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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We saved a huge amount using Costco for a 2-week rental in September. $545, When we first booked in May, prices were at $1250, but slowly came down as I continually checked all sites. The closest to Costco was VIPcars at $647.
tks for the tip..I had discount hawaii and thought I did great until I saw your comment. I saved over 200 on my 2 week Kona trip in November.
Thanks for the reminder to re-check the rates. With the crazy car rental scene this year I thought I’d done well to get a car for 8 days on HI island for $413. Re-checked and now have the same rental for $282.
Discount Hawaii Car Rental has great customer service and response times. Used them a number of times now and they always have the best prices.
Hi Georgia.
Thanks for that. Glad to hear it worked out to re-check rates.
Aloha.
Discount Hawaii Car Rental also has some great rates and benefits. I did a quick comparison with Costco, as a lot of readers are mentioning they are searching there. Costco does have some great rates, but they only have 4 cars companies – Avis, Budget, Alamo and Enterprise. We also carry a few others including Thrifty and Dollar. Often, Thrifty and Dollar are the lowest rates, and when you book through our website, you can get 2 free extra drivers, and if you are a young driver, you can get a much reduced young driver rate of $8/day. These added benefits can really add up, and make this way more economical.
I did a quick search – Honolulu Oct 10-17 noon, our best rate for a mid size car was $336.96, and Costco was $399.
It might be a good idea when searching for lower rates to also go to discounthawaiicarrental.com and search our website. We have an amazing customer service team that answer the phone, and help you with any questions, and find you the best rates. Also, we have your back – if you have any problems, you reach out to us and we contact the car company and work out the issue for you.
We have a lot of very loyal customers that have been booking through us for years, and we love hearing from them.
Just thought this information might be helpful when re-checking rates, and also looking for a new booking – we have put a lot of time and love into our website to make your experience with us the best.
Call us anytime – 1 800 292-1930 – we will return your call if we are busy when you call – and we love talking to our customers.
Great article.
Get a COSTCO membership and book your rental through costco.com/travel. You get a free second driver and better rates.
Correction:
costcotravel.com
I just checked Costco…$420 for a 5-day economy. Got much cheaper through AutoSlash!
Try HUI app for rental car, this seems to be the cheapest route in Waikiki since the parking fee is horrendous or using the HOLO bus pass. It only cost $5.50 for the all daily bus pass and could be reloaded.
Mahalo
Visiting Oahu April 2022 10 days. Booked rental direct w/Enterprise f/978. After checking multiple companies, Enterprise had the better pricing next to Costco which was/is the same. Will keep checking site/s for (hopefully) lower rates especially when closer to time. Now, checking and re-checking flights. Mahalo for keeping us informed on happenings in Hawaii.
Linda,
If you have a better price now, I’d lock it in now. Rates could go up, no guarantee they will go down.
I’m guessing you can change the new reservation later, if something better comes along.
Our 3 weeks on Kauai in Jan 2021 we cancelled. Very hard to do with non-stop round trip at $150.00 from Phoenix. Our condo reservation we advanced to May 2022.
In April booked a rental car from Costco for over $1,600. for the 3 weeks. Kept checking several times and found one in June for $852.74. I will keep checking even though I’m happy with that number for 3 weeks. My number for The car is $535.04. Taxes and fees is $317.70. I do expect taxes to go higher. For myself I have found that Costco is my #1 choice…..
Thanks, you guys are the best for Hawaii info..
Hi Ed.
Thanks for letting us know how that worked out for you. And for your kind words.
Aloha.
Presently my wife is visiting her sister in LA. I used Priceline to get her a rental car. Hertz surprisingly was the best price. I did purchase “Full coverage” from Priceline as well as that was my wife’s desire. It was this where she has a problem. Day after picking up car, it had a sidewall blow out. She called Hertz where she picked up car. Person that answered refused to send out someone to help her. She was told to buy a new tire and it had to match the other tires or she would be charged for another tire as well as a couple of days that it would take to change the tire. Also an administrative fee would be assessed. She called the car insurance she paid for through Priceline. Representative said that they would send forms for her to fill out first to our house, (note, she is across country) fill it out and that it would take 90 days to review the claim. If approved, it would then take 4 to 6 weeks to reimburse her for tire purchase only. My wife is over 70 years old, and if not for a good samaratan who helped her on the Los Angeles freeway she could have been injured or killed, trying to change tires herself. I called the Hertz Road assist line and I spoke to a very kind young woman who listened to my concerns. She said that blowouts are always covered by Hertz and she created a claim for us and then requested that my wife go back to pickup location and she would have a new car waiting for her. She gave us a claim # and said to call her if there was any problems. Thankfully, everything went off smoothly except for no apology from rental location person who wound up being the one who spoke to my wife on the phone originally. Sorry for such a long story, but I was just trying to say that 3rd party insurances are not always a good fit if the purchaser is in an emergency situation. Thank you for a great service you give with your “Beat of Hawaii”!
