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Tricks of the Car Rental Trade
Sizzling strategies for low rental car rates
Step-by-step guide for getting the lowest rates on the road CNN) -- When booking a business trip or vacation online, most people spend hours concentrating on getting the lowest airfare or the cheapest hotel room just to save 10 bucks here, or 20 bucks there. Rarely is as much effort put in to finding the best rental car deal. And that's too bad because your rental car bill could end up being the most expensive part of your next trip if you aren't careful. Here's my advice for getting the best deal possible: First, know that car rental prices vary a lot from city to city due to demand and increasingly prevalent (and hefty) local taxes and fees -- $40 per day might be a super deal in one city, but a complete rip-off in another where cars are going for $19 per day. Step 1 -- Your first step in finding a rental car deal is to determine the "going rate" for the type of car you want by first checking travel agency sites like travelocity.com, expedia.com and orbitz.com that compare rates from a variety of companies. (To be sure you are comparing apples to apples, check for rates that include all taxes and fees. I find Travelocity's "total pricing" feature very helpful in this regard.) Step 2 -- If you are traveling in less than a week, your next step should be to check to see if there is any distressed inventory posted on last-minute travel sites like hotwire.com or lastminutetravel.com. Keep in mind that the cheapest cars may not always be the smallest ones since last-minute rates are based on unsold inventory. That means a car rental company might be offering full-sized cars at less expensive rates than compacts. Step 3 -- Once you've determined the last-minute price on a site like Hotwire, you should try your luck and bid an even lower price on Priceline.com. (An even smarter strategy would be to first check in at biddingfortravel.com, where consumers swap stories about their success or failure at obtaining winning bids at Priceline.com.) Keep in mind that once Priceline or Hotwire accepts your bid, no changes or cancellations are allowed -- that's the price you pay for a great deal. Step 4 -- If you can't find a decent last-minute deal, check rentalcars.com, a regularly updated listing of last-minute deals on major car rental company sites. Additionally, check the rental car company sites themselves; look for a button or link on their homepage that says "Deals" or "Specials." Step 5 -- If you're still faced with a steep rate, try getting discounts based on your affiliations with organizations like AARP, AAA or others. These discounts are usually not great, but they are better than no deal at all. Finally, don't ruin your great rate by allowing rental counter agents to scare you into extras you don't need. Check your credit card or personal automobile policy agreements and you'll likely find that you are protected when driving a rental car, so decline the sales pitches for products like collision damage waivers. (Red flags should appear when you hear acronyms like "CDW" or "LDW" or "PEC".) Also, it is always less expensive to fill the car up before you return it, so decline the money-losing "pre-pay your gas now and bring the car back empty" come-ons. -- ***/***/*** When life gives you lemons Skull**** everyone in sight! http://wonderofitall.com/ ***/***/*** |
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