Advice/reviews on car rental agencies?

We have rented from Alamo, Avis and National in Hawaii. We are Costco members and always go through Costco travel website's car rental agency to reserve the car. I have found their prices are much lower than the regular car rental agencies and you get an additional driver at no extra charge.

One thing you NEED to do because you want to rent a jeep....get the number to the actual rental in maui itself. Not the 1-800 number.

I got all the way to maui and guess what...Thrifty doesn't rent soft top jeeps. Neither do a lot of the other rentals. Who rents a jeep in Hawaii that you can't take the roof off?!

Edit: that being said...I always rent through thrifty ad they always give me great service

Hertz dollar and thrifty are owned by the same company, as are national, alamo and enterprise. I think Avis and Budget are affiliated as well.

Best suggestion, they work off commissions and hourly wage. book multiple reservations at various companies in case they cant fill your reservations. Most of these companies as long as you book through them dont require a credit card to book or dont have guarantee fees if you cancel or dont show.

I always told people to book the smallest or cheapest than negotiate an upgrade at the counter. Their commissions are on what they charge for an upgrade. So, for example if you book and economy car for $25 a day and were quoted $75/day for the Jeep (j/s for example) you can negotiate to pay a total of $45 per day and both of you win.

that being said, dont get your heart set on a particular vehicle, they can never gtd a specific vehicle should someone extend or not return their car on time, chances are you could get stuck with a mini van. That's why the multiple reservations, many people counter hop to ensure they can get what they want if one company doesnt have it.

Good luck!

^just be aware that thrifty and dollar are in the same building and all the other car rentals you will need to get on a bus again to change.

Though the rental places are at the airport you need to take a bus to get to them and they are not together which will make counter hopping really hard.

Also...keep checking prices! Rental car prices are generally higher further out, but can drop when it gets closer to your reservation.

You can make the reservation ahead of time to secure what you want, and then cancel and rebook later. So keep an eye on things.

Like Kari said, Costco is great! Last time we had to rent a car for over a week, it ended up being cheaper to buy a Costco membership and then rent the car, than to rent without (and then we had a year's Costco membership, to boot!)--you can see Costco's car rental prices on their site without a membership, it's through the major rental companies with airport pick-up and all that

I've been seriously thinking about getting a Costco membership so maybe it would be a good idea! Thank you all for the info. I plan on checking periodically as the time gets closer, but I figured while we had worked on some honeymoon stuff I would start looking into it.

I will also be sure to call directly to see what they do and don't have in their inventory. I didn't know I'd be able to book more than one and cancel! I figured once you book you pay for it right away and it's done. I definitely have some more research to do!

We are spending the first part of our HM in Florida and we are renting through Alamo. I researched a couple diff companies and they were all similar prices, I chose Alamo because if you join their newsletter you get a discount. (I just send the newsletter straight to junk mail)

Not in Hawaii, but I have used enterprise without issue. Tip for any company: check the rates again the day before and the day of the pickup. If they've dropped since you made your reservation, they will usually agree to match themselves.

Also, I always pay way less booking with AAA

I always use Enterprise because I get a discount through work. I had a Mazda 2 for 10 days in BC last year for under $350. I had my own insurance that covered a rental plus only fh drove which saved $100 ($10/day for an extra driver)

We use national when we travel. My FH uses them when he travels for work so we have a boatload of free rentals. I have never had a problem with them. they are very nice to work with.

I have used Enterprise countless times here in SC and never had a problem. The same with Budget. I used to travel to Charlotte on a weekly basis for almost a year and I got to be good friends with the Enterprise crew at the airport. I got a lot of great upgrades!

I would go ahead and check prices now and make a reservation. They do not require a credit card to reserve. Summer is high time in Hawaii, so they may run out of vehicles. I always check prices weekly when reserving a car. I rarely end up paying the initial price I booked.

We plan to take in Cyprus

+ Ordered by http://chattycoupons.com/shops/hertz

now left the plane tickets and go

I went to Hawaii last year nad my experience is with the Manaloha car rental company. it goes by the name - Manaloha Rent A Car. They provide short term and long term rentals. I rented the car for two weeks and it cost me less than $300. The prices are genuine and so is their quality of service.

The only thing I can definitely say is do NOT book through a third-party. I booked dates through Priceline and Hertz, and later needed to change the date of my car rental. It said the rate was non-refundable, which was fine, since I wasn't asking for a refund, I was just sliding the dates. They refused and now I'm simply out all the money I paid up-front.

While I realize that was my own fault for not truly understanding the fine print, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth that neither Priceline nor the Hertz were willing to change a few dates for me (and to top it off Hertz was incredibly rude to me on the phone when I asked about it). I wanted to move from a car rental date over a holiday weekend to a weekday rental--they were definitely not losing any money on the deal. Now I can't afford to rent ANOTHER car for the dates I'll actually be there since they took my $300 for the dates I won't. Make sure you have a refundable car rental *just in case*