Where to Compare Car Rental Prices Online

Booking a rental car for out of town travel can sometimes be a tricky proposition. Before the advent of the Internet, rental cars had to be booked with travel agents, or the customer would have to call a variety of rental agencies in order to get a price before reserving a car. This was a messy and time-consuming way to make a reservation. Along with booking online airline reservations, car rentals have finally made it into the 21^st Century. There are some useful tips if you would like to get the best deal for your rental car.

First of all, when I need to make a rental car reservation, I usually open at least three browser windows. My favorite place to start is with Upromise (www.upromise.com). With two kids in college, Upromise offers the site user a rebate on any purchases made through the site. (For those without children with impending college tuition, there are similar consumer sites, such as MyPoints.com, where a portion of every dollar spent goes into an account that can be redeemed later for gift cards.) Upromise features a travel page, where one can find links to various travel services, such as Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, and Orbitz, among others. There are also links to actual car rental agencies, like Avis.

In another window, I may open up the actual car rental agency's web site. While opening up the Avis site from Upromise may look exactly the same as the direct web site, I have noticed there may be slight variations in the actual rental price, even though the sites are basically the same.

In a third window, I may open up a discount web site like Priceline. The difference between Priceline and the traditional car rental sites is that you can set your own price. You can gauge how much to ask for by noting how much the other sites are asking for a daily rate.

Recently, I had to book a car rental for an upcoming trip to San Francisco. I happen to like Avis very much, and belong to their frequent user club. This allows me to pick up my car without having to stand in line with the rest of the travelers who just got off my plane. They also keep my credit car information on file, which makes checking in a breeze.

However, in this case, Avis was way out of line when it came to price. A subcompact was going for over $35 a day. I found a comparable car on Travelocity, but it was still $25 a day. Then I decided to give Priceline a try, at first giving a lowball figure of $10 a day. That was not going to happen in a busy market like San Francisco, so I raised my per day amount to $15. Finally, I received a confirmation for $19, and not from a no-name company, but from Hertz.

Priceline is a little tricky for the novice to get used to. If you bid on a car rental and it's too high, you will be immediately obligated to the rental, with no way out. On the other hand, one shouldn't feel a sense of obligation to keep raising the amount. Go only as high as you are willing to pay for a day's rental. Be advised that if you are unsuccessful, there are pop-up windows that chide you to increase the amount substantially. My advice would be to go up by small increments, and stop if things get too uncomfortable. The worst that can happen is that you end up with car rental that is just as much as it would have been had you stuck with the rental agency's official web site.

As with all Internet shoppers, the buyer should be aware. Make certain you read through the conditions, and don't click the "reserve" button until you are certain you are happy with your choice.Recommended Rental Car Web Sites:
www.upromise.com (link to travel section)
www.avis.com
www.hertz.com
www.priceline.com