Two Thanksgivings ago, somebody on my team handed me the keys to a “midsize SUV or similar” at a Florida airport counter and pointed at a car that held five people. We had six, plus a cooler, plus a toddler seat. The minivan I’d been half-planning to “lock in later” was gone, the full-size SUVs were gone, and the agent said what agents always say the Tuesday before Thanksgiving: “That’s what we have.” We made two trips from the airport. It was not festive.
So when Hertz put out its holiday travel numbers on October 29, one line jumped out at me. Small and standard SUVs are the most-booked categories this season, and vehicles that seat seven or more are expected to sell out first, for Thanksgiving and for the Christmas stretch. Advance Thanksgiving reservations are up 16 percent over last year, and Christmas and New Year’s bookings are up 7 percent. Six in ten people in the Hertz survey say higher airfares make them more likely to drive, and a lot of those drivers are families who need a third row.
This is my playbook for getting that third row this year: when to book, how to keep rebooking for a lower rate without risking the car, what “or similar” really means for a family of seven, and the small kit that makes a borrowed car work like your own for a long holiday drive.
Why the Big Cars Disappear First
Rental fleets are built for business travelers and couples: rows of compact sedans and small crossovers, then a short row of minivans and full-size, three-row SUVs. Big vehicles cost more to buy, so companies keep fewer of them, and they become the bottleneck whenever families travel together.
Holidays squeeze from both sides: more groups want seven seats at once, and nobody returns them early. In March a branch that runs out of minivans borrows one from across town. On November 24, every branch across town is out too.
The Hertz data supports this. The top Thanksgiving destinations on its booking list are Orlando, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Denver, which are big family and fly-and-drive markets, and Phoenix and Florida are showing the largest jumps for Christmas. If you’re landing in one of those cities and need a third row, assume you’re competing for a small number of keys.
The Pickup Dates I’m Avoiding (and the Ones I’m Targeting)
Hertz expects its busiest Thanksgiving pickups to be Tuesday, November 24, and Wednesday, November 25. For the December period, which it defines as December 20 through January 4, the crunch days are December 23, 24 and 26. Those are the days when lines run longest, “or similar” gets most creative, and walk-up rates make you wince.
The fix is to move pickup earlier. Hertz’s data points to lower rates the weekend before Thanksgiving, and to cheaper daily rates on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays through November and December. An extra rental day often costs less than the Wednesday-morning rate jump, and you get the car before the lot empties.
One more date worth a calendar alert: Hertz says its Cyber Sale, with up to 30 percent off qualifying rentals, starts November 20. You don’t wait for it. You hold a refundable booking now and check whether the sale beats it when it opens.
Book Now, Then Keep Booking: My Rebooking Loop
Rental cars aren’t airfare. A refundable rental reservation usually costs nothing to cancel, so the smart move is to grab a seven-seat booking today and keep improving it until pickup. Here’s the loop I’m running from now until the week before we leave:
- Book “pay later,” not “pay now.” Prepaid rates look a few dollars cheaper, but they usually carry a cancellation fee that wipes out any drop you might catch later. Read the cancellation terms before you click, because “pay later” describes when you pay, not always what it costs to cancel.
- Check the price every week, then every few days in the final stretch. I put a reminder on Sunday nights. Prices do sometimes soften when a branch has more cars than expected, but big vehicles and holiday dates are exactly the bookings that tend to climb instead.
- Make the new booking first, then cancel the old one. Never cancel first. A cheap minivan rate can vanish while you’re halfway through checkout, and then you’re back at the counter hearing “that’s what we have.”
- Don’t “modify.” Rebook. Editing an existing reservation often keeps the old rate. A brand-new reservation is what captures the new price.
- Compare the total, not the daily rate. Airport concession fees, facility charges and taxes can add a large share to the bill. A rate that’s $6 a day cheaper but stacked with extra fees isn’t cheaper.
One published price-tracking example my team found makes the point: a holiday minivan quote dipped for about a day, then nearly doubled in the last 48 hours before pickup. In this category, waiting is the gamble, and an early refundable booking is your insurance.
