Things are changing. How to save money on your Hawaii car rentals throughout 2023..
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679 thoughts on “Savings Guide: 2023 Hawaii Car Rentals”
Things are changing. How to save money on your Hawaii car rentals throughout 2023..
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It’s beginning to sound like less and less fun. Covid test, high car rental rates, dishonest car rental companies, washed out roads . . .we can still cancel and try again someday? Please and thank you but I’m no longer as excited. . .
Hi Timmie.
There are many other places to visit in the world if Hawaii doesn’t suit you. Happy travels wherever you may go.
Aloha.
Yes, go somewhere else Timmie.
Also check to see if you can use your corporate car rate for personal use. Some companies allow this as a perk. Also don’t always go for the cheapest – if you have any status with a given rental provider, status cAn help with any problems or issues you may encounter.
Take into account that all car manufacturers in the world have millions of cars sitting unfinished in their yards. The computer chip shortage is not expected to loosen up soon. When the pandemic started the manufacturers pulled back the quantity of chips deliveries because they all use “JUST IN TIME” inventory, so the chip companies where inundated with orders from computer, office electronics etc. manufacturers with long term contracts. Cause: People are working from home causing exploding sales of office electronics.
There is no end in sight for car manufacturers to get microchips for their cars. This is going to negativily impact our economy considering that the largest manufacturing of vehicles is here in the US.
No the huge problem… to make a new manufacturing plant for chips takes a minimum of 2 years due the complexities of making chips. There cannot be any contamination in the super clean rooms. Because one tiny speck of dirt will ruin millions of dollars in microchips…
SORRY DONT KILL THE MESSENGER
Could this be considered price gouging at this time of a pandemic, as I just rented a car a month ago for a third of these new prices? Just doesn’t seem right.
Thank You
Thanks for this timely reminder. We are coming back to Oahu in mid-July and my head was already spinning making sure the flights and hotel were booked, safe travels accounts set up, and appointments made for the Covid test (we are both vaccinated but figure this isn’t going to change). I wasn’t even going to look at the car rentals yet but boy, they are high! The Costco Travel option has been the best so far, picking up at the Sheraton not airport (thank goodness for Uber). 14 days is just at $1000. Still very high, but will keep checking as your tips mentioned. Thank you for all the helpful information.
Aloha! You touched on a topic that is hot in our household. All the add-on fees are ridiculous! One more tip that has been successful for us this past 3mos. Check your loyalty/rewards pts programs for rental car deals you can reserve with your points and points plus cash. We used Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards pts to fully cover a 6day car rental in Maui Dec 2020 and are using my Marriott Bonvoy pts+cash to fully pay a 6day car rental on the Big Island this coming 1st week in May. We’ve saved over $1000. For Marriott Bonvoy jist click their redeem points link on the website. With SWA look under their Rewards-Redeem for More Reward section. Mahalo for your timely info as always.
Hi Suzanna.
Thanks. We appreciate your sharing those tips.
Aloha.
Thank you so much for this! I just saved $400 if booked from other places. You really rock by providing this helpful article!
I just returned from 2 weeks in HNL and used Discount Car Rental–I frequently fly to HNL and have found DCR to always have the best rate. Plus I always get my user points. I typically use Dollar as it has been the least expensive. I discovered from this last trip that Dollar and Thrifty have merged their counters to save costs. So the line was ENORMOUS. Luckily, I went straight to the Express counter and saved an hour or so. My wait was less than 10min. Their inventory is down. I hope when I return, they’ll have rebounded enough to operate separately. Another best practice, because there is no advance payment with DCR, I checked weekly for a better rate, sure enough, it came down a week prior to departure to $300/week.
I made a booking through Discount Hawaii Car Rental back in December for a July trip. I just did a search for the same dates in July, and it would now cost me fully three times the December price. In other years I have seen big savings when booking six month ahead, so it’s always a good idea it seems.
Aloha Rob & Jeff.
Thanks for all the daily updates and great to hear some folks from the States are getting back to visit, but any news about International visitors getting back. Have had one jab and expect the second in April. My rescheduled trip (2 or 3 times changed) is due in September…Fingers crossed.
One other point. I’m a timeshare owner with Marriott & Westin with weeks on Oah’u, Maui & Kaua’i. All fees are paid, but no allowance seems to have been made about our not being able to get into the U.S. I’m wondering if this has come up at all or whether any of your readers has any comment.
