NYT Car Rental Savings Tips

Today's New York Times offers up 7 current tips for saving on rental cars. While a lot of what the article discusses will be familiar to most posters in this forum, the tip on reserving a car for longer than I need and returning it early was new to me, something to investigate.

I like articles like this, but alittle headsup. The opposite can be true, instead of booking Longer
than you need..........you book Shorter than you need.

I often Short-change my hours...........when I need to bring back the Rental.

In other words.........I book a car for 3 cheap-days, when I actually need 3 1/2.

Its often cheaper to book the 3 days, and call to add the hours I need, where they charge one more
cheap day...........than to actually book 4 days. The price can really Jump up for that 4th day.

So it pays to check different times, and do some finagling.

FWIW... I tried the signing up with "Auto slash" (#3 on the NYT 7 tips list) last night. I selected a vehicle from E Z car for 1 week at $217. They promptly sent me a confirmation !

This morning I got an email from Autoslash saying that they rebooked the same (economy car) for 203. Hmmmm I like this Autoslash.

Today I selected a Payless vehicle via Autoslash. I'm curious what comes through over the next few weeks for both E Z and payless!

I like the fact that I don't have to keep checking rates everyday! I just wish they also had a hook-up with Dollar and/or Advantage!

I would be very hesitant to "Reserve the car for longer than you need it" and rely on actually getting the cheaper rate when you return the car sooner than your reservation says. Sure, sometimes the weekly rate is less than renting for 4 days, but what guarantee is there that when I return the car after 4 days or less, the system will not apply the then daily rate x4? I find it hard to believe that a blanket statement like this could apply to all rental agencies.

The only experience I have with this is a 4 day rental with a coupon (requiring a min. of 4 days). Weather required that I return the car after only 3 days, and the coupon did not drop off the reservation. That was with Alamo last year.

The cheap comes expensive