If you have AAA membership, a Costco wholesale card, an AARP card membership, AHEAD OF TIME check with those sources first.
We have been told that travelocity.com and kayak.com are worth checking out.
Check out special travel packages at allabouthawaii.com.
AHEAD of time checking the on-line reservations (try avis.com, budget.com) will always be a better way to go for the investment of a few clicks.
For last minute walk-ups to the counter at the Kona Airport we have been told that Budget and Avis are reasonable.
When I asked this question to a guest who frequently rented cars (often long term), this is what he had to say:
The best deals I've been able to find have come by asking for their cheapest 30 day rate and to tell them I am shopping rates.
Another guest had this to say about his experience..
If you have the patience and time you can watch some of the sites as the rates go up and down. This particular guest used PriceLine ( http://www.priceline.com ) and HotWire ( http://www.hotwire.com ) [in this case he said PriceLine was $100 less expensive] to get a car rental for $19 a day — which is pretty good -- he said he saved over $60% by looking at these sites. He also said the last day he could not get the rate — so nothing is perfect I guess.
I do believe locking in your car rental ahead of time is a good idea. Last minutes can be very tricky they do not seem to have enough cars to go around when we have a lot of Island visitors.
We have also been told if you ask:
Sometimes if you get an economy car,
You can get a free upgrade to the next car size. Now if you really want to pay for the extra gas consumption that is another consideration??
Recently we’ve been told Enterprise Car in town (not at the airport) has the deals.
They are at 74-5583 Luhia Street, B-14 (808) 331-2509
I finally made my reservation for a car and I
found out it is cheaper to rent from the
Enterprise location in town rather than the one
at the airport. For 1 month and 1 day stay it
costs 758 total in town versus 862 at the airport
for an intermediate (Corolla size) car. Of course
you have to get from the airport to the in town
location on your own. I wanted to let you know
in case anyone else asked you about renting a
car.
Enterprise in town says they will pick you up
within 10 miles but they do not serve the
airport. (I surmise that is some kind of
agreement with the airport location.) I asked how
I'd get from the airport to their location and
they said they had an agreement with Laura's Taxi
to make the trip one way for $20. Laura's Taxi phone number is: 326-5466.