A Car Rental Apocalypse Is Coming: Here’s What You Need To Know

[luckydriver]

for over a week ive been trying to book disney car care to MCO on march 27 just for the day and nothing available. when i do priceline to see what is nearby the cheapest is 200. crazy. thankfully appears uber is only about 30 bucks but i have 7 hours to wait for a flight. wont be fun

 

[Hopscotch]

We are going to Orlando for 2 days next week. Cheapest car we can find is $400 at an offsite rental company. Nothing available at MCO on-site at all. Unfortunately, I think this article is spot on.

 

[luckydriver]

warning about autoslash. they dont always include one way rental charges. i got a quote for 150 cheaper than any other car. then read fine print, there may be one way charges when you drop it off. which is kind of crazy becuase you know the car will be rented out again right away!

 

[MIChessGuy]

You can do this online

I have read conflicting info on this. It appears that digital check-in is possible on the Avis website, but even then the booking still does not show on the Preferred dashboard. This is my first use of a third party booking site in quite a while so I am not sure what to expect.

 

[keishashadow]

It appears that digital check-in is possible on the Avis website, but even then the booking still does not show on the Preferred dashboard

Did u check on the app?

 

[MIChessGuy]

Hmm, I never thought about the app. I'll set it up and see if if has better info.

 

[mikehn]

I travel all over the country and the article is generally in line with what I'm seeing across the country. It's gotten to the point where rental cars dictate my itinery.

 

[tebookie]

I've seen dramatic jump in prices. Supply and demand. I guess I will need to get better hunting down a good deal

 

[NotUrsula]

Something to be aware of if you don't follow local news in Florida: last April during the initial lockdown several rental companies had parked their excess inventory in an unused parking lot near Ft. Myers. Something, probably a hot exhaust, set fire to some grass in the lot, and pretty much every car out there went up in flames. The total loss was over 4500 vehicles, value of over $100M. THAT is why the companies are so lean right now in Florida; there are no stored vehicles to rotate back into the fleets. Naturally, they are waiting for demand to reach pre-pandemic levels before investing in replacing the vehicles lost in the fire.

 

[kucanhead]

Several months ago, I booked a reservation for an intermediate car for 6/5-6/21 with Alamo (via Costco) for $723. I check regularly to catch any price drops, but the price just keeps on going up and up. That same reservation now costs $1272, a 76% increase in price. All other options through Costco are similarly priced.

 

[Leigh L]

Something to be aware of if you don't follow local news in Florida: last April during the initial lockdown several rental companies had parked their excess inventory in an unused parking lot near Ft. Myers. Something, probably a hot exhaust, set fire to some grass in the lot, and pretty much every car out there went up in flames. The total loss was over 4500 vehicles, value of over $100M. THAT is why the companies are so lean right now in Florida; there are no stored vehicles to rotate back into the fleets. Naturally, they are waiting for demand to reach pre-pandemic levels before investing in replacing the vehicles lost in the fire.

That explains a lot. I hadn't heard about that. We've rented a couple of times since the summer at MCO and the lines are always slim. DH rented a car in Tampa and similar experience.

 

[MarBee]

We are flying in to MCO this week but are going to Daytona. We have a reservation confirmed and paid in full for a pick up truck from Budget. I am super stressed worrying that when I show up, there will be no car available.
We’ve never rented a car in Florida before as we usually do Disney and take their transportation.

If you were me and showed up to the counter to find no car available, what would you do? It doesn’t appear any other companies have any availability for vehicles either. This is stressing me out.

 

[EACarlson]

While not the most ethical thing, and I would not do it, you could make a second speculative booking for an hour after your primary. If everything goes well you cancel the speculative booking, if something gets screwed up you have a backup, the odds of both of your companies being completely out of cars is probably pretty slim.

 

[MarBee]

While not the most ethical thing, and I would not do it, you could make a second speculative booking for an hour after your primary. If everything goes well you cancel the speculative booking, if something gets screwed up you have a backup, the odds of both of your companies being completely out of cars is probably pretty slim.

