Maui Car Rental Prices Mixed In Advance of Easter 2025 Holiday
- Frank Saab, Owner
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
April 13, 2025 - Many of the Maui rental car categories that we track week-to-week saw relatively small changes, but the Jeep and minivan categories, preferred bv some holiday travelers, saw big increases that could portend a brief availability crunch due to the Easter holiday that falls next week. This week, the cheapest cars from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG) are just $261/week, SUV's are just $362/week, convertibles fell by nearly half, but Jeeps were up to $695/week and the price of minivans nearly tripled from last week, rising to $1,174/week. Increased prices are expected to be short-lived, with low season rates returning to all categories after Easter. Continue reading for more details on Maui car rental this week.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RENT A CAR ON APRIL 14, 2025?
Every week, we list the lowest advertised prices for a one-week car rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), for a selection of vehicle categories, with the change from the previous week, and the company offering the best price. This is our overview of Maui car rental prices for the week of April 14, 2025.
Category Price Change Company Economy $261 -3% Thrifty
Midsize $323 -7% Avis
Jeep $695 +62% Alamo
Convertbl $500 -46% Dollar
SUV $362 +8% Dollar
7 St SUV $421 -14% Dollar
Minivan $1,174 +197% Thrifty
For the week of Monday 4/14/2025, the lowest price for renting a car from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG) for one week is $261/week from Thrifty, down 3% from last week. The lowest price for a midsize car is $323/week from Avis, down 7% from last week. A Jeep is $695/week from Thrifty, up 62% from last week. Convertibles fell to from $925/week to just $500/week at Dollar, dropping nearly by half (down 46%). The cheapest SUV prices were just $362/week, from Dollar, down%. Minivan prices rocketed to $1,174/week, up 197%, from Thrifty.
The vehicle categories that saw the big price increases were Jeeps and minivans, that are preferred by travelers on short holiday trips.
MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICE FORECAST FOR 4/13/25
Based on five years of price tracking and analysis, we expect prices to move downward as we move through spring into summer. The five-year average weekly price chart, with its spring break bump, is illustrated in Figure 2. Over the five-year period of our study, it was normal to see prices decline steadily from the end of March after Spring Break until the middle of June before the uptick of summer travel and the July 4 holiday
However, for the coming five weeks that cover the month of April and into early May, online reservation systems are showing prices trending upward slightly from their current level (see Figure 3). It remains to be seen whether this upward trend actually materializes. As we will discuss further below, advance prices have been consistently higher than last minute prices for the last few weeks.
As of today, April 13 2025, the lowest advertised prices for a one week rental made in advance, both from the airport rentals and off-airport, are as follows:
DATE OFF-OGG OGG
04/13/25 $214 $261
04/20/25 $194 $234
04/27/25 $187 $237
05/04/25 $217 $283
05/11/25 $229 $297
05/18/25 $292 $292
These advance reservation prices, marked as "Forecast," are illustrated in the area highlighted in red in Figure 3.
DOES IT COST LESS TO BOOK IN ADVANCE?
The difference between last-minute prices and advance reservation prices is an indicator of the state of supply and availability from the car rental providers. When supply is limited, last minute prices ratchet up from their advance levels. When there is over-supply, prices drop at the last minute. These changes follow a seasonal pattern that we covered in a blog post titled "When Is The Best Time To Rent A Car in Maui?" On average, based on five years of historical price data, the last minute price is lower than advance reservation prices nearly 90% of the time. The cross-over points from higher last minute prices to lower last minute prices mark the seasonal transitions from high season pricing to low season pricing (see Figure 4).
From mid-December of 2024, we have tracked the movement of advance booking prices as the reservation date approaches. For several weeks, from early January, prices were consistently ratcheting up in the days or weeks before the reservation date. Notably, for the six weeks from January 12 to February 17, the last minute price was on average $152/week more than the price one week in advance (see Figure 5),
HOW MUCH WOULD YOU SAVE BOOKING AT THE LAST MINUTE?
This week, the last minute price is about the same as the price booked a week in advance, and neither is significantly different from the price booked five weeks in advance. For a rental beginning on this Monday, April 14 2025, the price booked five weeks in advance was $269/week. One week in advance, it was $231/week. And the last-minute price was back up slightly, to $261/week. The best price, saving about $30/week, was for the reservation made seven days in advance. Note: this applies only for the cheapest compact car category. The change may have been different for other vehicle categories.
