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Any Vegas Car Rental Tips?

Any Vegas Car Rental Tips?

Old Jul 12, 2015, 1:34 am
  #1  
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Any Vegas Car Rental Tips?

Anyone have any good car rental tips for Vegas?

Mostly what I do is go to Orbitz and use their matrix display.

What I've discovered beyond that is:

a) Check out AARP discounts. Payless, which has the lowest rate for my next trip, also has a 5-10% AARP discount, one car class upgrade, and free second driver.
b) Keep checking your rates. I booked two days ago, a week for $235 all in (mid-size) for a week. Next day I changed my dates by 2 days and it went up to $265 - oh well. Then I checked again today, same dates had done down to $173!

Something that was a bit weird. Last trip I thought my girlfriend and I were going to buy her a new bed, so I rented a pick-up. It was about $260 for the week, roughly same price as a full size. This time I can't find one for under $500.

I know the firms that aren't in the rental car facility have fees that are a little lower, but taking two shuttles can be a pain. (Although I think Sixt is right across the street.)

Any other advice? Are there any services that monitor rates and see if they've gone down?
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Old Jul 12, 2015, 5:30 am
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In some (all?) Hertz locations, if you book directly on their website, they offer a "Manager's Special" mystery car for a lower rate. Las Vegas offers these, so it's worth checking the price before you book. Just search normally and pick "Show me all the cars" and you'll see it in the list.

This is probably obvious but worth a mention... most rental car companies allow you to join their frequent renter club for free. So whatever company you decide to rent from, try to sign up for their club first and put your renter # on your reservation. That way if you arrive at the same time as a thousand tourists you can skip the lines and go to the members-only counter.
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Old Jul 12, 2015, 11:18 am
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Thanks for the suggestions.

I checked Hertz for LAS and they did have a managers special, but it was still $395/wk compared to the (possibly flukish) rate of $173 I got from Payless.

I will indeed join the relevant frequent renter programs. It takes a long time at the rental counter for them to sell all those add-ons. $22 a day for physical damage insurance? I barely pay that per month for full coverage on my own car!
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Old Jul 13, 2015, 1:32 pm
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Avoid the airport

There are dozens of car rental outelts around town and at most big hotels. Rent at one of those, you can save a lot in fees.
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Old Jul 13, 2015, 7:50 pm
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The rates at the off-airport locations are often higher than at the airport, and they still have a lot of fees, although not as much.

I'm looking for an inexpensive way to rent a truck for a day in Vegas. Last time I was there I rented one for a week for about the price of a full-size car, about $260 for a week all-in. Now they are like $500, and at the Enterprise locations in the suburbs they are nearly $100. Any suggestions on that one? Need to buy a bed and bring it home.
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Old Jul 13, 2015, 9:46 pm
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Old Jul 16, 2015, 10:44 am
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Old Jul 16, 2015, 1:08 pm
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If you are a Costco member, their travel website generally gets you good pricing on car rentals from several different major companies.
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Old Jul 20, 2015, 5:27 pm
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Originally Posted by redtop43
The rates at the off-airport locations are often higher than at the airport, and they still have a lot of fees, although not as much.

I'm looking for an inexpensive way to rent a truck for a day in Vegas. Last time I was there I rented one for a week for about the price of a full-size car, about $260 for a week all-in. Now they are like $500, and at the Enterprise locations in the suburbs they are nearly $100. Any suggestions on that one? Need to buy a bed and bring it home.
Check with the Lowes and Home Depots in the area. Many rent a truck at $20 for 90 minutes. Plenty of time to pick up a bed, deliver and return the truck. Also look at u-haul if you need for most of the day.

Then you can rent a regular car.
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Old Jul 20, 2015, 8:10 pm
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Originally Posted by AFAM-DFW
Check with the Lowes and Home Depots in the area. Many rent a truck at $20 for 90 minutes. Plenty of time to pick up a bed, deliver and return the truck. Also look at u-haul if you need for most of the day.

Then you can rent a regular car.
I looked into renting a truck from Lowe's and HD last year. Lowe's told me they discontinued their truck rental program. HD offered the truck at $20/hr (technically 15 minutes extra as a "grace period", so it's effectively $20 for the first 75 mins and $20/hr thereafter).

I didn't wind up renting from HD, but it's important to note they are very strict about the 75 mins. The timer starts the moment the transaction is processed and they print the paperwork at the counter - not when the rental is driven off the lot, not even when they hand over the keys. It's the same on the return: It's when the keys are handed back to them at the counter that counts as the return time. And they made it abundantly clear that if you're even one minute late they will charge $20 for the next full hour. Their reasoning is that the 15min grace period is given so as to include the time it takes to do these things.

The other problem with the HD/Lowe's truck rental is that if you wind up taking more than 75mins and get charged $40, you're much better off renting a U-Haul at $20/day plus mileage - not to mention that way you'll get to take your time. So if you go the HD rental route, make absolutely sure you will be able to load/unload and do all the driving from HD to your bed pickup to your unload destination and back to the HD in that 75 mins. Personally, I'd think paying .50/mi or whatever U-Haul charges for mileage is worth not having to rush.

Last edited by gengar; Jul 21, 2015 at 12:29 am
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 8:14 am
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Anybody has an idea why car rentals are suddenly so expensive this week in Las Vegas?
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 10:33 am
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TIP: If you arrive late at night, you might want to thoroughly check that the air conditioning is working in your car.

Last month I arrived at midnight and drove off in my assigned MX3 - the next morning when the temp was already at 100 F, I discovered that the a/c was essentially non-functional. 90 minutes wasted at the car rental center exchanging for a car with working a/c

Originally Posted by oiris11
Anybody has an idea why car rentals are suddenly so expensive this week in Las Vegas?
The convention calendar shows only two shows with a combined attendance of 34,000 - just a guess, but it might be that, in mid-July, they get a larger number of overseas visitors who are planning driving excursions (Grand Canyon, etc) as opposed to domestic travelers who are more Strip-centric (not planning out of town trips).
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:40 pm
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Originally Posted by oiris11
Anybody has an idea why car rentals are suddenly so expensive this week in Las Vegas?
Odd for sure as this is usually a very slow time in Vegas.
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Old Jul 22, 2015, 10:25 pm
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In my personal experience, HD only rents you a truck if you buy something there.

UHaul isn't bad though if you're not going very far. $19.95/day plus 59 cents a mile.

To answer another post, rental car rates in Vegas seem to jump up and down a lot. I am traveling July 30-August 6. I booked a reservation for a mid-size that was about $250 all-in (weekly), then checked again the next day and it was $173. (Payless, with AARP discount.)

Last trip I booked a pickup for about the price of a full-size, again about $250. This trip pickups were $450+. For my next trip, Sep. 8-15, back down to $230.

It doesn't hurt to make a reservation, then check again.
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Old Jul 22, 2015, 10:29 pm
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Originally Posted by redtop43
In my personal experience, HD only rents you a truck if you buy something there.
I asked about this (since the website implies it is for HD purchases only) and was told it is up to the store manager.
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