My car rental tips and strategies are based on hundreds of rental car reservations—in the US and around the world. I love the freedom of having a rental car to explore new places but having a car is not always necessary or even advised.
Whether you are a beginner or expert traveler, it is well worth getting a handle on some basic car rental tips.
Learning how to save money, time, and stress on future car rentals will help you become a happier traveler.
Once you have mastered those basics, create fun vacations by incorporating some Savvy Car Rental Strategies or stealthy rental car tips.
Unfortunately, not every car rental is perfect. Be knowledgeable and prepared to deal with car rental problems and you will save a lot of time and aggravation (and maybe even a lot of money).
Some of my favorite car rental programs include:
- Autoslash—learn how to use Autoslash and let them find the best car rentals for you.
- Costco Travel—the lowest car rental rates are not always on Costco Travel but I do find myself reserving my rental cars there most of the time.
- Preferred Renter Program—belonging to the rental car company’s preferred program is a favorite car rental tip. Whether it is Avis Wizard, Hertz Gold, National Emerald Club, or any other car rental company, join them! They are free.
But I do not have ONE favorite car rental company or method to find low rental car rates. I remain flexible and resourceful and usually check different websites. See below for my typical car rental search process.
My car rentals secrets can help you save money, time, and stress on your next rental car. Read about some unexpected car rental tips and strategies which ended up saving me a ton of money—Travel Math and Rent More, Pay Less.
While renting a car from the airport is most common, there are plenty of other opportunities to use rental cars to create wonderful travel magic moments. I find myself renting cars from non-airport locations more often. Learn why you should also!
Car Rental Tips: How to Find the Best Rental Car Rates
Here are the steps I use most of the time to find the best car rental rates. My actions can vary according to the purpose of the trip and other factors.
- Find a baseline rate on Costco Travel. Only Costco members can book rental cars on their website but anyone can research the rates. Costco Travel only includes car rental rates from Alamo, Avis, Enterprise, and National.
- Check rental car rates on Hertz or other preferred car rental websites not included on Costco Travel.
- Compare Costco Travel rates with those directly from the company. For instance, if the best rental car scenario on Costco Travel is for Alamo, then check the same dates, times, car class, etc., on Alamo’s website.
- Make a rental car reservation. You can research car rental rates for hours and hours. But the above steps can take just a few minutes and likely uncovered a pretty good deal. Note: I only book rental car rates that can be canceled without penalty.
- Go to Autoslash and allow them to track your reservation. Autoslash works behind the scenes to find better rental car rates and they often do. I have saved thousands of dollars by doing this.
I like using Costco Travel to start my car rental search but sometimes also start with a more general search engine like Kayak or Expedia.
Discount codes are very important when researching car rental rates. Gather up your discount codes from AAA, AARP, work, alumni groups, and other places.
And if you have any car rental questions, let me know.
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