Car Rentals: How To Find Cheaper Rentals
For many vacations or even short trips, car rentals can be a large expense. Unfortunately, using points for car rentals is not recommended due to the poor redemption value. However, there are ways to find cheaper car rentals. Here we’ll look at Costco Travel and AutoSlash, two of my favorite ways to search for rentals for any trip.
Disclaimer: I have not been sponsored or endorsed by either of the following companies mentioned in this article. The following is based on my personal opinions and experiences and have not been reviewed or approved by any other entity other than myself. Your results may vary.
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Costco Travel
Even if you’re a hardcore wholesale club shopper like me, it’s easy to forget that Costco offers more than just bulk goods and cheap eats at the food court. Costco Travel is where you’ll find deals on flights, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, theme park tickets, car rentals, or any combination of the aforementioned.
You do need a membership in order to utilize the Costco Travel portal but it has saved me more than enough money to cover the membership many times over.
Let’s look at a pretend booking for a trip to my favorite place, Hawaii. Running a car rental search on Costco Travel for the dates March 4th to March 13th for Honolulu International Airport (HNL) gets us the following results.
The available rental companies listed for this location are Alamo, Avis, Budget, and Enterprise. In the photo above, you can see that Costco Travel compares the rates across all four rental companies as well as gives you options on what size and type of vehicle you want to rent. Usually, the smaller ones are cheaper than the larger ones but it can vary. In this example, we’re going to choose an intermediate size car from Budget. Through Costco Travel, this vehicle will cost us $846.03 for the entire duration of the trip and it includes unlimited mileage, additional driver, as well as any other necessary details and deals.
If we make a booking on the official Budget car rental website for the same exact dates and location, we get the following. An intermediate car is listed here at $822.85 for the “Pay Later” price and only $699.42 for the “Pay Now” price. The “Pay Now” price is not only cheaper than the “Pay Later” price by $123.43 but also cheaper than the Costco Travel rental price by $146.61! It seems pretty obvious that you’d choose to book directly with Budget car rentals now doesn’t it?
Well, not so fast! Here is where they get you. If you follow through with the “Pay Now” booking with the listed price of $699.42, you’ll see that it does not include the necessary taxes and fees. After taxes and fees, the real price when booking directly with Budget is actually $913.20 and it doesn’t include an additional driver, which will cost an additional $7.22 per day.
The pricing that you see on Costco Travel for the rental cars takes into account the taxes and fees so the price you see is the price you pay. So booking with Costco Travel in this case will save me $90.35. It may not seem like much but it does add up if you rent often or for long periods of time.
What I Like About Costco Travel
I like that the price I see is the price I pay. You don’t have to click through all the way to the end to see what the final cost is when you take into account taxes and fees. An additional driver is included with the Costco Travel car rental which is additional savings. If you’re a Costco Executive member, you earn 2% back on your Costco Travel purchase after you complete the trip. Canceling the rental is also very easy and there is someone available to help you via the phone if you are having trouble. Terms Apply. Check out Costco Travel Helpful Tips and FAQs.
AutoSlash
AutoSlash is a website I frequent every time I book a trip and am in need of a rental car, probably even before Costco Travel. The website is very straightforward and you enter the information required such as pick up location, return location, times, dates, and type of rental. In addition to the standard information, AutoSlash will also ask you questions about what credit cards you have, what types of memberships you have, and finally your email information. AutoSlash is unique in that it doesn’t immediately give you the results of the search but the system will email you after a few minutes with your search results. Good news is that AutoSlash does not sell your personal information.
For the purpose of being as accurate as possible, I’ve used the same search criteria as I have on the Costco Travel and Budget website. After a brief few minutes (2 minutes to be exact), you’ll see an email from AutoSlash with the search results.
Upon clicking the link in the email, we see that AutoSlash provided search results from 10 different car rental companies. This includes Dollar, Economy, Budget, Avis, Thrifty, Hertz, Sixt, Enterprise, Alamo, and National. Interestingly enough, Dollar and Economy both have an intermediate car or better for cheaper, listed at $725.92 and $728.22 respectively. In addition to the rates, you can also see what is included in the rental such as unlimited mileage, taxes and fees, free additional driver, and if a membership card is required (as they search Costco Travel sometimes).
Going with the Luxury car option from Dollar, I’m paying $725.92 out the door. For this booking, it includes taxes and fees but does not include an additional driver like Costco Travel. Using AutoSlash, I was able to save myself $96.87 and get a better tier car. Check out AutoSlash’s FAQ here.
Wrap Up
Prices of rental cars are always going to be fluctuating, especially during these times. Using Costco Travel and AutoSlash can really help you save some money and can even secure you a better car than the one you were considering. You may not always find the price you want but using these options will give you the best chances of finding a lower rate.