Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Priceline Cars "bid unlikely to be accepted" ?

I'm trying to rent a car from Priceline for MCO this weekend. The going rates for cars are $17-$25 per day for compact - full size.

When I try to bid $10 per day, it says my bid is too low and is unlikely to be accepted. However, it says that a bid of $15 has a "good chance" of being accepted and $16 has a "great chance" of being accepted.

I know that Priceline 'counteroffers' for hotels are usually much higher than the actual cost of a winning bid, but how does this translate suggested bids for cars? Should I bid the $15 or is $11 or $12 likely to succeed?

Also, I don't care what type/size of car I get. Are there ever "arbitrage" situations where an larger car category is less popular and will actually be cheaper than a compact or economy car?

I usually find that carrentals.com beats PL by a large margin. I've never seen the (as much as) 40% off going rates; usually they pretty much charge what the renters are charging.

If the going rate is $25 you'll be much better off booking directly with $10/day off coupon or smth similar. Even if you get PL a bit cheaper the difference is not worth the risk of wasting money in case of irrops.
I would only consider PL up to $20-25 below best direct rate.

It's not the daily rate that matters when renting a car through priceline's name your own price. It's the total cost, as their fees can be insane. It's been a long time since Priceline has given me anything resembling a decent price for a car, but back when, I always ignored their don't try this price it's too low message, and often it was accepted.

As to which car, it just depends on what they have available. We once rented a full size SUV for half the price of a compact (not priceline, direct with Hertz). We asked about the price difference, and they said simply nobody wanted to touch them because of the price of gas, so they were pretty much giving them away. The rental price difference more than paid for the gas while we had it.

I'll also second what azepine00 said, discount codes will probably get you a much better deal given how low the price is starting at twenty five a day.

It's been a long time since Priceline has given me anything resembling a decent price for a car, but back when, I always ignored their don't try this price it's too low message, and often it was accepted.



I agree; I haven't rented a car through Name your own Price with PL for several years. I've always done better using discounts or Hotwire. I don't know what happened, because I used to get great deals.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I ended up finding a Hertz discount which made the total cost $65 for three days, so I was happy with that.

I'm trying to rent a car from Priceline for MCO this weekend. The going rates for cars are $17-$25 per day for compact - full size.

When I try to bid $10 per day, it says my bid is too low and is unlikely to be accepted. However, it says that a bid of $15 has a "good chance" of being accepted and $16 has a "great chance" of being accepted.

I know that Priceline 'counteroffers' for hotels are usually much higher than the actual cost of a winning bid, but how does this translate suggested bids for cars? Should I bid the $15 or is $11 or $12 likely to succeed?

Also, I don't care what type/size of car I get. Are there ever "arbitrage" situations where an larger car category is less popular and will actually be cheaper than a compact or economy car?
All "information" provided by PL should be considered highly suspect. Your hotel or rent-a-car bid might well be accepted, even though you received a "too low" message.

Priceline NYOP and Hotwire cars have had such horrible rates for the last several years, that I gave up even trying them. My last 2 trips, I saved around $75 all-in on 3 day rentals from the best rates I could find anywhere else.

Hopefully this is a sign that the rental car companies are going to start giving them good deals again.

I ignore the warnings and bid low. It doesn't cost anything and it often works, When you get a hotel from Priceline by NYOP they usually will list the lowest acceptable bids for rental cars - you can change dates and local airport pick-up locations. I noticed that there is no correlation between the size of the vehicle and the price.