This Hawaii Car Rental Trick Just Saved Us Over Half

We picked up a rental car on Maui for about $38 a day starting tomorrow. The same rental had originally been about $100 a day, but after our first Maui trip plans changed, we made another reservation at roughly $75 a day. How is that even possible?

The biggest drop came yesterday, the day before pickup. We went back online, re-priced the rental, made a new reservation at the lower rate, and canceled the old one once the replacement was confirmed. Nothing special was involved. What was different is that we simply checked again at the very last moment.

The day-before Hawaii car rental check just moved to the top of our list.

We have been writing about Hawaii rental cars and playing this pricing game ourselves for years. In our earlier article on saving on Hawaii rental cars, we recommended booking early with a flexible reservation and checking again or setting an alert (or both) as the trip approaches, but this latest experience sharpened that advice considerably.

If you already have a cancellable Hawaii rental car, take a few minutes the day before pickup and price it again. Set an alarm so you don’t forget to do it.

Rental car prices are constantly moving, just as airfares do, as demand and available inventory change. A rate that was the best deal when you booked can bear little resemblance to what is available weeks, days, or even hours later.

That can work against you too, which is why we would never wait until the last minute to make the very first reservation. We get that going from day one. Having a flexible booking already completed lets you benefit from any drop without gambling on what inventory remains.

BOH readers say they’ve been doing the same thing.

Our experience this week is far from the biggest savings Beat of Hawaii readers have reported. After our BOH article about Costco Travel deals last year, a reader told us about repeatedly checking a Maui rental as the trip approached. The price fell a week before arrival, again days before, again while the reader was flying to Hawaii, and once more after landing. By the time the car was picked up, the savings totaled $300. And that’s the same amount our experience just saved.

Another reader preparing for a 10-day Kauai trip for his wife’s 80th birthday followed our advice, rebooked his Costco Avis SUV, and reported saving $486.81. A different reader said prices could change enough between morning and evening that checking twice a day had become part of his routine.

More recently, readers reported the same pattern across the islands. One rebooked the same Maui reservation six times in three days and saved $300, while a Big Island visitor watched a 10-day rental fall from $565 to $367.

Those experiences are why we no longer see the price on a rental car confirmation as necessarily the price we’ll ultimately pay. It rarely is, whether here in Hawaii or when we travel.

Costco worked this time, but don’t assume it always wins.

We booked this rental through Costco Travel, which remains one of our favorite starting points because it offers pay-at-the-counter rentals with two drivers and makes canceling and rebooking easy.

But one of the most consistent things we have learned from decades of Hawaii car rental searches is that no source wins every time. It’s virtually the old shell game.

We still check Discount Hawaii Car Rental, which has been around for years and remains popular with a number of BOH readers. AutoSlash works differently. You can use it to search for a rental and even book, but you can also give it a reservation you already made somewhere else and have it keep looking for a lower rate. If it finds one, it sends you an alert, and you can decide whether it is worth rebooking. Be careful of prepaid booking options, however.

Four other key Hawaii rental car tricks we still use.

Avoid prepaying. A slightly cheaper prepaid rate can take away the flexibility that makes this whole strategy work. We prefer a cancellable reservation while prices are still moving and only consider prepayment near the end when the savings justify giving up all flexibility.

Join the rental company’s loyalty program before you arrive. This has saved us something sometimes more valuable than money: Hawaii vacation time. At Honolulu Airport, we once encountered a Thrifty line that seemed likely to take hours, while our Avis Preferred membership let us bypass that mess entirely. A cheaper car isn’t much of a bargain if the first afternoon of your vacation is spent standing at a rental counter.

Check the actual airport location before choosing the cheapest company. Recent reviews can reveal terrible counter lines, worn-out and dirty cars, or other problems that aren’t visible when comparing prices. We also photograph the vehicle, exterior condition, and fuel level at pickup and return.

Compare the final total, not the advertised rate. Hawaii rental car taxes and fees can substantially change the math, so the number that matters is what you will actually pay after everything is included. Depending on where you search, everything may or may not be included at first glance

One of the clearest lessons from our years of Hawaii rental car price comparisons is that the apparent winner can change quickly depending on timing, provider, and whether the rate is prepaid.

A few minutes before the trip can still make a difference.

There are plenty of ways to spend hours hunting for a Hawaii rental car bargain, but that isn’t what happened to us this time. We already had a confirmed car at a price we were happy to pay, and a quick search just before the rental found something much better.

The habit is simple enough to add to the same pre-trip routine as checking in for the flight and confirming the hotel. Before you head to Hawaii, in fact, the day before, pull up that rental car one more time and see what it costs now.

Have you rebooked a Hawaii rental car after watching the price fall? Tell us how many times you rebooked and how much you ultimately saved.

Lead Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii.

By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.

Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →