I have booked my fares to go to KOA. I have a place to stay. Now I need a car. So far, I have spent $10 I now want a standard size or so car, for as little cost as possible. What is the best way to get this?
I tried priceline today for $12/day. Results were a no-bid. I already know I can book a car for about $438 for my 15 day trip next May 26 - June 9. (14 days 4 hours). I am trying to substantially beat that cost.
If you are bidding now for a car rental next May, you are entirely too early! You need to wait until after the beginning of the year. Most car rentals are last minute (about 3 weeks before needed); most car rental firms are geared to do business on 3 weeks notice.
If you are bidding now for a car rental next May, you are entirely too early! You need to wait until after the beginning of the year. Most car rentals are last minute (about 3 weeks before needed); most car rental firms are geared to do business on 3 weeks notice.
Thanks. I thought it would be like airfare where the earlier the more cheap cars. Is Hotwire better than priceline for car bidding?
Programs: AS MVP (withering away due to insane fares), UA, AA, AGR, NPS passport, Costco Exec
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnWM
If you are bidding now for a car rental next May, you are entirely too early! You need to wait until after the beginning of the year. Most car rentals are last minute (about 3 weeks before needed); most car rental firms are geared to do business on 3 weeks notice.
Agreed. As an industry insider, I can confirm that stuff much beyond that is not really paid attention to (beyond just sort of setting a default rate that "looks good"). In the rental industry, pricing and availability changes is a highly manual process--the rate analysts must manually review the fleet availability reports and decide where they want to price themselves in relation to the competition (some of it can be automated, like relative rate adjustments themselves [i.e. when your competitor drops $5 per day, you drop $5 per day along with them--computers can run those checks automatically], but the actual decisions to be cheaper than or more expensive than a competitor are fully manual.
Rental inventory is just too liquid to fully trust a computer to accurately handle rates and availability.
Thanks
I'll wait until next year. Wow. These ads weren't here when I started this thread. And my abs look nothing like those pics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackal
Agreed. As an industry insider, I can confirm that stuff much beyond that is not really paid attention to (beyond just sort of setting a default rate that "looks good"). In the rental industry, pricing and availability changes is a highly manual process--the rate analysts must manually review the fleet availability reports and decide where they want to price themselves in relation to the competition (some of it can be automated, like relative rate adjustments themselves [i.e. when your competitor drops $5 per day, you drop $5 per day along with them--computers can run those checks automatically], but the actual decisions to be cheaper than or more expensive than a competitor are fully manual.
Rental inventory is just too liquid to fully trust a computer to accurately handle rates and availability.