redtop43

A few months ago I posted a whine here that rental car rates were way up, like $300 a week.

They appear to be way down now.

I avoid the off-airport agencies except for NuCar and Sixt, because they are right across the street and you don't have to wait for a second shuttle.

I'm going next week for 3 days and got a mid-size from NuCar for $50 for 3 days all-in.

I also looked for my next trip which is a week long, Nov. 28-Dec 5. Sixt had a Mercedes CLA for $170. There were some cheaper cars here and there, but not that much cheaper; I could have gotten the car for $142 if I prepaid but things are up in the air about that trip.

kennycrudup

Huh. Now please whine about "hotel rates" and "airfare". Thank you

redtop43

I always stay at the same place (Orleans) and it seems to me their rates have stayed pretty reasonable.

Now, I usually get a promo for a once-a-month stay of up to 4 nights - in the fall it was $39 weekdays/$75 weekends, I think in the winter it's down to $35/$65.

As for airfare, I won't fly "basic economy" but there are a handful of flights on my route (PHL-LAS) that are usually around $120.

So no, I don't have a whine about those.

RustyC

FWIW, I recently got $19 a-i for a 1-dayer at Alamo. December low season is a good time to hunt, and it's nice when companies with counter-bypass and airline miles match. I've rented from Advantage quite a few times when there's a real price gap, but their process at the counter is like something out of the 80s and you don't want to hit any kind of line. Basically once you get used to counter-bypass methods and no humans until you get to the security gate, it's hard to go back.

RustyC

As another data point, 2 slow weekdays (no Saturday night) coming up with Budget mid-size at $38.07 a-i (including 50 cents a day to get WN miles). Advantage has the same price but no miles (except Azul) and benefits to their own rewards program instead, and most importantly Budget has the FastBreak while Advantage is stuck with the counter and all the time-consuming upsells done on the unwary while you get to wait and fume. Unless you're lucky and there's no line.

Vegas has so much capacity in everything that if there's a slack period and you have the flexibility you can do very well with the deals. Though the situation with resort fees is so ridiculous that on a really slow night it's $20(+40) in some places. When are the web sites going to get reprogrammed to stop showing the $20 like it's a big deal? That'd be a big step forward in refusing to reward the bad actors. It reminds me a bit of early days with eBay when some sellers would pad the S&H to drive down the item cost because it'd give them better search and listing placement. eBay cracked down fairly quickly and now lists by price + shipping, but most of the hotel sites aren't doing that yet.

redtop43

Lately there is a lot of variability in car rental prices. I have a 4-day trip coming up where prices were $120 for 4 days (I didn't make a reservation) then it went to $105, then $92, then $77. At the last three price points I made a reservation, then cancelled it if it went lower. Nu Car is usually the lowest, although on my trip last week (also $77 for 4 days) Payless was the winner. I avoid the off-airport companies except Nu Car, because it's right across the street and I'm familiar with them. I used one of them last summer - I forget which one - it took forever for the second shuttle to come, when I got there they wouldn't give me a car because I was an hour early, and the car I got had a temporary plate because they had just bought it at an auction.

Postscript - the $77 reservation I made, the prices are now up to around $125. Of course I expect the $77 to be honored. I have two more upcoming trips that I'm doing searches on. It's very weird, there's one trip where the cheapest cars are about $30 a day all-in, and the car type is a minivan! I have no idea what's going on, but it's becoming clear you have to pretty much search constantly.

I agree that the resort fees are hyper-annoying. My go-to place, Orleans, has literally (almost) doubled them from $12.99 when I started staying there in late 2015 to $24.99 today.. Interestingly, I go on a business trip twice a year and we have to pay the resort fee with the negotiated convention rate (at Park MGM), but I'm going for a major bridge tournament this summer (at Cosmo) and the rate is $159 with no resort fee. I totally agree that hotels should not be allowed to advertise a price unless you can actually rent a room for that price. Of course I feel the same about event tickets, where even if you go to the box office they still slap you with "convenience fees."