Mahalo, Ed.
Hi Ed.
Thanks for sharing. We haven’t had that experience so far but it was eye opening. Glad it worked out in the end.
Aloha.
A trip booked for Kauai in early part of Sept was not going to include a car as it was outrageous for a compact ($1,800.00-$2,400.00). 5 days before I heard the rates had dropped and I was able to book a car 10 days for $675.00 and the rates were similar for smaller cars vs a van. I also have trip to Oahu in early Dec where I need a car and originally booked a van for $1,600.00. for 8 days. I was able to cancel the van and rebook it for $535.00 🤙🏽
We recently tried Turo on Oahu & Maui (we’ve used them before on the mainland) and had wonderful experiences. In the past we always found the best prices on Discount Hawaii Rental Car. But now I don’t see us ever going back to traditional car rental agencies. I’d rather pay individual owners on Hawaii than a few large companies anyway. We checked with our insurance and we’re covered in any vehicle we drive. Thank u for always providing the best Hawaii travel info!
Hi Chrissy.
Thanks for sharing your Turo experience. We were hesitant but also had a very good first venture with car sharing. There are times when traditional rentals work better for both of us and so it will probably a mix going forward.
Aloha.
Aloha, We are finally biting the bullet and rebooking a Hawaiian vacation in early December this time to the Big Island. The first Jeep price I saw through Avis was $300 less than the second time I looked just a few days later. So yes things change fast. I appreciate your tips here on how to try to get a better price as our trip approaches.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1000 times, Costco, Costco, Costco is your best bet by far. We just left Maui, rented a SUV and started the process last April…back then our rental was going to be $1100 for 17 days, over numerous cancellations and rebooks our final price was $588. Today I booked our rental for 9/22 and for 21 days it’s $900, obv that will drop between now and then. I’m just saying, keep your eye out and there are deals all the time, not deals you have to jump hoops thru just be persistent, the prices drop all the time.
Fortunately i have always booked my rental car thru Costco as soon as i book my airfare. In the past i have changed as Costco allows you to do. This time, i am sooo glad i booked it last Nov for this Nov including Thanksgiving week. I am still $250 cheaper than todays quote. I used to think i was weird for doing this, now i am glad and others are jealous!!
Thanks for the re-check price tip.
Last April I paid $700 a week on oahu.l arrive again on Friday. Car rental this time seemed more reasonable:$400. Today I rebooked same car for $276 ! And this is on-airport across from Terminal 2 which you can walk to. European company Sixth. Highly recommend.
Hi Ellen.
Thanks for letting us know. We’re happy that worked out.
Aloha.
We went through Turo on Maui and everything went perfectly.
I’ve been seeing the prices drop a little nearly every day. We’re going to Oahu mid-November and returning just before Thanksgiving. I’ve cancelled and re-reserved multiple times. I’m well under half of what we had booked originally.
We decided we wanted to stay here on Kaua’i a couple of more days. I went to extend my rental yesterday on the app (National) not knowing if I was going to be successful. Turns out, rates have dropped so much that even though I extended the rental by 2 days, the total cost DROPPED by $168!
I canceled the rental reservation on Oahu (where we’re going when we leave Kaua’i) and was able to reserve from Avis (for 2 days less than original) for a total cost of almost $500 less!
Rates apparently really have dropped!
Mahalo, BOH. We’ve enjoyed your island as always!
Hi Ed.
Thanks for letting us know and we’re happy you have enjoyed Kauai.
Aloha.
When I turned the car in upon leaving Kaua’i , the final total was almost 1/2 of what the original reservation was for even though we kept it 2 days longer! I couldn’t believe they actually dropped the price even more!
