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Las Vegas Forum: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

Tampa...
52 forum posts
 Can you bargain with car rental companies? 

I'd really like to rent from Thrifty when we go to Vegas in march but so far the best deal is 10.95 a day from Hotwire. Is it worth it to call up Thrifty and see if they will match that rate, or will I get just a screen reader at their res center that will just quote me regular price? Any thoughts or strategies?

CA
9,962 forum posts
1. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

Isn't Hotwire one of those opaque sites where you don't know the company until after you bid? And it is then pre-paid and non-refundable?

Why would any company match that with a refundable reservation?

What are your dates in March - I usually rent from Thrifty and find their {{Hot Deals}} to be very competitive.

YWG/41 miles...
403 forum posts
2. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

Priceline locks you in. Non refundable.

Hotwire cars are just like a search engine.

The Hotwire price of 10.95 is Thrifty's price.

South Pacific
2,497 forum posts
3. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

$10.95/day is pretty good!! Are you sure you want to try and get it even cheaper??

Tampa...
52 forum posts
4. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

Warmwinds:

Yes Hotwire is just like priceline except they show you what the price is before hand.

Because they get all of my money and don’t have to split it with hotwire.

14th – 21st. There hot deals are only a couple dollars cheaper.

DavidBrent:

Nope Hotwire is just like priceline except they show you what the price is before hand, no bidding.

Umaga:

Don't necessarily want them to beat it just match it I think that is a fair price for a car.

Corona, CA
113 forum posts
5. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

$11.00 is a great rate for a car in Vegas.

Thrifty is one of the worst car rental places to rent from in Vegas.

Tampa...
52 forum posts
6. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

What is so bad about Thrifty? I rent from them all the time and ive never had a problem.

Park Forest...
7,169 forum posts
7. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

With Hotwire, sometimes you can get a search result, other times they blind book you into their best offer. My experience has been that when you get a search result showing all the companies and their pricing up front, then that rate tends to be available direct from the vendor. If it's not, I think it would be worth a shot calling and seeing if they would match. You would need to call Thrifty in Vegas, though, and not the call center. The call center will probably just jerk you around.

YWG/41 miles...
403 forum posts
8. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

Err. CoasterJoe you have no idea what yer talking about.

In regards to CAR rentals ONLY.

Priceline and Hotwire are COMPLETELY different animals.

They are not the same at all.

Hotwire is completely cancelable. They do not ask for a credit card. Just your name. Exactly like a car rental web site. They will give you a list of prices for different car classes and they will fully disclose which agency you are renting from.

Priceline won't tell you who you are renting from and will charge your credit card immediately/ non refundable.

There is nothing wrong with Thrifty at LAS.

I booked a Wild Car for $8 per day and drove out of there with a Crysler 300.

Douglasville...
165 forum posts
9. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

CoasterJoe,

Are you renting for the weekend?

I'm curious b/c I've been waiting (impatiently) for rates to go down for rental in Feb. I've about decided that we got our killer rates last time b/c it was over the weekend. This time we're renting M-F and the cheapest I can see is $24/day for economy. I'm getting frustrated waiting for $10.95 or so!!

Newbury...
110 forum posts
10. Re: Can you bargain with car rental companies?

DavidBrent says

Hotwire is completely cancelable.

Sorry, just joined this thread, but I just tried Hotwire and when booking it quite clearly shows it is 'final, no refunds'.

Other than that the prices are really cheap, probably half the cost of deals on offer in the UK.