For anyone renting a car in Orlando the next 6 months

[jujubiee4]

Just wondering if you anticipate the rental car shortage to get better? Im trying to plan a trip for either Oct Nov Dec or
Jan. I cant get get any rate lower than 550-600.

I just read where car places may not fully be restocked until 2022. 2022 really? Makes it hard to plan ahead.

Experiences? Opinions?

 

[Wandering Oaken]

I have seen reports that car rental agencies (Hertz in particular) are getting more and more cars in already. I think it will be better very soon.

 

[starry_solo]

Isn't there already a car shortage due to chips, supplies. Etc. Not specific to rental cars, but cars in general

 

[gharter]

Isn't there already a car shortage due to chips, supplies. Etc. Not specific to rental cars, but cars in general

Thats what I had read. Car companies are just building cars that don't need the chips they can't get, and have a stockpile of cars ready that need the components that are not available to complete the cars.

 

[monarchsfan16]

Isn't there already a car shortage due to chips, supplies. Etc. Not specific to rental cars, but cars in general

Yes there is. My husband works for a car dealership. The shortage is real and significant.

To answer the original question, demand is going to remain high both because of the car shortage and revenge travel for awhile. Plus add in the elimination of Magical Express as an impact on the MCO market. I was able to find a good rate using a discount code from a newsletter I receive for my August trip but prices are generally horrifying. For our February trip I'm planning to use a car service.

 

[Cheburashka]

I initially booked a rental car for our February cruise, before changing my mind & deciding to do DCL transfers for reasons unrelated to cost. The rental car price was reasonable, but I didn't need a huge vehicle, just a full-sized sedan. If you're a Costco member I recommend booking through them, as they have the best discounts I've seen (not amazing, though, so not worth getting a membership if you don't have one). I recommend you book the cheapest deal you can get now with a good agency (don't do any advance purchase deals), and then keep checking back periodically. Prices can always rise, so you want something reserved at today's rates just in case they only get worse. If you're lucky, though, they might get better. Keep checking.

I'll add that I think WDW's big anniversary is going to keep prices high this fall and early winter, too.

 

[decheez]

Isn't there already a car shortage due to chips, supplies. Etc. Not specific to rental cars, but cars in general

As others have stated, this is very true. Obviously each car manufacturer will be a bit different but I work for a Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram dealership in Canada. Right now we have less than 20 new vehicles and are only receiving a couple a week (if that). Most of our vehicles are sold before we even receive them. Some of the vehicles that are not in stock we have been told could be 8-12 months before we receive any!

So I'm sure that the rental companies can probably add a few vehicles, but they may encounter difficulties building their fleets to the size that is needed anytime soon. So I think between higher demand and smaller fleets, the high rental prices are going to linger.

 

[EACarlson]

I've got a trip planned for October, I booked in February with a minor brand for $240 for five days, Hertz was $400, I looked last week and Hertz is up to $700. I would book that trip for sometime before ME ends at the end of the year, book a car now and then let Autoslash keep track of it and see if it goes down. I don't see prices getting better in January due to ME's demise driving additional rentals.

 

[spiders]

Book something and keep checking for better rates.

I think I may be in the minority but I am also a fan of the prepaid rates. The cancellation policy is still pretty good because unless you're cancelling inside 48 hours, it's $50. The rate is still changeable as well. My upcoming trip was a prepaid rate of $500 or $650 without. I booked the prepaid rate and then used a code I don't normally use later on and it dropped it to $350. Avis refunded the difference the next day.

 

[kevtlas]

We lucked out with a good rate but also booked way in advance of our stay (booked in December for July trip). We were looking at extending our stay and when I checked for a second rental vs updating the current, the rates were more than double!

 

[_19disnA]

Some may recall when a natural disaster in Japan several years ago knocked out a power plant and left many industries without power. Companies find ways to work around such issues and this time is probably no different. Some things may drag on while others get resolved more quickly. No one has a good enough crystal ball to determine the rental car situation 6 months from now.

As we move beyond covid, it is also difficult to predict the volume of travelers. Some who lost their job and/or their business during covid are most likely not going to rush off on vacation anytime soon. The travel industry likes to make it sound like you need to book now or lose out, but that is just their way to drum up business.

 

[mickeynut1]

Just wondering if you anticipate the rental car shortage to get better? Im trying to plan a trip for either Oct Nov Dec or
Jan. I cant get get any rate lower than 550-600.

I just read where car places may not fully be restocked until 2022. 2022 really? Makes it hard to plan ahead.

Experiences? Opinions?

