May 25, 2025 - An anticipated bump in Maui car rental prices for the Memorial Day holiday did not materialize. This week, prices for most vehicles are in a low season range. The only exception is for convertibles, that have been on a upward trend for the last five weeks. The price for the cheapest car available to rent from Maui's Kahului airport (OGG) is at just $196/week with all taxes and fees included. Off-airport, the cheapest car is slightly less, at just $170/week. Based on our advance price indicators, over the next few weeks prices overall should stay in a narrow range with equal possibility of moderate upward or downward movement, before rising for the July 4 holiday. Keep reading for all the details below.

Fig. 1. Rental car prices in Maui are in the off-season range going into May 2025.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RENT A CAR IN MAUI ON May 26, 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 May 26, 2025.

Category Price Change Company
Economy $196 -14% Payless
Midsize $244 -9% Payless
Jeep $305 0% Dollar
Convertbl $632 27% Payless
SUV $285 0% Dollar
7 St SUV $334 4% Thrifty
Minivan $398 12% Thrifty

For the week of Monday 5/26/2025, the lowest price for renting a car from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG) for one week is $196/week from Payless; this is down 14% from last week. The lowest price for a midsize car is $244/week also from Payless; this is also down, 4%. Jeeps were unchanged at $305/week from dollar. Convertibles continued a multi-week trend up, rising 27% to $632/week, from Payless. The price for the cheapest SUV was unchanged at $285/week, from Dollar. Minivan prices were also up, with a 12% increase to $398/week, from Thrifty.

Aside from convertibles, that have been on a rising trend for five weeks, the vehicles in our survey saw relatively small mixed price movement with no discernible trend. The Memorial Day holiday did not bring any price bump. More on this below.

Fig. 2. Maui car rental prices from the last 13 months with forecast of the coming five weeks.

MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICE FORECAST FOR 5/26/25

Online reservation systems are showing prices trending upward from their current level. As of today, May 25, 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
05/25/25 $170 $196
06/01/25 $216 $266
06/08/25 $215 $267
06/15/25 $239 $324
06/22/25 $282 $329
06/29/25 $310 $344

Advance booking prices are rising steadily week-to-week from their current levels If booked today, the price for a one-week rental starting five weeks from now at OGG airport would be $344/week, which is $48/week or 75% more than a rental starting tomorrow. The off-airport price for a rental starting in five weeks is $310/week, $140/week or 80% more than a rental starting tomorrow.

These advance reservation prices, marked as "Forecast," are illustrated in the area highlighted in Figure 2. They show a steady upward trend in advance prices taking place over the coming weeks. This is an expected firming up of prices in advance of the summer travel season getting under way.

Fig. 3. Maui Car Rental Prices: A historical price trend based on five years of averaged prices highlights low prices in April and May.

WILL BOOKING IN ADVANCE SAVE MONEY FOR UPCOMING RENTALS?

For the coming weeks, advance reservation systems are showing steadily increasing prices. But will these higher prices actually materialize, or will prices fall as the future rental dates draw closer? The signals for the coming weeks based on other data are mixed. Let's review four broad indicators of price movement for the next few weeks.

Indicator 1. Historical Last-MInute Price
Looking at historical data, prices bottom out in early June, then rise into July. The average weekly price chart from our ground-breaking five-year price tracking study carried out from 2013 to 2018 is illustrated in Figure 3. It shows last-minute prices rising steadily as the date progresses from early June to early July, but not to any extraordinary level. This is in agreement with the trend in the advance reservation prices.

Fig. 4. Average cost trends for renting a car in Maui over five years show varying prices based on booking time: renting last-minute typically leads to lower rates, except for peak periods around Christmas and Presidents' day holidays. Booking at the last minute typically offers the most savings.

Indicator 2. Historical Advance Price Movement
Also in our five-year price study, we tracked the movement in reservation prices in advance of a given date: three months in advance, one month in advance, and last minute, over the same five-year period.

On average, based on five years of historical price data, for the period of early June to early July, while the last minute price does rise steadily week-to-week, it stays consistently lower than advance reservation prices during this period (see Figure 4). So, factoring this indicator, we can confirm increasing prices for the coming weeks, but not to the extent indicated indicated in the advance reservation systems. However, the five year average price data also shows that the gap between prices last-minute and prices one month in advance tends to narrow and close as we move through June into early July. This means that last minute prices for July may not be all that much different from the current advance price for that time period, meaning, expect no sudden surge in last-minute pricing for the July 4 holiday.

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?" Based on the data, the peak travel period s of winter are the only time that it makes sense to book in advance. This makes up about five or six seeks out of the year. For the rest of the year - or nearly 90% of the time - booking at the last minute saves money.

Figure 5. Price trends for a one-week car rental in Maui from December 2024 to May 2025 show variations based on booking timings: one day, one week, and five weeks in advance.