We arrived yesterday afternoon. I was somewhat concerned about availability our as our flight was one of the last arrivals from the mainland for the day. Turns out, there was nothing to be concerned about. Riding the shuttle to the rental facility, I noticed that every lot was beaming with vehicles. The counter agent at the rental facility said inventory is no longer a problem, and the only problem they have now is finding people willing to come back to work and getting off unemployment.
On a side note, getting the wristbands at our departure airport (PHX) made arrival so much less stressful.
I was looking for every reason to cancel but better deals and prices plus SW has $20 48hr molecular testing near me.
Hmmm 🤔
Thanks for the update BOH. Sadly the prices have gone up instead of down for thanksgiving on the big island. Booked for 10 days a few months back at $1700…$170 day. Now it is $2400, $240 a day. This is for an SUV. Hoping things change even for peak periods eventually. Thanks.
Hi Kyle.
Thank you. Holidays are looking very pricey indeed. It’s the other times that went down. Do keep checking though.
Aloha.
I checked through Costco for Avis,Budget,enterprise and Alamo. Only availability was a Jeep for $3750 for 24 days. Wish it looked better
Maybe it’s time to buy some junkers and try to sell them before heading home. Or donate to a legitimate charity and get a tax deduction.
We booked an standard SUV for a trip to Kona in early December back in April. The price is great compared to rates now. We also booked cars for Maui and Honolulu next April 2022 at the same time, again for substantially less than you can get today. I just hope they won’t cancel the reservation. They were all booked through Costco.
Thanks for all of the helpful information you provide on your website.
Hi Nancy.
Thanks for your first-time comment and for letting us know how you are working with Hawaii car rentals.
Aloha.
Thank you so much for the latest car rental update! I checked my current reservation with National & compared it to the latest rates. I saved $600! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Forgot to mention I moved 2 car classes up & still got a better deal.
Hi Pam.
That’s great. Thanks for letting us know.
Aloha.
Thanks for keeping us informed. Appreciate your hard work and weekly posts! 😁
Hi Theresa.
Thanks. We appreciate your first-time comment.
Aloha.
I booked rentals through Discount Hawaii Car Rental for the Big Island and Kauai for June into July back in December. The price I booked for was much cheaper than any price I could have gotten closer to our vacation. We had no problem with our rentals when we arrived on both islands.
Aloha Guys
With Hertz purchasing Thrifty/Dollar and other rental car companies. It looks like Hertz is trying to be the only player in the field. I think that companies like Turo are about to become much larger players in the rental car business.
When I moved here recently, I started in a hotel in Waikiki and Hui is a great option (think the Hawaiian version of Zip Car but with decent availability). You pay by the hour, around $10 for a late model Prius and the cars are generally close by. Only one out of 3 times did I have to walk almost a mile. The others within a few blocks. The best part is that you don’t have to pay for parking in Waikiki and you only pay for the times you are using the car, not while you’re sleeping in the hotel. Once I got out of Waikiki, I got a Turo for a few days. That worked well too. I got a minivan for a little over $100/day (2009 so a bit roughed up) and was able load stuff needed by the move. The only thing I didn’t like is that I had to Uber to the car and then after I dropped it off. It’s worth getting it delivered if you can. You’re paying $50 anyway to Uber back and forth, may as well pay it to the guy to bring it to you.
Currently on day 4 of 15 of my Maui trip.
Originally booked with Discount Hawaii Car rental a compact for around $1750 with Thrifty.
Found the same booking for $1490 2-3 days before my trip so rebooked.
Thrifty had zero compacts when we arrived. Had to sit and wait. Was told they didn’t have any in a hatchback either, which we wanted for our luggage.
Walked over to Alamo while waiting and scored a compact SUV (Nissan Kicks) at the counter for $400/week plus taxes, etc. Total somewhere just over $1200 for 15 days. Cancelled my Alamo reservation and off I wernt.
So, got a better deal and better car AT THE AIRPORT. Crazy.
Aloha BOH Rental Car Warriors
The rental car shortage has no end insight.
As a former new car dealer due to continued computer chip shortages I can relay that for the foreseeable future there will be little if any new rental fleet vehicles arriving on the islands.
In fact one of my dealer friends living on Maui has told me that all his arriving new car inventory for the remainder of the year is already sold.
All new vehicle production is focused on high profit retail sales. Historically rental companies are sold over produced slow moving production, like mini vans. Yet today I read that mini vans have become hot merchandise…Who saw that coming.
