When Rental Car Prices Are High, Try This Bold Work-Around Hack To Get On The Road For Less

Vacations are expensive, and rental cars are a big part of that. You may find deals, or attempt to rent a car outside the airport where they may be cheaper, but they can still eat up a significant chunk of your travel budget. To that end, people have been using a pretty bold workaround that can save them money. Some vacationers are choosing to rent a U-Haul rather than a car. We don't mean a huge moving van. Instead, we're talking about a smaller van that can hold you and your luggage and isn't that much different from the size of an SUV. 

One of the reasons for the hack is that, during the pandemic, many rental cars were sold off by agencies, leading to shortages when tourism began to ramp up again. That made prices go up, and cars harder to find. While one of the best travel tips out there is to not let saving money cloud your judgment, this hack might be a win-win, depending on what you're planning on doing.

While you can certainly use clever apps like Moovit that give you information on public transportation of all sorts instead of renting a car, sometimes you want the freedom of movement that driving a vehicle provides. Before we go any further, however, and you decide to use this option, remember that you shouldn't ever ride in the back of a van or truck and that they may not be family-friendly if you have small children and have to bring a car seat. 

If you're renting a vacation U-Haul, make sure you're getting the size you want, and not a larger substitute, as parking a larger vehicle may cause problems. You should also consider the hours of the U-Haul rental location, which may not be open when you need it if you want to speak to someone in person. However, U-Haul has a feature called Truck Share in its app. You can select a rental, then enable location, and submit a selfie with driver's license photos to be verified by the company's agents. You'll get estimated charges, photos of the condition of the vehicle, and a place to pick it up and drop it off for 24/7 service. 

The price may end up being better than a rental car, but it's worth doing the research first. For example, we looked up the price for a rental at Enterprise at Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas for 24 hours, and it was between $70 and close to $200, depending on the vehicle. A U-Haul neighborhood rental about 1.5 miles away has a van or 10' truck for $20 a day, with a charge of $1.09 per mile. That means it's cheaper if you're not going to be driving around a lot. However, if you're driving to the Hoover Dam, which is over 30 miles away from the rental spot, it's not going to save you much. 

If you use this hack, you don't have to hide it from U-Haul, who posted about this on their blog in 2023. They cited features like the fact that you can rent a U-Haul at 18 rather than 21 like rental cars, and you don't have to pay a young driver fee under 25.