I’m going on a trip to San Francisco (well, Mountainview) in July and we need to rent a minivan from the airport.
Thrifty, Dollar, Avis and Budget all offer what we need (Hertz doesn’t seem to offer American cars and a member of our group is averse to foreign cars, so there you have it).
All of these places, aside from Budget, are quoting me $1005 for the week. Budget is quoting about $100-150 less.
We’ll be traveling with a 1-year-old so speed of pickup and dropoff are most important. Next important is the absolute availability of the car we need. Nobody wants to drive anything bigger than a minivan, we’d like 7 seats (when we meet up with our friends there will be 7 of us) but if we get bumped down a level to a roomy sedan we’ll live - our friends will just have to drive their own car when we go on trips around SF. Third importance is price - I can live with price fluctuation if they are going to get me a minivan but I don’t necessarily want to get screwed.
Any help choosing the right company for us would be appreciated.
Usually large cars are a LOT cheaper to rent than minivans. Also, rental agencies tend to bump UP, not down. For those reasons, I’d consider reserving a large car instead.
I can’t say I’ve ever noticed any real difference in service between the major car rental companies.
I’m not familiar with the car rental arrangements at SFO, but I assume they have a centralized area. The first thing I would do is eliminate any that are off-airport and require a shuttle bus ride.
After that - if convenience trumps price, I’d probably go with anybody but Budget. I’ve been in situations where I had to wait in a long line for whichever company had the best prices that day, while all the other rental counters were quiet.
The deal with the minivan is that we’re going to have 5 adults and 2 car seats when we’re all together. I don’t think I want to be driving something as big as an Explorer or larger…
I’ll keep those prices in mind, though, if my traveling partners balk at the price of the minivan.
Thanks for the tip about the location, twoflower. I never thought to look. I just looked at the SFO map and ALL rental cars are outside the terminal, accessible only by bus. So that’s not ideal, but it’s reality. Unfortunately that means that it doesn’t help trim down my list.
YMMV, but they’re all about the same in my experience. I use carrentals.com; they’ll run your request through everyone and find you the best price. I’ve gotten cars for as low as $12 a day.
Make a reservation now at the best price you can find but when you get closer to the time of arrival (within 2 weeks) check National Car Rental. They normally have “:Last Minute Specials” in their “Specials to Go” section. Like right now you can rent a mini-van for the week out of SFO for $224 weekly rate.
ETA: If you get a lower price closer to your trip, just cancel your current reservation.
Although my company mandates renting from Avis or Budget, when traveling for personal reasons (and not using accrued benefits from Avis) I always select Enterprise. Their vehicles are clean, well-maintained, and typically about half the cost of Avis. And the service is vastly superior.
At SFO all rental cars are located at the Consolidated Rental Car Center, which is a little ways from the terminals. You take the AirTrain automated transit system to get there.
Since you are flying to San Francisco and renting a vehicle, you will be paying premium rates. On the other hand, if you are meeting friends who live there, get them to rent a vehicle (local rental not from the airport) and you can save as much as 50 percent off whatever rate you are quoted (even officially discounted rates).
We had friends visit us last fall and we needed a large vehicle. We reserved the rental online and made it clear we were local folks renting locally (sounds weird but there’s a method to the madness). All the local rental places are geared towards airport non-resident renting. For a week’s rental for a 7-passenger SUV, the standard rate (including usual discounts) was around $500 among all the rental agencies. As a local rental, the actual charge was around $250. The lady who explained it to us said the price difference is due to hidden airport charges, taxes, surcharges, etc. When we asked further we were told:
[ul]
[li]You know that free shuttle bus from the airport to the rental place? It’s not free.[/li][li]You know that simple service to reserve a vehicle and then just pick any vehicle out of the lot and drive off? It’s not free.[/li][li]You know that Enterprise “we’ll pick you up!” jingle? It’s not free.[/li][li]And so on.[/li][/ul]
This is a good idea. However, your friend will need to drive the car back from the airport. After that, stop by the office and add your name to the rental agreement as an authorized driver. (If you don’t do this, and there’s a problem while someone else is driving, it will start to get really expensive.)
I usually get the best rate through Costco. Even if you’re not a member, you can click through their website and see if it’d be worth it to join. Ditto for Sam’s Club, AAA, AARP, etc.
If you work for a corporation, some allow you to use their company code for personal travel. I got a huge discount off my rental in Big Island using my corporate code.
Sometimes it’s worth it to take a shuttle to/from the hotel and then rent the car away from the airport. Inventory will be different as well.
Instead of using a consolidator, check out each rental company’s website for “Hot Deals” and/or sign up to get their emails. They have occasional great deals.