Mahalo as always for your help and apologies for adding another gripe to the many on your list.
Hi Michael.
International remains down the list following domestic travel resumption with nothing yet in sight. Issues exist both here in US, and in UK among other places. It still feels as though international just isn’t going to happen for a while. We look forward to your being able to return as well as our being able to travel.
Aloha.
No mater where you rent, register the terms of your rental with Autoslash. They will continually check your rate Versus current market rates. I have rebooked many times using their free service.
On Maui we used Go Rent Car. It was great! Super easy and very reasonable!
The reason for the sudden rise is rental prices is because the rental car on the island shipped out or sold off most of their fleets. They had days where only 30 customers showed up all day during the lockdown and initial mandatory quarantine. They had no choice but to reduce the size off their fleets. When the numbers of arrivals suddenly increased the rental car companies haven’t yet responded with increasing the size of their fleets to keep up with demand. This is only a temporary anomaly that will be corrected as supply (larger fleets) return.
Following.
for many years, my wife and I returned to the 4 major Islands—2-3 weeks each Island— Jan; Feb/Mar; Apr/May; Sept-Oct. Did NOT go at peak times !!! Mainly started our “long” Hawaii vacations in the late “70”s through the mid 2016’s when my wife couldn’t travel anymore. She passed in Dec 2019. With all of the B.S. the state of Hawaii has now instituted, I feel that ai will no longer go to your beautiful state.
Tony
Tony, I’m sorry about your wife’s passing. I hope you guys enjoyed some wonderful memories here in Hawai’i during your travels. Yes, it’s a tough time to travel to Hawai’i, and yes, there’s a lot of BS going on within our local government. I hope things get back to normal in the next few years and perhaps you can come back when it’s a better time to visit. aloha
I use Discount Hawai’i Car Rental nearly everytime we visit. In September 2020 I started looking for our Feb. 2021 trip & when I found a $384,full price,car I reserved, because cheapest at the time. They allow cancellations so I keep checking daily. I follow other company alerts but find Discount Hawai’i Car Rental to be great;no secret charges. One day in Dec. I found a larger car price of $234,full price,per 7 days with Discount Hawai’i Car Rental. Mahalo!
Great rental car tips! I rent often in Hawaii and have a few more. Check to see if your employer has a contract with one of the big players. We have a set negotiated daily and weekly rate at National Car. I once used Hotwire while there off season for two day rentals at KOA and OOG and received a Convertible and a Jeep for an insanely low price – beware, they will do their best to upsell you insurance. During peak times at HNL, send the driver to the rental counter in the parking garage to wait in line while the rest of the group collect the luggage. Especially helpful when they are at capacity and “your” car was just returned, being checked in, and waiting in line to be washed. If your employer has a contract, make sure the number is in the reservation – With a dozen people ahead of me waiting for washed cars, the agent gave my contract to the supervisor who took me to the premium cars and said “Pick one”.
Hi Michael.
Thanks for your first-time comment and for the good car rental tips.
Aloha.
We’ve used Hawaii Discount Car Rental several tines on Kauai, but probably no more. Yes they have good rates but be prepared to waste 1-2 hours in Lihue. They cannot handle the volume when flights arrive. It’s brutally slow. Simply not worth the aggravation.
Hmmmm… we have used Discount USA
Car Rentals for the last 5 trips to Hawaii
They get you the best deal from the big rental companies that offer car rentals in Hawaii
Discount USA Car Rentals is not a rental company
but is an online booking agent. They do not have a
counter/kiosk at the airport or on the islands
Last time we went to Maui (Nov/Dec 2019) I kept checking the price weekly. I was able to book
cancel and rebook at a better price 3 times!
Upon pick up of our vehicle the agent at Dollar
Rent a Ca was surprised at the price of our
rental. This was a saving of hundreds of Canadian $…. so do your homework, spend some time research your options and save some money.
and best of all book early and keep checking your
rental on line!
Mahalo!!
Just used auto slash for a trip in May.
Was looking at over $1000 on my own and they found a deal on Priceline I couldn’t access myself and got it for $650!
Hi Cameron.
Thanks. We appreciate you sharing your car rental experience.
Aloha.