Thanks! So I actually did that with the only other company in town that had anything available. Super nervous but hoping it works out

 

[MIChessGuy]

I finally got around to trying to connect my UCT booking with my Avis Preferred account via the Avis app. The app recognized my booking number once I typed it in. However, the app surprised me with a warning about how the rate would change if I associated the booking with my account. It wasn't easy to understand, but it appeared that the rate would be boosted by $185. The idea must be that I can have either my Avis Preferred benefits, or the discount code provided by UCT, but not both. As a result, I plan to just go to the counter and wait rather than do anything that might jeopardize the deal I got.

 

[zeferjen]

I finally got around to trying to connect my UCT booking with my Avis Preferred account via the Avis app. The app recognized my booking number once I typed it in. However, the app surprised me with a warning about how the rate would change if I associated the booking with my account. It wasn't easy to understand, but it appeared that the rate would be boosted by $185. The idea must be that I can have either my Avis Preferred benefits, or the discount code provided by UCT, but not both. As a result, I plan to just go to the counter and wait rather than do anything that might jeopardize the deal I got.

Damn. I was hoping to avoid the counter as well. Thanks for the update.

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

Holy smokes!!! Did you try priceline? We are renting a van in May for a week at $450 with Priceline's insurance package! Cheaper than the September trip!

you are lucky! You must have booked it before this issue started. It was fine a few weeks ago and now it is not.

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

Ummm no, I don't think the world is ending as it relates to rental cars. The article is written by the CEO of an internet company making rental car reservations, so I don't consider his views as objective and likely intended to drive more business to their website. I think most experienced travelers make their airline and car rental reservations once they know they are going to travel. Showing up at the rental car counter at your destination without a car reservation and expecting to rent a car was a terrible idea even before covid. All of the cars might be already assigned to those with reservations. Somewhat like showing up at the airport on your day of travel and trying to buy an airline ticket. Neither of those are something an experienced traveler would ever do.

Car rental companies cut back during covid which made financial sense for them since fewer people were traveling. As travel picks up once we are over covid, they will likely add back more vehicles to their fleets.

This is definitely a thing and is all over the news. They are saying it will last a while because there will not be much availability for a while for rental car companies to add to their fleet due to the the semiconductor shortage.

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

We got a great deal too from Jan 8-16, 2021 thru Alamo. Some of the other rental companies wanted $3k and $7k for the same rental, lol. Sixt used to always have the best prices in this category but have gone way up the past couple years. Very surprised to have found this deal thru Alamo:

Car Summary
Luxury SUV
Infiniti QX80

Rental Rate (shown in USD)
1 Week(s) at 258.27 / Week(s) $258.27
2 Day(s) at 36.89 / Day(s) $73.78
UNLIMITED MILEAGE INCLUDED
Customer Facility Charge 3.50/day $24.50
Priv Fee Recov Chg 10 Pct
(10.0%) $32.31
Fl Waste Tire/battery Fee .02/day $0.18
Sc Rec - Fl Surchg Recov
2.00/day $18.00
Vlf Rec .85/day $7.65
Sales Tax (6.5%) $25.88
Total Savings: -$16.60
Estimated Total: $423.97

yeah, this wasn't a thing in January as demand was still low. It is a thing now. It really started betting bad in March and is even worse now in April.

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

While there are always exceptions, I've yet to see much difference in car rental rates now vs 5 years ago. A bit of an increase but certainly nothing huge. Everything has increased in price!
I think this kind of 'reporting' is awful, it causes angst where there is none needed. For crying out loud, who actually just walks up to a car rental counter and tries to rent a car? That's just crazy. Book a car rental before arrival. Of course it's going to be expensive if you just walk up and try to rent.

Yes, but have you looked at prices lately? Renting a car ahead of time is not working. They are 3 times as much as we usually pay everywhere through every site. This is a real thing and they have definitley increased majorly due to the shortage.