Travel Deal of the Day (March 23, 2009)

I have noticed that car rental prices have not dropped in the same manner as air and hotel rates - despite the recession, car rental rates still appear to be (relatively) expensive. Here are some tips to save money on car rental rates:

(1) Check off-airport locations - Rates at off-airport car rental locations (such as the locations in downtown of a city) can vary dramatically from the rates at airport locations. If the rates are very high at airport locations, consider calling an off-airport location to verify whether free transportation is provided from the airport to that location. You may save a tremendous amount of money.

(2) Check out the Enterprise Weekend Special - Enterprise (at participating locations) offers 50% off of its normal rates over weekends via this Weekend Special. If you can rent a car Friday through Monday, you can save quite a bit of money.

(3) Check out Priceline and Hotwire - You can save money with both Priceline and Hotwire. You will not know in advance about the car rental company that will be chosen for you, but you can potentially save a lot of money.

(4) Consider Renting a Car for Only a Portion of Your Trip - Sometimes you can use public transportation for part of your stay and rent a car for only a few days of your trip. This can save you a lot of money (no paying for parking, tolls, and/or gas). Many people just assume that they should either rent a car for the entire trip or use other transportation for the entire trip - consider renting a car for only the days when it is most necessary. Because hotel concierges can often obtain a car for you (delivered to the hotel) and some car rental companies will deliver cars to you, it can often be quite convenient to rent a car for only a day or two. You may also save money by (for instance) renting a car over the weekend (when the weekend rates apply) and giving the car back when the higher business (weekday) rates apply.