Rental Car Companies Reeling From Uptick in Travelers

Jason R. Sakurai
by Jason R. Sakurai

Rental car companies are their own worst enemies, having sold off much of their fleets during the pandemic’s height. With travel restrictions easing in many places they find themselves with no inventory.

Consolidation is another aspect that hasn’t helped whatsoever. There’s Enterprise Holdings, which is Enterprise, National, and Alamo. Hertz and Advantage are one. Avis and Budget are another group, as is Dollar and Thrifty. In some places, you’ll find Sixt, a German mobility service provider. Other than that, there’s maybe a few regional players. The point here is that in many locations, they’ll rent you the same vehicle under one brand or another. This reduces the total number of cars they need, if demand is up at Budget, but not so at Avis because they’re generally more expensive. The same goes for Hertz, which is usually the highest-priced.

Last October, I went to Phoenix for a business meeting. While there were few passengers on board the plane, it was a different story on the ground in Phoenix. With fewer restrictions in that state, it appeared to be pretty much business as usual. The big change was instead of thousands of rental cars in this mammoth holding area that all the rental companies use, there were hundreds. Empty parking spots in the multi-tiered lot outnumbered those with vehicles waiting. All of them were rented, and anyone waiting at the airport for a vehicle was going to be there a long time.

What happened in Phoenix then has spread to other areas of the country. Friends vacationing in Florida said that they are using Uber because there were no cars to be had in Orlando, and they hadn’t planned ahead. A story today by businessinsider.com only confirmed what I knew already. Prices in some areas are $700 a day, higher than they are for airfare and hotels.

Planning ahead is the only way to avoid these horrendous rental charges. Heading to a tourist hot spot? If you don’t have a reservation, try finding a local agency within a short distance away from the airport. Some local agencies will pick you up and drop you off at the airport, saving you a taxi ride. No, they may not have the same selection of vehicles, but wheels are wheels, right?

[Images: © 2021 J. Sakurai/TTAC]

Jason R. Sakurai
Jason R. Sakurai

With a father who owned a dealership, I literally grew up in the business. After college, I worked for GM, Nissan and Mazda, writing articles for automotive enthusiast magazines as a side gig. I discovered you could make a living selling ad space at Four Wheeler magazine, before I moved on to selling TV for the National Hot Rod Association. After that, I started Roadhouse, a marketing, advertising and PR firm dedicated to the automotive, outdoor/apparel, and entertainment industries. Through the years, I continued writing, shooting, and editing. It keep things interesting.

More by Jason R. Sakurai

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 15 comments
  • Dal20402 Dal20402 on Apr 18, 2021

    My family, located in CA, WA, and two different parts of TX, usually reunites somewhere in the Rockies for the summer. This year, it's in Utah. The CA and WA groups will drive, but we're already having to worry about this for the two Texas contingents (one of which is big enough that it needs a van or large SUV). Current rates are around $2000 for the week; that won't fly, so we'll have to do something else.

  • Jmo Jmo on Apr 19, 2021

    "If you don’t have a reservation" Just an FYI a car rental reservation doesn't mean all that much. You can and will get to the counter and they will say, "Sorry, we don't have any cars." "But I have a reservation!" "I don't know what to tell you, sir. We don't have any cars." And unlike airlines or hotels that bump/walk you and offer a financial incentive. Car rental companies don't.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
Next