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Autoslash Review: If You’re Not Using This Site to Save Money on Car Rentals, You’re Doing It Wrong

  • Jasmin Baron

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    INSIDER SECRET: It doesn’t cost a penny to use Autoslash and takes almost no time to set up. It’s worth investing a couple of minutes to track your car rental reservations because the savings can be in the hundreds of dollars.

    Nobody likes paying more than they have to for travel, but hunting for the very best discounts and prices can be time-consuming and frustrating. In fact, you might resign yourself to accepting a “good enough” deal to avoid the pain of shopping around further.

    With rental cars, it doesn’t have to be this way. Autoslash is a website that will do the hard work of finding the best price on rental cars for you. Even better, they’ll continue to track your existing reservation for price drops, so if a better deal comes along you can cancel and rebook to save money.

    The best part? Autoslash is completely free to use. They’ve saved me (and other MMS team members) hundreds and hundreds of dollars over the years – none of us ever pay full price for our car rentals! And neither should you.

    I’ll show you how to use Autoslash (and what to look out for) in our new Autoslash review.

    Read our Autoslash review to find out how to easily save money on car rentals. (Photo by G-Stock Studio/Shutterstock)

    Autoslash Review: Your Ticket to Getting the Best Price on Car Rentals

    We probably all have our favorite go-to booking sites for car rentals. I used to swear by Hotwire and Priceline, but those reservations are typically non-refundable and sometimes I need the flexibility to cancel.

    Others on our team always check Costco Travel (free additional driver!), the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, and Kayak (to comparison shop lots of third-party sites at once).

    There really is a better way. Autoslash has been around for several years, and it surprises me they don’t get more publicity. They’re an invaluable tool for finding the cheapest car rentals without the annoyance of spending hours searching online.

    You can use Autoslash in a couple of ways – either to request a quote for a new car rental booking (they’ll shop around for the cheapest rates and discounts for you), or track an existing reservation for price drops.

    Whether you’ve already booked a vehicle or are just starting your car rental search, Autoslash will help you find the cheapest rate.

    Of course, no matter which route you go, you should always use one of the best credit cards for car rentals to earn the most points and get primary credit card car rental insurance coverage. That way, you’ll save even more money on your rental car (and have peace of mind).

    I recently booked a rental in Maui for my family’s vacation (using my Chase Sapphire Reserve to get primary rental insurance), so I’ll use that as an example of how Autoslash can be so effective in saving you money (and time).

    How to Request a Price Quote With Autoslash

    Searching for a rental car with Autoslash is a little different from other third-party booking sites. Instead of entering your travel dates and seeing a list of options immediately, Autoslash has you fill out a quote request (click “Get a quote for a car rental” on the Autoslash website, then fill out info which includes:

    You’ll then provide your name and email address, and usually within a few minutes you’ll receive a quote via email that will look something like this:

    In the email you receive, hit “Click here to see your rates!” to get your Autoslash quote.

    You’ll then be brought to a list of cheap rates from various rental agencies. Some of these will have the option to pay later (typically more expensive but you can cancel without penalty) or pay now (cheaper, but you pay at the time of booking).

    I chose the “pay now” option. Note that even if you pay now, you have the option of free cancellation up to 48 hours prior to rental start – otherwise, you’re charged for a day’s rental if you cancel).

    “Pay now” options with Autoslash are almost always cheaper, and you can still cancel without penalty up to 48 hours prior to rental start.

    Of course, I wanted to be sure I was actually getting the best rate, so I ran a search for the exact same dates and times with the usual booking suspects. Here’s how that shook out:

    Hotwire: $43 more expensive

    Hotwire was a non-refundable booking (where you can’t see the rental company name until you pay) – AND was $43 more expensive than Autoslash.

    Priceline: $68 more expensive

    Priceline was even more expensive – a full $68 more than Autoslash.

    Costco Travel: $92 more expensive

    Costco is usually a fan favorite for saving money, but not this time.

    Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal: $184 (!) more expensive

    Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal was a letdown. It ran nearly $200 more than the Autoslash quote.

    In my experience (both with actual rentals and running test searches) Autoslash has come out ahead almost every single time. When there’s an exception, it’s usually Hotwire that returns rates a little cheaper (but keep in mind, Hotwire “Hot Rate” bookings are non-refundable, so if your plans change you’re still on the hook for the rental cost).

    Big Caveat: Once you’ve made a rental booking through Autoslash, they will no longer automatically track your booking for price drops. In the past, they would continue hunting for lower prices and automatically cancel and rebook you at the lower price if they found a better deal. Apparently the car rental companies thought they were a little too good at saving people money, and made them stop that. 😉

    So – once you have your rental confirmation number, you’ll have to enter it into the Autoslash tracking system as detailed below, and manually cancel and rebook your rental if they find you a better deal.

    How to Set up Autoslash to Track Rental Price Drops on an Existing Reservation

    Whether you’ve booked a car through Autoslash directly or through another car rental agency, you can set up Autoslash to track rental price drops on an existing reservation.

    Autoslash supports price tracking on reservations made through these companies:

    To start price tracking, go to the Autoslash website and select the “Track a rental for price drops” tab. Then fill out:

    You’ll receive an email confirming your price tracking request.

    Autoslash will email you confirming your tracking request.

    If Autoslash finds a lower price, they’ll email you with the details and link to rebook.

    Note: Again, Autoslash will no longer automatically cancel your old reservation and rebook the new, lower rate. It is up to you to cancel and rebook.

    Then, once you have a new reservation and confirmation number, you’ll want to start a new price drop tracking request. This is a clunkier system than what Autoslash has offered in the past, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of extra time (and it’s worth it to save money).

    Bottom Line

    Autoslash is a tool every traveler should have in their kit. It’s a no-brainer to use it for car rental price quotes, because they usually return the cheapest rates.

    Even if you’ve booked elsewhere, Autoslash will monitor your reservation and let you know about price drops. Once you’re notified, you can cancel (as long as it’s a refundable reservation) and rebook at the lower rate. Just be sure to enter your new reservation details into the Autoslash tracking system, so they can keep an eye on if your booking drops in price again.

    As always, don’t forget to use one of the best credit cards for car rentals for your booking. I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve on my recent Maui car rental and saved over $100 – because it comes with primary car rental insurance, I didn’t have to pay extra fees with the rental agency!

    Have you saved lots of money with Autoslash? Let me know in the comments!

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)