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”
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Things are changing. How to save money on your Hawaii car rentals throughout 2023..
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I noticed a ton of requirements to leave the cars spotless on Turo or pay a cleaning fee that basically made the cost equivalent to agencies. Also, you had to get yourself from the airport to the car or pay a pickup fee. I’m far from being impressed with that service.
Liz, it’s very dependent on which person you rent from. Also, I don’t like the way Turo handles a credit card.
FYI, as of yesterday, Hertz’s grace period is 29 min.
Yes,I too have found the prices on rental cars has come down some. It’s still very high. I’ve also found the big rental companies are now getting more competitive with Turo. It’s still the same old game of shopping around. It helps to look at the smaller rental companies too.
Aloha Guys
We did what this article suggested, booking then checking and rechecking with both the major rental agencies (via AutoSlash) and Turo. Since the cancellation policies for both are very liberal, it makes it easy to switch up until the last minute in order to get the best deal. We had booked a Turo car, but when the big rental companies prices started dropping like a rock, we asked our Turo host if they were flexible on their price, and they said no. So we went with Budget and saved $600.
Like these islands need more rentals on the road causing more traffic and causing us to be late for actual important things other than tourist attractions
Costco has been the lowest option for me for last year and this year.
Agree totally!!! I’ve found Costco to be the best option for the last 5+ years. The key is once you book to continuously check back and as you get closer to your travel date(s) the price will continue to drop, sometimes numerous times the same day. I currently have an intermediate size car booked on Maui for 3 weeks Apr/May for $1100….I booked it last September. Each of my previous 9-10 trips my total car rentals have averaged less than $45/day.
Thank you for the info! Just rebooked my car and changed it from Costco to Hotwire and saved $200! I will keep checking for our upcoming March trip to the Big Island..your our #1 site for all Hawaii tips and travel assistance.
Thank you
Hi Jan.
Thanks. Glad you pocketed $200!
Aloha.
Aloha BOH,
Coming back to the Royal Hawaiian in February and was looking at using Hui rentals to avoid parking fees and only get a car for trips we need one for. Has anyone had any experiences with this service?
As always Mahalo for your time and advice.
Hi Michael.
Thanks. We have no experience with them but hopefully someone who does will chime in.
Aloha.
Michael, no experience with Hui. However, we have been to Hawaii about 30 times and don’t need a car every day. So, sometimes we do multiple 1-day rentals with Avis at the Sheraton (a short walk, as you know from the Royal Lady). So, we take the car for a day and return in the evening – no charge for parking for 1-day rentals.
Also, if you work for a major co. you might be able to get low rates. We scored a full-size SUV in July for $30-$39 a day. Good company rate.
We have consistently found that Discount Hawaii Car Rental has good pricing for long-term rentals, beating out Budget’s “Long-Term Rentals” category. And DHCR is up front about pricing and fees from the get-go. At BOH’s original suggestion, we have been using them for years. (Mahalo BOH!)
Hi Julianna.
Thanks for the feedback!
Aloha.
As of 1/7/22. I re-checked my May Maui rental, and it has gone UP, not down. 🙁
Same here. We go to Maui in 2 weeks, and the total cost for the same rental is $400 more!
Thank you for the heads up. We’re arriving in three days and I was able to rebook my rental car and save $350.
Hi Kelly.
That’s great! Thanks for letting us know.
Aloha.
Going to Honolulu in April for 10 days. When we booked everything, began a search for vehicle. Found Enterprise for 978. Kept checking every couple days and on Dec. 24 got a vehicle for 716. So figure that comes out to like $72 a day. We check every couple days for cheaper rates and will keep checking. But from what is being said here may not get anything lower. But that’s OK, I feel what we have is good but will keep checking. You never know. Mahalo.
Hi Linda.
Thanks for sharing your car rental process.
Aloha.
We wouldn’t rule out rates going lower–at least temporarily. We see rates change all the time at AutoSlash. You might consider submitting your rental for our free price tracking service. We check pricing multiple times a day. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say. 🙂
I heartily recommend Autoslash.com. I traveled to Oahu three times in 2021 and have four trips planned for 2022, all to visit family. Using Autoslash has saved me hundreds of dollars in rental fees, and I only rent from the majors (Hertz, Thrifty, Dollar) and avoid the two-star companies I am not familiar with.
I follow the Autoslash advice and keep track of my new reservations I have accepted and the old reservations I have deleted, so I only have one reservation active at any one time.
Linda,
Have a great trip. Been to Hawaii too many times to count since 1965. Here’s how we handle car rental there (sometimes).
We don’t rent for all 10 days – we’ve seen it so many times AND the parking can add another $20, $25 or more per day.
