Good Afternoon Folks,

My Wife's parents are coming over to Canada to visit us (Ye hooo, two weeks with the in-laws ).
We currently dont have a car so that my Wife and the kids can travel around with them when they are over. I have a work truck but will be away all day. We both have our full licences so thats not an issue but i just dont want to get dinged on the price of hiring a mini van. I have been getting all sorts of silly quotes of over $1000 for the two weeks

Any suggestions

Thanks for your help.

Farm boy

Could try skyscanner I suppose, if you've not already tried Expedia etc or your inlaws could see if it's cheaper to book from their end (and maybe even pay for it as it's for their benefit???)

Thanks Piff Poff I will look into that!!

We got a good deal for 3 weeks small care hire in Sept; £250 from Enterprise, worth a look.

Yes, definitely get your parents to check and book from UK. We used to use Enterprise or I think alamo. Very good prices and includes insurances.

Just checked Alamo UK for dodge caravan,from Vancouver airport, two weeks september, 65 yr old driver, cost was £658 but includes all insurances, taxes etc and unlimited mileage. It's the fact it's a mini van that ups the cost as a compact with same details came out at £421.This for two drivers - second driver free!
Same price from Calgary airport and winnepeg airport.

Bit of a nerd me, just used travelsupermarket.com(via VPN so they thought I was in UK!) and got dodge Caravan via dollar from Calgary Airport for £518 - same dates as before, same details. Definitely get your parents to search from UK

Minivans are expensive to hire.....if you can get away with a smaller vehicle it will be cheaper. (That's stating the bleedin' obvious I know but minivans often seem disproportionately expensive IME). Another route is to rent through Costco (if you are a member). We're doing that to rent a minivan in Ottawa for a week later this month.

Do you have a Rent A Wreck near you? We always use them if we can, makes it quite a fun experience too

Otherwise, how many seats do you need? Friends of ours have got some good deals renting extended cab pickup trucks and/or vans from U-Haul, they pay around $19/day, and get discounts on longer hire periods.

Otherwise, do you have friends locally who would lend you a car? We sometimes do car swaps with our friends if one of us needs to pick up some furniture or whatever. Make sure you're covered on insurance though!

Don't ever book direct with rental companies like Enterprise, Hertz etc, you will pay way over the odds. As mentioned travelsupermarket is the best way to find a deal. Also try Hotwire.

I dunno. For years I've rented from Hertz directly, hundreds of cars in many locations, and it's gone seamlessly, name on board, keys in car, if it's cold out the car's already running. I called Hertz to say I'd sunk their car in the salt lake and it wouldn't go any more and they arranged for another one to be delivered. I had a total loss to one of their cars and no eyelids were batted.

Recently I strayed, I let expedia guide me to the cheapest large car at Gatwick, the car was fine but the rental place was nowhere near the airport and there were no end of hidden charges. The man behind the counter was so like Del Boy that I expected the car to have three wheels and, the whole time I was driving it, I was wondering how they'd gyp me on the return.

Next time I'm back to Hertz.

Many Many Thanks as per usual guys!!

I will see how I get on.

Regards

Farmboy

You could also check out Turo. It's like the AirBNB for cars.

In Hawaii, for the same daily price of a Chevy Schitbox from an airport rental company, we got a 2015 convertible 3 series BMW. Insurance is all covered through Turo/Intact too.

Worth looking if they operate in your city.

Not always, depends what deals are going, what discounts may be available through associations or group discounts, costco etc. I always book direct and the price is as good as I could get anywhere. One just has to shop around and do due diligence.

I rented a 7 seater Toyota minivan over Christmas via https://www.costcotravel.ca/Rental-Cars

As a Costco member it was heavily discounted. If you are not a member, it might be worthwhile joining up for $50.