davekempmeister Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 the last two times i've flown into denver i've needed a mini-van or a tahoe and i've been floored by the weekly rental rates for those types of vehicles. something on the order of $1500 for a week and that's irrespective of how far in advance i tried to reserve (6 weeks, 2weeks, whatever). never mind coupon codes - that's pennies on the dollar. what i've done is catch a shuttle to a hotel complex a few minutes away (Tower Rd.) and rent from a kiosk set up in the hotel lobby (in my case Enterprise and Holiday Inn, respectively). additional time spent was, conservatively, 30 minutes and i saved a thousand bucks. crazy money. i travel some but i'm not a savvy traveler at all and i think that it's commonly suggested to people that they be willing to rent somewhere other than the airport to save money. many think this means to go much further offsite though, and that is not the case. one caveat would be that the kiosk that i'm referencing has normal daytime business hours, so there is that to reconcile when picking up the vehicle. keys can be returned at any hour and left with the hotel desk clerk. in the first instance that i rented this way it was moot because i flew in at lunchtime. the second time i did it, we flew in at night and the kids needed to get to bed anyway so we just spent the night there and in the a.m. went downstairs and drove away. i think they get the vehicles from the Enterprise at DIA anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allee Posted August 9, 2012 Report Share Posted August 9, 2012 If I can, I avoid getting a rental car from the airport. A number of the airports I've flown into charge at least a 15% surcharge on the rental rates, which is the kickback the airport gets for allowing them to be there. Plus they always jack the rates. because they know people (especially business travellers) pay for the convenience. I either use an offsite rental car company that will send a shuttle to pick me up, or I've used a couple in Auckland that will park the car close to your landing time, and give the keys and the stall number to the information desk there. You have to pay the parking charges, but it's usually minimal. It's a much better way to go. Yep, if money is time, and half an hour is $1000 - that's pretty good going! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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