Friday, June 26, 2009

Quick car rental question for....someone....anyone

So...we are in the final planning stages of our trip home...which means, we are locking down hotels and rental cars and getting rides from various places to other places. I am now down to the last leg of our trip and have a need for some advice.

Has anyone ever used Priceline when renting a car????
I have been going through different sites, all touting to have "the lowest car rental fees" for our vacation. We will be in Los Angeles and San Diego for the last part of our trip and have figured that, to save time and money, renting a car from LAX would just be more economical.

Now, Priceline has a deal where you can "name your price". While most of the companies are charging an average of $65-75 a day for just your basic, everyday,economy-boring(zzzzzzzzz)style car....I ventured into Priceline's "name your price" area and played around a bit.

While I found that $15 a day was "not high enough to be accepted"....$21 a day was OKAY! "*Holy moly, Batman*!!", says I...."that's almost half of what the other sites are offering!!"

*That's not really what I said....it was waaaaay more colorful...but...I'm practicing a cleaner vocabulary for our trip home!! You're welcome, Mom!*

And so...my question....
Have any of you ever used this "name your price" system when renting a car?!?!
Your input on this topic would be greatly appreciated...you'd have my love and never ending gratitude...for a really long time!

6 comments:

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I have not, but my SIL has used it for airline tickets and was very happy.

They run commercials (I'm thinking William Shatner) and I would tend to think they're reputable. Where is the actual car coming from (since they're really more of a clearing house)?

Anna said...

We use Priceline for rental cars frequently and haven't had any problems yet. We've gotten cars at Budget, Avis, and Alamo in 3 different states and even Canada. When you check in at the rental car place, you have a regular reservation just like everyone else, but for half the price =p

Busy Bee Suz said...

I have not used priceline...so I am of NO help. Good luck! If this works, you just saved a bundle!!

SaraRow said...

My coworkers (who are all travel agents) use Priceline for cars! Good choice - they have very positive things to say, with only a few exceptions (renting in small towns can be a gamble as far as car quality, but that's not unusual for even the major chains). Hooray for $21/day - that's an incredible rate!

Gina said...

We rented a car at LAX last year for about that amount although not through priceline and didn't have any problems at all. We had to take a shuttle from the airport to the rental place but that wasn't a problem.. in fact when we returned the car we had just missed a shuttle and the check-in guy gave us a ride to the terminal in the car we were returning.

Grandy said...

You should be good to go with priceline. :) I'm so excited about the fact that you will be in this continent. You might even be in the same state as me at the same time. Can hardly stand it!!