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#16
04-03-2011, 06:20 PM
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I need to book a car for a wedding the last week in May (24th-28th). I'm very tempted to try this but with the deals I'm seeing on Priceline (knowing how to work that system) I'm not sure which way to go.
This trip was originally one we were going to drive but due to the kids' schools being butts about us taking them  out I'm now just going to fly out by myself so instead of just gas and hotel I'm now spending for a flight and rental too.
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Multi-Quote| 04-03-2011, 06:20 PM | |
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#17
04-04-2011, 02:50 AM
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#18
04-04-2011, 09:30 AM
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I was skeptical at first when I saw this posting about AutoSlash. I found a little bit better deal myself than AutoSlash offered me on their web site. But I decided to give it a try last Friday anyway since there is no risk at all (you can cancel anytime before the rental start date). The rate AutoSlash gave me at first was pretty low (~$78 for 3 days) and I thought there is no way it can go lower. I was really surprised when I saw an email this morning that they found a lower rate of $57 for my rental! It's almost 25% lower than the original price which I thought was pretty much the lowest.
I don’t know how they did it, but I’m really impressed. I consider myself good enough in finding travel deals, but there is no way I can find such a good price for my rental unless I bid on Priceline (but this requires paying in full right away plus no cancellation option). I hope it was AutoSlash software that found a better price for me and not AutoSlash employees monitoring and applying every possible discount to new reservations 
Last edited by sega; 04-04-2011 at 09:46 AM.. Reason: typo |
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#19
04-04-2011, 03:22 PM
Now your cost may come in line, or even be better but after a 2 minute search I have saved myself $50 per week if it doesn't. I think the cancelling and rebooking is pretty damn cool however it just needs to get a better price up front I'd think for it to become more widely adopted. |
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#20
04-04-2011, 03:35 PM
Oh and btw, if you had booked that LIH rental with us, the price would have been reduced to $201.41. Still a bit more more than Hotwire, but then again, with Hotwire you have to pay up-front, and they don't allow for any changes. If your plans change, or you need to cancel, you're SOL. Additionally, if rates drop (which they often do), then you're now locked in at a higher rate. I'll be the first to admit that $170 is definitely a good rate for that rental, but it's only good if you are 100% sure of your plans. As a test, you should book the same rental with us (hey it's free, so why not?) and see what happens by the pickup date. You may be surprised. 
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#21
04-04-2011, 08:52 PM
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I'll give it a try. Costs nothing.
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#22
04-05-2011, 04:50 PM
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I booked a Jeep in Honolulu through Autoslash, as well as the best competitor I could find. Initially Autoslash had me at $76/day (similar to what travelocity and others quoted) while the competitor (I think it was www.hawaiidrive-o.com) was at $55/day.
I got a series of emails from Autoslash in subsequent days alerting me to auto-rebooking at lower rates. Finally they told me that they had discovered another company that had an even lower rate, so they asked if I wanted to switch from Dollar to Thrifty. I said yes and locked in a $41/day rate. That's 25% off the lowest rate I could find, and I didn't have to spend any time searching after I booked. Saved me $70 which can go toward beer. Brilliant. Plus there's zero risk since you don't pay a dime until you pick up the car. Would be interested to see how Hotwire bookings stack up down the the pickup day. |
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#23
04-06-2011, 07:50 AM
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#24
04-13-2011, 09:15 AM
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Update on my test: AS has not updated since the first day. Today, Kayak showed a Hotwire price around half of that of AS's best offer. I took that amount to Priceline and bid slightly lower than the HW price and got the car for a full $30 a day lower than AS.
