# "Name Your Own Price" car rentals on Priceline



## PamMo (Jan 7, 2011)

I always use Priceline for car rentals and usually can get a good deal. I've been trying to rent a car for our upcoming trip to Oahu, and Priceline has been very weird. The "Name Your Own Price" levels are HIGHER than the listed options. I've tried for several months, deleting cookies, but they keep refusing bids - advising that I need to offer rates almost double what they have listed elsewhere on their site. It doesn't make any sense. Definitely no deal with "Name Your Own Price" this time!!!


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## beach_bumz (Jan 7, 2011)

I have found the exact same thing. I bid every year and usually get a smokin deal, but obviously not this year.

I did get an unusually low rate for this April on a convertible through the Costco travel site....I believe it was one of their Alamo deals. I am still going to keep trying to name my own price and get it down even lower, but I'm not too hopeful this year.


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## Monty (Jan 7, 2011)

*Same results*

I concur we the two of you.. 

Having a world of trouble with Priceline and finding a deal for Kauai in Jan 2011.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jan 7, 2011)

PamMo said:


> I always use Priceline for car rentals and usually can get a good deal. I've been trying to rent a car for our upcoming trip to Oahu, and Priceline has been very weird. The "Name Your Own Price" levels are HIGHER than the listed options. I've tried for several months, deleting cookies, but they keep refusing bids - advising that I need to offer rates almost double what they have listed elsewhere on their site. It doesn't make any sense. Definitely no deal with "Name Your Own Price" this time!!!



Remember that the basic business model for "Name Your Own Price" is to move surplus inventory; suppliers give discounted inventory to Priceline when they believe it will be surplus inventory.

Ergo, if a supplier doesn't think it will have surplus inventory it won't release discounted inventory.  In that case, the only reason for them to give inventory to PL (or Hotwire) is for a *higher* price than what they can garner themselves, which is exactly what you are seeing.

This situation has been known for years among frequent PL users; one of the standard cautions is that one should never assume that PL will offer lower pricing than what can be obtained directly from a vendor.

In the last several years this has particularly been the case with car rentals, as car rental agencies have slimmed down their fleets. Their prices have increased significantly, and the frequency with which I find better deals on PL and HW has shrunk considerably.

++++++

The prices you see for straight rental are not the same inventory as on the Name Your Own price.  At the straight rental end of the site, PL is simply acting as an regular booking agent, the same as Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, carrentals.com, etc.  Even when using one of those sites to search rates I still always check directly with vendors because vendors will still often a fare that is less than what the aggregators show.


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## UWSurfer (Jan 8, 2011)

I'm still following these steps:

1st:  Work the offers and book a car via Costco.

2nd:  Check with various discounters including Mousesavers.com for codes, Discount Hawaii Car rental, Southwest airlines and anywhere else I might get a lead.

3rd: About 25 - 30 days from the rental date, make an offer through Priceline.

Needed a full size for our trip in Austin, Tx spanning over New Years for 6 days.  Best rate I could find was through Costco with Alamo for $269.   Couldn't find a better deal through the other sites mentioned, got an offer accepted through Priceline approx 28 days out for $208 with Avis.  Avis includes spouse as an included driver like Costco rentals do.

fyi...


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jan 8, 2011)

UWSurfer said:


> Needed a full size for our trip in Austin, Tx spanning over New Years for 6 days.  Best rate I could find was through Costco with Alamo for $269.   Couldn't find a better deal through the other sites mentioned, got an offer accepted through Priceline approx 28 days out for $208 with Avis.  Avis includes spouse as an included driver like Costco rentals do.
> 
> fyi...



Try looking for full seven day rentals.  One week rentals are often significantly less than 6-day rentals.  Go figure.


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## UWSurfer (Jan 8, 2011)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> Try looking for full seven day rentals.  One week rentals are often significantly less than 6-day rentals.  Go figure.



Most of the systems we looked at gave us a weekly rate even though we put in just the six days of the trip.


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## theajacob (Nov 22, 2011)

I have read that renting is typically $300-500 US per month, cars are in the $300-400 range.Pardon me for resurrecting this thread.I was searching for an affordable car rental cost.As far as I have known car rental is a better way to travel.I have also read an article a while ago entitled How to save money on holiday travel.Well, It simply goes to show that holiday travel could be cost effective by leasing a car.


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## ronandjoan (Nov 22, 2011)

I just was able to get a much better rate for a rental on the BI from autoslash.com

I read about it on TUG first!


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## DaveNV (Nov 22, 2011)

ronandjoan said:


> I just was able to get a much better rate for a rental on the BI from autoslash.com
> 
> I read about it on TUG first!




I just tried to see if I could improve on the Costco rental I have for Oahu over New Years week.  I found that the lowest autoslash.com prices were more than triple what I have through Costco.  And some quoted prices were five times higher.  Pretty outrageous numbers...   

Oh well - it was worth a shot.  

Dave


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## psuwalt (Nov 22, 2011)

*hotwire.com*

Right now I'm seeing $21 - $23 per day on the Big Island and Maui in September 2012 on Hotwire.com


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## ronandjoan (Nov 23, 2011)

BMWguynw said:


> I just tried to see if I could improve on the Costco rental I have for Oahu over New Years week.  I found that the lowest autoslash.com prices were more than triple what I have through Costco.  And some quoted prices were five times higher.  Pretty outrageous numbers...
> 
> Oh well - it was worth a shot.
> 
> Dave



Hi Dave
agreed, that happened to me too and I posted that.  And they answered back... and s IO signed up with them and it worked -- they offered me a much lower rate after all.....you have nothing to lose....here is their answer:



Hi folks, Jonathan from AutoSlash here. I just wanted to clear up some misconceptions on our service. Here's a quick description on how it works:

Did you ever watch a talk show where they interview some savvy shopper who cut their grocery bill down to a fraction of the cost by finding the best possible coupons? That's what AutoSlash does for car rentals. 

AutoSlash knows about all the best coupons and discount codes. After you book, we analyze your rental and figure out which ones lower your rate the most. Then we automatically apply those discounts and re-book you at the lowest rate.

That's only half the story though. What happens if rates drop after you book? How can you be sure that a better deal won't come along tomorrow? Well AutoSlash has you covered there as well.

AutoSlash re-prices your rental multiple times a day. If we find a better deal, we'll automatically re-book you to lock in the savings. It's like price protection for your rental.

For those of you who are comparing the rates you see on our site to your currently booked rentals, it's not really a good comparison. You really need to book to see how much we can save you. Sometimes it's $5 or sometimes $500. It really depends on how good of a discount we can find using our arsenal of discount codes.

Also keep in mind that while our rate could be higher right now, rates often drop significantly as the pickup date approaches, so it might be worthwhile to book with us (always free) and then see which reservation ends up being lower right before your trip. You can always cancel the higher one.

Feel free to PM me or send your confirmation number and last name for any existing rentals booked elsewhere (like Alamo.com) to track<at>autoslash.com if you'd like us to analyze your current rental to see if we can save you anything.

Hope this helps. Let me know if there are any questions.
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157678&highlight=autoslash


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