Idiot's Guide to Renting A Car in Vegas

The Entertainment book always offers great discounts (Alamo/National with a free weekend day, almost all can offer a free day on a weekly rental).

 

Hotwire

I always use Hotwire.com to rent a car in Vegas. Enterprise/Alamo seem to be the best, hassle free ... i.e. they don't push insurance on you. Thing is, with Hotwire you usually don't know which company you're going to get. But if you watch the site every day a month before onward ... you will see rates posted in grey. These rates you can choose the company ... I almost always get a mid sized car for around $10-$12 a day plus taxes.

The first time i went to Vegas i took cabs ... NEVER EVER AGAIN !!! That's a whole other story

P.S. Yes, it's always a good idea to take pics of the rental before and after ... once they got pissed off at me for doing it and i just said i collect car pictures

 

I got my above issue solved but encountered a new one.

IF I rent,

3/20/2013 to 3/26/2013 the cost is $243.00
3/21/2013 to 3/26/2013 the cost is $163.00
3/21/2013 to 3/25/2013 the cost is $108.00

Renting 1 less day saves 80 buck
Renting 2 less days saves $135.00.

I've never seen anything like it.

If I rent,

3/20/2013 to 3/21/2013 it costs $33.00
3/25/2013 to 3/26/2013 it costs $33.00

Do the math and a rental from 3/20/2013 to 3/26/2013 should only cost $174.00.

 

cheap car rental

I found a better than internet price by calling Hotwire. It costs nothing and does not require credit card, to reserve. I then went to specific renter (in this case Enterprise) signed in and verified reservation and price. Also it is cancelable at any time.

 

How does this work with no credit card? I am SERIOUSLY considering a rental car this time just for the simple fact of having more freedom to visit area's I've not been before.

 

How much do thy charge your credit card? My max is 500 on mine

 

Just an FYI, I just arrived in Vegas. I had a reserved convertible with Budget at a great rate that I had worked hard getting, logging onto their system countless times. I've always used a debit card with Budget with no problems. However, when I got to their desk, they said I couldn't use the debit card on a convertible (even though my reservations paperwork talked about debit card policies w/o saying my reservation was ineligible). They insisted you could only use a debit card for economy thru fullsize.

I protested to the manager on duty, but without a credit card (I learned long ago to not trust myself with them) I had no choice but accept their switch-around. They did put me in a fullsize (Sonata) for a tiny bit less than the rate I had for the convertible.

 

when to rent your car

Surprised that this wasn't included in this sticky but hope this helps others when renting a car.

When to rent a car:

Actually the best time to rent your car is right after you make your air and hotel reservations. You know exactly when you will be in vegas and when you will pick up and drop off your rental.

The best bet is to make sure you have a confirmed rental at a set rate. You should also check regularly for lower rates because rates fluctuate a lot. If you find a lower rate you can then book at that rate and then cancel your prior reservation.

The reason to rebook before cancelling is because it is possible that you could lose your reservation in the process. Rental rates change regularly, if a rental agency lowers their rates they could also raise it back up suddenly if there is a lot of activity so in the time you cancel your prior booking the new rates could go back up again. Make sure you have a reservation before cancelling your old reservation.


By booking early you are guaranteed a rental car at a guaranteed rate. during busy times such as new years and conventions like the CES, rental rates actually go up as it gets closer to those dates. Yes rates are probably high 6 months or more prior but luckily with rental cars you don't have any charge penalty (so far) if you cancel so you can rebook and cancel at any time up to your rental date.

Usually rental rates start to stabilize around 6 weeks prior to your trip but then you should still check regularly (daily even) as they can suddenly drop for a day or a few hours, then go back up again.


prepayment option

While it is usually cheaper by prepaying your rental (usually 5% to 15% less), be aware that there are possible cancellation or change fees if you have to cancel or modify your prepaid reservation. Make sure that you are set with your trip as you may encounter charges, sometimes even forfeiting your entire prepayment if you are a no show or need to change or cancel at the last minute.