Just my opinion, but I think things will continue to gradually get better. DH & I returned just after Memorial Day from a few days at Universal. I originally planned to use a car service as rental cars were outrageous. I tend to only use Alamo, where rates were in the $340 range for 3 days (other companies were at least that much with most much higher). Not wanting to spend that much, I booked Tiffany Town Car for $150 R/T, adding in gratuity each way would make it $200 total once we were done. I continually checked rental cars and one day saw the price dropped to $215 (full size car), so I booked it and kept watching. A few days later it dropped to $189....then $184....then $179....then $171.....until finally it dropped to $169 where it stayed. We had an 8am pick up time on Memorial Day and while that was a pretty early time, I was a little worried about what would be available after reading of the car shortages. I worried for nothing because there didn't seem to be a shortage (at least not that day) as the aisles/parking spots were filled with cars. As others have said, if you find a decent rate that isn't too outrageous, I'd go ahead and book it as you can always cancel or modify if you find something cheaper. I modified 5 times after originally booking. As a side note, we have a weekend trip booked for middle of Aug to Marco Island. When I first started looking for cars, there was nothing available with anyone (flying into/out of Fort Myers/RSW). A few weeks ago I finally found availability through Alamo. A full size car is pricey for a Fri-Sun rental ($316), but other companies were over $400+ for the same time frame. So while things might look a little bleak now, I think things will pick up over time.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

The best place that I have found to get a decent car rental rate right now is through UT. They seem to have the best rates with Budget. The cheapest way to get the rate if you don't need to buy Disney tickets it to buy one of the $5.86 soda coupons for AMC, and that unlocks the discounted rate for cars.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

The best place that I have found to get a decent car rental rate right now is through UT. They seem to have the best rates with Budget. The cheapest way to get the rate if you don't need to buy Disney tickets it to buy one of the $5.86 soda coupons for AMC, and that unlocks the discounted rate for cars.

Please check the recent reviews for Budget. People have been waiting hours to get a car. They don’t have online check in or kiosks so you have to wait for a person. We flew in yesterday and the line looked ridiculous. A few of the other rental car companies had huge lines also.
Cheapest for me was through Costco (since I have a membership). I did pay $60 more than the cheapest for Alamo since they have self checkout kiosks in MCO (for some reason it’s hit or miss on using skip the line with Costco rates). We used the kiosk and we were walking to pick up a car in minutes rather than an hour or more.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

Please check the recent reviews for Budget. People have been waiting hours to get a car. They don’t have online check in or kiosks so you have to wait for a person. We flew in yesterday and the line looked ridiculous. A few of the other rental car companies had huge lines also.
Cheapest for me was through Costco (since I have a membership). I did pay $60 more than the cheapest for Alamo since they have self checkout kiosks in MCO (for some reason it’s hit or miss on using skip the line with Costco rates). We used the kiosk and we were walking to pick up a car in minutes rather than an hour or more.

I hadn't heard about people waiting that long for a car. When we went the end of April, I did book a car through UT, and Budget, however, I wasn't able to link my Fastbreak account to it since it was through a third party vendor. Ultimately I spent the extra $80 to use the Costco Budget SUV I had rented (was able to link my FB account to it) so I could walk out the door, go to the garage kiosk and be handed my keys and be on the road.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

What is UT?

 

[easyas123]

We are headed to WDW after visiting family Ft. Myers at the very end of January. I booked a car from RSW for our time in Ft. Myers and was going to drop it off at the Car Care Center once we get to WDW (don't need it while there) and for the first time (for us, not the first time we've done this scenario) there was a $200 charge to return the car specifically there....redid the reservation to drop off at MCO and the charge vanished. Right now we will just plan on taking Uber or a car service from the airport. I'll keep my eye on things and see if the charge will disappear sometime between now and then.

That $200 charge all but doubled the cost of the rental - odd, we've never been charged that before when dropping off there. Oh well -

 

[mitsukoshi samurai]

What is UT?

The site that shall not be named

 

[Wandering Oaken]

The site that shall be named

Ohhhhhhhh. I thought it was a car rental agency. LOL

 

[EACarlson]

Some may recall when a natural disaster in Japan several years ago knocked out a power plant and left many industries without power. Companies find ways to work around such issues and this time is probably no different. Some things may drag on while others get resolved more quickly. No one has a good enough crystal ball to determine the rental car situation 6 months from now.

As we move beyond covid, it is also difficult to predict the volume of travelers. Some who lost their job and/or their business during covid are most likely not going to rush off on vacation anytime soon. The travel industry likes to make it sound like you need to book now or lose out, but that is just their way to drum up business.

This actually has very little to do with the volume of travelers. Volume is still down from 2019 levels. There are logistical issues that just aren't easily worked around right now. Hertz went into Bankruptcy and had to sell a large number of vehicles, other companies followed suit, then there was the fire in Ft. Myers that took out something like 4,500 rental vehicles that were being stored in a lot there. Manufacturers can't get chips to run production lines at full speed, "stimulus" checks raised the number of people trying to purchase new vehicles. Rental fleets are going to the back of the line since they cancelled most of the orders they had. It will get better, how quickly is anyones guess. It's certainly possible that prices six months from now are where they were in 2019, it's also possible that they are even higher than they are right now. I'll always give the same advice, book as early as you know you are going, then use Autoslash to monitor the rates. Even in the before times car rental pricing was wonky.