How to save on a rental car?
What are some tips/tricks to save money on rental cars? I'm appalled at how much they charge these days. We're flying to Denver International on June 27 and would be ready to pick up a car at the airport around 1:30pm. We're departing July 2 and could return it around noon. I'm not seeing a lot of savings between the various companies or between car sizes! We prefer to rent a fullsize car.
Are there things we can tweak to save some money? Like picking one up an hour later, returning it an hour earlier, picking up/returning away from the airport, delaying pickup for a day.....???
And what are companies to avoid? Here are the ones available at DIA:
http://www.flydenver.com/gt/rental.asp
I'm not talking about saving $20; I would like to chop a good amount off the total cost!
Priceline! Good tip. Unfortunately the dates are set and I can't change. But perhaps that explains it!
Sign up for newsletters from different rental car companies. I get some emails from Enterprise, and they often send coupons for a certain percentage off local and airport rentals. That helps me out alot. Also, renting a smaller size car will save you money. I always rent out economy size cars. It's only me traveling and I don't need a big car and I want to save on gas. Another tip is to not travel close to or on holidays. July 2 is too close to July 4, and that's when rental cars are more expensive. You can check out priceline and see if you can bid on a car, but I don't think you're going to get anything cheap because you're traveling near July 4.
