Car rentals in Hawaii

[DVCTigger]

Does anyone have recommendations as to where I start my search for the best deal on rental cars in Hawaii? We will be on the big island for a week before our 8 nights at Aulani!! Woo Hoo!! I have been to Hawaii six different times, but all have been to Waikiki for work. This will be my first Hawaiian vacation. DH and I going for our 25th anniversary Aug '14. Any advise would be appreciated!
TIA

 

[tfc3rid]

Does anyone have recommendations as to where I start my search for the best deal on rental cars in Hawaii? We will be on the big island for a week before our 8 nights at Aulani!! Woo Hoo!! I have been to Hawaii six different times, but all have been to Waikiki for work. This will be my first Hawaiian vacation. DH and I going for our 25th anniversary Aug '14. Any advise would be appreciated!
TIA

All the big companies are there but NEVER stop looking for deals... I'm going this weekend and first booked rental SUV 3 months ago for $400 for a week... 2 weeks ago booked it for $170...

Never stop looking for a better price.

 

[DVCTigger]

All the big companies are there but NEVER stop looking for deals... I'm going this weekend and first booked rental SUV 3 months ago for $400 for a week... 2 weeks ago booked it for $170...

Never stop looking for a better price.

We have lots of time, so I can do that. Can you tell me where you found such a great deal?

 

[tfc3rid]

We have lots of time, so I can do that. Can you tell me where you found such a great deal?

I kept looking everywhere. Priceline or kayak to check on prices but my booking is direct through Alamo.

 

[parrotheadlois]

Back in March, we booked through Costco - had a Jeep (regular Jeep maybe a Patriot?) for 11 days for about $175 - fabulous deal!

 

[ludari]

I had booked with Enterprise using my corporate code to get a better discount but a few weeks later I looked at Costco and it was an even better deal so I booked with them.

 

[Dean]

Costco Travel is the best I've seen. Second is http://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com . I think both waive the second driver and under 25 charges/preclusions in many situations.

 

[amym2]

I ended up getting the best rate through an Entertainment Card discount using Enterprise. I booked and canceled multiple reservations using Discount Hawaii car rentals as well as Enterprise right up until about 2 wks before our trip.

I had originally booked at $260 for a full size for 5 nights but ended up paying $124 including taxes and fees.

 

[Cinderpamela]

I usually always find that Costco Travel has the lowest prices.... but recently there was a thread here on the DIS that listed some different rental car coupon codes. I tried one of the codes for our Christmas time rental on Oahu and it wound up saving me $300 off the lowest Costco rental price.
Check out the thread here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3179180

 

[DVCTigger]

These are all great tips! Lots of research ahead of me, but now I have a better idea of what to do! Thanks again!

 

[Anal Annie]

When I was planning our trip I looked pretty much weekly and made the rounds through several diff. sites including KLM and directly with a couple of agencies. In my experience Costco was one of the higher sites (for August). I ended up booking our rental for Maui (that island is always high) through discounthawaiirentals.com and snagged a bid on Priceline for a car on Oahu (I got a std. size car through National for like $15 or 16 / day + fees even tho it said that the bid was too low to be accepted). I agree that unless you book something at a rate you're happy with and have to pre-pay that you should keep looking all the time for deals.

 

[Dean]

When I was planning our trip I looked pretty much weekly and made the rounds through several diff. sites including KLM and directly with a couple of agencies. In my experience Costco was one of the higher sites (for August). I ended up booking our rental for Maui (that island is always high) through discounthawaiirentals.com and snagged a bid on Priceline for a car on Oahu (I got a std. size car through National for like $15 or 16 / day + fees even tho it said that the bid was too low to be accepted). I agree that unless you book something at a rate you're happy with and have to pre-pay that you should keep looking all the time for deals.

The thing about costco is you see the up and downs. A car might be $500 this morning and $100 tonight.

 

[pate59]

Having been a veteran of a few Hawaiian trips, I've learned to book a.s.a.p. with a rate you are comfortable with and just keep checking for a lower rate.
I booked for Maui last March for this coming February. Very busy time of year and car companies can actually "sell out" of cars. Originally booked through Island Air's website via their car rentals. Found their discount code was the best around (using Budget). Just recently we booked one night @ the Aulani while we are on Oahu and in need of an one day car rental and when through
carrentalsavers.com/hawaii and found for both Maui and Oahu the rate was even
less. Saved another $50.00 on our 8 day rental in Maui (same company-Budget) and that pays for our 1 day rental in Oahu.

 

[gonzalj1]

Does anyone have recommendations as to where I start my search for the best deal on rental cars in Hawaii? We will be on the big island for a week before our 8 nights at Aulani!! Woo Hoo!! I have been to Hawaii six different times, but all have been to Waikiki for work. This will be my first Hawaiian vacation. DH and I going for our 25th anniversary Aug '14. Any advise would be appreciated!
TIA

We used dicounthawaiicarrental.com as others have noted and also kept checking the rates using the codes available at mousesavers.com.

I also agree to keep checking. We saw our rate fluctuate several times before we got there and ended up woth our best rate about 3 weeks out.

 

[hopemax]

We started out using the discountHawaii site, but it worked out to be the same price through the Enterprise website, so we just booked with Enterprise directly. We needed a full-size since we had to drive our in-laws around for the first part of our trip. The full-size ended up being cheaper than the Economy anyway, so look at all the price categories.

 

[jerseygal]

Have a minivan booked for 7 days and 4 hours, code X474200, for $413.43!!!!!! That INCLUDES all tax and service fees, etc!:cool1

Someone on the boards posted that code and it WORKED! THANKS AGAIN FOR THAT TIPE!

Good luck booking!

 

[LD500]

We are headed to Aulani in a week and first booked a minivan for exactly 7 days for about $380 including 1 child seat and all taxes. Since then we've rebooked a few times after finding cheaper rates. Currently our reservation was booked thru Costco about 8 days ago, we got a minivan with 1 child seat at Alamo for $194 including all taxes. I couldn't believe that rate came up. That was around $130 without the child seat. Unlimited miles and 2nd driver included. The best we got before that price popped up was $240.

Sure made our decision easy not to bother with single day rentals at the Aulani location for over $100 per day.

Since the 2 or 3 days that rate was up the best we saw was about $300 incl child seat and all taxes.

 

[LD500]

I should add that Nov is MUCH quieter than Aug so the rates obviously will be higher. The idea is to book a car then keep checking as they swing wildly.

 

[Dean]

I should add that Nov is MUCH quieter than Aug so the rates obviously will be higher. The idea is to book a car then keep checking as they swing wildly.

Our last trip was 3 weeks in July, busier than Aug. We paid right around $200 a week for a car. That was 1 full size, 1 Premium (upgraded from full size) and 1 standard (less than $200). This was 2012 so not that long ago.

 

[DisneyBride'03]

Anyone ever book thru Expedia? Got a rate for full size with Advantage for $204 out the door.
Budget via Costco was $260 total

(Weekly rate quotes)