Why do Car Rental Rates Change???

[Mickey_Maniac]

Just wondering, when the base rate for a car rental drops, is that because not enough cars are being rented and they are trying to draw in more customers? OR is it because they have rented enough and dont need the higher base rate?

What do you think???

 

[seashoreCM]

The first.

If the rental agency feels it might have a lot of cars idle, the agency is likely to reduce its rates. The nationwide rental companies have years of historical data on what days of the year have a higher demand for rental cars.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

I kind of thought that, but it got me wondering why the rates would go down and back up within the same day. My end of June base rate dropped by $1.50 this morning, and then went back up by $8.00 about three hours later.

Curiouser and curiouser...

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

Rates changes every hour due to Supply and demand.
Big supply low price.
Big demand high price.
Back in November I origanally set up a contract to rent a mid size car from Thrifty.com for $161 total for the week. I've changed my contract since then about 5 times. As of today I am renting a Full size sedan from Thrifty.com for $116 total for the Week.
Good luck,
Joe

 

[safetymom]

Supply and demand. Also they watch what the other companies are doing and may raise or lower their prices based on what the other rental companies are doing.

 

[DawnCt1]

Yield Management. I got a great rate from Dollar for a mini van for 7/29 through 8/8. I tried to get Budget to beat the price and they couldn't. Their rate was twice as high. The reason? They have two mini vans left. The price can stay artificially high when people have multiple reservations hanging out there.