Another round of rental car comparison shopping reminds me to shop around

Several of my upcoming trips involve a rental car. My habit has long been to primarily shop for rental cars through the comparison site AutoSlash. Now and then, I like to do a fuller comparison, taking a look at a number of credit card and direct booking platforms in search of the best deal. As has been the case in the past, I was a little surprised at the results and reminded that it can be worth shopping around to find unexpected deals.

Methodology

I want to emphasize that this is not at all meant to be a scientific comparison of the quality of various booking channels. In fact, it’s far from scientific. I tried to make it fair, if not scientific, and representative of my genuine comparison as I weighed my options for each of these rentals.

However, that means that the methodology was not perfect, and there are parts of it with which you may disagree. That’s okay. You can adjust for the things that you would think about differently in your own comparisons. This isn’t meant to tell you which is the best booking platform, but rather to show you my own analysis and explain where it came from as I weighed up the options. Take from it what you will.

Locations and car types

I have a real-world need for a rental car on trips coming up to five different cities. I wanted to compare my best similar option across all of the various booking channels in each city. Those upcoming rental locations and lengths of time are:

• Reno, Nevada, 2 days, any size vehicle
• Orlando, Florida, 5 days, intermediate or larger
• Salt Lake City, Utah, 8 days, full-size car or larger
• Zurich, Switzerland, 4 days, standard station wagon or larger
• Naples, Italy, 3 days, standard SUV

Believe it or not, the variance in length and car type was not something I intentionally did for the purpose of writing this post. Instead, each of these is a real-world scenario where the size of the vehicle I’m looking to rent has to do with the number of passengers and luggage I need to accommodate.

My personal criteria

Because I’m actually shopping for rentals for myself, I included my own biases. In other words, rather than try to compare the price of a specific-size car with a specific rental company across all of the various booking platforms, I prioritized and compared based on the actual criteria I tend to use:

• Car size is more important to me than car quality. In other words, while I like a more premium car, I’m not willing to pay much more for it. I’ll compare Avis, Sixt, and Hertz against Dollar and Thrifty. If prices are close, I might go with the more “premium” brand between two options, but I don’t care enough about a late-model well-equipped vehicle (versus a slightly older car with fewer options) to pay a big premium. I therefore included all of the major brands when comparing the best deal for my rental needs.
• I value the convenience of picking up at the airport and skipping the counter or having a shorter line, such as by joining the rental rewards program or matching status. In many cases, there were cheaper options available from smaller, off-airport rental companies. I ignored those here. I stuck with Avis, Sixt, Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, National, Enterprise, Alamo, Budget, etc. I did not include Fox and only included Europcar in Europe (since those are usually Fox in the United States). For what it’s worth, the companies I used here are not necessarily “better”. I’ve heard horror stories from readers about nearly every travel provider. If you’ve sworn off one of those, that’s fine. Don’t include them in your own comparisons.
• I only checked a couple of rental companies for direct booking options. I tend to very frequently get targeted Capital One Shopping offers of 30% back at Hertz and Sixt, with several emails containing those offers hitting my inbox over the last few days alone. In fact, I received an offer for 45% back at Sixt yesterday. I also sometimes see good offers for Avis. Therefore, I checked those three company rental sites directly because I expected direct booking with them might sometimes be my best option after considering the value of Capital One Shopping rewards.

Accounting for rewards

I couldn’t ignore the value of rewards, but it isn’t necessarily simple to account for them.

For instance, since I can earn 12X through Citi Travel with the Citi Strata Premier, 10X through Capital One Travel with the Capital One Venture X, or 8X through Chase Travel with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, it felt relevant to include those elevated earning rates and the value of the rewards earned on the booking in my comparison. On the flip side, there’s no portal bonus for booking car rentals through Amex Travel. Initially, I accounted for that as zero rewards earned on the Amex Travel booking. However, that didn’t feel right since I’m including the 8X to 12X earned through other credit card portals, which is tied to using a specific payment card. I therefore assumed a base earn of 1X on the Amex Travel rentals since there is no bonus category for Amex Travel car rentals. Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t really matter how I account for Amex rewards; their pricing still stinks.

