Mini van rental cars - none available! help!

[Anonymous]

We are going to Florida in mid December and tried to rent a mini van at the Sarasota airport for a week. To my surprise, every kind of search I did (orbitz, rentalcar.com, priceline, individual companies etc) yielded no results for mini vans. It seems they are simply sold out! In the end I booked a full size SUV since our party involves 3 adults and 2 toddlers but I would prefer to still get a mini van if possible, since I have heard that they are more spacious. Does anybody know any "tricks"? specific websites I could look at? Do rental car inventory change frequently enough so that I should be checking once in a while to see if any may become available? Or is it just a lost cause and I should stick with what I have? I am just surprised that a whole class of cars are are already unavailable for a date more than 1 month away!

[Anonymous]

Call the rental places directly. It's not unusual for these places (car rental agencies, hotels, etc.) to keep some inventory off of the online sites for people who contact them directly. Good luck!