12kelsy

Does anyone have any creative ideas on how to get a reasonably priced SUV rental in March in Denver (airport or close by). Going rate for a compact one is $750+ for 8 days, yikes! Fox rental is cheaper but I have read horrible reviews about them. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

tomfuller

Where do you want to go in your 8 days besides Denver? Stay away from Fox. I don't know about Denver bur other places have bad reputations. My best advice is to take the light rail from the airport into the transportation hub which also serves as the Amtrak station. The westbound Amtrak California Zephyr leaves sometime after 8AM every day if you want to go to Winter Park/Fraser or maybe Glenwood Springs.
You might want to check if you can rent a car through Turo in Denver.

sassy27

I have seen a lot of people here suggest going through CostCo for better rates. I haven’t used it but as I didn’t find them to be cheaper but rather, I keep checking. If I find a price that I can live with, I book but make sure I can cancel as I have seen the price drop significantly closer to my trip. This just happened back in August 2021. About 2 weeks prior it went down over $200. Unfortunately, I ended up canceling my trip the night before but don’t think I would have had an issue.

I usually sign up to be a member if it’s free and look for web discount codes. It takes some work as not all the codes work but some do. I also compare the savings on the codes that work for the most off. To me it’s worth the money I saved. Sometimes it is also cheaper to rent away from an airport. You just have to see what works for you.

Gretchen

The March time is probably a spring break season for skiing Colorado. We alsatys just rented at the airport and bit the bullet for the add on fees. But people used to talk about going to Westminster or some such suburb and renting off the airport but then being able to return TO the airport on return. If schlepping ski equipment it always seeme too much hassle.
If going to a ski area there is always using a shuttle. HOw many people are involved?

12kelsy

Thank you all for your replies. We are going to Avon for a week of skiing at various areas. There will be 4 of us that need to fit in the car. I'll look into your suggestions. I am a Costco member and the price I put in the thread is from them, historically I have found them to have the best prices around.

sludick

We just rented a car from Denver airport around Christmas. It was an SUV, 10 days, and was $731 - we had booked it early in the year and the price only went up from there. Family members were looking at $1500 and higher close to our travel date. So, that Costco price looks a lot lower than it was over the holidays, anyway. Rental cars are very pricey right now. Good luck, and safe travels.

janisj

Actually in the current rental climate, anything under $100 per day is probably a steal. The rental agencies have not recovered from selling off big parts of their fleets when Covid hit. And new cars are more expensive/scarcer now. Plus being Spring break -- I'd jump on $750-ish before it goes up even more.

MoBro

We always find the best deals on CostcoTravel.com. No penalties for changing or cancelling reservations, so I keep my eye on ours, to see if a better price is offered. It's a crap shoot now, though, as mentioned above.
If you can search in Denver, outside the airport, look at the rental car agencies on Quebec, around 39th. Some hotels there have car rental desks, and I think Enterprise still has a location there. It's easy to get to, and some of the hotels offer airport shuttles.
Good luck!
P.S. Also agree that Fox is to be avoided. We had a terrible experience with them in L.A. Never will use Fox again.

tomfuller

The most creative way I can think of is to fly to SLC instead of Denver. There is great skiing south of SLC in the Wasach. The eastbound California Zephyr leaves Salt Lake City at 3:30AM and is in Grand Junction Colorado about 10:30AM. You can rent an SUV in Grand Junction and go east on I-70 from there. You could also continue on the train to Glenwood Springs arriving a little after noon. The Ruby Canyon crossing from Utah into Colorado along the Colorado River is beautiful scenery.

mrwunrfl

I took a look for a rental at DEN for March 10-18 for a compact SUV. Costco price is $770. A luxury car is $43 less.
Our corporate rate for a compact SUV at National is $600. We are permitted to book the corporate rate for leisure travel. Actually, the company switched to Avis a few years ago. If you have an employer with a corporate rate then maybe can use it. Usually, I can beat the corp rate (e.g. Costco) but it is good to use at a time/location where demand is high.

fmpden

March is Spring skiing. Only Christmas/New Years week has a higher demand. Snow has been very heavy in the mountains recent so the expectation is great spring skiing. After a couple of slow springs, I would expect huge demand this year and it is reflected in the prices. Personally I don't think you need the 4 wheel drive, SUV. A large sedan would work unless you are bring your own skis -- then you need the space. You could look at the downtown Denver sites but the hassle or inconvenience of the downtown Denver may not be worth the saving. Skiing will be great this year. Good luck !!!

12kelsy

Such great suggestions, thank you everyone for your input. I asked my son to look into his corporate car rental rate, and sure enough, it was substantially cheaper than the Costco rate. Not a real bargain, but better than what I was seeing! Thanks for the comment on March being the second most popular time to ski, I guess perhaps I should stop waiting for a reduction in air fare (from Boston), doesn't sound like that is going to happen. I've been watching the fares for several months, no bargain there either!!!!

Gretchen

Look at Southwest, Frontier too.
And also whether you may need reservations for lift tickets or lessons depending on if there are any limitations on crowd size. No way to really know now maybe but I think there have been in the past.

mrwunrfl

Double-check the conditions on that corp rate to see if there is anything you can't live with. For example, can you get a second driver? Skiers sometimes get injured. I would also check on any limitations on where the vehicle can be driven though I wouldn't expect any. Costco allows an additional driver and no geographic restrictions within the US.

What are your travel dates?

fmpden

I think for a while we will have a new normal for airline tickets. First, during the pandemic the airlines greatly reduced staff and capacity. Now they are finding it difficult to get back to pre-pandemic operations. So the number of empty seats flying is not there and the need to discount to fill seats is gone. I think it will be a while before we see a lot of airline discounts. The prices for some local trips we recent took are about double a couple of years ago. Even the recent Swest "sale" was only to few out of the way places. Nothing for the major routes. Hate the phrase -- New Normal -- but I think that sums it.

scubachick18

The last several visits to DIA they made sure to ask every time if I had a reservation for a rental car when I got on the shuttle and this last trip late Dec they were out of regular cars and upgraded me to a midsize SUV for free because it was all they had on the lot. Definitely tough times for rentals everywhere right now.

J62

Look at AutoEurope.com . I've found them to have great rates for domestic US car rentals and no issues at all.

Rate for a small SUV mid March is $622 for 8 days.