Help! Using Hotwire for car rentals -- question

[Cathyb]

I took the huge step and used Hotwire for the first time but have a question or maybe two:

1. After commiting on Hotwire and getting a Budget car rental confirmation number I went to the Budget website, typed up my confirmation number and saw my reservation -- but no where was the terms; i.e., the price of the rental. Is that normal?

2. Will I get something in my email from Budget? So far nothing has arrived.

Just a little nervous since this is my first time I took the plunge

Thanks for anything to make me not worry

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I took the huge step and used Hotwire for the first time but have a question or maybe two:

1. After commiting on Hotwire and getting a Budget car rental confirmation number I went to the Budget website, typed up my confirmation number and saw my reservation -- but no where was the terms; i.e., the price of the rental. Is that normal?

You're fine. I'm pretty sure that Budget doesn't show any price because there is no money owed them - from their vantage, it's a pre-paid reservation. Also, per my answer to #2 below - you are not renting from Budget, you are renting from Hotwire.

2. Will I get something in my email from Budget? So far nothing has arrived.

No. The confirmation you get is from Hotwire. Budget doesn't send you anything because you didn't rent from them; you rented from Hotwire.

Just a little nervous since this is my first time I took the plunge

Thanks for anything to make me not worry

Don't worry. It may seem scary, but pretty soon it will seem old hat. Just like things were when people started printing boarding passes instead of getting them at a counter.

When that started, my wife was nervous about printing out boarding passes - she knew how the old system worked and wasn't sure the new system could be trusted. Now she gets nervous if she leaves the house without the boarding pass already in hand.

It was like that for me at first with PL and HW - wondering whether that confirmation from the PL or HW instead of directly from the vendor would actually be honored. I've been doing PL and HW for at least eight years now without a single problem.

 

[nightnurse613]

The first time we used Hotwire I had the same questions. Steve is exactly correct. This deal is between you and Hotwire EXCEPT you will have to go to the Budget desk to get your package, show your ID, etc. When I got back I thought I would pay cash (since I usually use a credit card to confirm a reservation) but I forgot I had already been charged for the car. They gave it a quick once over and away I went. What really irritated me was I had tried to book with AVIS and their rate was double the price I got from Hotwire for the same car from AVIS. Happy motoring.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

…What really irritated me was I had tried to book with AVIS and their rate was double the price I got from Hotwire for the same car from AVIS. Happy motoring.

That's pretty typical in my experience, and of course that's the reason to use PL and HW.

Three or four years ago I experienced a period for a couple of years where the car rental companies were consistently about the same price as PL and HW for the rentals I do. But for the last couple of years, the rental companies have started giving inventory to PL and HW for significantly less.

 

[Cathyb]

Steve & NightNurse: Thank you for your comforting information! I haven't had the guts to do Priceline yet. Using Hotwire was a huge step for conservative Cathy

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Steve & NightNurse: Thank you for your comforting information! I haven't had the guts to do Priceline yet. Using Hotwire was a huge step for conservative Cathy

Just remember - renting a car through PL and HW is exactly the same renting a car through a travel agent, a tour operator, or any other entity in which you pay the middleman and the middleman passes it through.

I actually have a lot more confidence with a rental made through PL or HW than I would with almost any travel agency or tour operator. It's even better when you can go on-line and actually see the reservation in their system, as you did. Then you know for sure that the transaction has been completed all the way through to the vendor.

 

[AwayWeGo]

3 Cylinders. (Sheesh.)

One time an Avis lady tried to psych us out of our el cheapo PriceLine car.

"Oh, you have a PriceLine economy reservation," she said. "That's for 1 of our 3-cylinder Metro economy cars. For only $10 per day additional, I can upgrade you to a nice compact car with air conditioning & everything."

"No, thanks," I said. "We'll take the 3 cylinders."

When we stepped off the Avis bus at the car pick-up lot, our el cheapo car turned out to be a nice & newish Ford Focus -- 4 cylinders, air conditioning, power windows & locks, the whole package. I doubt they had any 3-cylinder Metro cars anywhere on the lot. Sheesh.

