car rental price discrepancies

[moonstone]

DD has booked a flight to meet us in Florida next month. Since we are driving (from Belize) and not driving anywhere near MCO she will rent a car and meet us in St Augustine. I sent her all the discount rental websites I use. The cheapest rate DD could find was approx. $240 US for the week. I went on the exact same web site she did, put in the exact same info and got a price of $119 US for the exact same car. That is a huge difference! The car is booked through Budget so not some little mom & pop agency. DD even cleared/deleted all her browsing history & cookies and it made no difference to the price.

Does being in a different country (I am in Belize, DD is in Canada) when booking give you different prices? I've never experienced that much of a difference before. We have seen a $10-20 difference in hotel rooms between us, but this is huge!

Needless to say I booked the car for her (in her name with all her info)! Now I'm wondering what other shopping I can do online while I'm here.


~Diane

 

[Jan M.]

Were you checking the same day that she checked the prices? Car rental rates change all the time, even within the same day, but that is a huge price difference!

 

[moonstone]

Were you checking the same day that she checked the prices? Car rental rates change all the time, even within the same day, but that is a huge price difference!

Yes we were both on the same website at the same time, messaging back & forth on what we were seeing via fb pm's.

 

[DeniseM]

Is your daughter under 25?

 

[moonstone]

Is your daughter under 25?

Haha I wish! Our 'baby' will be 29 in June!

Katie moved back home 4yrs ago after 6 yrs of University so she could pay off her loans (last payment was in Jan.) & save a down payment for a home. She got a great job (& salary) near us right out of University. Katie still likes to join us on vacations as well as take many others with friends & other family members. She flew down here to Belize 6 weeks ago for a visit. Travelling is in her blood!

~Diane

 

[Jimster]

To answer your question, yes being in a different country may offer a different price. This is also true of airfares.

 

[1st Class]

Depending on the device you are using, results will vary. We've accidentally tested a theory based on a study conducted a few years ago by Northeastern University in Boston. Click here to read about the study. Using an apple laptop vs. iphone vs. chromebook, the prices we compared were completely different each time. This was after clearing cookies, etc. and even using incognito mode.

 

[Jimster]

Depending on the device you are using, results will vary. We've accidentally tested a theory based on a study conducted a few years ago by Northeastern University in Boston. Click here to read about the study. Using an apple laptop vs. iphone vs. chromebook, the prices we compared were completely different each time. This was after clearing cookies, etc. and even using incognito mode.

But it is not only about shopping and computer devices. The currency being used is also determinative. In a country like thailand where it is about 30 baht to a dollar or the Philippines where it is almost 50 P to the dollar, prices in US dollars would have few takers so the price is different. Sometimes a country also has regulations which change the price or even promotions that alter the price. You see this often in health care. You can have the same operation sometimes with even the same staff in another country for a fraction of the cost here.

We have to caution ourselves about thinking the world is the United States. The thing about foreign countries is they are FOREIGN. That means you can't apply US thinking to another country because they are not the US. After i rolled my rental car and totaled it in New Zealand, I stayed in the hospital. OMG you say how much did that cost? Answer- Nothing. They have socialized medicine. Just because it would have cost a fortune here, doesnt mean it would there. Incidentally thats why I hate it when the first words out of American tourist traveling is "Where can I rent a car?" That's not how many foreign countries get around. Americans have had a love affair with the automobile for so long they can't even conceive of travel without one.