Since I so frequently receive offers for 30% back or more at Hertz and Sixt via Capital One Shopping, I had to include the potential Capital One Shopping earnings and then discount the value of those earnings since they can only be used to buy gift cards.

However, I know that not everyone uses Capital One Shopping, and you may not be targeted for those offers. That is why I have included the all-in price before any rewards in the charts below, and I have a net price after considering the value of rewards. Feel free to mentally disregard the Capital One Shopping rewards if you don’t use that portal, or to increase the value of rewards through your favorite credit card travel portal if you value those points more highly than 1.5 cents per point.

Speaking of the valuations of rewards:

• I valued all of the transferable currency points at 1.5 cents per point. I could have alternatively used our reasonable redemption values, but rather than split hairs over hundreds of a cent per point, I kept it simple with a consistent value for all of the transferable currencies.
• I valued Capital One Shopping Rewards at 70% of face value. The chart shows a column with expected rewards based on the return as it relates to the base price of the rental before tax. Then in the “Rewards Value” column, I chose to value those rewards at 70% of face value because I know I can either redeem those rewards for gift cards that I can resell for more than 70% of face value (or, more realistically, I’m happy to buy gift cards for things like Marriott or Hotels.com at 70% of face value).

Finally, the charts below list AutoSlash as having no rewards included in the calculation. That’s because when you’re clicking through from AutoSlash to book at Priceline (or when you’re booking directly through AutoSlash), you’re not stacking any additional rewards. In some cases, it might be possible to go through a shopping portal to Priceline and get the same price. However, in cases where those returns are relatively small, I’d lean toward simply clicking through from AutoSlash both for convenience and because I appreciate the service they provide.

Speaking of the service they provide, I highly recommend tracking your rental prices through AutoSlash even after you’ve booked. The AutoSlash website suggests that prices can sometimes change multiple times within a single day. Yesterday, I saw that in full effect. There were a number of times I went back to double-check a price and saw prices had changed by $10, $20, or even $80 over the course of a few hours. In fact, when I went to book one of the prices, after an hour or two had lapsed, it had increased by more than $80. When I woke up early this morning, I tried again and booked that same rental for a buck or two cheaper than I had originally seen. Using AutoSlash to automate price monitoring after the fact will probably save you money.

What I expected to find

I think it’s worth sharing my expectations before beginning. I typically would have expected to find the best prices (or very close to the best prices) through AutoSlash. However, I’ve heard many readers say that they consistently find better prices through Costco Travel, even though AutoSlash should be tapping into warehouse club rates. I’ve also heard quite a few anecdotal reports recently of better pricing through Capital One Travel, particularly for Sixt rentals. I expected AutoSlash to either be best or very competitive, but that there might be situations where either Costco Travel or Capital One Travel would surprise me.

Based on all of my past searches, I expected both Amex Travel and Chase Travel to perform really poorly here.

Finally, I expected that the rate of return I could pretty consistently get through Capital One Shopping would likely mean that my best deal would come by booking directly with a rental car company after clicking through from Capital One Shopping.

What I found surprised me somewhat.

The Results

I’m splitting this section into charts for each of the rentals.

Reno, NV

As you can see here, Citi Travel came back with the best price both before and after considering rewards. After considering the 12X points earned through the Citi Strata Elite, the margin is significant.

Keep in mind, though, that Citi rental car Collision Damage Waiver is only secondary within the United States. It’s primary abroad, but if you’re using it in the United States, any rental insurance claim will go to your personal car insurance first.

For those curious, my trip to Reno is really because I’m going to Caesars Republic in South Lake Tahoe for an experiment in earning Caesars Diamond Plus status. I’ll be flying out on day one, gambling on day two, and flying home on day three. I had hoped to have a rental car so I could drive around and see a little bit of Reno. After shopping for car rental prices, I think I’m going to instead take the South Tahoe Airporter shuttle from Reno Airport directly to Caesars Republic. The shuttle is only $59.50 round trip, which made it hard to justify the cost of a rental car plus the cost of gas.

However, I’m contemplating leaving a few hours between my arrival at Reno Airport and my shuttle to South Lake Tahoe so that I can go see a little bit of downtown Reno. I’ve never been to Reno before. If you have an opinion as to where to go if I do spend a couple of hours in Reno, let me know in the comments.

Orlando, Florida

For a five-day rental in Orlando, Florida, Citi Travel came out on top once again. This time, it was significantly closer between Citi Travel and Sixt (with Autoslash and Costco Travel close behind before rewards). Given that the chart above only considers 30% back via Capital One Shopping, and I actually had an even higher targeted offer of 45% back, I might have actually booked this one through Sixt. However, since I was using that 45% offer for a different rental, Citi Travel looked pretty good here.

Salt Lake City, Utah

*Note that in this case, the cash back for Sixt is based on the 45% Capital One shopping targeted offer I received yesterday, because I actually used that offer on this rental. Note that the dollar figure shown is based on 45% back on the pre-tax rate.

Citi Travel once again came in with the best deal for an eight-day rental in Salt Lake City, Utah. In this case, I could see the price advantage offered by Capital One Travel, which would be the most compelling non-Citi option if not for the Capital One Shopping Cash Back.

However, in reality, I booked this rental through Sixt. The Salt Lake City chart above is the only one in this post that assumes the 45% targeted rate for Sixt because I actually booked this rental using that offer. I did that because there is also a current Amex offer for $100 back on $500 or more at Sixt.com. Payment has to be made by May 30th for that Amex offer, so I booked this one as a prepaid rental.

That means my final price through Sixt was $416 before rewards or $308 after. Actually, since I was using an Amex card, my final price will be $25 more to account for the fact that I have chosen to enroll the Platinum card for the premium primary rental car collision damage waiver offered by Amex. Subtract a net $75 from the Sixt prices above, and it beats everybody else.

Naples, Italy

*Costco did not have any rentals available at Naples, Italy (NAP).

This time around, Chase Travel came out on top, though only after considering the value of earning 8X through Chase Travel with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Otherwise, Autoslash was right there with it (possibly a dollar cheaper before rewards).

I should note that I had booked a rental for this trip a month or two ago, but I had failed to track it through AutoSlash. I rebooked it yesterday, saving more than $100.

Zurich, Switzerland

Two “winners” are highlighted above: Citi Travel, which once again comes out on top after considering the value of earning 12X, and AutoSlash, which comes out ahead before considering Citi ThankYou points.

I actually ended up booking this one through AutoSlash/Hertz even though Citi Travel was a bit cheaper because the Hertz vehicle looks like it might be slightly larger (it can be difficult to tell the cargo space differences between a “standard” wagon, an “intermediate” wagon, a “full-size” wagon, and a “premium” wagon). However, I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one in the hopes that I can score a better deal.

Have I been sleeping on Citi Travel?

My biggest takeaway here was the strength of Citi Travel. I rarely consider booking through a credit card travel booking portal because prices are so rarely competitive with the best deals I can find elsewhere, but Citi bucks that trend here, and significantly so in some cases.

Keep in mind that none of the rates above consider any special type of corporate codes or other deals to which you may have access that can affect pricing significantly. You might do better booking direct with a good code. However, I was surprised at the consistency with which Citi Travel beat the prices of other booking platforms, even before considering the value of rewards. Earning 12X while getting the best price could be quite attractive.

However, this also highlights Citi’s core weakness, which is the fact that the rental car CDW coverage offered by Citi cards is only secondary within the United States. That means that if you incur damage on your rental car, whether through a car accident or something so benign as a rock being kicked up by another vehicle on the road (which recently happened to the Frequent Miler team during a rental!), that claim will go first to your own personal car insurance. If you don’t have personal car insurance, the Citi coverage takes over. The Citi coverage is also primary outside the United States. Within the U.S., though, booking through Citi has that disadvantage over using one of the other portals and choosing a payment method that includes primary CDW coverage.

Overall, AutoSlash performed OK, often having a price that was at least pretty close to the best I saw elsewhere (and keep in mind that we are comparing different rental companies in some cases). However, as I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday searching prices, re-searching in some instances to double check details, and going back to book some things, I noticed that prices do indeed change more frequently than I might have imagined. My second-biggest takeaway here was that I really need to be better about tracking prices via AutoSlash after I’ve booked a rental, as price changes happen pretty often. If you’re not tracking rentals through a tool like Autoslash, you’re probably missing opportunities to rebook for a savings

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