So, day one, shuttle from the airport – that’s gonna be a third of that $72. Then the evening before return home, depending on flight time, we return the car and take the shuttle on flight day. If you can cut those 2 days, you’ll save $$$.
Good luck!
Thank you BOH! Great summary and article. In years past, auto slash worked really well in savings me hundreds of dollars. Now with Covid it has become a bit more challenging. Costco used to have really good rates, now they are high too.
For those who work with larger corporations, you may want to ask your company travel team if they have leisure rates for employees. That may be another good route, if possible.
Hi Julieta.
Thanks. That’s a great tip.
Aloha.
Hi Julia. Yes, that’s a great option. Since I’m retired I no longer get that employee luxury; one of those (maybe small) but great perks. 😁
I do not travel much where require a rental vehicle but when do I’ve always found Enterprise to have the better rates. Mahalo
Thank you to BOH and another reader, I just rebooked our exact car rental for our upcoming Maui trip mid-February. I saved $120!
You guys are always on top it!
Mahalo, Suzanna
Hi Suzanna.
That’s great to hear. Thanks for letting us know.
Aloha.
We plan a 2-week visit to Honolulu in late February. We have been several times before, and we love public transportation for its convenience and low cost. We plan to rent a car intermittently, for about 5 of our days, as recommended somewhere. Do you recommend this? You don’t mention it in your article which makes me think maybe there would be difficulties doing it. On previous visits we have rented a car for several consecutive days without a problem.
Anne,
What we do is rent a car one day at a time. Return to the rental company at the end of the day and that day’s rental – no parking fee. We stay in Waikiki and rent the car(s) there.
Also, if your company has an arrangement with one or more of the car rental company you can save big bucks. We paid less that $40/day this year because the niece had a letter from her company.
Good luck and Happy New Year,
Rod
cold blooded, the only way to define the car rental market.
Rental car companies had no problem price gouging and canceling reservations when the customer arrived to pick up their car then they immediately offered a new rental at up to 5 times the original agreement. Unfortunately for the consumer the State of Hawaii was also enjoying the Benefits of Price gouging.
While in Hawaii I will only use a Rental Co to back up my TURO rental (I would rather pay more for a TURO rental then reward these crooks)
And, that’s the flip side. People making multiple reservations for the same trip. Then canceling all but one. So, it’s okay to stick to the companies, I guess. That will only mean higher prices.
I found our current rental car through Turo. It is a 2015 Sentra. It has some minor damage on it but nothing major. It was a far better price that what I could get through regular car rental agencies. The car runs very nicely and they picked us up at the airport. Actually, the time involved in getting this car was far less time consuming than picking up at the airport and I very much like putting the money back into the local economy.
I love Turo! I’ve used it on Kauai and Oahu so far. It’s been great, no rental car lines or waiting for a shuttle. The best part is you get to select the exact make and model of car you want and the money you spend stays will the locals. I do recommend going with 5star hosts.
Support the locals!
Yes I agree, the notion of supporting the locals and getting exactly the car you book is appealing. Unfortunately, as of today Turo prices on Kauai for 3 week rental are approx $200/week higher than those offered through Discount Hawaiian Car Rental. I wonder if the Turo owners are slow to respond to prices changes which do seem to be dropping somewhat on Kauai.
We will be on Maui for two weeks over Christmas. The rental management company we rented our condo through works with a local car rental company. The car is a large sedan. They do not offer insurance as you use your own insurance. We had to provide proof of insurance. We booked our condo through Ali’i resorts and they work with wiki wiki car rental. We got our car for under $700 for 14 days.
With all the taxes and and extra charges put on rental vehicles, has the state or airport shown where the money they’ve collected has gone? I would think they were held to some accountability for all the money they receive from rentals to tourists as well as locals. Our state, Pennsylvania, has one of the highest gas taxes which is supposed to support road maintenance. A great deal of the money has been diverted to fund the State Police, so much for the intended purpose.
We were on Kauai for the last 2 weeks of October. I always try to book our car as soon as I know the dates so this was booked 7 months in advance. We had convertible for 2 weeks for $860, and were very glad I had reserved it early. When I checked closer to the time the price was nearly $2500. For that money I would likely have cancelled the trip.
I just cancelled our Turo reservation in Honolulu for the end of January because agency prices have come down Pick up can be a pain with Turo
Just spent 2 weeks on Maui. Avis full size car through Costco (second driver free) total cost $768. Over $200 of that was taxes and fees. No hassles no added charges. Must have been lucky, did not take pictures of car, did not get closed account before leaving, did not clean up car (not dirty, minimal sand, no dings).
