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April 24, 2013 9:11 AM

What's the best website for finding inexpensive car rental? Emphasis on last minute bookings (I'm traveling in two days).

I usually use Kayak. I have an AmEx and am happy to sign up for any free frequent renter club you like. I'm near a major airport, but I'd prefer to pick up a car in the suburbs, bonus if the company will shuttle me to and from their location.

posted by maryr to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

I got great rates on Hotwire.

Both rentals were with Hertz.

Enterprise has good deals on weekend rentals, and they have a bazillion outposts in the suburbs.

They do a lot of repair shop rentals.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:13 AM on April 24, 2013

Another vote for Hotwire. I use them all the time... always get one of the major companies.
posted by kimdog at 9:16 AM on April 24, 2013

Check the destination airport web site and find the local rental companies. Recently did this in Albuquerque and ended up with two local companies that had advertised prices half of the big guys. Went with one of them, and they were great.

Of course most of the charges of a car rental are local taxes (gotta pay for those stadiums somehow), and though I've been working on figuring out how to get to the next county over to rent a car so that I'm not subsidizing the local pro sports teams, that's destination specific and sometimes a public transit challenge.
posted by straw at 9:19 AM on April 24, 2013

I usually look up the prices on all the sites listed above, then go to Priceline and use their name-your-own-price feature. I regularly save over 40% and often 60%.

I hate using Priceline for hotels, because you never know exactly where the location will be, but with rental cars (especially at an airport) they are all in the same place. They all have new-ish cars from the major brands. I don't have any scary customer service stories about one company vs another, so to me, they are all the same, and Priceline will get you the lowest price.
posted by CathyG at 9:46 AM on April 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

If you're a Costco member, try Costco Travel. I've rented through them in half-a-dozen cities, and they're always either equal to or cheaper than any other site I've checked (Kayak, Hotwire, Orbitz, Expedia, etc...). I've paid for my membership many times over on car rentals alone.
posted by jeffch at 10:42 AM on April 24, 2013

I would also give AAA a try if you are a member. I always get great Hertz rates through them.
posted by sgo at 10:50 AM on April 24, 2013

Seconding Costco travel. They were literally hundreds of dollars per week cheaper for a recent Hawaii trip than anything Hotwire/Priceline/Expedia pulled up.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:58 AM on April 24, 2013

I've had a lot of great luck with Hotwire as well in multiple cities.
posted by fieldtrip at 2:12 PM on April 24, 2013

Response by poster: FOR THE RECORD: On this occaision, for the location I wanted, Kayak had better rates by far than Costco Travel and equivalent rates to Hotwire. They also have a new page where they would like to sell you LDW insurance, so there's that (the rate seemed better than what I remember from the last time I used Avis, but I don't have the numbers in front of me).

The best choice, however, was to take Kayak's best offer and go directly to Enterprise's web site and click on their "weekend special" rate. It only saved me a couple extra bucks a day though.

I'm glad to have some new options to check though - I have to rent again in June from an airport and it will be nice to have more than one site to check.
posted by maryr at 9:36 PM on April 24, 2013

Sorry I'm late! I just got a great deal on priceline, naming my own price. Their listed rates were $43/day for economy and I named $10/day on a midsize. They couldn't go that low, they said, but offered me $15/day so I took it. It ended up being with Hertz and the service was kinda crappy, but hey! Cheap car!
posted by masquesoporfavor at 2:46 PM on April 25, 2013 [2 favorites]