How to Save Money on Summer Road Trips

Business Wire,  May 28, 2008  

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Priceline.com Says Leave the Family SUV in the Driveway and Rent a Smaller, More Fuel-Efficient Car

NORWALK, Conn. -- Priceline.com[R] (Nasdaq: PCLN) has a tip to bring down the cost of a summer road trip. If the family car is a gas guzzler, leave it at home and rent a gas-sipping compact car through priceline.com's Name Your Own Price[R] rental car service. The move can cut vacation transportation costs, and it's a great way to avoid piling miles onto an owned or leased vehicle.

Here are the numbers, and it's a compelling formula for savings, with gas prices in many parts of the country pushing past $4 a gallon. While some SUVs get as little as 15 miles per gallon, a more gas-friendly compact car rented through priceline.com can get up to 25 miles per gallon or better.

Potential savings are compounded by priceline.com's Name Your Own Price[R] rental car service, which offers rental cars on an unlimited mileage basis, so customers won't rack up extra mileage charges even on long trips. Depending on the city, priceline.com customers have been successful with bids as low as $12 a day, excluding taxes and fees, on compact cars. And, for select locations around the country, priceline.com now allows Name Your Own Price[R] customers to pick up and drop off their rentals in non-airport locations.

Here's how a priceline.com Name Your Own Price[R] rental car customer could save on a weekend road trip from Phoenix to San Diego. If the customer drove the 15-mpg SUV on the estimated 750-mile weekend trip, it would cost $200 in $4-a-gallon gasoline, plus wear and tear on the vehicle.

If the customer got a Name Your Own Price[R] compact car from priceline.com in Phoenix, it could cost as little as $40 for the two-day rental, including all taxes and fees, plus around $120 in gas. The total cost would be approximately $160 - a savings of $40 over taking the SUV.

Priceline.com's Name Your Own Price rental car service is easy to use and can save up to 30% over published rental car prices. Customers select the dates they want, the pickup and drop-off location, the vehicle type and the price. Priceline.com then works to try to find a major rental company brand willing to rent a car at the customer's price. Customers are given the details of their purchase after the transaction is completed.

Priceline.com also offers a published-price rental car service featuring a broad inventory of participating brands. After entering their dates and location, customers are presented with an easily searchable grid of car types and prices being offered by the different brands. In addition to round-trip rentals, priceline.com's published-price rental car service also facilitates one-way car rentals.

After booking their rental car through priceline.com, road warriors can save even more by booking a Name Your Own Price[R] hotel room. Priceline.com Name Your Own Price hotel customers can save up to 50% on their rooms compared to published-prices. Priceline.com said it has plenty of Name Your Own Price[R] hotel inventories around the country available for summer travel.

Here are some examples of successful Name Your Own Price[R] rental car bids entered recently by priceline.com customers for various car types in cities around the country.*

City            <            <  Car Type

Per-Day Price
Ft. Lauderdale  <            <  Economy

$12
Washington, DC  <            <  Economy

$12
Orlando         <            <  Compact

$13
San Diego       <            <  Mid-size

$13
San Francisco   <            <  Compact

$14
Boston          <            <  Mid-Size

$14
Chicago         <            <  Standard

$15
New York        <            <  Compact

$16

*Priceline's Name Your Own Price[R] reservation system is different from fixed price travel sites. With Priceline's Name Your Own Price[R] reservation system, the exact rental car company is shown only after purchase. Rental car examples are shown for offers booked between [April 10, 2008 and April 24, 2008 for pickup between May 1, 2008 and May 31, 2008] and do not include taxes and fees. Actual prices and availability are subject to change. Purchases shown are subject to certain restrictions and there is no guarantee that a rental car offer will be accepted. Rental car savings are not guaranteed and will vary based on offer price, availability and actual itinerary. Percentage savings claims above apply to rental car purchases using Priceline's Name Your Own Price[R] reservation system only and are as compared to published price for the same rental car type and dates.

For full details on priceline.com's rental car services, visit: http://www.priceline.com/rentalcars/.

About Priceline.com(R) Incorporated

Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN) www.priceline.com provides online travel services in 21 languages in over 60 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Priceline.com operates Booking.com, a leading international online hotel reservation service, priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Agoda.com, an Asian online hotel reservation service. Priceline.com believes that Booking.com is Europe's largest and fastest growing hotel reservation service, with a network of affiliated Web sites. Booking.com operates in over 60 countries in 17 languages and offers its customers access to over 45,000 participating hotels worldwide.