Rental Car Availability Shrinks, While Prices Rise
With fewer people traveling, rental car companies are lowering the size of their fleets. These smaller fleets are forcing the leisure traveler to spend more to rent a car. The effect is not as noticeable to corporate travelers. Their companies have contracts with the rental companies to secure lower rates.
According to the article, a week long car rental has gone up an average of 36% since last year for midsize and compact rentals at major car rental companies at major airport locations. A representative from Enterprise says that its rates are up “less than 5%” from last year, but the data doesn’t lie.
This rate increase has led to an increase in support for lesser known companies, such as EZ Rent-A-Car. Consumers are finding lower rates with the smaller companies. They may not offer all of the amenities of the major rental companies, but the prices usually offset those amenities.
Travelated recommends that you examine all of your options before renting your next car. Do your research and it will pay off in the end.
Source: USA Today
Thank you for mentioning E-Z Rent-A-Car. It is true that we have seen an increase in demand as prices continue to climb for car rentals (though they are starting to come back down after the summer peak), but it is also important to know that E-Z Rent-A-Car does offer many of the same amenities as the larger companies, like in terminal access in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas and others, GPS rentals and new, well maintained vehicles.
I rented from EZ Rent-A-Car in Dallas, and it was a much better experience than I have had with some of the bigger companies.
I’ve never rented from E-Z rent-a-car before, but C Graham may have eased my mind about possibly trying them out.