Rental car prices increases

Morgan3820

Morgan3820

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The wife wants to go to Annapolis for a one night getaway. I usually fly into Bay Bridge, W29, and get a rental car from the local Enterprise office for about $26-32/day. I was told that the new pricing will be $72/day!!! Holy crappola. I was told that this is corporate wide. Anybody else run into this?
 
Yup. Looks like it. I fly into Louisville and pay in that 30ish dollar range. Cheapest one now is $61/day

Budget looks to be about $175 for pickup Friday drop off Monday at SDF.
 
Morgan3820 said:
The wife wants to go to Annapolis for a one night getaway. I usually fly into Bay Bridge, W29, and get a rental car from the local Enterprise office for about $26-32/day. I was told that the new pricing will be $72/day!!! Holy crappola. I was told that this is corporate wide. Anybody else run into this?
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Hertz was still in the 30/day range when I last looked. Hertz also sold all their newer vehicles so all thats left are at least year old cars that are paid off with more miles than my car at home.

At least with my corporate code, but maybe that is safe for the year.
 
Morgan3820 said:
The wife wants to go to Annapolis for a one night getaway. I usually fly into Bay Bridge, W29, and get a rental car from the local Enterprise office for about $26-32/day. I was told that the new pricing will be $72/day!!! Holy crappola. I was told that this is corporate wide. Anybody else run into this?
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I haven't rented a car recently but this doesn't surprise me. Think about it, would you rent your car out for $26-32 a day?

With the lower rental volume post Covid, they have to make up for it with higher rates.
 
Seanaldinho said:
Hertz was still in the 30/day range when I last looked. Hertz also sold all their newer vehicles so all thats left are at least year old cars that are paid off with more miles than my car at home.


At least with my corporate code, but maybe that is safe for the year.
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I called Easton, MD. They have a Hertz car on site going for $65/day. They were surprised also.
 
Last week I paid $53 a day for an economy car in Sacramento but the cost estimate I submitted with my travel request showed $44 a day less than 2 weeks earlier.
 
Just finished renting a SUV this week for $41/day for two days. I didn't notice any difference in price from a year ago.
 
Lower demand for rental cars; prices have to go somewhere.
 
Snowmass said:
Yes, but usually down unless supply drops even more.
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Fixed costs still have to be covered. While most of the rental car companies have shrunk their fleets and staff, bills needing to be paid may not have been reduced at the same rate.
 
Counter lower demand with higher prices with an product that has an elastic price curve (if we have business travelers like we did pre COVID then it would be more inelastic). Yep, a clear path to building your business............
 
TCABM said:
Lower demand for rental cars; prices have to go somewhere.
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Perhaps the rental car companies shrank their fleet a few months ago (i.e. lower supply) and now the travel market is starting to bounce back (i.e. higher demand)?
 
asicer said:
Perhaps the rental car companies shrank their fleet a few months ago (i.e. lower supply) and now the travel market is starting to bounce back (i.e. higher demand)?
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That sounds like a reasonable assumption. I have 14 people spread out over 13 states and many haven't been able to get a car to complete their travel requirements. In Sacramento, they had run out of economy cars and had to give me what they had left, a Dodge Charger....
 
Radar Contact said:
We just went to Gatlinburg (GKT) and used Enterprise FBO service for a 1 day mid-size SUV. Think it was an Acadia. Was 118 for the day.
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:eek::eek::eek::eek:
Guess I will try not to complain then. Wow
Good thing the wife is picking up the hotel bill Which, on balance, is really cheap.
 
Just flew to KVRB for a bike race Saturday. Hertz at KFPR (closer to race) was 89/day for smallest car. Avis at KVRB was 27 for what ended up being a Chrysler 300 with everything. More than made up for the 15 miles extra driving.
 
asicer said:
Perhaps the rental car companies shrank their fleet a few months ago (i.e. lower supply) and now the travel market is starting to bounce back (i.e. higher demand)?
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Could be the case as well.
 
Brad Z said:
Think about it, would you rent your car out for $26-32 a day?
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Absolutely. 2-3 years ago I rented a nearly brand new Mustang GT for $8/day in LA. About three months later I got a Challenger with a Hemi in VA for under $20/day. Yeah, I'll take that all day long.

BTW, a Challenger will do 0-60 in under 5 seconds. Just saying.
 
At least you're not under 25. Every time I look at rental cars from either Hertz or Enterprise, it's at least $125 a day after taxes and young renter fees and all that nonsense, for their economy car.
 
