Car rentals are rarely enjoyable experiences. For many of us, this entails spending time locating the best deal, selecting the options to include, and discussing the price and necessity of additional vehicle rental insurance. This article is on best websites for finding cheap cars rental.
Fortunately, finding the best deal doesn’t have to be challenging. There are several websites that advertise that they have the lowest costs, but are they actually true? We’ve provided you with a brief summary under the “Pros and Cons” section for each website featured below if you’re short on time or just want to get to the meat of the matter.
So let’s get started — here are best websites for finding cheap car rentals.
Book Directly Through the Car Rental Website Agencys
Directly making a reservation on the website of your automobile rental company has many advantages. There are numerous rental companies that offer loyalty systems, and you can frequently decide to earn airline miles rather than rental car agency points (though there may be recovery fees associated).
They don’t always offer the best deals, and even when they do, it would take some time to compare costs across all of the websites.
Even if you plan to make a direct reservation with a vehicle rental company, it’s frequently a good idea to run a quick price comparison on a metasearch website or online travel agency to ensure you’re receiving a fair deal.
best Websites for Finding Cheap Car Rentals:
1. Priceline
The first in our list of best websites for finding cheap car rentals is Priceline. The “Priceline Negotiator” and the “Name Your Own Price” function helped Priceline become well-known. Both of those technologies were used to highlight opaque bookings, but they have since been abandoned.
On opaque reservations, you can still save money (one in which certain details are hidden until after the transaction is complete). You should look into one of Priceline’s Express Deals if you don’t have a preferred vehicle rental company. These rentals can be an excellent method to save money, albeit you won’t know the precise agency until after your reservation is complete.
Pros and Cons of Priceline
Pros:
- Opaque bookings: Express Deals and Supplier’s Choice
- Priceline VIP
Cons:
- Flexibility required to take advantage of opaque deals
Bottom Line:
No matter where you book your rental car, be sure to use a credit card that offers great car rental insurance. One of our favorites is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card because it offers primary insurance. That means you don’t need to submit a claim with your existing insurance before making a claim with them. For more information, check out our detailed post about maximizing your car insurance with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
2. Skyscanner
The Second on our list of best websites for finding cheap car rentals is Skyscanner. Similar to Kayak, Skyscanner is a search engine, so after finding your rental car, you’ll be taken to another website to finalize your reservation.
Skyscanner can provide reasonable rates, however it’s difficult to discern much about the rental other than the price at first sight of the search results. For fundamental details like the automobile rental company, you must click through on each result.
Pros and Cons of Skyscanner
Pros:
- Searches lots of websites at one time
Cons:
- No loyalty program
- Hard to spot the good deals (opaque and special deals aren’t labeled)
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3. Travelocity
Popular website Travelocity is used to look for inexpensive hotels, flights, and rental vehicles. Despite being powered by Expedia, each site’s pricing may vary.
You can filter your search results to only display the cheapest choice in each category, known as Great Deals, like several other websites (Expedia and Orbitz).
You can quickly identify which alternatives are non-refundable and which ones allow free cancellation by scrolling through the search results. Given how often travel plans might change these days, such knowledge can come in extremely helpful.
Pros and Cons of Travelocity
Pros:
- “Great Deal” filtering option
- Easily visible cancellation policies
Cons:
- No loyalty program
4. Hotwire
Another website that provides ambiguous reservations is called Hotwire Hot Rate Deals. Although Hotwire claims that it will be from one of these businesses, you won’t know the rental agency until after the reservation is finalized:
- Ace
- Advantage
- Alamo
- Dollar
- Enterprise
- Hertz
- National
- Nu
- Sixt
- Thrifty
Pros and Cons of Hotwire
Pros:
- Hotwire Hot Rate cars
Cons:
- No loyalty program
5. Costco Travel
When looking for a rental car on Costco Travel, the first thing you’ll notice is that there are just 4 major rental companies listed: Alamo, Avis, Budget, and Enterprise.
The search results are shown in a simple to read chart, with the least price for each type of automobile highlighted in red.
The drawback is that using Costco Travel to rent a car requires membership in the retailer. On the other hand, if you’re renting a car as part of a vacation package, a Costco Shop card is frequently offered as part of the package, which can defray the cost of a membership. Plus, if you’ve got an Executive membership, you can earn 2% back on all of your Costco Travel purchases.
