About Hawaii Car Rentals

Aloha to all Hawaiian Island Visitors!

Who is www.HawaiiCarRentals.net? 

Aloha! My name is Steve Parquet and I'm the owner of HawaiiCarRentals.net.  In 2003 I started renting cars for major national brand rental car companies. After almost ten years, I'm pleased to announce that Hawaii Car Rentals rents out thousands of vehicles per year for these companies on the islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii. We no longer rent cars on Molokai. Operations ceased there due to economic conditions and the companies I represent who serviced Molokai island decided not to bid on that location. But I expect they will in the future though. Especially as the economy picks up again.

Where are you located?
We are located on the Internet only. We do not have a "brick and mortar" storefront where you come to pick up your rental car. You go directly to the Avis, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty or Enterprise rental car counters to pick up your car in Hawaii. This is because you are renting these national name brand rentals "through" our website using our corporate discount web links. As soon as you click on one of our corporate discount web links, you are immediately sent to an actual Avis, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty or Enterprise reservation page. The web links on our site has our corporate rates, waivers and bonuses encoded within them so there is nothing else you need to do or prove when you get to Hawaii because it will all be in their system. Once you reserve, they will email you your reservation confirmation, not us. 

Is Hawaii Car Rentals a Legitimate Website?

It may seem pretty strange coming across web sites like Hawaii Car Rentals and wondering if it's legit or not. You may also wonder if you're going to have a problem when you get to Hawaii to pick up your car. Please be assured that when you reserve through this web site (by clicking one of the RESERVE NOW links on our Rates Page), you're not actually booking with Hawaii Car Rentals, you're booking directly with Avis, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty or Enterprise on their actual reservations web page. You are not actually reserving with us, but when you reserve a car "through" this website, you are entitled to get the discount rates and waivers offered on this website. Hawaii Car Rentals is a discount conduit to the major brand rental companies in Hawaii. See below for more details and well as our Frequently Asked Questions page.

What companies do you represent?

Why are your rates lower than the actual car rental company websites?

You may ask yourself, "Why should I go through your website if all you're going to do is redirect me to the rental company websites in the end anyway?" Hawaii Car Rentals has a special "Hawaii Only" arrangement with the major national brand car rental companies. In exchange for this website promoting their cars on the Hawaiian Islands, using our marketing expertise and of course our own money, they give us special rates and waivers that we pass on to our website customers. We get special corporate discount rates from the major national brand rental car companies because we rent out thousands and thousands of cars for them every year. They rent out more cars that way without the costly marketing expense. In exchange for this website getting cars rented for them, they pay us a commission for every car rented through this website. Please compare the difference in rates by going to any of the car rental company reservations page, check a rate, then go back, remove our corporate promo code, and check the rate again. Most of the time, but not always, using one of our web links to Avis, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty or Enterprise will give you a much better rate. I quite often see our rates as much as 75% less when reserving using one of this website's links. But of course when there is a huge overstock of cars that they need to get rented out, you may see the Avis, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty or Enterprise retail websites having cheaper rates than us.

How do the car rental companies know you should get the discount rate & waivers offered on www.hawaiicarrentals.net? 

Each rental company provides us with a special link that when clicked on, takes you to each of their own reservations pages. There are special numbers embedded within the inks that the car rental companies provide to us. These special numbers tell the rental companies that, depending on the company, you are entitled to the pre-negotiated special Hawaii car rental rates and its related waivers; such as no charge for additional driver, spouse drives free, domestic partner drives free, age 21-24 surcharge discount or waiver, grace periods, etc. It also tells them that the reservation came from this web site. That way, you get the discounts and waivers, we get the credit for the car you rent in the form of a commission, and they rent out more cars. Everyone wins!

Can I change or cancel my reservation if I make it through this website?

