Rental Cars
Quick overview of Cars
With travel volume down, car rental companies are giving fantastic rates to Priceline.com Rental CarsMore than 100,000 rental cars go unused every day. That's lost revenue for the national name-brand rental car companies, and a great opportunity for priceline customers!
Be sure to review:
- the advantages and disadvantages of using priceline's rental cars
- our tips for bidding on cars.
Tips for bidding on priceline's rental cars
Do your research
Your success will largely depend on the research you do beforehand.
- Check prices on at least one discount travel website, such as
Expedia.com's Car Reservation Wizard (opens in new window)
Expedia.com's Car Reservation Wizard (opens in same window)
that reveals brand name in advance on the same day that you bid on priceline.
- Make sure that your bid is not higher than the price found on Hotwire.com
, which also does not reveal brand name (a major one you know) until after you purchase. Like priceline, you must be 21 or over.
Researching helps you know that you are getting a great bargain--and not overpaying
- Consider days and seasons.
During college breaks, you may be lucky to find cars at any price near popular Florida attractions. At other times, you can expect very substantial discounts using priceline.com at these same locations. Hertz at the Orlando airport, for example, has more than 6,000 vehicles to rent, and these earn Hertz no money when they're just sitting on its lot!
Rose Bowls, Super Bowls, large conventions, great snow in Colorado, etc.—all increase demand. For every bid, you should consider whether or not rental companies think they can rent without giving big discounts.
Standard weekend rental rates (often 12 noon Thursday to Monday) are already less expensive than weekday rates. So be sure to base your discount for weekend reservations on weekend prices.
- Be aware that subcompact or "economy" cars seldom come with radios or tape players. If that's a feature you want, we recommend that you bid on the compact-size car. Usually, you will find very little difference in price.
Determine your low priceline bid
- In general, make your bid 20 percent lower than the best available prices that you find on the discount travel websites that tell you the brand name in advance (unlike Hotwire).
- Go for an even greater discount (30 percent or more) if you are bidding weeks in advance.
NOTE: Priceline.com Rental Carsallow you to bid on the same car size, dates, and location only once in 7 days. However, you can rebid sooner if you change one of those three components.
- Remember to compare your bid to the Hotwire price. You want to be lower, but not drastically lower, as the services are similar.
Submit your bid at priceline.com
Ready to bid? Submit your bid to Priceline.com Rental Cars.
At these low prices, no refunds or changes are allowed.
