Las Vegas - Best deals for Car Rental for 6 - one week from Dec 31 - how do I find it?

How can I find out about the best deals for a vehicle rental (car or minivan) - there will be 6 passengers (3 adults, and 3 girls aged 10,13,16). I will be renting it for a week.

I will drive it to California.

I would be staying at the Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay, when I rent the vehicle. I will drop it at one of these 4 locations (I have not fully decided on my itinerary) - Las Vegas airport, Palm Springs airport, LAX, or Phoenix airport (if the price of the rental car, with promo codes or discounts, is significantly lower with a LAS return, then I will likely return it to LAS).

I've always found National Car Rental to have the best one way car rental rates. They raise the per day or weekly rate but do not have a drop charge. I have planned to rent for the four day week-end rate returning in the same city, and then pick up a car for just a day or two that will be dropped off in another city. This has proven to be the least expensive way for me.

You should be able to get a one-way car with a drop in any of the locations you mentioned at a reasonable price. Use orbitz.com to see a comparison chart (click on "more vehicles" to see minivans and SUVs).

Note that daily rates for one-way cars are significantly higher than for local rentals. You might want to use a local rental for the first X days of your trip, then rent the one-way car for the last day. Use priceline.com Name Your Own Price for local rentals, bidding 40-60% of the Orbitz local rental price.

LAS Airport has one of the highest surcharges on rent-a-cars in the country (maybe 25-33%). If you can arrange it, try picking up at a non-LAS Airport location.

try www.kayak.com This site checks many other sites for you....also www.rentalcar.com

I have rented several weeks ago, a minivan from Dollar at LAX for $293 (which includes the taxes) for 1 week (starting on Dec 31). Yesterday, I was calling for information on the reservation - my rate was cut by $50! The agent stated that Dollar has a glut of vehicles at the airport lot. These rates do not apply to the nonairport locations - the rate at Mandalay Bay was more than triple the airport rate.

I always use Dollar in LAS (and it is the only place I use Dollar) -- they seem to have the best prices and reasonable cars.