Travelers(and residents) should start considering local public Bus transportation for some of their vacation,and ride sharing apps-reduce your carbon footprint ,save money,decrease traffic and congestion
I booked my rental car a month ago for big island Hilo through Costco when we first started thinking we would go for the holidays. I also reserved some hotel rooms. We don’t have our plane tickets yet but I am pretty sure hotels and rental cars do not get less expensive or more available as your date approaches. Thank you for your tip to check last minute; I wouldn’t have thought to do that,
Aloha all! Discount Hawaii Car Rental has been my “go-to” for a few years now (mahalo BoH!) – we (finally!) are on the books for Feb/March 2022, and immediately after getting our places locked in booked our cars. Within 3 days prices doubled and on Maui tripled! I suspect prices will fluctuate between now and Feb but we are relieved to have secured decent (not low) rates for our island hops. Soon we will be able to shop airfare.
Hi Tea.
Thanks. Glad that worked. Great timing.
Aloha.
This is an absolute scam. They know people want to travel and that most places on Hawaii, Maui, or Kauai require a car to get around. They are trying to make up for lost revenue. They don’t really care about the local economy. Unfortunately the extremely high car prices right now may keep families from even making the trip. It’s a shame.
Last week for the first time we used Turo to rent a 2013 Jetta Hybrid for 3 days for an average cost of $85/day including fees, gas and a delivery fee to our hotel in Honolulu. It was an overall good experience. One thing that took me a while to adjust to was communicating with our Turo host via chat through the app during the rental period. Such chat communication was vital for picking up, dropping off the car and when we found a gas cap issue that needed to be replaced. Tiered insurance, gas replenishment, beach item rentals May Be purchased along with the Turo car rental. We booked the Turo car 2
Weeks in advance .We also rented cars by the hour using Zip car and Hui drive for roughly $12/hr. We rented about 1-2 days ahead of our excursion and picked the cars up very
Close to the Waikiki wall.
In comparison to previous years, rental cars have doubled. I’m in the process of booking to Maui for September and tried every rental site for reasonable rate. Costco was the least, but still at $51 per day! I’ve always said, “I just want to rent a car, not buy it!”
I really appreciate your blog and your helpful hints! Thank you
Hi Jolene.
LOL. Thanks. Hopefully the car rental companies will expand their fleets again so that prices might be more moderate and availability better.
Aloha.
RE: Turo, we did it once in Kona and there were pros and cons. Pros, they brought the car straight to us on the curb at the airport, and it was a little bit cheaper than a regular rental. Con, the car was not very nice, and the worst thing was we had to return the car cleaned. Who wants to vacuum and clean a car when you’re on vacation? How many visitors have access to a vacuum and cleaning supplies? Paying a car wash place to do it would also use precious vacation time and money too. When we were there last December-January, all Turo cars available were more expensive than any of the regular car rental places via Costco. We also used Discount Hawaii Cars once but ended up with a car that wasn’t very nice and the rental process was a bit frustrating. We’ll probably stick with Costco most of the time in the future.
I reserved a “manager’s special” from Avis, the price was $44/day for the Thanksgiving week. Got the tip from my nephew, he said that you never know what kind of vehicle you will get; it could be a large car or SUV or even a van (but I doubt that), but I did say that it would be for three people. Great price, just hope it’s not something too big.
On a few of my Honolulu vacations I have rented a car in town for 2 days only. Usually at the Sheraton. I would do my circle island and swap meet excursions on this two days. With the price of parking at $30, and more, per night, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a car every day. We’ve done the trolly and The City Bus and they are good alternatives.
Thank you for all your great information!
Hi Carrie.
Thanks. We have done the same thing. Good ideas.
Aloha.
We have used Turo for the last 4 times we have been to Oahu
Rented from the same person every time.
It is not a convenient as picking it up at the airport, but some of the renters will pick you up and drop you off.
It’s quite a bit of savings, the cars are not new, but reliable.
There is an app for Turo.
Thank you for this timely update. We just scheduled our trip to Maui in June.. I am shocked by the rental prices! You have included great advice.
Hi Cheryl.
Thanks. Good luck finding a somewhat reasonably priced rental. Let us know how it goes.
Aloha.
We’re headed back to Tulum which is equally as Beautiful as Hawaii and we own a property in Napili Bay! Too much to learn takes the eventual enjoyment out of our stay! We’ve spent a month or two in Napili for the past 13 years and we’re very sad about what is occurring! 😢
Isn’t this price gouging? Doubling and tripling rates during a pandemic is despicable.
