Car Rental Prices

I have made my air reservations for the end of April and was looking for a weekly car rental. I usually start early, check daily, and hopefully end up with a reasonable deal. I checked several sites, Alamo, Dollar, Hertz, Budget, Costco, Carrentals.com, etc. and found the prices outrageous. I wanted an intermediate or full sized vehicle for 7 days. They were all around $300, plus or minus a few dollars. Some sites much more than others but I found a good deal, for this far out, at a site called
http://www.vroomvroomvroom.com/suppliers/
I managed to get a full sized vehicle, on this site, from Budget for just $224.46 which includes all taxes. There are no fees for changes or cancellation and you only pay when you pick up the car. I reserved my car and will continue to check until the day I fly.
Might be worth checking this site, just in case. Hope this helps others.

 

Thank you Kcitsme

I just checked that site. I hadn't heard of it before. I made a reservation for my upcoming trip. Same rental car company, same car choice but $17. cheaper. Not a lot but it will pay a few valet tips. It's great to have people out there helping us all. I just hope I can re-pay with a tip of my own some day.

 

Cheaper Rental

Hi, I just made a rental with Payless directly for a full size car. If you go the the Idiot's guide to renting a car on this website, it will give you rental codes for specific rental car companites. Once you have the code, pull down that rental company and then input the code.

 

CAUTION

Although neither Kcitsme nor any of the other posters said this should be a one stop shopping site .... I felt I should post this caution based on my experience.

While this site may be a good site for some people for some places, it shouldn't be considered a one-stop shopping site. Always check things out elsewhere as well.

I've been checking (almost daily) for over a couple weeks now for the following:

where: LAS
pickup: 01/26/2013 5:30pm
return: 02/01/2013 10:00am

This site has always given me a much higher price than the same car rental's direct site (using generally available codes and coupons). Even including Fox and Advantage (who because of my experiences with them are two I would never rent from again), Alamo has been the best $109 (all taxes, fees, etc included) for a midsize using the CostCo code and a $30 off weekly coupon code (from United). I got that price a week ago. It has gone up since then as the rental date approaches. As usual, I started looking over 2 months ago. I checked once or twice a week for a while than more often as prices started going down. As usual, when I got inside 10 days prices started going up again. I'll still keep checking daily until the day before I leave, just in case someone ends up with excess inventory and significantly discounts the price. Unfortunately, in Las Vegas, 40%-50% of the price usually ends up being taxes and fees so it's been getting harder and harder to get a great price there especially over the last 2 years. If I do actually do this rental for $109, it will be the highest I've ever paid for a weekly rental in Las Vegas. The previous high was my last trip in Oct 2012, my wife and I paid $90 for a six day rental of a compact (but actually ended with with a free upgrade to an Altima) at National. Over the years, in Las Vegas and elsewhere, we have rented with Advantage (twice but never again), Alamo, Avis, Budget (twice not my favorite), Enterprise, Fox (just once, never again), Hertz (my favorite but usually too expensive), Payless (ok if the price is great and you can endure/resist the hard sell of extras at the desk). Alamo and National are the two we have used the most and are usually more than satisfied with.

FYI
While they were competitive, Fox and Advantage were more than this price.

Bottom line .... as I'm sure most here realize:

Check early and often using multiple resources!

Book once you have a price you can live with .... as long as it can be cancelled without penalty!

Keep checking .... if you find a better choice, book it and cancel the previous one!

Repeat the cycle!

 

Watch car sizes as well. I booked through EZ on their own site and got a midsize for $50 cheaper than a compact. Why would someone spend more for a car the size of a matchbox is beyond me.