TweetYeah I usually go with southwest directly too. But another thing you can do is go to priceline.com .
I used priceline for my car rentals, and hotel rentals. They saved me a bunch. Basically go to other sites and see what the going rate is. Then you go to priceline and name your price and what star hotel, or what size car you need. Then you put what price you are willing to pay. You have to put your credit card info in first. They then run it across all of the major chains/companies and whomever accepts your offer is where you stay/rent. If noone accepts your price you have to drop to a lower star hotel/smaller size car and try a different price.
I stayed on the beach in ft.lauderdale (non-peak season) for $50.00 a night at the Marriot. I rented a full size from hertz for $120.00 for the week. Unbelievable deals. Everyone else was charging double. So that's why I love the name your price thing. You can tell them what your willing to pay!
BTW, they also do flights which is why I mentioned it. I've never used them for that yet.