For the coming weeks, all indicators are pointing to prices staying in a narrow range, with only a small difference between last-minute prices and prices on reservations made in advance.
DOES IT COST LESS TO RENT OFF-AIRPORT?
Most of the time, Maui's off-airport car rental prices are lower than airport prices due to a number of factors that we have covered in a previous blog post, titled "Is It Cheaper to Rent a Car at the Airport in Maui? Updated for 2024."
In recent weeks, we have seen a disruption of this pattern due to unexpected strong demand and limited supply at off-airport locations, with the off-airport prices in many cases higher than airport prices.
This week, the normal pattern of prices lower off-airport is in effect for all vehicle types. The only exceptions are for the convertible and 7-seat SUV categories, neither of which is showing any availability from off-airport sites (See Figure 6).
These prices are from our survey taken on 4/13/25, for a one-week rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), beginning on Monday, 4/14/25, for seven vehicle categories, Economy Car, Midsize Car, Convertible, Jeep, SUV, 7-passenger SUV, and Minivan. The rental companies covered in the survey are Ace, Alamo, Allsave, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Fox, Hertz, National, NU, Payless, SiXT, and Thrifty. For more info on the companies we cover, see our blog post on customer satisfaction ratings for these Maui car rental companies.
As we've noted in previous blog posts, the price for an off-airport rental is usually lower than an airport rental, due to two factors:
Higher mandatory taxes and fees that are added to the cost of an airport rental, and
A discretionary "convenience premium" that rental companies charge at the airport. For details, see for example Is It Cheaper to Rent a Car at the Airport in Maui? Updated for 2024.
Exceptions do occur from time to time and we do report them when they do.
IS MAUI THE MOST EXPENSIVE HAWAIIAN ISLAND FOR CAR RENTAL?
Here's a quick survey of the cheapest one-week rental cost from each of the five major Hawaii airports, for a rental beginning on Monday, April 14.
COST CHANGE AIRPORT
$270 0% Honolulu (HNL)
$214 +3% Maui Kahului Airport (OGG)
$307 -8% Kauai Lihue Airport (LIH)
$450 +25% Kona Airport (KOA)
$271 -3% Hilo Airport (ITO)
This week prices for car rentals at Hawaii major island airports saw only small changes from last week, except for Kona Airport (KOW), where prices for the cheapest cars jumped up 25%. The price in Maui is once again the lowest.
HOW DO WE GET OUR MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICE DATA?
Prices for Maui car rentals vary from week to week, and the company offering the lowest price also changes from week to week. Furthermore, one company may be offering the lowest price in one vehicle category, for example mid-size cars, while a different company has a better price on another category, for example mini-vans.
Beginning in July 2024, we've tracked the prices on seven vehicle categories - compact, mid-size, Jeep, convertible, SUV, 7-seat SUV, and minivan - from 10 different companies at Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG): Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, Payless, SiXT, and Thrifty. Each week, for every vehicle type, we noted which company offered the lowest price. Our weekly price-tracking for the lowest price economy car category goes back to July 2023 - more than one year. These are the data for the charts we post every week.
Previously we conducted a five-year price-tracking study for the lowest price economy car category beginning in February 2013 and continuing to February 2018. A sample of these results is in Figure 3, that shows the five-year average of the price over a one-year duration. For details of this massive price-tracking undertaking, and the most important findings on how and when to rent a car, see our blog post of July 14, 2024 titled "When is the best time to rent a car in Maui?"
HOW TO CHECK RATES AND AVAILABILITY FOR MAUI CAR RENTAL
Either click through to to our Cars & Rates section, or check our booking site at rentals.mauicarrental.biz. This site gives you access to all vehicles from eight different companies - Ace, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Payless, and Thrifty - at all their Maui locations, that include the Airport rentacar center, Kahului town locations nearby the airport, and resort locations in Kihei/Wailea, and Ka'anapali. With so many options to choose from, you are assured to find the rental car that matches your preferences and your budget for your Maui trip - and there is never a cancellation penalty if you have to change plans.
Price Data Sources: rentalcars.com, rentals.mauicarrental.biz
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