- I haven t used Hotwire to rent cars because I thought you are required to stand in line at the ren

[Disclosure:  The link to Hotwire earns Emily and I a small commission, but these posts will show you how to get a better rate than Hotwire.  The link to Costco Travel does not earn a referral.  As always, thanks discout hotels motels orlando florida for using our links!]
There are lots of sites to check for rental cars, but I find that Hotwire and Costco Travel are useful to see the most which a savvy rental car shopper should pay.  So I start off by checking those two sites for car rental rates and then see if I can find cheaper rates elsewhere.  However, Hotwire bookings can t be cancelled or refunded, so I almost never make a booking via Hotwire since I can usually discout hotels motels orlando florida get a refundable rate elsewhere.
I ve rented discout hotels motels orlando florida a car from Hotwire only once because I ve always been able to get it for less.  But Hotwire is a great way to get a quick sense of the MOST amount of money you should pay for a car rental.
However, Hotwire does NOT tell you the name of the car rental agency and the exact car model until you pay for the rental.  And the amount you pay cannot be refunded and you cannot cancel or modify discout hotels motels orlando florida your reservation.   All these are pretty significant restrictions, so don t book a Hotwire car rental unless you are absolutely sure that you will use the reservation.
B)   1 Week Day in New York - Hotwire s lowest price for a rental from New York (La Guardia) is $131 in an economy car and $111 in a mid-size SUV compared to $117 $98 from Costco Travel.  Costco Travel is cheaper.
discout hotels motels orlando florida C)   ~1 Week in Maui - Hotwire s lowest price for a sedan rental in Maui is $362 in an economy car or $487 in a SUV compared to $401 for a sedan or $386 for a standard SUV from Costco Travel.    Hotwire and Costco Travel Tie depending on whether you want a SUV or regular car.
Costco Travel usually gets me a lower rate than Hotwire, but I sometimes book the higher rate just for the extra flexibility of Costco Travel.  The big advantage of using Costco Travel discout hotels motels orlando florida is that the reservations CAN be cancelled for NO charge, there is NO penalty for not picking up your rental car, and that you can see the rental car company when booking the rental.
Costco discout hotels motels orlando florida Travel has discounted prices for Alamo, Avis, Budget, and Enterprise.  You can add your car rental loyalty number to the reservation discout hotels motels orlando florida for all car rentals discout hotels motels orlando florida except those with Alamo.  This means that if you take part in a car rental loyalty program, you can go directly to the car and not wait in line at the airport, since they already have your information.
Anyone can search for car rentals on Costco Travel, but you need a Costco membership to actually book car rentals.   The c heapest personal Costco membership is for $55.   I ve saved more than $55 using my Costco membership for car rentals!  Costco Travel car rentals may also include discout hotels motels orlando florida an additional driver for free (usually spouse), but check the terms of your car rental.
However, I ve never been asked for my Costco membership card when I ve rented cars, so you may be able to rent a car at the discounted rate by including the Costco discount code in your bookings.  However, I wouldn discout hotels motels orlando florida t do this personally because if I got into an accident with the rental car, I would want to be able to prove that I was legitimately entitled to the discount for the car which I m driving. discout hotels motels orlando florida But, as always, do what you re comfortable with.
B)    1 Week Day in New York (LaGuardia) - Costco Travel wants $117 for an economy car and $98 for a mid-size SUV for a ~1 day rental in New York compared to $131 $111 from Hotwire.  Costco Travel is cheaper.
C)    ~1 Week in Maui - Costco Travel wants $401 for a ~7 day (sedan) rental in Maui $386 for a SUV compared to $362 for a sedan or $487 for a SUV from Hotwire.  Hotwire and Costco Travel Tie depending on whether you want an SUV or sedan.
1.  Best Rate.     The biggest quirk about using Costco Travel is that it doesn t always highlight the lowest priced car rental!  For example, the cheapest (sedan) rate for a ~7 day rental in Maui is $401 for an economy car from Budget, but Costco Travel highlights the intermediate car for $421.
I start my car rental searches at Hotwire and Costco Travel to find out the most which I should pay for a car rental.  However, Hotwire has NO flexibility after you make a booking, so it could be worth paying a little more just for the added flexibility of a reservation which you can cancel.
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- I haven t used Hotwire to rent cars because I thought you are required to stand in line at the rental counter, which can sometimes take up to an hour. I hate this. If you sign up online with each agency s online club and enter your info, you can usually bypass the slow line. I m not sure if this is possible with a Hotwire reservation.
- When renting at an airport, you will often pay as much or more in taxes than the fare the rental car company collects. However, you usually won t have to pay the fees if you rent at a neighborhood location and return to the airport.