“Or Similar” Is Doing a Lot of Work
The fine print on almost every rental booking says you’re reserving a class, not a model. For a family of seven, that matters more than anything else on the page. A “standard SUV” at many counters is a two-row vehicle. You want a class that explicitly says seven or eight passengers: usually labeled minivan, full-size SUV, or premium/standard elite SUV depending on the company. Check the passenger count on the listing, not just the photo.
Then do the luggage math, because this is where three-row SUVs let families down. With the third row up, most midsize three-row SUVs have about enough space behind the last seat for a few grocery bags. A minivan generally gives you a deep well behind the third row and sliding doors that don’t hit the car next to you in a crowded holiday parking lot. If you’re carrying seven people and their suitcases, I’d take a minivan over a midsize SUV every time, and I’d only choose a full-size SUV if someone in the group needs the four-wheel drive.
Two more tricks. Free loyalty programs often let members skip the counter on the busiest days, which beats any points. And if seven-seat classes are sold out everywhere, two smaller cars sometimes cost about the same as one minivan, with more trunk space and an easy exit for the cousin who leaves Saturday.
Off-Airport, One-Way and the Other Levers
The airport lot is convenient, but it’s also where the fees are. Neighborhood branches a short rideshare away often skip the airport concession charges, and they sometimes have big vehicles that the airport location doesn’t show online. The catch with holiday travel is opening hours: many neighborhood offices close on Thanksgiving Day and keep short hours over Christmas weekend. Confirm the hours for every day you might need to pick up or return before you book off-airport.
One-way rentals are the riskiest category in this whole game, especially for minivans. If your plan is fly in to one city, drive the family to Grandma’s and fly home from another airport, book that today. And if you’re still deciding whether to drive or fly at all, my 2026 holiday flight booking playbook covers the airfare side of that comparison.
Orlando tops Hertz’s Thanksgiving booking list for the second year running. The airport rental garages are huge, but so is the Tuesday-afternoon line of families off Northeast flights. Picking up Sunday or Monday, or at a branch near the hotels, can save you an hour in a queue.
Car Seats: Bring Yours, Don’t Rent Theirs
Rental counters will rent you a child seat, but I wouldn’t count on it over the holidays. Fees commonly run around $13 to $15 a day, supply runs out on the same days the minivans do, and you don’t know the seat’s history or how it installs.
Most U.S. airlines check car seats free of charge, so bringing your own costs you only the hassle of carrying it. A padded bag like the J.L. Childress Ultimate Backpack Padded Car Seat Travel Bag turns a bulky convertible seat into something you can wear through the terminal, and it protects the seat from the baggage belt. For a forward-facing kid who’s ready for it, a compact folding seat like the WAYB Pico Travel Car Seat fits in an overhead bin and installs quickly in a rental. Check the height and weight limits against your child before you commit.
Packing a Car With No Trunk
Once all three rows are full, the trunk barely exists. This is where families pack the way they do at home, in big hard-shell suitcases, and then find they can’t close the hatch. My rules for a seven-seat holiday rental:
Soft bags beat hard shells. Duffels squish into the odd spaces behind the third row and under the seats in a way rolling suitcases never will. A sturdy one like the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel 55L works as a carry-on for the flight and then packs into the back corner of the cargo area.
Put the bulky stuff on the roof. Most rentals don’t come with crossbars, so you need a carrier that straps through the door frames. The Rightline Gear Sport 2 Car Top Carrier is the type I’d use: it folds into a tote, rides in checked luggage, and attaches without a rack using car clips. Put the coats, the pillows and the gifts up there, and keep anything you’ll need on the road inside the car. Lay a towel under the straps if you’re worried about the rental’s paint.
Give every seat back a job. A Drive Auto Products Car Backseat Organizer hung on the front seats holds snacks, wipes, books and chargers, so nothing rolls under the third row where no adult can reach it. When you return the car, unclip it and pack it flat.
