Sharon and I go to Texas a couple of time per year to visit Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels. As the Austin/San Antonio area has been growing significantly, prices of airfares and rental cars have also been increasing. Because of this, I’ll try to lock in a rental car as soon as I remember to. I do have a list of ways to book a cheap rental car, I’m now only doing one of those steps.
I go to www.AutoSlash.com
Just by putting in some information about my rental, I quickly receive an email back showing the best prices for my rental.
This one, the news didn’t look that good.
The best rate for my 4-day rental was showing at $329.76 and that was for an SUV. Every other car class from Economy to luxury was costing even more
I went right back to AutoSlash and had them track my rental. For a few weeks, it didn’t look good. The only less expensive rental was from E-Z, Fox and Advantage and I’ll pay more to not rent from them.
Finally, I got a notification of a price drop, and this one was significant. Clicking through to Priceline, I noticed that all classes of cars had fallen in price. I went and rebooked us into a Mazda 3 (or similar) for $173.76
This was about the same price as our last rental in the area. While expensive for a four-day trip, it’s what I’ve come to expect. I still registered the new rental price and car type with AutoSlash. IMPORTANT: You need to do this every time you rebook so AutoSlash can keep looking for lower rates.
Just four days later, another email notification arrived from AutoSlash.
From the starting price of $329 to the $149, I ended up renting for, AutoSlash saved me over $180 on this car rental alone.
Best of all, using AutoSlash is totally free. It’s become the only took I use to book rental cars for the majority of our trips. Only if the pricing seems to be very high do I look for prices elsewhere.
And unlike booking hotels through online travel agents, you can still get your Frequent Renter number linked to your reservation and have access to the fast checkout lane.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
8 comments
Taxes and fees are 146% of the actual cost of renting a car. Ridiculous.
Worse because it’s an airport rental.
Out of 100s of rentals only once did AS come up with a cheaper rate then I found on my own and it was < $10 difference. I find it a waste of my time having to make a res then wait for the rate to arrive. Then when its way more then I found on my own I have to go CX the AS res
If you’re so sure you can get the get the best rate yourself, then just book that and then take a minute to enter the info for AS to track it just in case they find something lower.
So pleased to come across this post. I’ve saved around £200 GBP for a standard SUV by booking with Autoslash/Priceline. Had a small issue with Priceline because I’m in the UK but Autoslash stepped in and completed the booking for me. Brilliant service and they’re tracking my reservation to see if they can save me more money. Many thanks Sharon & Joe xx
What are the problems with E-Z and Advantage? I don’t rent cars often, and I\’m not sure I’ve ever used them. For my holiday travel this year, a rental isn’t absolutely necessary, but might be useful if I can find a good rate, and E-Z and Advantageare the only half-decent rates I’ve found so far.
I did some searching through old posts here, but couldn’t find anything.
With those two companies, it was a combination of their policies and customer service. The desks can be dreadfully understaffed leading to long lines and there’s no way to avoid the check-in desk. The sales pitch for the extras like insurance and fuel tend to be a higher pressure than other rental car places. So if the price for everyone else is restrictive, I’d just be ready for it if renting from them. Maybe book a non-prepaid rate and just keep a lookout with Autoslash to see if a lower rate anywhere else comes along.
Thanks! For now, I think I’m going to go with a combo of getting rides from family and using Lyft/Uber as a backup, but I”ll keep an eye out for a good rate, too, I’m looking at a week-long rental; E-Z and Advantage are at or just under 300, while all the others are 400+, so it’s a pretty significant difference.