Affordable rental cars in Orlando for New Years?

November 13, 2008 1:15 PM

Is it possible to get a reasonably priced rental car at or near Orlando International Airport around New Years?

The best rates I can find are about $500 for December 31st through January 5th. Needless to say, I'm not excited about paying $90+ a day to rent a Chevy Aveo. At those prices it would be cheaper for me to take an extra day or two off work and drive my own car from Chicago to Florida and back, and that's not even factoring in the cost of plane tickets.

Am I just out of luck due to the timing of my trip? Or do any of you more seasoned travelers know where to find deals?

posted by indyz to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

I've gotten ridiculously low car rental rates by googling "rental+car+discount+codes", and similar searches, and following the links that come up. Retailmenot.com is one site I remember as being particularly useful, off the top of my head. There is always a promotional code to find -- just make sure you don't end up using an "employees only" code or a military discount code, for a few examples, that will require a certain form of identification you don't have when you show up to get the car. That site has a comment section for each code, which should tell you the particulars of each code. Some sites don't give you that info. Also keep in mind that renting from an airport location is usually going to be a little more expensive than renting from a non-airport location, due to airport terminal charges and such. I'm not sure how much that will help you, but if you spend some time googling around for discount codes and checking the rental companies' websites for alternate locations, I'm sure you'll find something a little more reasonable that $90/day. If I had a little more time I'd do some specific searches for you, but I hope that info helps anyway. Good luck.
posted by Balonious Assault at 1:56 PM on November 13, 2008

I agree with the above advice. I use retailmenot.com a lot, but a google search will give you plenty of sites with codes posted. There are always coupons to be had. Sometimes you can even combine a corporate discount with a coupon code. But yes, check the codes to be sure it's kosher and you don't have to show your Red Hat Society ID or something.

Check your company for a corporate discount that employees for personal use as well. And check any frequent flyer accounts--they often give discounts. There's also AAA--they have good coupons for Hertz. Try any shopping cards (supermarket, drug store, department store, etc.) for deals. Even a Borders Rewards card offers a lot of discounts at other vendors; see if there's a car rental deal to be had.

If you're staying in a hotel, see what they can do. You may even be able to get the neighborhood rental deal if you take a shuttle from the airport and get the car near the hotel. Or have Enterprise come pick you up. I rent cars often and never pay full price, but my time in Orlando tells me that it's a tougher market down there. It's the only city where companies had to turn me away because they have no cars left to rent.

Best of luck.
posted by cherie72 at 2:42 PM on November 13, 2008

I recently bid on a rental car on priceline.com and was able to undercut the quoted prices by a pretty decent margin. You should also check out hotwire.com. Rental car companies are basically fungible, so I couldn't care less which company they hook me up with.
posted by gatorae at 4:19 PM on November 13, 2008

My parents live in the area and I generally rent from Payless. I just looked at their site and it's about $329 for your dates, and after taxes and whatnot, just over $400. They aren't at the airport, but the shuttle is frequent enough.

http://www.paylesscarrental.com/
posted by advicepig at 6:25 PM on November 13, 2008

I did a little searching this morning and found that the Chevy Aveo dollar.com offers for $549 (base rate) at the airport in your time frame is offered for $142.45 at their Holiday Inn location, approximately 10-15 miles away. If you can fit a couple cab rides into your schedule, it might be worth the savings. I didn't look for additional discounts or coupons. Other rental car companies in Orlando have significantly lower prices at their non-airport locations too. So if that's feasible for you, it might be something to consider.
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:09 AM on November 14, 2008

Thanks everybody. I ended up renting at Payless and got a compact for $111 for 4 days. I just couldn't believe the price difference by leaving the airport. 400%?
posted by indyz at 3:46 PM on November 21, 2008