Yes, Absolutely. And there is no charge, no obligation, and cancellation fee either. Once you make a reservation on one of the car rental company websites, you should print out your reservation because it contains your reservation details as well as your reservation confirmation number. You will also immediately be emailed your reservation information by the rental car company you booked with. In other words, your reservation confirmation comes directly from the car rental company, not from us. It's their confirmation number, not one of ours. Later, if your Hawaii travel plans change, you can go back to their website (not Hawaii Car Rentals) and review, modify or cancel your reservation. If you want to review, change or cancel your reservation, all you need is your name and reservation confirmation number. If you lost your reservation confirmation number, the quickest way to get it is to call customer service of the car rental company directly.

Here's some more information:

The rates on Hawaii Car Rentals may change periodically as the car rental companies compete with one another, but they do not change from day to day. If you go directly to the car company retail websites (without using one of discount our links to them), you may notice the rates may change every day. These rate fluctuations are governed by the time of year, demand and availability of model inventory. The rates listed on Hawaii Car Rentals are not always lower than their posted daily rates every single time, but our rates oftentimes are much cheaper rates. Another thing to consider are the bonuses and waivers we offer, such as reduced young driver fees and additional drivers at no additional charge with some of the companies we represent. On this website, the posted rates stay close to the same all year long unless the companies decide to make a rate modification a few dollars one way or another to compete with the others. But when they do that, it's usually in your favor.

Are you a member or part of any other organizations?

• Hawaii Car Rentals is a subsidiary of the Tradewinds Travel Group, our parent company.  

• Member of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau.

• Member of IATAN - International Airlines Travel Agent Network, which is a department of IATA, the International Air Transport Association.

Who is Tradewinds Travel Group?

What else do you do?

I own a few Kauai vacation rental advertising web sites and well as another car rental website. When I lived on Kauai, I was also a professional photographer.

Kauai Vacation Resorts has been on the internet since 2001. It advertises over 600 Kauai vacation rentals for private owners and property management companies.		Discount Car Rentals Online, online since 2003, was primarily set up to rent cars on the US mainland, Canada and worldwide. It has especially good rates in Florida.		Wailua Bay View oceanfront condominium rentals web site has been in operation since 2004. It displays over 30 oceanfront condos for rent on Kauai.
Prince Kuhio Resort Condominiums Poipu Beach Vacation Rentals Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii     Prince Kuhio Resort condos at Poipu Beach, Kauai has been online since 2001. Kauai Vacation Rental Photography: During my time on Kauai, I photographed a couple hundred vacation rentals for private owners and property management companies. I've photographed homes on Kauai as well as in Malibu and Pacific Palisades, California. My photography has been featured in numerous publications and websites.

Do you live in Hawaii?

I no longer live in Hawaii but I've been fortunate enough to have lived on two of the Hawaiian Islands; Maui and Kauai. My most recent Hawaii residence was in Poipu Beach, where I lived from 1999 until 2006. When on Maui, I lived in a charming little oceanfront cottage on Halama Street in Kihei, Maui. On the island of Kauai, I owned a studio condo at the Prince Kuhio Resort, which overlooked Prince Kuhio Park and the ocean beyond. From my lanai I could see the cruise ships passing by and also breaching humpback whales. Right at the beach and ocean just steps from my door were monk seals sunbathing, sea turtles, tropical fish, the coral reef and a couple great surfing spots.

Where do you live now?

I currently reside in Sedona, Arizona. As you may know, high desert plateau weather sure isn't the same as living in the tropics. Every winter we get a few inches of snow and in the summer, the temperatures can reach well over 100 degrees, even as high as 110. Nevertheless, I enjoy the dryness of the high desert weather. I especially like the dramatic thunder and lightning storms in the late summer as well as the famous red rock vistas. Upon seeing photos of Sedona, someone once commented, "Hey, it looks like you live in the Grand Canyon." Well, not actually, but the red rock vistas of Sedona sure are unbeatable. 

Have fun while visiting the Hawaiian islands!

Steve Parquet, owner
www.HawaiiCarRentals.net