That was the only time a car rental person has reacted with disdain when we've shown up with an el cheapo HotWire or PriceLine reservation.

Usually, we use HotWire or some site like Car Rentals Dot Com to establish a bargain baseline, then see if we can beat that via PriceLine. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I have found that the major car rental agencies will always try to get you to upgrade at the counter if they don't have the car class you reserved. If you learn to just say "no:, quite often as they complete the reservation they will say they don't have the car you reserved and they upgraded you for free.

Last time that happened was last summer on Moloka'i, when we were upgraded from a compact to a mini-van. The mini-van was nice as there we now had an added couple and the compact would probably have been too small.

 

[RumpleMom]

I have used Hotwire to rent cars several times and have been very happy.

I called Avis on the phone and told the fellow I was trying to rent a car the old fashioned way, before going to the computer, so please give me his best price. Got a price, then went to Hotwire to check the deal, I purchased through Hotwire and saved $125. It turned out to be Avis too!

Most recently, the prices haven't been so great on Hotwire. I tried Priceline twice and had my bids rejected. Southwest sent an email with car rental deals for select cities. I saved $75 by going through Southwest, rather than Hotwire.

Also used Kayak once, and got a great deal. I was able to use the Entertainment card rate and a coupon.

I had a really good chuckle when the Hertz person looked at my Hotwire price and said wow, you got a really good deal!!!

I wonder if Hotwire keeps track of my past purchases and no longer offers me the best prices? Any thoughts about computer cookies?

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I have used Hotwire to rent cars several times and have been very happy.

I called Avis on the phone and told the fellow I was trying to rent a car the old fashioned way, before going to the computer, so please give me his best price. Got a price, then went to Hotwire to check the deal, I purchased through Hotwire and saved $125. It turned out to be Avis too!

Most recently, the prices haven't been so great on Hotwire. I tried Priceline twice and had my bids rejected. Southwest sent an email with car rental deals for select cities. I saved $75 by going through Southwest, rather than Hotwire.

Also used Kayak once, and got a great deal. I was able to use the Entertainment card rate and a coupon.

I had a really good chuckle when the Hertz person looked at my Hotwire price and said wow, you got a really good deal!!!

I wonder if Hotwire keeps track of my past purchases and no longer offers me the best prices? Any thoughts about computer cookies?

Hotwire keeps track of you via the credit card you use and your sign-in name.

Car rental savings seem to come and go on HW, and it's location and time specific. You haven't been getting good deals lately, whereas I've been getting some great ones in the last couple of years (including the last couple of months) after a long period of drought.

***

The other day on HW I noticed an interesting thing. I ran HW to get an offer, and they gave me a price and had an announcement that it was a special deal (and a very good price). Meanwhile, I went to check some other other sites for pricing and closed the HW window. When I went back to HW later, it didn't offer me the same price as previously. So I used my browser history to go back to the previous session where I had been offered the better price. It came up again, and I completed the transaction at that price.

 

[abbekit]

I wonder if Hotwire keeps track of my past purchases and no longer offers me the best prices? Any thoughts about computer cookies?

Hotwire definitely keeps track of what rates they quote you by putting cookies on your computer. I recently was trying to find good car rental rates for Las Vegas. I checked Hotwire and got $11.95 for an economy. Went back the next day and it had jumped to $14.95. Checked again on a different computer and there was the $11.95 rate. Cleared the cookies on my first computer and the rate went back down to $11.95. Kept playing with this just to see what would happen and each time I didn't clear the cookies the rate went up anywhere from an extra dollar or more. When I cleared the cookies the rate went back down.

 

[JackieD]

If you have the Entertainment Book, there's a $5.00 off towards one car rental (also $20 flight, $10 hotel, packages $50) you have to use the link in the book and send in the coupon. Not worth the hassle to some but $5.00 is credited to credit card in 6-8 weeks.

I also found that different times of day the rate changes. Usually late at night it would come down.