How to find the cheapest car rental prices

From Canberra to Cairns, Penrith to Perth, here’s how to get the best deal on a hire car in Australia.

Ubers and taxis add up really quickly and day trips aren’t cheap. Sometimes it really is more economical to just hire a car at your holiday destination. And using these tips can make it even cheaper.

When is the cheapest time to hire a car?

Luckily, we’ve found there’s not a huge difference in the price of car hire depending on the time of year or day of the week.

How do we know? We tested this out by checking prices for 24-hour hire in Melbourne, Cairns and Perth both during the week and over the weekend, and in a few different months of the year, to see if prices changed much.

• Melbourne: Prices started from $49-$55 per day on each day we searched
• Cairns: Prices started from $47-$54 per day on each day we searched
• Perth: Prices started from $59-$68 per day on each day we searched

And it’s not just us that found this to be true. Based on data from Kayak.com.au, there’s just a few dollars difference in the daily rental price in the middle of winter compared to the height of summer.

One of the biggest price factors though is availability. Once the cheaper, economy cars have been sold, the more expensive ones will remain and prices will be higher.

But, there are a few things you can do try to minimise your costs.

• Avoiding peak seasons and public holiday weekends, including around Christmas, Easter and school holiday periods
• If you’re hiring in a city, over the weekend may get you cheaper rates, while hiring in a popular weekend getaway place will likely be cheaper during the week

When to book to get the cheapest car rental deal

While prices don’t change too much depending on when you travel, it does change depending on when you book. More data from Kayak.com shows that some of the best times to book your car hire is between five and 10 days before your trip.

Although this chart is for hires in Australia averaged out, we checked a bunch of cities too and found the same drop a week or so before pick-up.

From personal experience though, we think waiting until just 10 days before can be risky, so here’s what we’d recommend:

💡Cheaptrips tip: Keep checking right up until the day you depart for your holiday. We’ve found car hire prices fluctuate a lot based on availability, and if someone cancels their entry-level car booking, you may be able to book something in at a price that wasn’t available just a few days ago.

For most car hires, you don’t have to pay in advance, or, if you do, it’s usually refundable until 24 or 48 hours before pick-up.

Where can I rent cheap cars in Australia?

There are plenty of car hire companies in Australia, but we often get some of the best prices with the below suppliers.

• Bargain Car Rentals
• Bayswater Car Hire
• East Coast Car Hire
• Jucy

The best part? The cars are almost always the same and in similar condition no matter where you hire them from.

Where to book hire cars to get the best price

Aside from the above, we’re sure you know the usual suspects when it comes to hiring a car, but they aren’t always the lowest-priced options. Or at least not when you book directly with them.

Aggregators, or comparison sites, like Kayak, Qeeq and Rentalcars.com can help you compare prices across multiple car hire companies to find the lowest price. And booking through a third party does often get you a better price than booking direct.

Here’s an example of how you can save 33% by booking the exact same car via Kayak instead of on Budget’s website.

Extra fees to look out for when hiring a car:

• If you’re younger than 25, some car hire companies charge you a premium. Some have a mandatory minimum insurance that you must buy through the hire company. But not all! Companies like Jucy have the came price for drivers 21 or older.
• If you’re hiring a car one-way, watch out for one-way drop-off fees. Some companies charge a flat fee for the inconvenience (for them) of getting the car back to the original pick-up location. This is especially the case for more remote destinations.
• If you’re taking any toll roads, some companies charge an “admin fee” for deferring the cost of the toll back to you – which you’ll. also need to pay for. For example, both Budget and Avis charge $3.30 per day that you’ve used a toll road, while Hertz charges up to $18.70 per day.

Our cheapest car rental deals

More Cheaptrips.au travel deals