Did change reservation a few weeks before from Budget to Avis due to price drop. Mahalo
I haven’t been able to get car rentals for months on the Big Island…forget booking with Costco- it even says their is a shortage. I rented recebtly in Honolulu and in pervious years I would spend hours waiting at the car rental. Now with Turo I got picked up and loaded my bags right into the car! I’m sold on Turo now.
You are blowing up my inbox with all the responses. If we have an interest, we can just find the responses on your web site.
Hi Gary.
Sounds like you signed up for comment notifications. You can unsubscribe from those at any time.
Aloha.
I have met visitors to both Kauai and Oahu who did not rent a car but instead used public transportation,taxis,ride sharing-walked or used Biki a bicycle share program in Honolulu.
They enjoyed inexpensive healthy vacations. They also helped to decrease their carbon footprint by not driving. I am a firm supporter of using alternative transportation as much as possible and limiting rental cars ,Turo,and car ownership.
Jeanne F
That’s some awesome virtue signaling, but seriously the carbon footprint of a modern 40-45 mpg vehicle is amazingly low. Also rental car companies now offer hybrid 50-60 mpg vehicles and we’re just starting to see electric cars entering their fleets, so if your that interested in lowering your carbon footprint and still want a rental car opt for the compact and for go the Jeep Wrangler.
More cars on the roads still adds to traffic and parking congestion even if they are electric
You can be green all you want, but if you are on vacation for only one week, time is money. Get a car if you can.
Hi Jeanne,
We’re going “car-less” for the first time in February. A week at Turtle Bay and A second week at Sheratin Waikiki. Will use public transport when available, especially to get to our favorite Kaimuki restaurants. Never go out on Kalakaua, sometimes walk to Roy’s, Ruth Crist or Royal Hawn, but prefer local and cheaper places!
Aloha!
We were luckyast year, and had booked our car before the “shortage”. It’s a shame, for the locals who will suffer greatly from tourists who have to spend more on a car and in turn, less on destinations and excursions. Of course, there were the usual “stay home haole” attitude when others addressed the issue. Look for the Big 3 to also introduce legislation to stop the competition. We chose Bahamas next, because of all the hassles. Yeah, I know, “Stay home haole”. We’ll miss you, Maui.
I think that most on the Islands are recognizing the cost of over-tourism (as you see from the “stay home” messaging), so your decision (and others’) to stay away won’t trigger much mourning, except by the commercial interests who stress the ecosystem too much and don’t trickle down the revenue anyway. The economy is and should be resizing to a healthier level.
My experience is the people whining are not Hawaiians but, transplants that have moved to Hawaii. They are the ones that have driven housing costs through the roof! People saved money while travel was restricted to take a once in a life time trip and so many were treated so rudely that they will look elsewhere. To those that don’t care and I say that is selfish! Many native Hawaiians count on tourist Dollars
I am so thankful to hear that Kauai will be receiving 400 additional cars. When Kauai closed down last year, I rebooked the timeshare and, as always, I booked a car (then recheck as time goes by – not much time spent on that this time).
I was worried that the car rental company won’t stand by the reservation because it is at last year’s (previous normal) rate. Our rate is about a 1/3 of the rate being quoted now. fingers crossed that they honor the reservation.
We booked months ago through Discount Hawaii Car Rental for our trip to Kauai next year. I worried about the same thing, but checked and Budget is honoring the reservation and the quote.
Aloha BOH Bro’s
Like traditional taxi cab companies lobbied government officials to change laws and regulations to stop Uber aka California…Look for Big Rental Car company to do the same to Turo.
Yup they will that’s how they rid of the super ferry. Everyone’s on the take.
Your newsletter is where I first learned about Autoslash a few years ago, and I am SO thankful for that! I’ve used it probably 12 or so times for booking rental cars for my trips to the mainland, and EVERY time I have saved money. The best feature is tracking your rental for lower fares. With that, I’ve saved anywhere from just $30 or so for a week’s rental all the way up to cutting my cost almost in half recently for a Boston rental car. Originally $438.10, it ended up at $238.55!
I used auto slash who sent me to FOX on Maui, off airport. About $400 for the week BUT the car was a POS. Absolutely filthy inside but I didn’t see it in the dark. Also on Oahu, avoid Dollar/Thrifty. The line was ridiculous.
We were on Oahu in July. Our niece got a company discount and rented an SUV (Ford Expedition I think). Because of her company discount, it was less than $40 for the day. We only rent for a day anymore – figure another $20-$25 per day for timeshare parking.
Anyway, we decided it would be nice to rent another day, so the niece returns to the rental company – no can do, no one available to wash cars. They had hotel parking full but couldn’t/wouldn’t rent. We’d take it dirty, no dice.
How are the rental car prices not being investigated for price fixing or collusion. I don’t want to buy the car,I just want to rent it. Glad I booked my rental on Maui over Thanksgiving week. Saving $650.00 by booking early thru Costco travel.