Pros and Cons of Costco Travel
Pros:
- Easy-to-use table that shows which rental agency has the lowest prices
- Earn 2% back as a Cosco Executive member
Cons:
- Only shows prices from 4 rental agencies
- You need to be a Costco member to use Costco Travel
6. American Express Travel
Although American Express is better recognized for their outstanding credit cards, it also provides a trip reservation service. Although it is not a requirement, having an American Express credit card might occasionally result in greater perks when using Amex Travel.
The car rental service offered by Amex Travel is fairly comparable to that of other websites. Furthermore, it offers a secretive booking option, so you won’t know what kind of vehicle you will have until you pick it up.
You can use Membership Rewards to pay for your rental car if you choose a “pay now” price. Although it’s fantastic to have the option to pay with points, the value per point is awful, only worth 0.7 cents. You are receiving less than one-third of the value you could receive by moving your points to travel partners instead of using Amex Membership Rewards, which we value at roughly 2.2 cents each.
Pros and Cons of American Express Travel
Pros:
- Opaque bookings
- Ability to book a rental car with Membership Rewards points
Cons:
- Terrible value when using points to pay for a car rental
7. Rentalcars.com
The same corporation that operates websites like Booking.com also owns the search engine Rentalcars.com. Priceline, Kayak, and as you might expect, it focuses on renting automobiles
The search results were simple to understand and instantly displayed information like free cancellation and if the deal was a “pay now” or “pay later” price, which is what we loved about this website.
If you don’t care too much about the brand of the vehicle or the rental company you’re using, Rentalcars.com also offers opaque bargains that are frequently a smart way to save money.
Pros and Cons of Rentalcars.com
Pros:
- Price match guarantee
- Easy to read search results
Cons:
- No rewards program
8. AutoSlash
The last on our list of best websites for finding cheap car rentals is AutoSlash. Compared to other websites, AutoSlash differs somewhat. You must provide all of your rental requirements as well as your contact information to receive a rate quote for a rental automobile. After that, you’ll get an email with a price quote.
Requesting a quote from AutoSlash takes just a few seconds. The fact that this site will inquire about the types of credit cards and loyalty programs you have in order to acquire the cheapest pricing is one of its distinctive features.
Pros and Cons of Auto Slash
Pros:
- AutoSlash takes into account your rental car memberships and credit cards for any additional benefits
- A list of available coupons is available in the Coupons section
Cons:
- Price quotes aren’t instant; it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to receive an email with your price
- It’s hard to quickly compare prices to other sites
Price Comparisons
The following pricing comparisons were conducted with the goal of finding the lowest price possible, regardless of the rental company, vehicle class, or cancellation policy.
Example 1: A weeklong rental from Phoenix SkyHarbor International Airport (PHX)
Example 2: A 3-day rental from Miami International Airport (MIA)
| Website | Example 1: Weeklong Rental | Example 2: 3-Day Rental |
| Amex Travel | $484.55 | $151.35 |
| AutoSlash | $466.18 | $137.64 |
| Costco Travel | $504.81 | $199.13 |
| Expedia | $401.81 | $85.80 |
| Hotwire | $428.82 | $138.06 |
| Kayak | $502.24 | $120.93 |
| Momondo | $428.82 | $120.93 |
| Orbitz | $401.81 | $135.38 |
| Priceline | $421.92 | $137.64 |
| Rentalcars.com | $467.82 | $137.64 |
| Skyscanner | $323.53 | $154.05 |
| Travelocity | $401.81 | $85.80 |
These illustrations demonstrate how prices vary greatly. Expedia and Travelocity tied for the best price on the 3-day rental in example #2, but Skyscanner provided the best price by a significant margin for the week-long rental in example #1.
In both instances, Costco Travel had the most expensive price.
Final Thoughts
If you know where to look, it won’t be difficult to find the best deal on your next rental car. You may quickly browse the alternatives on these best websites to find the best deal on your next rental car. It’s up to you whatever website you use in the end; some have a better search function, some have rewards programs, and some are simply simpler to use.
When looking for your next rental, test out a few of these websites to see which one suits you the best.
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