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costco car rental - when to reserve?

J

JulieAB

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2006
Messages
907
Reaction score
97
Resorts Owned
Lifetime in Hawaii, Disney's Grand Californian
How far in advance can you reserve a car with costco? Just got this message: "No results were found for your search criteria. Please revise your search and try again. For assistance, please call 1-866-921-7925." I'm trying to rent from OGG.

Also curious anyone's technique for reserving even though you don't have flight reservations yet? Seems rebooking risks the rate going up.
 
Since everyone had raved about Costco prices, I checked there last week. Ended up that my usual discounthawaiicarrentals.com was $100 less for a week on Maui in January.
 
I personally find Costco car rental to be the best in terms of price and selection and features

Perhaps you can find a cheaper deal, but it may be an older car, may need payment up front, and may limit you to only one driver, or is a no-name company
 
This time around Costco is not providing me with great rates for Florida in January. Does discounthawaiicarrentals.com have a site that does car rentals for the mainland states?
 
Sugarcubesea said:
This time around Costco is not providing me with great rates for Florida in January. Does discounthawaiicarrentals.com have a site that does car rentals for the mainland states?
Click to expand...

Yes. Discount USA Car Rental. There is a link from the Discount Hawaii web page. http://www.discountusacarrental.com

I've found the prices and services to vary widely, so be sure to do your research.

Dave
 
Getting car rental rates is a crap shoot. What works one time may not work the next. My suggestions:

  1. Book as soon as you know your flights.
  2. Try Costco, Discount Hawaii (or their alternative for the mainland)
  3. Use AutoSlash to monitor your rentals.
  4. Even if you use AutoSlash check back with the other sites. I've found several times that Costco will eventually beat the other rental sites.
 
JulieAB said:
How far in advance can you reserve a car with costco? Just got this message: "No results were found for your search criteria. Please revise your search and try again. For assistance, please call 1-866-921-7925." I'm trying to rent from OGG.

Also curious anyone's technique for reserving even though you don't have flight reservations yet? Seems rebooking risks the rate going up.
Click to expand...

Julie, how far out are you trying to book? I have a Maui rental reserved for next May. I'd think something inside the next year should show up. Unless you're asking for a vehicle type they don't provide?

As to the technique for reserving, check the normal flight times for when you think you'd arrive on the island, and reserve within reason after that time frame. For me, flying direct from Seattle, flights land around 1:30PM. Due to work schedules, we always fly on Saturday. So I made the car reservation pickup for 2:00PM before booking my flights. By the time I deplane, collect bags, and make my way to the car rental lot, it'll be about 2:00, presuming the flight isn't late. I've done this sort of thing for years, and have never been unable to get my car on arrival. Since there is no penalty for having multiple reservations, you could even book more than one, if you think your flights arrival times may be widely different.

The trick, of course, is to keep checking back with Costco for changes in car rental rates. Since I made my reservation a month ago, I've already rebooked twice when the rate dropped. Not by a lot, but a few bucks is a few bucks. Do that enough, and it's lunch, or more, saved.

Hope this helps,
Dave
 
JulieAB said:
How far in advance can you reserve a car with costco? Just got this message: "No results were found for your search criteria. Please revise your search and try again. For assistance, please call 1-866-921-7925." I'm trying to rent from OGG.

Also curious anyone's technique for reserving even though you don't have flight reservations yet? Seems rebooking risks the rate going up.
Click to expand...

We have always used Costco for reserving our rental cars, including in Hawaii. I usually book it once we have our flights arranged. Then I check the site again from time to time to see if the rates go down, which they always have. They do fluctuate back and forth.

For instance, we fly to Maui next month. The car rental started at $396 (12/7/16) and has gone as low as $267 (7/9/17), and is now back up close to where it started. I will continue checking until our departure date in a few weeks. I also checked on autoslash.com and haven't seen anything better there.

Good luck.

Mike
 
DaveNW said:
Julie, how far out are you trying to book? I have a Maui rental reserved for next May. I'd think something inside the next year should show up. Unless you're asking for a vehicle type they don't provide?

As to the technique for reserving, check the normal flight times for when you think you'd arrive on the island, and reserve within reason after that time frame. For me, flying direct from Seattle, flights land around 1:30PM. Due to work schedules, we always fly on Saturday. So I made the car reservation pickup for 2:00PM before booking my flights. By the time I deplane, collect bags, and make my way to the car rental lot, it'll be about 2:00, presuming the flight isn't late. I've done this sort of thing for years, and have never been unable to get my car on arrival. Since there is no penalty for having multiple reservations, you could even book more than one, if you think your flights arrival times may be widely different.

The trick, of course, is to keep checking back with Costco for changes in car rental rates. Since I made my reservation a month ago, I've already rebooked twice when the rate dropped. Not by a lot, but a few bucks is a few bucks. Do that enough, and it's lunch, or more, saved.

Hope this helps,
Dave
Click to expand...
June 23, 2018. Maybe it's a fluke?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
JulieAB said:
June 23, 2018. Maybe it's a fluke?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I've booked out to April 2018 and I made that reservation awhile ago, through Costco.