Watch for less popular new car vehicles such as Nissan or Mitsubishi’s, yes Mitsubishi still sales cars in America, to show up in rental fleets first.
By the way these rental fleets are getting old with higher then average miles. Rental car companies are known for not keeping up on routine servicing of their fleets.
For your own safety make sure to check out the tires on the rental vehicle. Rental car companies are notorious for not rotating tires in many cases the front tires will be in poor unsafe condition.
Hi Richard.
Thanks for that.
Aloha.
Just got back from the big Island and I had reserved a car through Expedia back in January. A Jeep 4×4 at $58 a day. No money upfront. It worried me a bit hearing all the stories but upon arrival we got our Jeep at the reserved price. There seemed to be an abundance of Jeeps. We picked it up on a Sunday afternoon and there were a ton of cars. Maybe it’s the timing?
I’m in a similar situation. In April I booked my mid size through Autoslash/Priceline for 7 days at $381.00 at Hertz for mid September! My husband thought that booking would be dropped,so I booked another recently through AAA for Hertz at $1,200.00. The airlines have changed my flight twice,the cheaper reservation is much later in day after arrival,where the higher is a little earlier. My husband will be furious if I keep the cheaper one and Hertz counter says they don’t find it or are out of cars because its late. I hear they do that with Priceline bookings. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you.
Hi Joyce Ann.
We hope that others will give us a hand on your question.
Aloha.
Thank you Jonathan, I will reach out to Autoslash.
Hi Joyce. First off, showing up a few hours early or late for your reservation is almost never an issue with the major rental companies which have pretty generous policies in this are unlike the discount brands.
Second, it may be possible to adjust the pickup time on your existing reservation to be closer to your arrival time. Hertz sometimes lets you do this, but we can’t guarantee it. Your best bet is to reach out to AutoSlash via email at [email protected] and provide your Hertz confirmation number from your Priceline confirmation email. It should start with the letter ‘J’ and be followed by 10 digits.
Note that you can also use this number to look up your reservation directly at Hertz.com by navigating via their website or using the link below:
hertz.com/rentacar/reservation/?confirmationNumber=
If Hertz shows your reservation as confirmed you should rest easy as you are good-to-go. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team as we’re happy to help.
I reserved cars in February for a trip to Kauai and the Big Island that I will be taking in September. Both reservations are for very low rates, compared to current prices, and I’m worried the rental car companies won’t honor those rates when we arrive. Have you heard that being an issue? Should I pre-pay to protect my reservations? I made my reservations through Discount Hawaii Car Rentals and have always had great luck with them.
We, at Discount Hawaii Car Rental have not had issues with our customers getting low rates and being turned away at the counter. A few days before you go, get in touch with us so we can check your reservation and make sure all is good. We have your back.
Mahalo for the tips, just checked a couple of upcoming trips and saved almost $200! Sadly, these aren’t to our beloved Kauai at this time! Hope to soak up the sun next year, until then keep the great info coming!
We’ve used Hawaii Discount Car Rental in 2019 and before in Kauai. My only issue is their staffing. In 2029 we lost over an hour and didn’t get the Jeep Wrangker we had ordered. But we took what they had. Very disappointed. Their staff were very inefficient, uncoordinated and lacked any management guidance.
Was it the staff at Discount Hawaii Car Rental which was the problem or the staff at the car rental spot? I’m guessing the latter since DHCR is basically only a “middleman” in the operation and just finds and assigns you to a vehicle based on your request; and you never “see” the DHCR staff. In more than two decades of renting cars in Hawai’i, much of it with DHCR, I’ve never had a poor encounter or response from DHCR. I’ve found better pricing from Costco sometimes, but the service was always good.
Your issues would have been with the counter staff at the car company you were booked with, not us at Discount Hawaii Car Rental. Any time you have issues with the counter staff, you can give us a call and we will work with you and the car company to get a resolution. We have seen situations where the wranglers were all out on the road still when a customer shows up to pick one up. Once we are notified, we work with the car company to exchange the vehicle given for a wrangler as soon as possible, or compensate the customer if necessary. We will work with you on your car rental problems.
I am going to buy a used car and leave it with a friend on the island and let them hold onto it while I am not there.
Way damn cheaper than the prices now, though I understand why they are so high.
