Car rental for April

[WDWFanatic]

When is the best time to book your car rental? My DH really wants to have a car for our next trip.

The last time we went was two years ago in Nov. and got a great deal for 10 days for under $200. Now it's over $500:jaw:. The taxes alone are almost $200.

Is that about the norm for April and now? I've gone on and found the discounts and such, but goodness!

Thanks for any advice.

[faline]

Car rental prices do seem to have gone up considerably. Do you need a car for your entire trip or just part of it?

I'd suggest visiting the car rental sites frequently. Prices change almost daily and you never know when you'll find a decent deal. Even if you book a car, keep an eye on the sites to see if a better deal comes us. I've fequently rebooked when I've found a better price after my initial booking.

[SandmanGStefani24]

one thing i can suggest is to join one of the frequent renter's clubs. (eg. avis preferred, hertz #1, national emerald club, ect) I have found that since I joined the preferred club (which was free to do, btw) my rental fees are usually the lowest by far. Plus, I did some comparison shopping by checking rates with and without my discount login to make sure. Hopefully that will knock off some dollars for your trip.

Also, try different vehicle selections. Minivans seem to have their rates jacked up, while Standard SUVs have dropped. Dispite gas prices dropping.

[Beast_fanatic]

I agree with faline. Continue to watch the rates on a regular basis as they will likely change a great deal between now and your trip. For instance, we wanted a car on our recent trip, and the timeframe amounted to about 11 days. When I first started looking at rates, everything that I found for a compact car was over $400. I continued to watch the rates, and around 6 weeks before the trip, I finally found a rate for $220 including taxes and fees for a compact car from Alamo. We normally rent from National, but their rates never came below $250 for the same car class (and I usually get a midsize from them to take advantage of Emerald Aisle).

So, definitely keep watching the rates and looking for coupons that apply to your dates.

[CanadianWDWFan]

one thing i can suggest is to join one of the frequent renter's clubs. (eg. avis preferred, hertz #1, national emerald club, ect) I have found that since I joined the preferred club (which was free to do, btw) my rental fees are usually the lowest by far. Plus, I did some comparison shopping by checking rates with and without my discount login to make sure. Hopefully that will knock off some dollars for your trip.
:ditto: I found exactly the same thing.

In fact we are looking for a car in August and have found that the difference between rental agencies is about $200 for a week.

But the rates are better by far when I log into my preferred accounts.

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I'm going to PM you a website that will give you discount codes to try. Put them in and see what kind of rates you can get. And keep checking to see if you can get it any cheaper. If you do, make the new reservation then cancel the existing one.