WHILE the global recession has sent prices plummeting on airfares, hotels and cruises, it is having the opposite effect on rental cars.
In May, the average rate for a weekly airport rental of a compact car booked seven days in advance was $345.99, up a whopping 73 percent compared with $199.65 for the same month last year, according to the Abrams Consulting Group, based in Purchase, N.Y., which tracks rental rates.
In mid-June, weekly airport rental rates for a compact car averaged $347.44, compared with $210.38 a year ago — a 65 percent jump. “There’s a lot of sticker shock,” said Neil Abrams, president of the consulting group. “People don’t understand. The economy is caving around them,” he said, adding, “so how is it possible that rates are as high as they are for car rentals?”
The reason is basic supply and demand. Although demand for car rentals is down — by roughly 15 percent, according to Mr. Abrams — rental agencies have cut their fleets by even more, essentially creating their own shortage and jacking up prices.
To trim fleets, companies have been selling cars to the used car market and holding off on buying new ones. That doesn’t necessarily mean renters are getting clunkers, but it’s not unusual anymore to see a car with 30,000 miles on it. The average age of a rental car is now about 11 months, compared with about nine-and-a-half months a year ago, Mr. Abrams said.
All of this has changed the booking game for consumers. With many hotel rooms and airline seats empty, travelers have become accustomed to booking trips at the last minute. But with car rentals, that strategy won’t work. A procrastinator risks paying an exorbitant rate for the last car on the lot, assuming there is a car left. Many rental agencies in Manhattan, for example, have been sold out for the busy Fourth of July weekend for weeks.
Besides starting your search early, there are several ways to find a cheaper car. Off-airport locations are typically cheaper than airport locations, which tend to tack on fees that can raise the final price by 30 percent or more. According to an Expedia search in mid-June, an economy car from Enterprise Rent-a-Car from Seattle-Tacoma airport was $110.31 a day, compared with $42.90 for a similar car from the same company in downtown Seattle.
Travelers willing to go farther can save even more. For a 38-day road trip from Portland to Michigan, Ed Immel is saving about $800 by not renting from the airport or even downtown Portland. Instead, he is going to an Enterprise branch in the bedroom community of Beaverton, Ore., about 25 miles outside of Portland. “My advice,” said Mr. Immel, a retired rail planner from Portland, “is to take the airport train downtown and pick up the rental car there or go further.”
Deals can also be found by upgrading. With demand for fuel-efficient cars particularly high, travelers can sometimes find a better deal by booking larger, roomier vehicles. A recent Expedia search, for example, found a full-size van for $90.42 a day at the Budget Rent a Car in Long Beach, Calif., compared with $97.86 for a standard car. While the added fuel costs (not to mention larger carbon footprint) might erase the savings, the extra space and comfort might prevent World War III between siblings in the back seat.
Also, look beyond national chains like Avis or Hertz, to the hundreds of independent car rental agencies. Because of lower operating costs and smaller overhead, mom-and-pop agencies, which can be found at sites like CarRentals.com and CarRentalExpress.com, typically offer rates between 15 and 30 percents less than national agencies.
Willing to gamble? Consider Web sites like Priceline.com and Hotwire.com, which offer deep discounts to travelers willing to be locked into a preset price before finding out the rental car company.
Another option: virtual coupons. Sites like FatWallet.com and CouponWinner.com list discount codes for car rentals, or type in the name of a car rental company and “coupon code” into Google to see what turns up. Good deals also show up on airline Web sites under mileage partner offers. For example, Delta is offering up to 20 percent off with the discount code CDP 165385, and double miles on Hertz rentals in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Canada. The code brought the weekly rental of a Toyota Prius from Newark Airport in mid-July down to $503.90 from $685.05 — a 26 percent saving.
If you don’t have the time to seek out such discounts, Steve Ellis can do it for you. After his wife pointed out his uncanny knack for finding rental deals, Mr. Ellis, who is a business adviser and frequent traveler, created RentalCarMagic.com to allow customers to pay for his deal-sniffing services. The site, which charges $14.95 to $49.95, sends back a quote in a day or two.
Chris McGinnis, editor of The Ticket, a subscription newsletter for frequent travelers, recently tried RentalCarMagic.com for a trip to Hawaii. After paying a $30 fee, he said, the service saved him $54 on a convertible from Alamo Rent a Car. Though he found the process slightly cumbersome — he still had to go to the rental company’s Web site to book the deal using the discount code provided by Rental Car Magic — he noted in his newsletter that in the end, “it saved us more than we were able to save ourselves.”
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