Thank You Tug - autoslash.com

[Chilcotin]

I am going to Palm Springs (Wyndham Indio) for two weeks at the end of February.

I was getting discouraged by the rental car costs. For the longest time I was at $494.49 for a midsize SUV for the two weeks (booked through Costco Travel with Budget Rent a Car).

I had read about autoslash.com on Tug and they have come through big time for me. My rate is now $285.15 (with Thrifty Rent a Car)...a savings of over $200 which at today's exchange rate is almost $300 Canadian.

I just want to thank the fellow Tuggers who posted about autoslash.com I would never have heard about it otherwise.

 

[gandalf252002]

You may want to check again even closer, and it doesn't have to be auto-slash. When I went to Palm Springs December 5-12 my rental car cost for a basic car was over $250. On a whim, about a week or two before leaving I decided to check Expedia again (same company I had already booked through).

Wouldn't you know it, I was now able to get something for $90 CAD through Thrifty. I was able to save over $150.

Can never say enough how important it is to get reservations that either have no cancellation fee, or we you don't pay up front. It is great insurance in case you can't find a better price, but gives you the option if you do.

 

[TUGBrian]

always great when TUG tips end up in real savings for members!

 

[Jimster]

autoslash

You may want to check again even closer, and it doesn't have to be auto-slash. When I went to Palm Springs December 5-12 my rental car cost for a basic car was over $250. On a whim, about a week or two before leaving I decided to check Expedia again (same company I had already booked through).

Wouldn't you know it, I was now able to get something for $90 CAD through Thrifty. I was able to save over $150.

Can never say enough how important it is to get reservations that either have no cancellation fee, or we you don't pay up front. It is great insurance in case you can't find a better price, but gives you the option if you do.

WAIT!! The whole point of autoslash is they check the rate every day. So you don't have to keep looking. If the rate is lower they rebook and notify you. That is not to say there might not be somewhere you can save another dollar but i value my time more than that! Autoslash gives you a corporate rate and can be used in conjunction with Costco to maximize perks. In the scenario you give, autoslash would have done the work for you.

 

[Luanne]

WAIT!! The whole point of autoslash is they check the rate every day. So you don't have to keep looking. If the rate is lower they rebook and notify you. That is not to say there might not be somewhere you can save another dollar but i value my time more than that! Autoslash gives you a corporate rate and can be used in conjunction with Costco to maximize perks.

I cancelled my most recent search with autoslash. They kept giving me updates, but done of them were less than the reservation I already had. So I just keep checking with Costco.

 

[Jimster]

autoslash

I cancelled my most recent search with autoslash. They kept giving me updates, but done of them were less than the reservation I already had. So I just keep checking with Costco.

ALSO WAIT! If you just give autoslash your costco rez they will do that for you too. You can restirct it to whatever you want. Below I will reprint the response from autoslash Note #3

Hi folks! AutoSlash here. We just wanted to help clear the air on 5 quick things related to our service for the TUG community:

1. A number of companies allow spouses to drive for free. We have a complete rundown of additional driver policies in this post on our blog.

2. Additional drivers (regardless of relationship) drive for free in California by law.

3. If you book with Costco initially and track the rental on our site, we will add the Costco discount into the mix as one of the ones we check automatically. If you need the additional driver and *ONLY* want us to use the Costco discount code when checking for lower rates you can email us to let us know.

4. Related to #3 above, if you are booked through AutoSlash using the Costco discount code, you get all the benefits would would normally get when booking directly at Costco.com including the free additional driver.

5. If you don't want to bother with booking elsewhere and tracking on our site, you can get a discounted rate quote across all companies by going to autoslash.com/quote.

 

[Luanne]

ALSO WAIT! If you just give autoslash your costco rez they will do that for you too. You can restirct it to whatever you want.

I had done that. At this point I don't think they can beat the Costco res (actually the two Costco reservations I have ). And I have the time, I don't mind checking. But, just for fun, I'll give them the most current Costco reservations and see what they can do.

 

[PaulT]

Autoslash does work … sort of!

WAIT!! The whole point of autoslash is they check the rate every day. So you don't have to keep looking. If the rate is lower they rebook and notify you. That is not to say there might not be somewhere you can save another dollar but i value my time more than that! Autoslash gives you a corporate rate and can be used in conjunction with Costco to maximize perks. In the scenario you give, autoslash would have done the work for you.

