Travel Tip Tuesday #13: Using off-airport rental car companies could save you some extra money

Using an off-airport rental car company could save you some extra dough. It’s been all about rental cars this month. Each Tuesday we are bringing you a new travel tip and this month, we are honing in on rental cars.

This Tuesday’s travel tip deals with off airport rental car companies and how using them might save you a few bucks in exchange for a little convenience.

Note: today’s Travel Tip Tuesday doesn’t really apply to the business traveler, per se, who we often focus on here at the CBoardingGroup. A business traveler is likely to not care about any additional charges because it’s not coming out of his/her pocket. Moreover, they are not willing to sacrifice the convenience of an airport rental (picking up and dropping off) to save the company a few bucks. Nor would their company expect them to. But, hey business travelers take vacations too…and maybe this will come in handy for them.Â

Thus far this month we’ve shared the following Rental Car related travel tips:

And, of course, you can read all of the preceding Travel Tip Tuesday’s here.

Travel Tip Tuesday: Go off Airport to save a few bucks

Ok, let’s get to it. As noted above, renters may be able to save a few extra bucks by going off-airport to rent their vehicle.

In most cases (although not always) rental car rates from airports will be a little higher than those you can get “in-town.” This is largely for convenience reasons and is essentially the laws of supply and demand in work.

There is greater demand for car rentals at the airport (more people, convenience, etc) than might be at an off-airport facility. This convenience could be as high as 30%.

I ran a little test to demonstrate this for you. Using Enterprise, I compared rates for an economy car for a Friday through Monday rental. I compared the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport location to the Hyatt Regency Pickup location (which is a 10 minute Uber ride from the airport). The results are meaningful (see below):

Enterprise Diff between on airport and off airport.png

$40 difference over the rental period!Â

A total of 40.00 over the period of rental difference. The uber ride would have cost you maybe 10.00 or so. So, basically for the cost of a meal for 2 you get the convenience of renting the car at the airport.

Renters may be able to save even more money by choosing an off-brand car rental company like Fox or Sixt as opposed to the name brands like Hertz, National, Enterprise, etc. Of course, sites like Hotwire.com and Expedia.com may have regional, local or time-specific deals as well and if you are really on a budget, they are always worth a check.

The tale of the tape, this Travel Tip Tuesday is this:

At least consider (and price out) renting your car at an off-airport location. It might just save you few shekels!

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Check out our product review for the Wizgear phone mount – the perfect rental car accessory!

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Thanks for tuning in to Travel Tip Tuesday again

Check back next Tuesday for another practical travel tip related to rental cars.

If you can’t wait for more Rental Car related travel tips and hacks check out our 9 Secret Rental Car Hacks You Need to Know

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For readers interested in more travel tips and travel advice, you might be like these great articles:

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3 comments

Brian Cohen April 16, 2019 - 1:10 pm

…and if you can actually walk to a location of a rental car company, you can save even more money.

Here is an example where I literally saved hundreds of dollars on one rental:

https://thegate.boardingarea.com/how-i-saved-hundreds-of-dollars-on-one-car-rental/

Thank you.

isaac April 16, 2019 - 1:32 pm

Is Uber $10 Round-trip from PHX to the HR? If its 1 way then its $20 so the savings will be $20, not that great and if you end up running late and Uber messes up you could miss your flight/ Plus alot of off airport locations have very limited operating hrs and if your flight is delayed arriving you might have to wait till the next morning till you can get a car

Had a 1 day rental @ LAX last week, got a great rate from EZWay $9 less then what I booked at a no brand, my biggest mistake in along time, took over 45 mins till I got to the counter , they had only 2 agents working Never again, fwiw thats also Advantage

Price isnt everything , time is probably more important

The C Boarding Group April 16, 2019 - 3:14 pm

For a business travel, timing is MORE important, frankly

Travel Tip Tuesday: Go off Airport to save a few bucks

At least consider (and price out) renting your car at an off-airport location. It might just save you few shekels!

Thanks for tuning in to Travel Tip Tuesday again

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