Did Hertz et al buy many new cares this year? If not, then supply would definitely be down this year...
 
I reserved one at RSW a couple weeks from now and was surprised at the price increase from years past, but assumed it to be a local thing from the huge car fire at RSW. Didn't realize it was nationwide.
 
Morgan3820 said:
:eek::eek::eek::eek:
Guess I will try not to complain then. Wow
Good thing the wife is picking up the hotel bill Which, on balance, is really cheap.
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Yeah, that was just yesterday so not even a weekend. No sure if they raise the rates depending on that or not. The special Covid cleaning fee for the cabin was pretty hefty too. Maybe the rental car companies just got hip to that trend as well?
 
SkyChaser said:
At least you're not under 25. Every time I look at rental cars from either Hertz or Enterprise, it's at least $125 a day after taxes and young renter fees and all that nonsense, for their economy car.
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You just need to find a travel partner that's over 25. When I was under 25 there were a couple places that would rent to me without killing me on surcharges.
 
Our company rate was around $32-35/day for a standard vehicle (Nissan Altima/Toyota Camry) through Enterprise/National.
 
red4golf said:
That sounds like a reasonable assumption. I have 14 people spread out over 13 states and many haven't been able to get a car to complete their travel requirements. In Sacramento, they had run out of economy cars and had to give me what they had left, a Dodge Charger....
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Sad :cool:
 
Try Turo where people rent their own cars through a website.
 
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EdFred said:
You just need to find a travel partner that's over 25. When I was under 25 there were a couple places that would rent to me without killing me on surcharges.
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I remember the first few times I rented cars. Under 25 AND paying cash because I didn’t have a credit card. Ditto hotels... I’d leave a trail of big wads of cash wherever I went, and collect them on the way back.

Of course back then the cars were horse drawn and the hotels served ale and mead.
 
DaleB said:
I remember the first few times I rented cars. Under 25 AND paying cash because I didn’t have a credit card. Ditto hotels... I’d leave a trail of big wads of cash wherever I went, and collect them on the way back.

Of course back then the cars were horse drawn and the hotels served ale and mead.
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They had discovered how to make Ale?!?!?!??!
 
Morgan3820 said:
I am guessing that those rates were negotiated pre-covid. Next round might be different.
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Possibly, but I'm sure much of the activity will have returned by the time they renegotiate. Having rates double would make most companies balk.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Possibly, but I'm sure much of the activity will have returned by the time they renegotiate. Having rates double would make most companies balk.
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on the plus side, more companies could figure out that phone calls and videoteleconferences work.

The downside will be for all those managers etc that seem to live for the perks of travel. boo-hoo.

(I worked with some logistics folks that simply had to visit the prime contractor in Long Beach, CA; for some reasons they didn't need to visit a subcontractor in Bingingham NY; but surprisingly need to visit one of that company's software subs in Plymouth, England. The program manager picked up on that right away)
 
bflynn said:
Absolutely. 2-3 years ago I rented a nearly brand new Mustang GT for $8/day in LA. About three months later I got a Challenger with a Hemi in VA for under $20/day. Yeah, I'll take that all day long.

BTW, a Challenger will do 0-60 in under 5 seconds. Just saying.
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Absolutely? So if you personally owned a Challenger you'd rent it to me for $20/day? I'll take you up on that offer...I heard it will go 0-60 in under 5 seconds...
 
Brad Z said:
Absolutely? So if you personally owned a Challenger you'd rent it to me for $20/day? I'll take you up on that offer...I heard it will go 0-60 in under 5 seconds...
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Actually, there was a service where you could drive yourself to the airport and rent your car to someone else while you're out on a trip. So instead of you paying for long-term airport parking, you get paid instead. And your car comes back cleaner than when you departed. Not sure it survived COVID-19, though.
 
SkyChaser said:
At least you're not under 25. Every time I look at rental cars from either Hertz or Enterprise, it's at least $125 a day after taxes and young renter fees and all that nonsense, for their economy car.
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If you're an AOPA member, try using the codes on the back of the card. They come up as corporate codes and usually waive the under 25 surcharges as long as you are over 21.

YMMV since it has been many years since I was under 25 and renting a car, but those codes saved me lots of money back in the day.
 
No surprise. It's one of many things that are going up in price - restaurants are also doing it. This will be a great way for companies to raise prices. Government, too. Hold on to your wallets.
 
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