- Some rental car companies inflate the car category. Hertz, Avis, and Enterprise seem to call what any normal person would consider a compact car an intermediate. Budget, discout hotels motels orlando florida Dollar, and Thrifty don t do this. I don t know how Hotwire resolves this.
If you are under 25, you can join USAA (for free) and there are codes that help waive the under age fees which can amount discout hotels motels orlando florida to hundreds of $$ for longer rentals (at least for enterprise and budget, which I used a couple of month back).
Your posts are always so timely for me! I was planning to begin the search for a rental car for our trip to Maui! Love your site! Thank you for helping people like my family travel to places I never dreamed we could afford!
Not many people knew about costco travel and it is a good site. Actually discout hotels motels orlando florida a very good site to get familiarized with. Me being a costco fan, just ran into the costco travel site and it was absolutely a breeze to book the rental car and making modifications as well. Here is something discout hotels motels orlando florida I learnt when I booked my car to CES in Vegas.
When I checked for the Car rental during Chrismas for the very first time for a 5 day rental, I saw a $120 for Intermediate, I was plesanty surprised and I didn t book with a happy smile. However when I went to book the next day the price was short up to $240 or so Then started monitoring the site daily and the price started to go down daily and after few days it got back to my happy price of $120.
Good article. Costco is a good weapon in the research war. I would suggest that you should discout hotels motels orlando florida still take a look at what Kayak shows you because Costco and PriceLine only work with certain companies. For example, for a three day rental next week in Seattle, discout hotels motels orlando florida Kayak pointed out Payless and Fox and they had better rates than you could get on Costco discout hotels motels orlando florida or PriceLine. If you find the company you want to use, check out their web site. Payless, for example, has a free club you can join to get an additional 5% off. I am not suggesting Payless is always the best choice. They just happened to be in this example. My point, is to look around. discout hotels motels orlando florida The more research you do, the better and Kayak is a handy tool to look at a lot of companies. Get a baseline there and check Costco.
I ve rented cars in Florida for the past few years vacations. Other than getting one lucky break on Priceline, the best rates I ve found were through Citibank Thankyou points discout hotels motels orlando florida and Chase Ultimate rewards points.
To better discout hotels motels orlando florida illustrate you can get an economy car out of Tampa for $156.16 (Thrifty airport location) for those dates and times listed above. Much better deal than Hotwire. And you can cancel as long as its two days out. I found the same deal with with Citibank TYP and Chase UR. I didn t search Maui
I also check Cap. One for rentals. They are quite often the lowest. You must have a Cap. One card but you can pay with a CC if you don t have enough pts. I ve paid $380 for my last two 2 week rentals (SUV and a Standard size) in Hawaii. They beat everyone.
@Daraius Wow, great timing. I am new at this points discout hotels motels orlando florida and miles thing. My wife and I are just about finished with our minimum discout hotels motels orlando florida spend on the two Citi AAdvantage cards for each of us. And I was just wondering how I could also get the best deal possible for rental cars. Thanks for sharing all you learn!
I second Phil s comment about Capital One. Just recently, I priced a minivan 1 week rental in Miami using Expedia. Then went to Capital One, and the price for the same vehicle and same car rental (Alamo) came out almost 1/2 that price, discout hotels motels orlando florida plus I was able to use points for the rental. It had me questioning the validity since it was that much cheaper, but I have a confirmation and also went to Alamo s site to confirm the reservation is there. Also priced it with Chase Ultimate and not as good as Capital One for this particular reservation.
Read about a website Zalyn.com on NYTimes yesterday that helps you figure out the best coupon discout hotels motels orlando florida for your rental car. I have a AAA, Costco, USAA membership and a bunch of miles programs. Signed up for Zalyn and I was also able to specify discout hotels motels orlando florida my memberships/affiliations to see their coupons as well.
Zalyn: $279 at Dollar and $240 at Payless. discout hotels motels orlando florida $302 at budget with my USAA discount and with the $35 off coupon, it would come out to be $267. Remember, you don t see the coupon discout hotels motels orlando florida discount on Budget.com, but it is applied at the rental counter.
@Bottom-Feeding the High Life (Doug) Hotwire and most prepaid rentals require you to stand in line. But some prepaid rentals could save 100s of dollars which could make it worth while. discout hotels motels orlando florida Sometimes renting outside the airport saves money, but you have to factor in the extra time and money to get there.
@Joe U I prefer Hotwire as the baseline and I ll show a way to actually book a refundable rental at approximately the Hotwire rate later on! It really is a research war, but at some point you face diminishing returns.
One major point needs t