We just turned in a Nissan pathfinder after a 7 day rental through Enterprise. I booked in April. It cost $1200 after taxes and a fee for a booster seat. We were in Honolulu. So ridiculous!
Hawaii Visit Checklist
Pack bags – Check
Review stay away request by Governor – Check
Attempt to understand Hawaii’s daily COVID restrictions – Check
Study Mask requirements – Check
Vaccination Card – Check
Register with Pre-travel clearance site – Check
Pay inflationary price increases on everything – Check
Evaluate airline disruptions – Check
5 hours on airplane wearing mask – Check
Pay increased lodging taxes – Check
Pay high rental car prices – Check
Unpack bags and stay at home – Check
My friend came back from Maui hella broke and he is a dr lol.
Glad I took a three week camping trip no stress no nonsense lots of happy and chill places.
Hawaii politics and all this covid stuff has made what was once a relaxing getaway is a very stressful and outrageously prices make it ridiculous even with money to spend.
I don’t understand why people wanna go with all this stuff going on like there isn’t 99% of the world to see.
People love to gamble…
I think I too will skip Hawaii until things go back to “normal”. (Ha!)
We just finished dropping over $2k in extra costs on this trip. We weren’t even on the Big Island.
I looked at Kauai at the beginning of the year. There were no cars available. I found one through a National chain and it was the most expensive thing on the trip. The hotel was less and the flight wasn’t too bad. I need to keep checking back because the rate is/was absurd
My recommendation is to stay far, FAR away from Craigslist car rentals. We had a rental I found off of Craigslist secured (or so we thought) for a 5 week visit to the BI for the month of August. We even had a signed contract for the car. 3 weeks before our flight the car owner flaked on us and said she wasn’t going to honor the contract because she wasn’t making enough money on it. We had to scramble to find a replacement (we even thought about shipping our own car over to Hawaii to use).
That sucks. Karma’s a b!itch – a contract is a contract, verbal or written.
Hawaii’s nice but not that nice. These prices are insane. Glad people are getting this out of their stem I’ll return when things are back to what’s close to normal. If this is the new normal I’ll find other options. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived there 20 years but I can’t imagine how enjoyable this can be with the lines lack of service and cost. People are paying double and triple for the worse possible time to go. I see hotels are milking it all they can by limiting how many they bring back
Agree – we will not be returning to Hawaii until car prices come back to normal. $1300 for four weeks in Paradise back in summer was way too high – but since we were making up for two summers, we were fine. There are literally a thousand other places in the world that awaits us – that are unique and beautiful in their own way, for us to visit. Here we come …
I had been checking daily through Discount Hawaii for our trip in November and the prices have been steadily coming down. There weren’t any other sites (Costco etc) that came close to their prices.
Another tip though. Some of you may have car rental plans through your company which may be better. I found out last week I can get a Hertz gold membership for corporate travel which can be used for personal travel. I believe I’m getting their corporate rate and it saved yet another $150. It’s worth checking if your company has a similar program.
$.02
This site always touts Discount Hawaii. Yes they have good prices BUT get ready for a L O N G wait trying to get your car. Think 1
Hour or more. That has been our experience twice at Lihue. There weren’t be a third time. I’ll pay more.
Wait time is not based on booking your car through Discount Hawaii Car Rental. We book you through the major car companies, with discounted rates. If you show up and a few planes have come in, there will be a wait for all passengers. If you are concerned about wait times, please call us when booking, so we can advise you the best options. Sometimes the best way to beat the line up is to leave your passengers to collect luggage etc while you go pick up the car, then come back to pick them up.
Aloha rob & Jeff.
On the assumption that travels will open up as promised in November, couldn’t resist booking a trip to Kaua’i in January. Like all the other folks trying to book cars, there seemed to be enormous charges. I kept trying different sites and fell on QEEQ. Managed to get a small car (but there is only me travelling) and for 19 days paid £786 which equates to USD $1,071. That includes full insurance package. I felt that for around $357 per week (or so) this was a sweet deal.I hope this site would work for everyone, if interested.
Mahalo
Hi Michael.
We’re glad to hear you are planning to return soon.
Aloha.
On Kauai I leave wifey and luggage curbside at airport, hop shuttle and am first to rental desk while others wait for luggage off the shuttle and return with car to pick her up. We drop groceries and luggage at condo, drop car at the Hyatt and walk to condo. Now we don’t want a car for the next few days and every third day have a rental booked next door at the Sheraton to cancel/use for day trips/supplies as needed. No unused car on beach days for us! Way cheaper and car days are more exciting.
-great to hear about how you manage your trip-This is the way to travel in Hawaii ,save money,,less contribution to traffic and parking congestion.