YSK: You might save on car rental by cancelling and re-booking over time before your rental due date
Car rental prices might decrease over time as the rental getting closer to its due date.
I encountered it when booked a car rental, waited for about a month, cancelled and then re-booked again.
I rented from https://www.booking.com/cars
These are the rental prices over the months before the rental due date:
- $547.73 (first price) - cancelled
- $502.27 - cancelled
- $475.10 - cancelled
- $439.86 - final price
10 replies
Yup, I did this every year when I was going to the states for 3-4 weeks in summer. I started booking in January, then about every week I checked the price for the same summer date, in general it was cheaper so I cancelled/rebooked, multiple times.
Also instead of rent from airport, I rent from smaller places (that handle Hertz/Enterprise/National/etc) and I always booked a subcompact, and 50% of the time they had none and gave me a compact/full size car. I had multiple Yaris yes, but one time I got a Dodge Caravan, a Fusion Sport V6, a Flex, a Jetta, a Soul, etc.
Similar happened to me, I booked a gas car but received a hybrid instead.
I'm curious, what's the advantage of renting not from the airport? I prefer the airport because it's easy to locate, especially when the airport is new and I'm dizzy after long flights
If you really are dizzy after a long flight, you probably shouldn't be driving, especially in an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar area. Maybe you were just being hyperbolic about the dizziness, but people can make the same kinds of mistakes driving while sleep deprived as while driving intoxicated.
I assume outside of an airport is cheaper
They don't charge a cancellation fee?
I think it's usually free cancellation if the cancellation is more than x days before rental starts for many car rental companies in the US.
For me they didn't, it was free cancelation until 48 hours before the rental due date
Obviously, check the price before booking. I assume like most things here it can either go up or down as you get closer depending on demand.
Yeah.
I checked the price, I booked, and then cancelled the previous one.