Indicator 3. Recent Advance Price Movement
More recently, starting in mid-December of 2024, we have tracked the movement of advance booking prices as the reservation date approaches.

This week the last minute price for a rental starting tomorrow was just slightly less than the price booked one week in advance, and they were both significantly below the price for tomorrow's rental that was available five weeks ago (see figure 5). The Memorial Day bump predicted in the advance reservation systems entirely evaporated.

For Memorial Day, which is tomorrow, the price for a one-week rental of an economy car from OGG would have been $383 if booked five weeks ago. If booked today, it would be just $196; The last minute price is about one half of the five-week advance price. This indicates general weakness in demand, with demand falling short of levels anticipated in advance, that form the basis for advance reservation prices. If this trend continues, then prices will fall from their advance reservation levels.

The five week advance price shows a steep drop right after Memorial Day, then stays flat until the end of June, where it shows another holiday bump (see Figure 5). Based on historical advance price movement data, and the more recent data, it is unlikely that prices will rise up above those levels as we move closer to those dates. Any future last-minute prices are unlikely to cross above the advance reservation prices for these coming dates. The advance reservation prices form an upward bound that last-minute prices are unlikely to cross, which again means no spike in price.

Indicator 4. Last Year's Price Movements

Just like the weather today is the best predictor of the weather tomorrow, last year's car rental prices can be a good predictor of the prices coming this year. Last year we saw flat prices in May-June leading to a sharp spike for the Fourth of July holiday (see Figure 2). Among all our advance price indicators, this is the only one that foretells a sharp increase in price for the July 4 holiday period.

To summarize, based on the indicators overall, the prices for rentals on the July 4 holiday are expected to rise from the level of current rentals, however there is no clear advantage to booking in advance, and for anyone with a gambling inclination, the odds favor better pricing to be available at the last minute for Fourth of July.

HOW MUCH WERE THIS WEEK'S LAST-MINUTE SAVINGS?

Figure 6. Cost trends for renting an economy or compact car in Maui show decreasing prices as the rental date approaches, with off-airport rentals consistently cheaper than airport pickups. The analysis is based on prices from major rental companies for a one-week rental starting May 26, 2025, including all applicable taxes and fees.

For the cheapest one-week rental starting tomorrow, Memorial Day, the advance price from OGG was $383 five weeks ago. Then it dipped to $220/week three weeks ago. From there it firmed up slightly to $234/week last week, before coming back down to $196/week for a rental starting tomorrow. The price for off-airport rentals followed a similar trajectory downward overall from its level five weeks ago.

Date Off-OGG OGG
5/25/25 $170.00 $196.00
5/18/25 $211.00 $234.00
5/11/25 $150.00 $229.00
5/4/25 $159.00 $220.00
4/27/25 $218.00 $260.00
4/20/25 $368.00 $383.00

This movement of the advance reservation prices is illustrated in Figure 5.

Savings from booking at the last minute versus booking five weeks in advance were about 50% both for airport rentals and off-airport rentals. For both pickup locations, the last-minute price was about one-half the price five weeks in advance, for the same one-week rental beginning on Memorial Day.

The sweet spot or lowest available price was about two to three weeks in advance. This was due to a firming up of the price in the last week before the beginning of the rental.

Fig. 6. Price of one-week car rental in Maui, comparing off-airport locations with airport locations for popular vehicle types.

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." 

Throughout the past winter and spring season, 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 most vehicle type, with some exceptions. Jeeps and convertibles seem to be in short supply off-airport, resulting in lower prices at the airport for Jeeps, and no off-airport availability at all for convertibles at any off-airport location. For economy, mid-size, SUV, and minivan, the prices off-airport are lower than the airport prices.

These prices are from our survey taken on 5/25/25, for a one-week rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), beginning on Monday, 5/26/25, 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:

1. Higher mandatory taxes and fees that are added to the cost of an airport rental, and
2. 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, May 26.

COST CHANGE AIRPORT
$253 -26% Honolulu (HNL)
$192 -15% Maui Kahului Airport (OGG)
$368 +11% Kauai Lihue Airport (LIH)
$231 0% Kona Airport (KOA)
$231 -9% Hilo Airport (ITO)

This week prices for car rentals at Hawaii's major island airports are mostly down from the previous week. Honolulu is down 26%, Maui is down 15%, Kona is unchanged, and Hilo is down 9%. The outlier is Kauai's Lihue airport (LIH), up 11%, making it the most expensive island to rent a car for the third week in a row. Rates at Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG) remain the cheapest of all the islands, for the ninth week in a row.

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.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

This blog is published by Frank's Friendly Cars Maui Car Rental LLC, an independent car rental company operating in Maui, Hawaii, since 2006. Frank's offers low prices on used local cars and discount prices on new cars, with a "Lowest Price Guarantee" that assures you of getting the best deal on your rental. Visit our website at www.mauicarrental.biz, or call us at 808-280-1196.

Price Data Sources: rentalcars.com, rentals.mauicarrental.biz