I Reserved a Alamo car through discount Hawaii
Car rentals back in February for 15 days at just over $950. With the high rental rates now has anyone heard of any of the auto rental companies not honoring early reservations?
I just returned from Kauai on Monday. I had reserved a car rental with Budget when I made my plane reservation last fall. I had the same concern, but there were no problems. I received a shiny, new mid-sized car for my 12 day stay.
I hope your rental goes smoothly, too.
No, we at Discount Hawaii Car Rentals have seen no issues with customers of ours not receiving a car that was booked at a lower rate. We will work with you to resolve any issues.
Aloha,
I booked a car through Discount Hawaii Car Rental several months ago for our Aug 2, 5 day inter island trip to Kauai. At the time all I could get was a compact car for over $860. Went ahead and reserved and continued to check prices through them and Costco all the way up until the night before the trip. Zero cars snowing .
As we landed at LIH on Monday I decided to check again . Both Discount Hawaii and Costco had a large selection of cars at much better rates. I ended up booking a “full size” for $530. One important piece of advice, send one person in the party to go get the rental, while other people wait for bags. Budget had a huge line, longer than the other agencies, and will only allow one person in your party inside . It took over two hours to get the car.
You did exactly the right thing, book the first best available rate on our website and hold it. Then keep checking back, as even during times of sold out vehicles, we are seeing cars show up to book that were previously for sold out dates and locations. And every once in a while the prices drop, so you can rebook at the lower rate and cancel your original reservation.
Regarding your experience when “dropping off before the (rental) lot was opened,” I’m looking for some real-world input. Background: We’re renting from one airport (KOA) and returning to another (ITO); our SWA inter-island flight changed from 8 am to 7 am and the lot doesn’t open at Hilo until 6:30 am for a drop-off. I won’t have the chance to “talk” to a live person at the rental place in Hilo before the drop-off date (different part of the island) and I didn’t think I *could* just drop the car off with no one there to “accept” it (we have it officially rented until 9 am). How’d you do that? Did you have to call the corporate office for the car rental firm before doing so? And, yes, I will take a photo to prove it (but you know how very small Hilo Airport and the car rental lot is so I doubt they’d miss spotting it!). Thanks!
(I’m just glad we made all of our car reservations back in January for this October trip–auwe!)
Hi Tonya.
We had that same experience once and in the end it worked out okay. But the car wasn’t immediately checked in and we received a call from the car rental company saying that it had gone missing.
Aloha.
Discount Car Rental is the way to go….they have always provided us great service when we have traveled to the islands….unfortunately not in 2021.
Unfortunately we do not have control over the rates and availability of cars, but we do have great customer service and our rates are lower than booking direct, and can include benefits such as up to 2 free extra drivers, and low young driver rates. We provide back up service if you have any issues, and we work with the car companies to solve your problems. Saving money on extra drivers can add up, so keep that in mind if you are looking to include other drivers on the rental.
We scheduled a rental car for our trip to Oahu in May, 2021, with Turo. We reserved our car in January, 2021 and received a confirmation. The rate was awesome, at $46 per day. In April, our reservation was cancelled without explanation. Turo reserves the right to cancel any reservation for any reason, without explanation. Our assumption is that with the rising rental car market demands, our Turo supplier cancelled in order to charge more for their car. Plan accordingly!
I read reports that some travelers rented a vehicle and were told that their rental was not honored when they went to pick it up.(I’m not sure how most people book andwhich companies they booked with)
Does anyone know if these cancellations occur with the major rental companies for those who book directly with them. I’d hate to book a car and upon arrival being told that my rental was not there.
We had this happen. Booked with Costco Travel on Kauai and we did not get a car. There were many people in line who booked directly with the company & didn’t get one either. I don’t know how the car companies can get away with that.
Jilene B Thank you for that info. I’m concerned about that if I decide o book a trip this fall.
There were a few situations on Kauai where this happened with at least on of the major suppliers. We had a few customers come in on a flight and were unable to pick up a vehicle – we contacted the car company and made arrangements to get the next available cars delivered to those clients. Every one of them did get a car. Discount Hawaii Car Rental will help you out.
It wasn’t a normal situation, as the car companies are working very hard to supply vehicles, but were running into issues as cars were not being returned on time as customers were extending rentals at the last minute due to flight changes.
I already booked 2 vehicles for July 2022, and it was almost half the price of what I paid in July 2021, so I was very happy!!