Check for local specials

One thing I notice is that agencies like dollar and thrifty offer some local rental specials, when checking rates they sometimes have a "city" special rate that could possibly be much lower than what you find on web sites like orbitz, travelocity and even kayak.

 

We are hoping to rent a car for at least a day when we make our trip in September. We are from Canada so just wondering, can you make a right turn on a red light? I really don't want to get a traffic ticket while we're there so just trying to make sure I know the driving regulations as I know some things are different. Thanks in advance!

 

Yes you can....UNLESS there is a sign posted that you cannot turn on red. If there is no sign, then it is legal to turn on a red.

 

Is there a list anywhere of which strip hotels have car rental desks or locations?

 

The best advice I can give is to not rent a car from a Strip location. It's significantly more expensive to rent from a Strip location than from the airport. Last time we were there, we had a car for only a portion of the trip so we used the company's shuttle to go from the hotel to the airport. When we return the car to the airport location, we would've had to wait an hour for the shuttle so we cabbed it back to our hotel. Was still cheaper than renting from the hotel location.

As a Canadian, I called my credit card company and spoke to their insurance section to ensure I was covered. All was good. And I made sure I could take the car out of state (we drove to Death Valley).

We don't need a car to travel the Strip or go downtown since we want to be able to drink, hence renting it in the middle of our vacation.

 

That's true but not everyone wants/needs a car for their whole trip and therefore renting at the airport is not always the best option. I rarely rent a car (driving and cocktails are a deadly combo) but on our next trip we need a car for one day in the middle of our trip. So wei'll rent from the casino location. Yup it's a bit more expensive but it's also convenient. I can have the car in 5 minutes instead of having to take a shuttle somewhere. Time is money in Vegas

 

This is not always true. While the daily rate is usually higher at a site away from the airport you skip the McCarren Garage fees, which, last time I looked, were around $12, and they only apply to pick-up. I rented part of the trip once when I was staying at the Marriott Grand Chateau, picked up on the second day of our trip at MGM and dropped off at the McCarren garage on our way to the airport. We didn't need the car the first day at all, so we saved a day of rental plus the garage fees, part of that was eaten up by the shuttle to the hotel, but in the end I ended up better off and avoided a fee I was annoyed with.

For anyone that doesn't need the car for the first part of the trip, I wouldn't rule it out as an option.

 

It was at least $150 cheaper for us to rent from the airport (we rented a convertible). The rental's shuttle picked us up at a specific time so we wasted no time and we cabbed it back from the airport and chatted with a cab driver. Although I believe in not wasting time in Vegas (I'm not bussing it anywhere), this wasn't out of our way.

 

Very confusing

Bizarre happening. I wonder if anyone can explain what happened when I tried booking via budget and using my costco card .

I am renting a car Mar29 9pm, returning April 2, 7pm. The price was generated for me.

I went back and priced Mar29, returning April 1 7pm. Then another booking April 1 7pm returning April 2 7pm.

Two separate bookings was about $60 cheaper in total :confused2:

Meaning if I was do book, I have to take the car back and check it back out. :confused2:

any thoughts?

 

I would assume that they could do a "back to back", kind of like the hotels do.

 

I'm renting a car for one day at Alamo and I am staying at MGM Signatures, does anyone know if there is a shuttle that takes me to the Alamo car rental center? I was going to take the Deuce there but I am wondering if there were any other alternatives! Thanks!

 

Check your license before you go. I went on a birthday trip and forgot that my license expired while in Vegas. Didn't find that out until Dollar was balking at renting me a car...guess I should have paid more attention to those DMV mailers.

 

when you guys say, it is a lot more to get a car from your hotel...what are you talking? I would want the cheapest kind of car available, don't need anything fancy, other than to get me where I wanna go, and would also only want it if I decide to go out to Red Rock or somewhere like that. If it is only like a $15 difference, like one poster said, time is money, and think it would be worth the hassle