<p>Somewhat of an amateur travel planner here. :)</p>
<p>I have gone through Hotwire for single night hotel rooms before with good luck. Am needing to rent a car from the Portland airport for a few days. Had been looking through Costco. If I rent a car from the airport, current quotes are about $500. If I rent through a Portland car rental place NOT at the airport the price is more in the $225 range. Wow, that’s a ridiculous difference!</p>
<p>But the logistics of rental away from the airport may be difficult. Had someone suggest Hotwire for car rental. Current prices show in-terminal rental for about $270 - that’s pretty tempting - to have the rental at the airport as well as return right at the airport.</p>
<p>So, looking for pros/cons, thoughts about using Hotwire for car rental. </p>
<p>Also is there (usually) any advantage to renting earlier (now for June trip) or waiting closer to the rental date?</p>
<p>I have not used Hotwire for car rentals, but I have used Priceline - it was great. The car was through Hertz. </p>
<p>As for when to rent, I have found that prices are generally better closer to the rental date. You can always reserve early just in case, because most reservations can be cancelled without cost if you find something better (not Hotwire or Priceline, though). I rented a car in FL through Costco in early December, and the price dropped quite a bit about a week before my trip. I reserved at the lower price, then cancelled the first reservation.</p>
<p>We have our flight to Portland set for June 8 - Southwest had a great sale, so I picked up the flight out with reward points. We have reservations in Cannon Beach for June 11-13. Can’t wait!</p>
<p>I’ve done several car rentals through Hotwire and had absolutely no problem. Not sure why I didn’t use them years ago. Not sure about your timing question, although I’d probably check prices for a few days and go ahead and lock it in if you see a price drop. (I just rented a vehicle for end of March/early April.)</p>
<p>I must have done something wrong when I used Hotwire. I rented a car for Cleveland in August (let’s face it…that is NOT a vacation destination in August). The car was $40 per day…not my idea of a “deal”. And it was a subcompact. This time I rented from Budget and had a Camry…full size car…for $44 a day.</p>
<p>Sign up for the Emerald Club with National and then look at the various coupon codes you can use to reduce your rate. They also have last minute deals to go on their website that sometimes are very good, usually are pretty good. I use the mousesavers.c o m website to find the most current discount codes. It takes a bit of work sometimes but I can generally get my weekly rentals well under $200. Signing up for the Emerald Club is free (see the info on Mousesavers). It is also a “grab and go” deal where you go to the Emerald Aisle and pick whatever car you want, get in, and go. Huge time saver too.</p>
<p>I use Hotwire to rent cars a fair amount when I travel. The deals have been good, but the additional insurance can really add up. Still, never had a problem.</p>
<p>Me too…I always check Hotwire prices with individual car rental company websites and go with whatever is the cheapest…usually but not always, it is Hotwire; never had any problems.</p>
<p>That was my next question- if the price includes insurance (I assumed not - hadn’t looked that closely yet) and if you can still get it - and if the insurance is at whatever the normal insurance rate is.</p>
<p>I never get the insurance offered by the rental company. Our auto insurance covers rental cars up to $35,000. All policies have to have a rental car provision in there, the key is how much they cover. If your policy only covers $10,000 and you total a $20,000 car, you are on the hook for $10,000.</p>
<p>Like archiemom, I usually start with carrentals.com. Then I check individual rental car web sites. Once or twice, I’ve rented from Priceline or Hotwire. Only problem with those two is that you can’t cancel or change your reservations.</p>
<p>I rented a car for H for the coming week, and National & Avis were lowest cost through their websites (lower than Hotwire or Costco). It all depends on the city, the time of year, etc. I always end up spending a lot of time in researching car rentals to get the best deal!</p>
<p>I was under the impression that you can cancel a Hotwire booked car reservation, it seemed to say that in the fine print. </p>
<p>from Hotwire </p>
<p>Important travel information</p>
<p>Know before you go</p>
<p>The rental agency will require a credit card in the primary driver’s name. Sufficient credit must be available for a deposit. Amount of available credit required depends on car type, rental period, and optional items. Rental agency does not accept debit/check cards for deposit.</p>
<p>The rental agency will verify the driver is at least 25 years of age.</p>
<p>The car must be picked up and dropped off at the specified locations.
Booking rules</p>
<p>Reservations may be cancelled at any time without penalty.</p>
<p>I used Kayak to get ballpark pricing and car type then go to rentalcar momma to look for a coupon code. </p>
<p>I typically rent directly from the rental car site. I have not found the deals to be necessarily better from a secondary rental site.</p>
<p>In terms of insurance. I used a United visa card which is primary for rental insurance coverage. Most charge cards provide secondary coverage to your own car insurance plan. I prefer the charge card take the hit before my own insurance. </p>
<p>Amex has some plan you pay extra to have them be primary if you use their card.</p>
<p>The Amex plan seems good. I plan to use it when we rent for a week in Oregon. It costs $25 for the entire rental period. I always use Amex for rentals, and I like the idea of the extra coverage on a longer trip.</p>
<p>Apparently there are two ways to book Hotwire. One is not refundable. The other is. The refundable one isn’t any less expensive than booking through the rental car company.</p>
<p>I haven’t figured out how to get a deal through Hotwire for cars!</p>
<p>Since I don’t usually rent cars, what would be considered a “good” deal? We’ll be renting for 5 days - probably an “intermediate” type car. What’s a good daily rate?</p>
<p>I’ve rented quite a few cars from hotwire in the past two years. I’ve found that about 10 days out is the best period to get the lowest deal. As for the $$$ amount, it varies depending on the days of the week and which airport & what else is going on in the area. Plus depending on the area, lots of places hit you with taxes & fees above the rental fee (think Orlando.)</p>
<p>In Newark, back in the Spring, I rented a car for 3 days at $9.99/day, coming in with fees under $50. I just paid $105 for a 24 hour, 1 way rental 3 weeks ago.</p>
<p>As others have said, I compare the rates between Costco, Hotwire, and the big companies before I book. The only problem I’ve had with a Hotwire rental was through Thrifty; I reserved a compact & when I got there at 10pm, the snarky lady told me they only had a 15 passenger van. Budget nicely assisted me at the terminal & matched the Costco rate I pulled up on my phone.</p>
<p>One thing to be mindful of: prepaying for the gas. You can get whacked with a huge prepay fee if you’ve agreed to it and you don’t fill it up before you drop it back off. If you give them the receipt from the fill up on the way to the return, they’ll take the charge off your bill.</p>