the reservation as I can usually get a better rate using discount codes, from my travel club or credit card companies, unless the pre-pay rate is unbelievable. I re-price it every few days, and if a better rate comes along I book it and cancel the first reservation. Also read through some of the thread titles on the Transportation board, if there is good pricing, someone usually mentions it there.

 

[SamSam]

We always rent a car, and use Alamo, National, or Dollar. With Dollar, you can often get the best price by waiting till the last month before your trip, then check often WITHOUT putting in a code.
My best prices with Dollar have always been without a code. With the others, the best prices have always been with a code and/or coupon.

 

[DebbieB]

I always rent with National. Typically the rates do go down closer to the date (non-holiday). I was there December 5 to 11 and the rates did not go down very much for these dates, I ended up using my corporate rate ($178/week plus tax) which in the past was always much higher.

 

[jpolak]

We are planning on renting a car this time and I was wondering how far in advance should we make a reservation? Is it cheaper to wait till the trip is closer?

I would rent it as soon as possible since there is no charge until you use the car. Most places will let you make the reservation about a year out and in my experience it gets more expensive the closer to the trip. I will be making my car reservation for feb. 2011 asap.

 

[drusba]

We have the member cards (to be able to skip the line checking in or have fast line) with National, Alamo, Dollar, and Avis (and also Hertz but don't use Hertz in Orlando because it is not right at airport). We also do all reservations on-line. We always rent a car. Typically, we reserve one well enough out on-line (several months) to assure having one, then periodically check to see if better deals develop and if so we cancel the one reservation and make another. Timing of when best deals develop is not uniform. Some can occur far out from date, some very close to date, some just happen in between. Also, we check for any discount coupons and codes. When using any discount codes you should also check rates without codes, particularly with Dollar which at times will have better rate without any codes than ones with.

 

[donaldsgirl]

I start looking at car rental prices about 8 weeks out and check every few days. Depending on the time that you rent (we are either there in sept or oct.) if you look in the right place then you can get an extra cheap rental. Like I mentioned before, we generally only pay around $10 or $11 a day and we get an upgrade too. Do your homework and check ALL of the discount sites.