Where to Compare Car Rental Prices Online

Booking a rental car for out of town travel can sometimes be a tricky proposition. Before the advent of the Internet, rental cars had to be booked with travel agents, or the customer would have to call a variety of rental agencies in order to get a price before reserving a car. This was a messy and time-consuming way to make a reservation. Along with booking online airline reservations, car rentals have finally made it into the 21^st Century. There are some useful tips if you would like to get the best deal for your rental car.

First of all, when I need to make a rental car reservation, I usually open at least three browser windows. My favorite place to start is with Upromise (www.upromise.com). With two kids in college, Upromise offers the site user a rebate on any purchases made through the site. (For those without children with impending college tuition, there are similar consumer sites, such as MyPoints.com, where a portion of every dollar spent goes into an account that can be redeemed later for gift cards.) Upromise features a travel page, where one can find links to various travel services, such as Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, and Orbitz, among others. There are also links to actual car rental agencies, like Avis.

In another window, I may open up the actual car rental agency's web site. While opening up the Avis site from Upromise may look exactly the same as the direct web site, I have noticed there may be slight variations in the actual rental price, even though the sites are basically the same.

In a third window, I may open up a discount web site like Priceline. The difference between Priceline and the traditional car rental sites is that you can set your own price. You can gauge how much to ask for by noting how much the other sites are asking for a daily rate.

Recently, I had to book a car rental for an upcoming trip to San Francisco. I happen to like Avis very much, and belong to their frequent user club. This allows me to pick up my car without having to stand in line with the rest of the travelers who just got off my plane. They also keep my credit car information on file, which makes checking in a breeze.