I just went in and put in a pick up date for OGG starting June 23, 2018 through June 30 and got a selection of cars.
 
JulieAB said:
How far in advance can you reserve a car with costco? Just got this message: "No results were found for your search criteria. Please revise your search and try again. For assistance, please call 1-866-921-7925." I'm trying to rent from OGG.

Also curious anyone's technique for reserving even though you don't have flight reservations yet? Seems rebooking risks the rate going up.
Click to expand...
I've been getting that error when I price check a reservation I already have (for this November, made in June). It seems to happen with Chrome. I was able to do the same search in safari on my iPhone and not only found cars, but they were cheaper that my previous reservation.

I tend to book as soon as I have my flight reservations. Rebooking in and of itself should't raise your rate (because just keep your first booking until you have a cheaper one, then cancel the more expensive). However, you run into an issue if your flight times don't align with your reservations, because if it varies too much, it can be repriced at the counter (or when you return the car).

Now, I've never had an issue returning a car 2 hours early, but I have heard of people who claim that is an issue. Also, one rental counter wouldn't let me pick up a car 5 minutes early (although, that was after being at the counter, being quoted a rate, then going online while he was talking, booking a cheaper rate at the next "round number" pickup time, and then the guy made me wait in line again to pick it up - could have just been a battle of wills lol). Another time, I booked the rental for 10pm instead of 10am, and that wasn't an issue (Alamo), but my rental return time was also moved up 12 hours b/c it was a "4 day 0 hour" return. If I was late to that one, I would have had to pay the hourly rate over.
 
I have a July 2018 rental through Costco which I made in August of of this year.
 
I book with Costco and then continually check the rate up until the day before we pick up the car... I have sometimes rebooked the reservation 6+ times for a lower rate, saving $100's... and sometimes the rate can change within the same day.
 
I book on Costco as soon as I reserve the flight, then periodically check - more frequently as my travel date nears. For example, in an upcoming trip for 10/7, my first reservation made about 8 mos ago was $567 (ouch). I checked weekly over the next six months and caught a couple of minor reductions. Now, within the past month, I've rebooked probably six times or more, with the latest being today for $340. I will check at least once a day from now until the day before the trip - as NWTRVLRS says, the rate can change within the same day.
 
Perhaps I am not doing this right, but every time I check Costco the price is much higher than I can get on Autoslash/Priceline. And when I find a rate that is good elsewhere, Autoslash is able to reduce it when I track it with their service.

A little more hassle when they added Priceline, but now getting accustomed to re-adding the new reservation in Autoslash after rebooking the lower rate on Priceline. But still a lot less hassle than continually checking Costco. Priceline also has all of my auto reservations in one place which is nice as well.
 
We just use discountcarhawaiirentals and bookk way ahead and recheck a couple times. Is it really worth the time and hassle to check multiple sites to save very little money?
 
cgeidl said:
We just use discountcarhawaiirentals and bookk way ahead and recheck a couple times. Is it really worth the time and hassle to check multiple sites to save very little money?
Click to expand...
Yes. Sometimes it's not just "very little money", it can be a significant savings.

To go back to the original thought, or question, I've found lately that AutoSlash, using Priceline, has been coming up with the lower prices lately. I still check Costco, and sometimes use that to find a lower price through Costco.

I have NEVER found a cheaper price using discounthawaii.
 
cgeidl said:
We just use discountcarhawaiirentals and bookk way ahead and recheck a couple times. Is it really worth the time and hassle to check multiple sites to save very little money?
Click to expand...

It depends on what you consider "very little money." Yes, ten or twenty dollars on a week's rental isn't much, but when you can repeatedly save that ten or twenty dollars, you can put a LOT of money back into your pocket. Why pay more than you have to for something? To me, that savings is worth it.

My current reservation for a convertible in Hawaii for this Spring is about $40 cheaper than when I first made the reservation. That's lunch or a modest dinner for two anywhere. I will continue to check around, and rebook every time I find a lower price. But that's just me.

Dave
 
Remember when comparing prices that Costco includes your spouse in the price.

Check frequently. For my trip to Marriott Desert Springs Villas, I was able to save $200.00 over the initial booking price at PSP.
 
Always check RCI and SFX for car rentals, and also check the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal. I book most of my car rentals through the Chase portal because lucky me, I always have enough points to book cars with nothing out-of-pocket. I feel very fortunate.
 
I love the Chase rewards portal. Haven't tried them for cars but have used them to book tours and airline tickets with points. They also offer points and cash too.
 
Luanne said:
Yes. Sometimes it's not just "very little money", it can be a significant savings.

To go back to the original thought, or question, I've found lately that AutoSlash, using Priceline, has been coming up with the lower prices lately. I still check Costco, and sometimes use that to find a lower price through Costco.

I have NEVER found a cheaper price using discounthawaii.
Click to expand...

This is the same for us. We never find a better price on Discount Hawaii. I find my better deals are through the Costco, Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal, RCI and SFX, believe it or not.
 
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