Renting a car in Vegas

A friend of mine was online looking to rent a car for 7 days this summer and couldn't get a price for under $200 for a small car. I paid much less than that on my last visit. Did the prices increase or does she need to search more?

Quote: benbakdoff

A friend of mine was online looking to rent a car for 7 days this summer and couldn't get a price for under $200 for a small car. I paid much less than that on my last visit. Did the prices increase or does she need to search more?

If she's going on a busy weekend with a major event or convention, she'll just need to bite the bullet and pay the price.

But if not, I've always had my best luck waiting until about 1-3 weeks out. She might try that.

Do you know how she's pricing the car? I've noticed that sometimes you have to try pretty hard to get searches to give weekly pricing instead of daily pricing. 1 week's price will be quite a bit better than 7 days added together.

I don't see any week over the summer where the stated weekly rate from Hertz's Advantage subsidiary is more than $200 for a compact or midsize (about $300 after taxes and fees).

Just got an update. Through Expedia $269.93 and Hotwire $199.54 plus tax. This is about $80 more than I paid last summer. Do these prices sound ok to you? Sometimes prices just increase.

I believe I read on one of the threads about the best way to get the lowest price on airfare or rentals cars being to just keep checking and locking in the lowest each time you find it. The lowest always seem to be the closer you get to your trip.

Quote: benbakdoff

Just got an update. Through Expedia $269.93 and Hotwire $199.54 plus tax. This is about $80 more than I paid last summer. Do these prices sound ok to you? Sometimes prices just increase.

Looking at it again, I paid a stated price of $125/week when I was in town in October. That totaled about $270 after taxes, fees, and pre-paid gas. I booked that rental with about 5 weeks notice, so maybe it is a case where waiting is good?

Thanks guys! I'll pass on that good advice.

Quote: JerryLogan

I believe I read on one of the threads about the best way to get the lowest price on airfare or rentals cars being to just keep checking and locking in the lowest each time you find it. The lowest always seem to be the closer you get to your trip.

I posted that as being my experience booking directly with National Car Rental. I also said that I found if you check during non-business hours (late at night or on weekends) you seem to get better offers. I suspect they bump the price up at times when people will be making their business reservations, perhaps on the assumption that if the employer is footing the tab, then the traveler may not care too much what the price is. For my visit to Las Vegas last week, the initial quoted rate (including fees) was $272.52, and I actually wound up paying $137.91 for exactly the same vehicle and exactly the same rental period (Monday to Saturday).

Also, if one of the parties has a costco membership, costco travel's website has links to discounts on rental cars - typically Alamo's coupons seem to be the best discounts. Not sure if the rates are up or not, they've been pretty consistent.

-B