Rental cars are tricky because you never really know what the price is going to be. A lot of it is based upon supply and demand that can change so often. Is there a big sporting event in town? The rates will likely go up. Are you booking from a really small airport? The rates might be higher than you expect. The rates also vary wildly depending on where you book. That’s why important to make sure you know how to get the best price.
This article assumes that you are using a rental car company and not Turo. If you are trying to decide whether or not to rent with Turo, read this article.
When to book
I don’t think you need to book like a year out but you really don’t want to wait until the last minute usually. That being said, I recently helped someone check prices for car in Vegas less than a week out and was able to find really good rates. I usually book a month or two out and have never had a problem. If you were going to a popular event like the Super Bowl, then I would book way in advance. Some people suggest that you book as far in advance as possible. Not 100% I agree with that but if you don’t need to pay for it now, it can’t hurt to book now and monitor prices.
What type of car to book
This is a personal decision but I like cars with good gas mileage personally. I generally go for the cheapest option with the best gas mileage as I’m usually going to be driving a lot. If you are considering an electric car, you’ll want to consider range, charge times, etc. Unlike gas cars, you usually don’t have to charge them when you return them. This could be a good option if you don’t plan to exceed the driving range.
Where to book
This is the big issue. I suggest you consider Expedia, Autoslash.com and Priceline. In my experience, Expedia has not had the best rates in the last few years. However, they do have a rewards program so if everything else is equal, I would go with Expedia to capture these awards.
Autoslash is an interesting company that has changed a little over the years. At this point, it’s just a cheaper way to book with Priceline. The big difference is that you will likely be presented with two options – pay later at a higher price or pay now for a cheaper price. If you pay now, you have to check the refund policy to see if you can cancel.
If you Autoslash uses Priceline, why even bother to mention Priceline? For years, Autoslash was the cheapest rate that I could find. However, Priceline has introduced a new feature similar to their opaque airfares. You are not told the exact company, just that it could be one of several that are listed. Usually the discount car rental companies are grouped together and the full service rental car companies are grouped together. As I really don’t care company I use, as long as it’s not a discount company, I go with these opaque bookings. For whatever reason, these listings do not appear on Autoslash and are usually cheaper than anything Autoslash will turn up.
Using Rakuten
One of the down sides to using Autoslash is that you can’t use Rakuten. Thus, if everything is equal, I suggest going through Priceline or Expedia to capture that cash back rate with Rakuten. Please note that a big chunk of your rental car rate will be taxes and fees so you won’t get a ton of money back but even if its $5 to $10, it’s still free money. The cashback rates change so be sure to verify what they are. Sometimes Priceline will be better and sometimes Expedia will be better. Other times they will be the same and again, if that’s the case go with Expedia to get the extra points from them. For more about how to use Rakuten, read this article.
Times
One strange quirk with rental cars is that sometimes a longer rental is cheaper than a shorter rental. Makes zero sense I know. Some travel “experts” will suggest that you book a longer rental and turn it in early. This is horrible advice as you may get charged more if you return it early. Again, this sounds crazy because if you return it early they can make it available for someone else to rent and make more money. But that’s just how this industry works. While there are some rental companies that don’t care if you return the car early, there are several that do. Since this could change at any time, I’m not going to bother trying to sort through them all and come up with a list. If there’s already a list out there somewhere, please let me know.
So while I don’t suggest you book a 7 day rental when you only need the car for 4 days, there are some other things you can do. Rental car companies will generally give you some leeway when picking up and dropping off cars. The time window for picking up a car might be longer than dropping off. Although I did pick up a car a half early once and they tried to charge me an extra $100. So make sure you always know what it should cost. I obviously handled that. However, if you pick up a car several hours late, you should be OK as far as the rate goes. I would still try to update the reservation or call so they know you are coming.
Since you do have some leeway, you can adjust your times when you search. If you book a 4 day rental from noon to noon, the price could be $300. However, a rental from noon to 11:30 might be $250. Likewise, the rental from noon to 12:30pm might be $350. This all comes down to how they count days and I’ve never found an exact pattern here. So if my flight times are pretty close, I’ll search for the same pick up and drop off time and then adjust one of those times by a half hour in both directions to see if the price changes. Obviously, if you land at 9am on Monday and your flight on Thursday isn’t until 9pm, this is not going to work unless you plan on sitting at the airport all day on Thursday. That doesn’t make much sense. However, if your flight lands at 11am and you checked your luggage at an airport with very slow baggage handlers (EWR for example), you probably won’t get to the rental car desk until noon. If your flight home is at 4pm and you were planning to get there at 1pm so you could hit the lounge, maybe you could get there at 12:30 instead. Therefore, instead of booking Monday at 11am to Thursday at 1pm, you make your booking noon to noon.
Costco Membership
A lot of people swear by Costco’s car rental rates. I’m not a Costco member but I’ve often checked their rates when people have brought this up and I have never found it to be cheaper. For purposes of this article, I checked 3 different hypothetical rentals.
MCO – 3 day rental – Priceline: $140. Costco: $184
DEN – 3 day rental – Priceline: $230. Costco: $356
MKE – 4 day rental – Priceline: $330. Costco: $416
Perhaps there’s some combination of dates and locations where the price on Costco is cheaper but I’ve never seen it. I think people that are finding great rates on Costco are not searching Priceline and Autoslash. Speaking of Autoslash, there may be times where AS does give you an even better rate because you have a Costco membership. You don’t want to lie about this because the agent will ask you for your membership number and/or your card when you pick up the car. If you don’t have it, you’ll get a higher rate.
Airline offers
After you book a flight, you may see something from the airline that says that you can save a lot of money by booking your flight right now through the airline. Yeah, you’ll save on the super high published rate but you’ll be paying way more than the Priceline rate. Remember, never assume that an advertisement is telling you the truth. Always get the exact figures if there is any doubt.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article can help you save money on car rentals. If you have any other tips that are not mentioned here, feel free to mention them in the comments.