Fox or Payless Rental Cars or Priceline?

Sorry if this has been asked before.

Trying to get a decent price for a car rental the beginning of October. Not have much luck with the name brands. I've found the rates for Fox and Payless considerably cheaper. I figure there must be a reason for this. Anyone know why?

Also, I was thinking of trying Priceline to bid on a car rental. Would I end up with Fox or Payless anyway?

I'm open to any helpful hints. The best I've found so far is $192.00 for the week from Enterprise through Costco. Seem's last time our car was about $135.00 for the week.

Thanks is advance for any input.

 

They are budget rental companies. More than likely they keep their cars longer than some others, and they try and do more upsells. It is the same as asking why X hotel is cheaper than Y hotel. You will simply get better service in general at Y hotel.


My suggestion would be to book the fox or payless, and then keep an eye on rates. Every rental I've booked doesn't require you paying upfront(or at least the deposit is 100% refundable). You are far enough out that there is plenty of time for some deals to come along. Again though, I'd book something just in case something strange happens and the prices go up. Worst case is you pay the current rates. Best case is they go down and you cancel the old one. You lose nothing other than the little time it takes to do a few quick searches each week.


The sole reason I don't do priceline for cars is it locks you into that price.

 

Fox is cheaper because they are not located in the main rental car facility. You take a shuttle there, then another to Fox. Only reason I use them is their cheap upgrades to a convertible. Usually $20 a day. One time only $10 a day. And my existing rate was already cheap, usually around $60 total for 3 days.

Otherwise, just grab one elsewhere to save the hassle of two shuttles.

 

Thanks for the info. Is Payless located in the main car rental facility or is it away from it like Fox?

 

Getting locked into a $10/day car rental from say Hertz or National via Priceline isn't such a bad situation

I find Priceline is my first choice, except when it becomes cost prohibitive with the higher my bids get. Usually I make a standard reservation and bid on Priceline to beat it by some sort of margin

 

Payless is located in the rental facility but service is very very slow. I rented from them in January. I was there at 7 in the morning, there was a line (at least 8 people in line) with one clerk and it took me over to an hour and fifteen minutes to get processed and get my rental. I heard that during the day it doesn't get any faster. There were no lines at the other rental agencies at that time, they all got processed quickly but Payless service was exceptionally slow. After finishing with the clerk I turned around and saw that the line had grown to about 20 people. I went out to the car area I found that there was only one car available in my size (compact). Others were waiting for their cars, the attendant said that the cars were being prepped but the other people were angry because they were already waiting a half hour for their cars, saying that they were at the place for 2 hours and still didn't get their rental cars yet. I also had problems with added charges. The clerk said that my quote when I reserved the car (online) was only a "quote" and that when it gets rung up there could be added fees. I was angry for waiting so long so only quickly went through my bill but later when I examined the bill I found extra fees like unnecessary daily lockout fees that added another $50 to my bill.

Fox is away from the main rental facility. From the airport you have to take their airport shuttle to the rental facility, then take another shuttle to fox.

There have been some complaints on other forums (trip advisor, etc.) and here about fox being slow, bad service, etc. so many of us try to avoid fox and the extra shuttle. With many of the major rental agencies there are usually fastpass and other services which make it easy to pick up a car without waiting in long lines. Fox and payless don't have that service.

Fox and payless have the lowest rates but you have to also put with their service, possible lack of cars, location (fox), etc. which makes the other places more reliable to rent from.

I am also trying to look at rentals in October, they seem to be kind of high. I looked at rentals in September and August and they are lower so it looks like you have to wait for the rates to drop. As others have said, you should probably reserve a car (in case rates don't drop) now and then if/when you find lower rates then make a new reservation and cancel the old one. IMHO, don't cancel the old reservation until the new one is set up, sometimes the reservation doesn't go through because the car gets booked by someone else so you want to make sure you have a confirmed reservation before cancelling the other.

 

Priceline only works with the bigger companies, as does Hotwire. I would suggest taking a peek at Hotwire rates, which would give you a decent idea of what Priceline would charge.

 

I have rented from fox three times with only one problem. They changed their charging procedures but that was probably my fault. I don't think I read the deposit info after I had already rented from them twice. With that being said, I currently have a reservation with Fox and I made sure to read their deposit policies.

I have never had a problem with no cars or waiting for the cars. I make sure that I bee line it for the reservation desk after getting off the bus. I leave the luggage to my significant other or friends.

I have never had to wait for a shuttle and the shuttle comes regularly.

 

Does priceline tell you ahead of time that it will be one of the major rental places? I've never used them for car rentals, just hotels. I'm just never certain I will get a name brand with cars if I go through them or hotwire.

 

from the car rental page on their website:

"Priceline offers discount rental car rates from major car rental companies such as Alamo, Avis, Hertz, Enterprise"

 

Fox is not at the Rental Centre, as indicated above. .. i would say that taking a second shuttle would be way too much of a hassle.

I checked with www.betterbidding.com a couple of days ago to make sure that Fox is not part of Hotwire or Priceline, and they said that PL and HW do NOT use Fox. I then confirmed direct with Priceline and with Hotwire and they also said that they do not use Fox, so you are safe there.

I would recommend Priceline. .. you will get one of the top 5 or 6 companies, and you will get good price. You can bid every 24 hours or change your car type and bid more often. I am trying to get a convertible for Sept 21-25 for $17 a day, but shut out so far. Pretty sure I can get compact for $11 a day, so I might go that route with PL . .

 

Go on advantages website, they are in the main cluster of rental companies and they are very reasonably priced. Google advantage rent a car. Make sure it is the one at the airport, they have one on strip and they aren't the same

 

i just looked at the Advantage website. . . I thought they were quite expensive compared to Hotwire for the time period I was looking at. Maybe you need a CArd to get the deals??

 

When we went in april, Advantage was by far the cheapest on site place.

 

I just purchased a car rental for a future 3 day weekend trip. Just showing you some ball park numbers, but Priceline and a little researching along with luck ended in quite a savings.

Budget: Midsize - $201 ($49/Day)
Budget: Full Size - $208 ($51/Day)

Dollar: Midsize - $165 ($40/Day) <-- My cancelable back up

Hotwire: Midsize - $88 ($19.95/Day)
Hotwire: Full Size - $97 ($21.95/Day)

Priceline: Full Size - $77 ($16/Day) <-- Winning bid with Budget

It should be noted that I origially bid $14 for a midsize then $15 for a standard. So it's possible that I could have gotten the rental a bit cheaper per day. But I'm quite happy with paying $77 for a 3 day rental.

 

When I paid last year for our car, I paid more for taxes than I did the rate of the car. Ridiculous

 

nice score Shock!

 

SHOCK - - how far in the future is your trip? I am trying for Sept 21-25 but not getting my price yet. . .

I've done a lot of comparison shopping over the years, and , hands down, I think the best prices, by far, can be had with Priceline after researching with Hotwire and www.betterbidding.com The only reason I can see to book with the co. direct is if you have a loyalty card or something like that. .. otherwise Priceline always beats substantially.

 

I too have had good luck with Priceline. Next trip is Mon-Sat, Compact car (Ford Focus or similar) I was finally accepted for a $20/ day bid. With all taxes in it's $177. This is with Avis. (Aug 20-25)
Previously my accepted bids were with Alamo and Hertz. Both times got a Mazda 3. Nice little cars.
I think because my trip was decided only about 4 weeks out that the price was a bit higher. That plus it's always cheaper for a weekend which doesn't make sense to me.
Tim
T-20 sleeps to RIO