California - Car rental in California

hi everyone

I will be in California taking my nephew to look at some universities end july/august. We will need to hire cars on several occasions (Sf, southern california, bay area, portland) as well as taking several flights. Does anyone have advice for good deals on multiple rentals from the same company? Is it worth calling to try for a discount - I think we will need four separate rentals two of which would be one-way

thanks for any help in advance

Cheers

hi everyone

I will be in California taking my nephew to look at some universities end july/august. We will need to hire cars on several occasions (Sf, southern california, bay area, portland) as well as taking several flights. Does anyone have advice for good deals on multiple rentals from the same company? Is it worth calling to try for a discount - I think we will need four separate rentals two of which would be one-way

thanks for any help in advance

CheersTry orbitz.com . If you are returning to the same location there is priceline.com, bid $20/day for an economy car and upgrade at the counter.

hi everyone

I will be in California taking my nephew to look at some universities end july/august. We will need to hire cars on several occasions (Sf, southern california, bay area, portland) as well as taking several flights. Does anyone have advice for good deals on multiple rentals from the same company? Is it worth calling to try for a discount - I think we will need four separate rentals two of which would be one-way

thanks for any help in advance

Cheers

Unlikely you'll get any discount. I'd just use one of the booking engines e.g. orbitz, expedia, etc.

You could realistically drive from Southern California to the Bay Area and it's quite a nice drive. If you had the time you could actually drive all the way up to Portland rather than fly. It's likewise quite pretty and it'd be an interesting experience potentially if you have the time.

I believe some rental locations are franchises and some are company-owned. Unless you're booking for really long periods of time, I'd forget discounts. Just renting from different locations of the same company for more than once won't likely help you, unless you get points from some sort of frequent rental program. You can save money by using discount codes from various places: I've used codes frm USAA insurance, Costco, American Express, and various airline frequent flyer programs (found on their Web sites; never been asked to show proof of membership). On a recent trip we rented four times, and which company was chapest varied almost every time. From LAX to downtown San Diego and from downtown San Diego to Ontario Airport we used Avis, with USAA's discount code. In Sacramento, renting and dropping off at the same location, Alamo worked out cheapest. For PDX to SEA, the chapest was Dollar, using a 10% discount from American Express (was mentioned by Dollar). At first glance, Hertz looked like it was going to be cheapest for that last rental, but they were going to charge mileage (hadn't seen that for a while). Hertz was not charging mileage for the other rentals I looked into. My point: I think you'll generally doing best comparing companies for each separate rental, rather than renting from the same company every time.

Some rental sites, such as Hotwire and Pricelne, don't usually allow one-way rentals. Enterprise, which gets high marks on many forums, and for which Costco has discount codes, also does not normally allow one-way rentals, but they say you can phone to ask. Most of my rentals have been one-way, so I haven't used them much. I am sure you know that what car you get can vary each time, even if you've requested the same size category each time. Renting a "full size car," we got a Toyota Camry twice and a Dodge Charger once. Depends what cars are available when you arrive.

Non-airport locations can be cheaper than airport locations, which must pay concession fees. So if it's convenient look into off-site locations such as in hotels, etc.

I always use a metasearch site like sidestep.com, kayak.com, etc. I notice that Thrifty, Payless, and Enterprise tends to give better rates than the others. Always stay away from airport locations. They are always more than a neighborhood spot. You might have to take a cab or bus to get there, but you save a lot for the rental rate. Depends on how much you want to save for the inconvenience of getting to the rental location.