New Car Rental search engine - Autoslash.com

Looks like they're just using Travelocity as the back end. Missing a lot of rental companies for the search that I did (no Avis, Enterprise, National, etc.). Didn't pick up any of the lowest rentals that I can find by going to the sites directly - $177/wk for premium car at Enterprise out of MCO first week of April, slightly lower for same car using AARP discount on top of that one, $130 total with all taxes and fees for a standard car from National for 4 days + 2 hours same location/dates using a widely known Visa discount code.

Definitely something that's needed but they don't seem to be quite there. At least not yet based on my search. I don't know why this is so hard to do. Seems like somebody would have been able to come up with a better tool than what's out there by now.

Quote from Mike A. : Looks like they're just using Travelocity as the back end. Missing a lot of rental companies for the search that I did (no Avis, Enterprise, National, etc.). Didn't pick up any of the lowest rentals that I can find by going to the sites directly - $177/wk for premium car at Enterprise out of MCO first week of April, slightly lower for same car using AARP discount on top of that one, $130 total with all taxes and fees for a standard car from National for 4 days + 2 hours same location/dates using a widely known Visa discount code. Definitely something that's needed but they don't seem to be quite there. At least not yet based on my search. I don't know why this is so hard to do. Seems like somebody would have been able to come up with a better tool than what's out there by now.

Hi Mike. Jonathan from AutoSlash here. I found your post and wanted to respond as you make some fair points about our service.

First off, you are correct in that we don't currently support booking all of the rental companies directly. We hope to have the others on board at some point, but for the time being, we do offer a tracking feature for rentals made elsewhere.

When you come to our homepage, you'll see a tab for "Track a rental you've booked elsewhere". You can tell us about an Enterprise or Avis rental you've booked at another site, and we'll then re-price it on a daily basis. If we find that the rate as dropped, then we'll email you so you can re-book at the lower rate. Think if it as price protection.

Second, it's true that we use Travelocity as the back-end booking engine. Basically the prices you initially see on our site are the same as you'd see on Travelocity.com (or pretty much any other site for that matter). That's where the similarity ends though.

Within a few hours of booking, our systems will analyze your rental for savings. We have a large database of coupons and discount codes. If we find an opportunity to save, we'll automatically apply the best possible discount, and send you an email to confirm that we've re-booked you at the lower rate. Savings come *after* booking.

Granted, there is a bit of a leap of faith required here, but since we're 100% free, there's really no downside. You can change or cancel at any time. We don't even ask for your credit card.

Once your rental is booked, we continually re-price it. Many of our customers have had their price lowered multiple times as prices often drop as the rental date approaches.

The earlier you book, the more likely you are to save. Don't take my word for it. Check out what some of our customers have had to say [autoslash.com].

Jonathan
AutoSlash.com [autoslash.com]

+1, I was hesitant to use the service but after reading Jonathan's message and some reviews on flyertalk decided to try it. Extremely satisfied that I did, not only they helped me find the best price but contacted me a day later to notify that they were able to save me additional $20 - sweet!

Any company that addresses customer needs AND cares enough about the community to respond deserves a thumbs up!

We just posted a video to YouTube explaining how AutoSlash works. You can check it out here [youtube.com].

Quote from AutoSlash : We just posted a video to YouTube explaining how AutoSlash works. You can check it out here [youtube.com].

Just did a search using my address. Got one hit only "Hertz" 8 mi away is there a way to expand search?

Quote from shipfaced : Just did a search using my address. Got one hit only "Hertz" 8 mi away is there a way to expand search?

Sometimes are the top of the column there is a link that says "All Locations". If you click on that, you'll see more locations.

Note that because we don't have Enterprise currently, our local options are not as expansive as I'd like them to be. Hopefully we'll have that situation remedied soon as we are talking with them.

Quote from AutoSlash : Sometimes are the top of the column there is a link that says "All Locations". If you click on that, you'll see more locations. Note that because we don't have Enterprise currently, our local options are not as expansive as I'd like them to be. Hopefully we'll have that situation remedied soon as we are talking with them.

no luck with that either ... maybe if the "distance" could be added or adjusted on the search parameters?

Quote from shipfaced : no luck with that either ... maybe if the "distance" could be added or adjusted on the search parameters?

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll see what we can do. If you want to send us an email at support<at>autoslash.com with your particular needs on this rental, we'd be happy to help further.

This site has been around a while, and their prices are never great.

I use carrentalsavers dot com and/or kayak dot com. You'll get better pricing on either of those.

Quote from diljs : This site has been around a while, and their prices are never great. I use carrentalsavers dot com and/or kayak dot com. You'll get better pricing on either of those.

Just out of curiosity diljs, have you ever booked a reservation with AutoSlash? The pricing we initially show is no better than you are going to see on any other site. It's *after* the reservation is made that we apply coupons and discounts. We then re-price your rental multiple times a day to look for better rates. If we find one, then we automatically re-book you. No cost, no downsides.

If you haven't seen our video [autoslash.com] explaining how the service works, it's worth a look. We found that lots of folks were under the mistaken impression that our pricing would be better right up front, but due to the restrictions by the rental companies, you cannot show pre-discounted rates, so we created the video to help people better understand how we add value.

Most of our customer receive at least one email like this [dropbox.com] after booking. Just sayin'.

Quote from AutoSlash : Just out of curiosity diljs, have you ever booked a reservation with AutoSlash? The pricing we initially show is no better than you are going to see on any other site. It's *after* the reservation is made that we apply coupons and discounts. We then re-price your rental multiple times a day to look for better rates. If we find one, then we automatically re-book you. No cost, no downsides. If you haven't seen our video [autoslash.com] explaining how the service works, it's worth a look. We found that lots of folks were under the mistaken impression that our pricing would be better right up front, but due to the restrictions by the rental companies, you cannot show pre-discounted rates, so we created the video to help people better understand how we add value. Most of our customer receive at least one email like this [dropbox.com] after booking. Just sayin'.

So let me get this straight:

1) Trust the unbiased review of the site owner, instead of all the other independent reviews I've seen and my personal experience of higher prices at autoslash.
2) Book at autoslash at a higher quoted price than other sites.
3) Magic discounts *might* happen after I pay.
4) Suddenly I've saved money!

Sounds great, sign me up!

Edit: Just to be fair, I'll give you a shot at a difficult rental and see how you do. I'll also be watching prices with kayak, which is already ~$3 a day lower.

Quote from diljs : So let me get this straight: 1) Trust the unbiased review of the site owner, instead of all the other independent reviews I've seen and my personal experience of higher prices at autoslash. 2) Book at autoslash at a higher quoted price than other sites. 3) Magic discounts *might* happen after I pay. 4) Suddenly I've saved money! Sounds great, sign me up! Edit: Just to be fair, I'll give you a shot at a difficult rental and see how you do. I'll also be watching prices with kayak, which is already ~$3 a day lower.

Fair enough. The proof is in the pudding. Please report back with results.

PS--We do appreciate you giving us a chance!

Quote from AutoSlash : Fair enough. The proof is in the pudding. Please report back with results. PS--We do appreciate you giving us a chance!

Update: so 4 minutes after booking I got a new booking, at ~$5 lower. You're now ~$2 below kayak, good job. We'll see how that changes in the next couple of weeks.

The weird thing is the new company wasn't even listed in your original choices. This has got to be confusing to most people.