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.
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I’ve suggested this “hack” for 8+ years, from what I’ve found Costco every time has the best prices, free extra driver, you don’t get charged until you drop the car off and you can book/cancel/book/cancel/book as needed. I’ve checked other sites, directly with rental car co etc and none have beat Costco.
Thank you for this article! I immediately checked our Costco reservation and found the same vehicle, dates, and same rental agency was $34 less. Its only for a 2 day rental but hey I’ll take it. I’ll be checking again as we get closer to arrival in a few weeks! Great tip!
Priced a compact car on Kauai for 21 days with discounts, picked up and returned at Lihue airport for $1,800. Then checked price for pickup off-airport about a $20 Taxi ride away and return to airport…$1,080 for same car and time period.
Thanks for the reminder, just checked my Costco November booking. The original booking went down from $402 to $335 !!
Another trick. One year we arrived on December 30 for a 2 week visit, giving us the “holiday” rate because we booked during Christmas weeks. If we picked up the car on January 2, the rate was about 40% less. OK. We rented for three days at the holiday rate, returned the car, picked up another car, and saved a bunch. The counter folks just shrugged when we told them what we were doing.
I do the same rebooking trick with Costco Vacation packages, fact is yesterday I rebooked our October stay again for the forth time due to a limited hot deal package at a lower price room upgrade and loaded with additional perks over the prior package I had booked.
Thank You! Your email saved me half on my rental car cost for my trip next month. I went and checked on my Costco rental cars. It was $981 cheaper! I canceled the old Costco rental and booked a new one. Thank you so much for all the helpful advice over the years.
Hey Jan…just a little advice, next time book the new reservation before you cancel your previous one, just to be safe. With Costco you can have numerous reservations at the same time, obviously don’t forget to canx the previous Ones at some point.
Aloha Greg,
Yes, that is exactly what I did. We think alike 🙂
Thank you.
I’ve been a Fastbreak member at Budget for somewhere around 16 years, their rates are extremely difficult to beat. There is no waiting, you just land, bypass the line and go straight to the garage and pick up your car.
It’s saved me thousands of dollars over the years all over the country. I have zero complaints!
I too have a Budget Fastbreak #, and booking direct thru Costco is still a better rate…whether you use Budget or not. BTW Budget and Avis are the same company, as well as Enterprise and Alamo.
IMO with everyone doing this trick inventory must change within minutes. You have to be able to afford 2 rentals before your able to cancel the prior booking. IMO Hawaii just needs to reduce the rental car market price to begin with and stop this snooze or you loose practice. IMO it’s called get the most while you can and leave the rest behind. I really don’t know how this would ever work if someone purchases a OTA airfare, hotel, car rental package deal.
The more people that try the trick the harder it becomes to succeed.
Yes! When we visited in 2021, we booked an economy car months in advance. The day before our trip, I checked again, and we were able to get a convertible for less than what the economy car was going to cost. Same company -Alamo. Now we do this every time we visit. We don’t always see a big savings, but it’s definitely worth checking.
Good tip but would it be possible that you got this because of last minute cancels as a result of LALA storm
I just rebooked with Costco for four weeks from now and it is half the cost of the booking I made 5 months ago.
I go a step further and check on times either side of my booking at the time of booking. So, for example, I enter the booking for 8am but I’ll also check 7.30 or 8.30. Quite often I have found it to be a different price and sometimes it’s substantial.
Excellent advice to check rates before pickup! I have found rental rates fluctuate enough to warrant rebooking. Just a word of caution: review your rental contract before driving off. Two weeks ago, I cancelled and rebooked a reservation at Budget HNL to get a $56 reduction. Old Reservation was cancelled Aug 7. New Reservation was made concurrently. Picked up vehicle on Aug 8. On Aug 10 I looked at my rental contract. Vehicle was released to me under the cancelled Old Reservation at the higher rate. I called Budget Customer Care who was puzzled as to how rental counter was able to release a vehicle under a canceled reservation. My New Reservation indicated I was a no show. He agreed Budget should honor the rate per the New Reservation, but couldn’t make an adjustment on an active rental. I needed to call back within 48 hours after rental return. To make a long story short, three phone calls later, on Aug 16 I finally got a $56 credit back to my credit card.
Aloha BOH – those are great tips. I saved a few hundred dollars by rebooking with Costco a few weeks before visiting Maui. I’d add that Costco allows for a free second driver so that is another perk using Costco Travel for car rentals. Costco also includes taxes & fees in their initial quotes. Mahalo for keeping your readers in the loop.
They should make it a law like they do with hotel rates and add up All the charges and that is what your daily rate would be. We just rented a car for $490 for two weeks and after all the taxes and fees it was $808.
I leave in less than 4 days. Went back on Costco and rebooked and saved 281.00.
I like to add, I would love it in Lihue if only 1 person in the party gets on the rental shuttle. Than that one person drives back to the terminal (you have to go by there anyway) and picks up the rest of the party and luggage.
Saves everyone time on the shuttle!
And please tip the shuttle driver.. I do even though I do the above procedure.
Great job! Thanks for the heads up. I start planning our trip after I make the reservation & pay; with our timeshare always one year in advance. I always use Discount Hawai’i Rental, and I check weekly starting in June. Since then the price has dropped $100, between making & canceling two reservations. I constantly check for changes, and right now my car is lower than same type in 2025. I do the same with checking weekly for flight prices. Aloha.
AutoSlash is the best way to make sure you get the cheapest car rental. They track your initial booking and as soon as a cheaper option comes up it alerts you and you can rebook.
It’s saved us on average of about 50% on every car we’ve ever rented, in Hawai’i and everywhere else.
Currently in Maui for the week. Initially did the Costco book and rebook strategy and got down to a weekly rate of $250 for a standard car (via Budget) and $320 for a midsize SUV (Alamo). A week before departure ended up picking an Express deal via Priceline, $180 for compact SUV, although it was a prepay it was too good to pass up. At first I got kinda wary because it ended being through Thrifty (after having read some iffy reviews) pick up experience was smooth and ended up with a 4000 mile NIssan Kicks nice car!