I'll report any last minute discounts AS comes up with, but I highly doubt they will be able to beat priceline/hotwire. |
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#25
04-15-2011, 05:02 AM
One day over dinner our parents said, "Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
My belief as an American, is that if I have to start understanding the metric system, then the terrorists have won. |
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#26
04-15-2011, 05:37 AM
As for getting licked, I'll be the first to admit that there are times you can get a better rate with Priceline or Hotwire (of course we don't charge you up-front like they do), or possibly even other means. The intent of our site is not to guarantee the best possible deal in every possible situation. The intent is to get an excellent deal without having to do any work. No more searching for coupons, no more re-checking prices every day. Less work and peace of mind. Your time is valuable too. That's our positioning. Whether this is useful to people is up to them. Last edited by AutoSlash; 04-15-2011 at 06:23 AM.. |
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#27
04-15-2011, 08:04 AM
 You're also still over $5 a day higher than what was on hotwire yesterday, which has the same opaque setup as yours, where one doesn't know the rental company. Keep in mind I bid an additional $3 a day lower through priceline (after all their fees). If you're not the lowest, what's the point? You're posting on slickdeals after all. We're willing to spend 2 minutes a day checking the latest prices. Heck, it's entertaining to me. I'll spend 2 minutes to save $15 any day. Not paying up front is convenient, but I get the same benefit at carrentalsavers, then when a deal pops up, I can grab it at one of the pay up front places. Basically you're now saying what the companies Slickdealers laugh at say. "You'll pay more, but we are convenient!" Buying milk at the gas station is convenient, but you won't catch an SDer paying $5 a gallon when the grocery store is just a bit down the road at $2 a gallon. Don't get me wrong, your product idea is great and I'm sure there's a market for it, but it's not slickdeals. If you can make your concept simple enough for those who aren't into hot deals, then you have some possibilities. Edit: Hotwire has raised rates since yesterday. Non opaque pricing through Kayak/Carrentalsavers is currently $2 a day lower. Last edited by diljs; 04-15-2011 at 08:15 AM.. |
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#28
04-15-2011, 08:13 AM
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Keep in mind that we don't make up the prices. We'd be happy to get you a rate of $5/day if we could push it through the car rental company's system, but it doesn't work like that. We just work to find the best possible discounts and then monitor rates. If they drop, AutoSlash [autoslash.com] re-books. There's no magic, it's just something that hasn't ever been done before.
As for posting here, I was not the originator of the thread. I'm just trying to help people to understand our positioning, and clarify a few things. I'll step back now and let the SD community take it from here. I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any. Thanks again for trying us out. Hopefully we can save you money on a future rental. Last edited by AutoSlash; 07-13-2011 at 03:35 PM.. |
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#29
04-21-2011, 05:03 AM
A few weeks ago I read this very thread. Figuring it cost me nothing to try, I booked a car on the dates needed using the Autoslash site. The first confirmation Email I received had a car booked for $181. Ha, I thought. My Internet shopping savvy had beat the experts at their own game. Within 15 minutes, I had received another Email stating my price had dropped $16 to $165. Close to my $160 rate, but still no cigar. This morning in my inbox was more "good news" from Autoslash. My new price was $124. Needless to say, I just canceled my original rental. Autoslash has already saved me $36 and I never even sent them a credit card! Will they beat every rental car deal ever made on the web? It's doubtful. But I love a company that does the work for you, for FREE! Although I love a deal, I'm not one to check every site, every day to save $15. If you can do that in "2 minutes" I salute you! Do like I did, book your best deal (make sure it's cancellable (is that a word?)) And give Autoslash a whirl. What do you have to lose? As a slickdealer, why wouldn't you try something for free? By the way, my girls still have a month before they leave. If the price gets adjusted again, I'll re-post here. |
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#30
04-22-2011, 08:06 AM
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So it's the day before my trip and autoslash did come through on one of my reservations with a big last minute drop.
For reference, the full 3 day reservation was a basic compact car in AUS on May 23-26. Final AS booking was $65, and Kayak/Carrentalsavers are both at $70 for the same rental agency. Hotwire/priceline were a bit cheaper for one day, on 04/13 but that required a quick purchase that you can't cancel. I ended up doing a premium car for the 23-25, which I couldn't reserve through most of the discount companies including AS. I got a good deal through some codes from the car rental matrix thread on FW. I then reserved the 25-26 (more expensive due to being a weekday) through priceline at $27. AS hadn't been updating the single day reservation so I'm unsure if they would have eventually beat or not (I cancelled through AS after the priceline bid). So all in all AS did ok. I question whether they will provide the same service if they don't know who I am (I had wanted my reservation to be anonymous but they located mine after I posted here - it was pretty easy considering the email I used) but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The last minute appearance of the final price makes planning harder, but IME many rentals are cheaper at the last minute anyway. On the plus side you aren't locked into a reservation as with priceline/hotwire if prices go down, which is nice. I'm going to consider using them for future rentals, and will probably use their slashed emails as a notice to check kayak and hotwire. |
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