Last May, 6 of us went to Orlando so we wanted to rent a van to hold all of us. A few months before the trip I reserved a van at what I thought was a reasonable cost. I entered the reservation in to Autoslash’s system. 2-3 later they sent me a notice of a lower price, which I immediately booked and cancelled my original reservation. A few weeks before our arrival date I searched the web and found van rentals that were 20% lower than the rental Autoslash suggested. Autoslash NEVER contacted me about the lower rate. So if I had relied solely on Autoslash, I would have paid quite a bit more than the rental I rebooked. My point is that they provide a good service. But you aren’t always guaranteed the lowest price with them. So it behooves you to continue checking on your own.

 

[dioxide45]

I don't think AutoSlash works with all rental companies. They work on commission just like all the other places. They are only going to recommend a lower rate if it is with one of the companies that they are contracted to sell. They won't recommend a lower rate at a company that isn't one of their partner agencies.

As an example, I don't think they work with Alamo. You can provide them with an Alamo confirmation, but they will never recommend a lower Alamo rate. If you book a lower rate through AutoSlash, they will never come back to you if Alamo comes up with another rate lower than what you have booked with them.

 

[PaulT]

I don't think AutoSlash works with all rental companies. They work on commission just like all the other places. They are only going to recommend a lower rate if it is with one of the companies that they are contracted to sell. They won't recommend a lower rate at a company that isn't one of their partner agencies.

As an example, I don't think they work with Alamo. You can provide them with an Alamo confirmation, but they will never recommend a lower Alamo rate. If you book a lower rate through AutoSlash, they will never come back to you if Alamo comes up with another rate lower than what you have booked with them.

Understood. But my original reservation was with Budget. Their lower price notification was with Budget. My final reservation was with Budget. So something didn't quite work the way I expected it to with Autoslash.

Again, it pays to keep checking yourself. You never know when you might find a really good deal.

 

[MichaelColey]

I'm a super happy camper with AutoSlash. I don't always have time to watch for lower rates, but they check them every day.

On a recent trip to Vegas, they lowered the rate from $200 down to $90.

I just set up rentals for an upcoming Florida trip, and they've already lowered one by $30 and the other by $50.

 

[jtp1947]

They do work with Alamo. I had two rentals through AutoSlash with Budget. They sent me a lower rate with Alamo on both rentals.

 

[Jimster]

autoslash

If you read my post above quoting autoslash, they will work with whomever you like. If you want Hertz you can limit your search to Hertz. If you want Alamo you can limit your search to Alamo.

The reason I have posted about this many times is that there is sooooo much misinformation on here. People who haven't used it or haven't used it correctly keep posting. i've seen people report things like i went through autoslash and their rate was higher than i found when i looked on xyz website. Many people dont get it that they keep on searching and that the first quote is not the end. Of course, there are times when you can find an even lower rate somewhere but that is not the norm. If you dont have anything better to do with your time, keep looking. But you always make the autoslash rez too. Because it doesn't do any harm to do that. The worst that can happen is they notify you of a better rate.

 

[MichaelColey]

I would also like to point out that their customer service is INCREDIBLY fast. Because of my status with National (where I can choose any car on the Executive Aisle for the price of a mid-size), I usually limit my search to them. When I get the tracking email from Autoslash, I respond to it asking that they change the search to just match National. I normally get a response WITHIN MINUTES letting me know that it's changed!

 

[Icc5]

Did you re-enter the info.

Last May, 6 of us went to Orlando so we wanted to rent a van to hold all of us. A few months before the trip I reserved a van at what I thought was a reasonable cost. I entered the reservation in to Autoslash’s system. 2-3 later they sent me a notice of a lower price, which I immediately booked and cancelled my original reservation. A few weeks before our arrival date I searched the web and found van rentals that were 20% lower than the rental Autoslash suggested. Autoslash NEVER contacted me about the lower rate. So if I had relied solely on Autoslash, I would have paid quite a bit more than the rental I rebooked. My point is that they provide a good service. But you aren’t always guaranteed the lowest price with them. So it behooves you to continue checking on your own.

What I have found is Autoslash works best when you re-enter the new information each time you change so they always have the last, cheaper rental to start a new search. They have worked fine for me several different times.