Weekly vs Daily Rental

I usually have 4 day trips, but my last one and the upcoming trip have been for 5 days. When you rent for 5 days, you are charged for a weekly rental and the rates are outrageous! If they charged the daily rate it wouldn't be as high. Any ideas? I usually rent Dollar, and check rates each day, but the rates for mid February are still outrageous.

So do, say, a 2 day rental followed by a 3 day.

Many of the rental companies will continue to charge you the daily rate if you book for four days and then keep the car for an extra day. Call ahead of time to verify that, but I've done that in the past when the weekly rate was much higher than just another day.

Another trick to try would be to schedule your rental for four days and 23 hours to see if it'll give you five days but keep you at the daily rate.

Thanks for the tips!!

Make sure you check the rate often. My AVIS reservation for 5 1/2 days went down over $100 when I checked last week. I plan on checking every few days before my trip. If their inventory is high, the rates will probably come down (or I hope).

Funny I have opposite problem. My rental is for 4 days and it is cheaper to book for a week with coupons. I had always used Dollar but now use Alamo for rates sometimes as much as 50% cheaper than Dollar. I use codes from Costco and mousesavers.com . Some of the codes that state "florida rate" have worked in Las Vegas. If you need any help feel free to pm me.

THANK YOU!!

+1 .... well worth the effort to check often and, when appropriate, rebook!

Originally booked our Jan 13-18, 2011 trip's 5 days car rental with Alamo in early Sept 2010 for $138. Then checked at least once a week and, eventually (after more than one rebooking), the rate went down to $68 (all taxes,etc included). Started with an economy car and ended up with a mid-size car reservation. Then, when they didn't have any mid-size cars available, we ended up with a full size (Chevy Impala). The lot attendent tried to give us a mid-size SUV (alias "lousy gas guzzler") but gave us a full size when I asked what were our other choices.