Thanks, Rob and Jeff for highlighting this issue for your readers. The situation is quite critical. At AutoSlash we’re turning away customers because there is simply no availability. Even when we can find availability, prices are sky-high (like over $100 per day in some cases for a basic car).
The problem is most acute when booking for a pickup in the next couple of weeks on Maui and Big Island, although Honolulu doesn’t seem nearly as bad–yet. Kauai on the other hand still seems to be OK, but as BoH has reported, that’s probably a case of the island being a bit behind in terms of sorting out their Cv-19 travel regs and requirements.
I will share one trick with your readers that our team figured out. If you search for a rental and none are available, try extending your return date. Now I don’t mean that you should actually fly out later–I just mean keep adding days to your rental until availability starts to show. The reason is that you can book say a 9-day rental but return after 7 days and usually get credit for returning early. It still may be an expensive proposition, but at least you can get a car. Being on a beautiful Hawaiian island without any way to explore it is a special form of torture IMHO, so I for one wouldn’t want to plan a trip without a rental. Hopefully, this helps someone.
The other more obvious ‘trick’ is simply to book as early as possible. Be sure to book a pay-later rate in case your plans change as you don’t want to be locked in. You can also track the price of your rental with AutoSlash so you can re-book when prices drop.
Forbes recently called attention to this ‘Car Rental Apocalypse’ (it’s not just a Hawaii thing):
forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2021/03/11/a-car-rental-apocalypse-is-coming-heres-what-you-need-to-know
And AutoSlash has covered it in our blog as well:
blog.autoslash.com/how-to-escape-the-coming-car-rental-apocalypse
Good luck to everyone finding a decent-priced rental!
Lucky Owl car rental on Oahu is awesome!! They are the old “rent-a-wreck” company, and honestly have always provided us with solid cars. Most are a few years old, but they’ve all been trouble free!! And, locally owned!! They will pick you up from the airport and back again as well. We found they are usually half of the “big guys'” rates!!
Aloha,
I have used Discount Hawaii Car Rental several times. I reserve my desired vehicle as soon as I know our travel dates then check about once a month, if the price goes down I reserve at the lower price and cancel the higher priced reservation. This has saved me quite a bit of money. Picking the vehicle up at the airport isn’t always the cheapest way to go. In 2017 I waited until the following day of our arrival, picked up in Waikiki and save about a thousand dollars.
Happy Travels!
Aloha Kakou…just a note, make your reservation as early as possible and check back frequently for changes. The prices vary day to day, and hr to hr. There’s a lot of competition. Make your reservation with no upfront fees and cancel/change at anytime if the rates go down.
Do I remember seeing a story with hundreds and hundreds of rental cars being moved off the islands and back to the mainland? That could certainly account for part of the supply problem…
On Maui, you need to know about Kihei Rent-a-Car. Located in South Kihei away from airport but with free shuttle service, they offer the best of rates on the island (IMO). And they differentiate between winter (Dec 15 to Mar 31) and summer, with winter rates as low as $255 a week, and summer rates starting at $170 per week, both for a Nissan Sentra (their most popular, but other types are available (Jeep, van, and several brands of discount cars. It’s a family owned business so thay certainly would appreciate your support and recommendations.
Good timing with this article. I have always found Hawaii car rental among the cheapest in the nation (20 years of Hawaii travel). I have been researching a 13 day Kauai Car Rental. $2,000!!! What is going on here? My guess is that they still haven’t taken all the cars out of long term covid storage. Maybe rates will be adjusted when they do? BOH, can you confirm 1,000’s of cars are still parked off site? I saw the sites a few months back.
Hi Bobby.
We too saw the lots full of cars around, but haven’t noticed them for a number of months. Not sure where they have gone.
Aloha.
It’s not just Hawai’i. Orlando for the next two weeks is almost sold out and prices are ridiculous. A week for a Ford Edge is running $1200.
So just like hotel rooms, tourists are now being gouged for car rentals. And just as Airbnb/VRBO massively undercut hotel rooms in Hawaii, Turo and similar companies will do it with car rental agencies.
Give it a few months and these car rental companies will be crying to the state for regulation on Turo/etc to protect their bloated profits, instead of really attempting to reduce their costs.
I always use Turo when traveling to neighbor islands now, the quality of the cars is mixed (some are much more beat-up than rentals from the big agencies) but the value is so much better.