So I came across this deal / "hack" when researching for an upcoming trip. As anyone who has been planning a trip recently knows, rental car prices have increased a lot compared to pre-pandemic norms. Often times more than double what I am used to paying in the same places / length of time.

Let me know what you think of this deal / "hack".

I noticed when researching the price of a rental car (even with AutoSlash) + hotel on vacationsbymarriott.com was about the same price as the best deal I can find for a hotel alone. My problem was I needed the rental car for longer than I needed to stay at that one hotel. So the deal is to use vacationsbymarriott.com and potentially get a really cheap rental car if you were planning to stay at a hotel also.

Now the "hack" portion. Which obviously try at your own risk, but I am interested in knowing if you savvy travelers think it will work without issue or not, as my trip hasn't actually taken place yet but the reservations are valid/active. Since I wanted to have the rental car for longer, I was trying to figure out ways to do this, but the site won't allow the dates to be different. So basically, I booked two packages (be sure they allow cancellation, don't a book a non-refundable hotel rate as there are some), I cancelled the Hotel portion of the longer period I needed a car for, and on the other package, I cancelled the car rental portion since I only needed the hotel portion for those dates.

I think this may work because both the hotel and rental car allows cancellation and the site allows you to change/cancel them separately and the other stays active and is not cancelled together. I tried to change just the car rental or the hotel dates but they weren't allowing it so instead did the dual booking method. Originally when making the booking, vacationsbymarriott.com does not tell you how much is the rental car portion and hotel amount, they only list 1 total price and per day price. But when you go to cancel one, it tells you how much will be refunded.

Savings:
- My rental car rate is about $200 less than I can find at that provider's website or any other discount website.
- My hotel booking is about $100 less compared to when booking directly, and better than any discount pay now rates I could find on other websites, and I have the option to cancel if needed.

Pros:
- Less cost than I can find elsewhere
- Both reservations are changeable / free cancellation up to the day before.

Cons:
- Both full Full amount bookings are charged to my card when booked. Refund is processed when one is cancelled so it will take a few days to settle.
- My rental is with Thrifty and I think I will lose the Blue Chip "Skip the Counter" benefit.
- Risk that they eventually cancel the full booking or something goes wrong at the counter

Give it a try at your own risk, curious what anyone thinks.
Not sure if the deal is geographically limited, but just for clarity, the trip I am looking at it to LA with a hotel in the LAX area.