There are a few steps everyone should take when they first decide that they need to rent a car. The main thing to do is to shop around, which is thankfully made much easier with the use of the internet. When you shop around and take quotes from other companies to the managers of different companies you are forcing them to compete with each other which invariably lowers your cost. If one manager, even at the same location, doesn’t want to play ball and negotiate fees then another one might. This can become monotonous and may make you want to give up, but if you are persistent haggling with various offers can be one of the most effective ways to get deals on your rental.

Many companies offer these deals, when you haggle, by using company codes that allow for discounts. These codes can also be found online and occasionally in print as well as by talking to representatives from the various car rental facilities. By knowing what you’re willing to spend and working to get under that with various coupons, codes and haggling techniques you can almost guarantee that you will pay much less than someone who will simply walk in and ask for a rental.

On a final note, many companies already offer discounts for booking your car rental online. They do this to promote a “hands-free” way to rent a car because there is no need to pay on operator to stand-by all the time for these bookings. This lowers their cost as it is almost all profit when you book online. However, by collecting codes and then booking online you’ll be able to save even more money, so you should still shop around and haggle with different companies.