If you’re bringing a dish to the holiday table, plan its spot before you load the suitcases. My colleague over at home.omnux.com put together a Friendsgiving dish-carrier kit that keeps a casserole level and hot across a long drive, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that ends up wedged between two duffels.
Keeping Seven People Sane for Six Hours
A rental never has your phone mount, usually has one USB port up front, and gives the third row nothing. The Hertz survey found 45 percent of people would consider a two-to-six-hour drive instead of flying for Thanksgiving, and another 32 percent would drive seven hours or more. Over that distance, the small fixes add up.
- Navigation where the driver can see it. A vent or dash mount like the iOttie Easy One Touch 5 Car Phone Mount goes in and out in seconds and keeps the driver’s eyes up instead of on a phone in a cupholder.
- Power for every row. One multi-port charger with a long cord that reaches the back seats, like the Anker 4-Port USB Car Charger, stops the “my tablet died” fight at mile 40.
- Screens at eye level. A Macally Car Headrest Tablet Mount clamps to the headrest posts, so the second row isn’t holding a tablet in their laps for four hours, and two kids can share one screen.
- Protect the seat backs. Small feet kick, and rental companies notice. Lusso Gear Kick Mats Back Seat Protector hang over the front seats and keep you from paying for a cleaning fee.
- Food that doesn’t need a stop. A small hard cooler like the Coleman Chiller 16-Quart Portable Cooler fits between second-row captain’s chairs or behind the driver. Fill it at the first grocery store after you leave the airport.
If you’re doing the long Thanksgiving drive itself, my hour-by-hour plan for driving to Thanksgiving 2026 covers when to leave and where the worst traffic windows fall.
Fifteen Minutes in the Lot Before You Drive Away
It’s tempting to load the family and drive off the moment you get the keys. Take fifteen minutes first. Walk around the car with your phone recording video, and slowly film every panel, bumper and wheel, the windshield, and the interior including the third row. I’ve used this to win a damage dispute before, and I wrote up how a phone video beat a $1,100 rental damage claim if you want the full process.
Then check the winter basics. Big rental SUVs usually run all-season tires, not snow tires, and cold nights drop tire pressure, so a AstroAI Portable Tire Inflator in your bag is a cheap fix compared with a gas-station air machine that takes quarters and doesn’t work. If you’re driving north for Christmas, borrow the ideas from my winter car kit, since a rental won’t come with a scraper or a blanket.
Finally, sort out drivers before you leave the lot. Every adult who might take a turn behind the wheel needs to be on the contract. Several major companies waive the additional-driver fee for a spouse or domestic partner, and some states require that waiver, but others charge a daily fee for every extra driver. On a seven-hour drive with kids, a second driver is worth paying for.
My Seven-Seat Short List
If you only take one thing from this, book a refundable minivan or full-size SUV today and set a weekly reminder to rebook. If you take two, pack this kit:
- For the roof: Rightline Gear Sport 2 Car Top Carrier, which needs no crossbars
- For the luggage: Patagonia Black Hole Duffel 55L, which squishes where suitcases won’t
- For the car seat: J.L. Childress Ultimate Backpack Padded Car Seat Travel Bag, or a WAYB Pico Travel Car Seat for a kid who’s big enough
- For the seat backs: Drive Auto Products Car Backseat Organizer plus Lusso Gear Kick Mats Back Seat Protector
- For the driver: iOttie Easy One Touch 5 Car Phone Mount and Anker 4-Port USB Car Charger
- For the kids: Macally Car Headrest Tablet Mount
- For the road: Coleman Chiller 16-Quart Portable Cooler and AstroAI Portable Tire Inflator
The Third Row Is a Booking Problem, Not a Driving Problem
Every family trip I’ve seen go sideways at a rental counter actually went wrong weeks earlier, when someone decided the car could wait. This year the numbers say the big vehicles go first, so treat the third row like an airline seat: reserve it now, watch it, and switch only after you’ve secured something better.
Do that, and the Tuesday before Thanksgiving becomes the day you drive past the long counter line with everyone, and everything, actually in the car.