Finding the best car rental deal in Hawaii can be a challenge. In the past I’ve gone to Island Air’s car rental links, or used Flyertalk, FatWallet and SlickDeals to find discount codes to use with car rental companies. Just remember to always price with and without a discount code to make sure you’re getting the best rate.
Recently some new sites were mentioned in the press: Breezenet and Autoslash. I decided to give those, plus my old favorites a spin, and see how they all fared for a week-long summer rental.
For comparison I choose an economy car rental, in Honolulu, for the week of July 1-8. Here’s what I found (rates do not include tax and fees):
1. Breezenet $219 (Advantage)
Breezenet is a site I’ve never used, but which was recommended by our friend Arthur Frommer.
My sense: No go, at least for Hawaii. This was the highest price overall.
2. Autoslash. $201 (Car rental company not provided)
Frequently mentioned in the press, this site searches for publicly available discount codes which theoretically saves you time and hassle of doing so yourself. Autoslash also keeps searching for the best deals, even after you reserved, and will inform you if a lower rate becomes available. You can apply any coupons you have using the site too.
My sense: Did not pan out, but I remain hopeful and will try it again.
3. Hotwire. $119 (The best deal but car rental company name not provided).
A favorite for Hawaii car deals, Hotwire delivered once again. The nice part (compared with Priceline) is that you know in advance what the accepted price will be.
My sense: Always a good place to check for Hawaii car rentals.
4. Island Air Affiliate Codes (My second best deal). $120 (Budget)
My sense: Island Air is another favorite of mine, where I’ve often found the lowest price.
5. Costco affiliate codes:
Budget. $157
My sense: Costco codes have almost never worked for me in Hawaii.
I look forward to your comments and would like to hear what has worked best for you.
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bob (1 year ago)
Hawaiijeeps.com seems like a good deal, just found them.
Mike (1 year ago)
What have you heard about discounthawaiicarrental.com? I just put a reservation through them for Big Island and it was by far the cheapest I could find. They made the reservation through Alamo.
Jeff (1 year ago)
Thanks for the comments.
I did try discounthawaiicarrental.com. The rates were fair, starting for those dates at $136+ for Avis. While they weren’t as good as the best rates I found, they are worth trying again.
Aloha,
Jeff
Alba (1 year ago)
Hotwire and Priceline normally give me the best rates (Priceline now shows you the full price on their car rentals in addition to letting you name your own price).
There are also some weird search functions that you can use to your advantage. When I was booking a flight to Pensacola recently, I found that adjusting my pickup and drop-off times change the price per day. I don’t understand why that is, but when I was searching for a car using a 10am pickup time, I found something for $12/day but a noon pickup time showed $18/day for the same car. So I booked at the earlier time even though my flight didn’t get arrive until noon, and the overall price was less expensive.
Gregory (1 year ago)
Just booked a compact from Kona in mid-Aug. and got the best rate from Budget via Island Air – $260 for 9 days, all inclusive. Thanks for the tip, BoH!
Lorelei (1 year ago)
I always go with Alamo. I subscribed to their newsletter/promotional emails, and every now and then, I’d get an email with some sort of discount. Last time I was in Honolulu, I paid less than $135 for 7 days, including tax and other surcharges, for a compact car. I used a $25 discount from the newsletter. This was back in December of 2008. I’m going to Honolulu again in December of this year, and I’m waiting for promotions closer to the date because most of their discounts are only valid until the end of June right now. I’ve gone with Alamo on other rentals here in San Francisco too, and I’ve always found them to be the cheapest.
Just thought I’d share…
Ed donaghy (1 year ago)
Hotwire? read the fine print. No refund for any reason. The bigs will reserve but not charge until the day of the rental. They’ll also “reserve” , that is, block a large sum against the credit card.
Jeff (1 year ago)
Yes Ed, so true. Thanks for mentioning it. Having said that, Hotwire and Priceline can still work great. I’ve used them a lot.
Aloha, Jeff
Cat (1 year ago)
I have used discounthawaiicarrental.com/ almost exclusively now BUT when I rent a car here it is always because I need to rent a minivan (because we live here and have cars! haha).
I have tried them all – and even searching today they had the best price for a december 2010 minivan rental.
Lorelei (1 year ago)
To Cat,
Thanks for that! My boyfriend and I will also be there in December 2010. I’ll definitely give that a try!
Lorelei (1 year ago)
UPDATE: I did go with the discounthawaiicarrental.com to get my car, and they found me one from Thrifty at $100 for a week all inclusive. Thanks again Cat, and BOH!