Road Warrior Survival Guide: Keeping Car-Rental Costs Down
Road Warrior Survival Guide: Keeping Car-Rental Costs Down
The big car-rental news is no news at all: No. 2 Hertz Global Holdings won't be buying the fourth-largest firm, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, after all. And despite a swirl of rumors and published offers, there is no deal yet for No. 3 Avis Budget Group to buy Dollar Thrifty.
Somnambulant as it seems, however, the car-rental industry is changing. Demand is picking up as business travel ticks ever so slightly upward. And since the industry's combined fleet of vehicles for hire was smaller last year than a decade ago, prices at the rental counter are headed higher. That's driving travelers to search for strategies to keep rates under control.
Superficially at least, car rentals are still a bargain. The industry's approximately 1.6 million vehicles generated less than $20.5 billion in revenue in 2009. That's only about $35 a day. But statistics are cold comfort on the road, and $35-a-day rentals are a rarity for business travelers.
One recent survey pegged the average weekly price of a compact car picked up at an airport at $335, up 50 percent from 2008. During a busy period in Detroit this summer, small cars were renting for $140 a day. And in cities such as New York and Boston, where many locals don't own their own vehicles, $200-a-day weekend rentals aren't unknown.
So how do you rein in the price of a car rental? It starts at the beginning of the process with where you make your reservation and literally continues until the moment you return your car. Here are some tips worth considering.
Want to Save? Shop Around.
Want the one place that offers all of the prices from all of the car-rental firms? So does everyone else. Sadly, no such place exists.
For starters, even companies that own multiple car-rental firms don't offer centralized reservations services. If, for example, you want to rent from the nation's largest firm, Enterprise Holdings, you'll have to visit one of its individual sites: Enterprise, National, or Alamo. Avis Budget maintains separate sites for both of its brands, as does Dollar Thrifty.
Expecting a full spread of rates from Orbitz, Expedia, or Travelocity, the Big Three online booking sites? Uh-uh. None offers rates from more than a half-dozen or so of the top 15 rental firms. Secondary sites such as CarRentalExpress.com focus on smaller agencies, but ignore the big chains. Another variable: blind booking sites such as Priceline and Hotwire. They often have cheaper rates, but you won't know which rental firm is supplying the lower quote, and you'll have to prepay before you find out.
That kind of pay-it-forward uncertainly isn't for all travelers, of course, and the basic fact remains: The only way to make sure you're getting complete information is to visit multiple sites.
Discounts Are Out ThereSomewhere
Car-rental firms produce a blizzard of promotional codes, special rates, and group discounts. AAA members get special prices. So do shoppers at Costco. As do members of organizations such as the AARP. But just as no one booking engine has all of the rental rates, there's no single repository for the discount opportunities. And car-rental firms like it that way.
When a startup called AutoSlash launched this spring, it promised to book renters at the lowest prevailing rate, then lower the price as it found applicable discount codes. Several major rental firms immediately objected, then jawboned Autoslash until it stopped booking their cars. The site still offers a page listing publicly available discounts and promotional rates, however. You can also find discount codes by searching sites like FatWallet, doing a Google searchor simply by checking with your clubs, organizations, and other affinity groups.
All of those discounts need to be weighed against the corporate rate offered through your company or the special small-business rate you have negotiated with your agency of choice. No one discount channel or promotion consistently yields the lowest price.
Electric Car Drives 375 Miles at 55 mph, Recharges In 6 Minutes Electric car company Tesla posts big loss Audit That Business Brand-new Artix Enduro 125cc Motor bike Gets Exceptional Kickstart Understanding Search Engines And What They Mean For You Green Car of the Year Finalists: Hybrid, Electric, and Gas Models Prokhorov unveils hybrid car production How To Find High Paying Software Engineering Jobs In USA New car strategy agreed as Prokhorov jumps the lights on hybrids Cheap and Healthy Vacation Food Tips Use Of The Domain Name In Search Engine Optimisation Chattel Mortgage - Best Commercial Vehicle Finance Analysing Google's Search Engine Results Pages