Rental Car Gouging

[Prosper]

I think some rental car prices have exceeded 1000% of recent pre covid prices. Isn't that price gouging?

[Treefrog]

1. I have no clue what rental car prices usually are.

[Dream Girl]

5. Then there's need to respond.

[Treefrog]

26. So you posted, but have no interest in further informing those who show they'd like to

know more?

Hokay.

[Treefrog]

34. Okay, what in the world is your issue with me asking for more information ?

[NurseJackie]

40. It's highly unlikely that you'll get a response.

[Treefrog]

41. I see that now.

I still don’t get the vitriol from several on my question. I’ve been housebound forever, and genuinely interested in travel info.

Thanks for your kindness.

[EYESORE 9001]

10. Good to know

[Treefrog]

37. Okay.

Thanks so much for the input.

[EYESORE 9001]

38. Which was every bit as useful as yours

I had a beagle once. Does that provide relevance either?

[Treefrog]

42. Huh?

Wtf is your issue with me asking for the price of rental cars?

[USALiberal]

15. Why post??? Nt

[Treefrog]

25. Because I thought someone might clue me in?

Discussion board that many of us come to for info? Op without comparison?

Feel good now? Wow, you sure told me!

[NurseJackie]

32. I know what you mean. A link with some actual numbers, or...

... even some anecdotal information (for comparison purposes) would have been helpful. I don't know why people are giving you a hard time about this.

[Treefrog]

33. Thank you. It confused me too.

I haven’t rented a car in years and was genuinely curious for more info. The op did elucidate later in the thread, but my oh my, the hatred I got for daring to say I’d no idea about something.

[Hekate]

2. I only know about one state:during the shutdown Hawaiian rental car agencies had to sell their stock

…just to stay alive. When tourists finally came back, prices on the few cars available were through the roof. Tourists even called up U-Haul just to get their hands on a vehicle.

So I think your question is deserving of some research.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. I've read that a lot sold off their fleets over the past year

And now demand is through the roof, and they don't have cars to meet it due to the global chip shortage affecting car sales.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Only Perhaps

Last edited Sat Jul 10, 2021, 07:54 PM - Edit history (1)

This meets the literal definition of gouging, but microeconomically, gouging typically includes an element of essential demand.
There is no essential demand with rental cars in vacation destinations. People don't HAVE TO take a vacation when supply is weak.
The sudden increases in retail price when some locales ran dry of gas after the pipeline fiasco, by stations in nearby locales comes much closer to gouging as the term is typically applied.
Gas has essential demand. Adding onto the already supply constricted higher price was clearly an opportunistic exploitation of a temporary condition & ensuing panic.
There is no panic over rental cars. Nobody MUST have a rental car.
Is it economic condition exploitation? Yes, it sure looks like it.
Is it conventional gouging? Probably not.

[bluecollar2]

7. Nicely done

You explained that very well. Makes sense to me.

[reACTIONary]

14. I agree, "gouging" requires an ethical dimension...

... that doesn't seem to exist with rental cars.

[Dream Girl]

6. Rental car rates were already rising due to all the consolidation in the industry. I'd begun to

Notice they were getting higher pre-Covid.

[MerryHolidays]

8. There are all sorts of Covid-related distortions going on

I will list just a few that I personally have experienced just in the past few days:

-many service providers have moved to chat-only customer service. I am fine with this as an option, as chat-based customer service is often fine. But, it doesn't work well for all circumstances.

-rental cars are clearly more expensive now than they were before the pandemic. As others have noted, Hawaii actually got to the point where tourists were renting U-Haul trucks as a surrogate. I just priced some rental cars in SoCal, and they are far more expensive now than normally.

-used car prices have been through the roof. We are considering selling our car and are getting several thousand dollars more today for the car than we used to. This is after the car has aged more than 1.5 years and has several thousand more miles on it today than it did when we first got offers.

-we recently helped a relative book an international business class air ticket. The price was just ok, but the airline allowed only one bag. To get a second bag, you'd have to pay several hundred dollars more. Pre-pandemic, that was unheard of, particularly in the business class sector.

-room cleaning in hotels. Pre-pandemic, it occurred every day. During the pandemic, it has decreased markedly to one or two times a week in most of the hotels I've stayed. Whether this becomes the new normal remains to be seen.

Frankly speaking, we are still smack-dab in the middle of the pandemic, so it's too soon to say. But I do wonder whether companies are going to use the changes that have arisen over the last 1.5 years to cut costs/increase profits once the pandemic subsides.

[left-of-center2012]

9. Supply and demand

Over the past year and a half car rental places had to dump their car because people were staying home.

Now people want to rent cars and there are not that many available.

Supply and demand.

[VarryOn]

11. When I travel for biz or personal, I rarely rent a car anymore...

I take Uber or Lyft. Occasionally, I take a cab.

If you just need short trips, no need to rent a car. And no paying for parking!

[marmar]

12. I paid almost double what I would typically pay last month when I rented in Fort Lauderdale.

[Cairycat]

13. The last two times we rented a car

Dec. 2019 $205 Enterprise, Lawton OK, small SUV, 2 days
Dec. 2020 $227 Alamo, San Antonio TX, Chevy Malibu, 3 days

[Prosper]

16. Typical economy car rents for $275 a day. Two years ago this type of car rented for about $30 a day.

That is about 900% or 9 times as much. $275/day now vs $30/day then. Rental agencies depleted their stock when demand evaporated during lock down. $700/day was not unheard of when traveling started back up.

[Treefrog]

27. Thank you for providing information an op could have done.

[Doremus]

17. I have to think there is some gouging going on

A one-week rental for a full size van in Myrtle Beach at the beginning of June was $1300.

The price currently? Over $3k.

Whether that's gouging or just good old 'Murican capitalism I haven't a clue. I hardly think the supply has been altered in just a month's time. Probably lots more demand though.

[Prosper]

18. Rental car gouging.

https://www.budget.com/en/reservation#/vehicles

[KentuckyWoman]

19. They all sold their fleet in 2020

expecting to replace it with new once this was over and demand picked back up.

Thanks to the shortages, that has proved problematic. Now they have short supply and big demand. The price increases naturally come with that.

[SYFROYH]

20. Prices are higher but not that much.

I just rented a large luxury sedan for $600 for 4 days. That’s about 2 times per Covid

[Prosper]

22. Last week an economy car rented for twice that for the

same number of days, $1200.

[SYFROYH]

23. Wow. That's nuts. I suppose its location and demand dependent.

Sorry to hear that.

[appalachiablue]

21. Zipcars, what happened to it? Big for a while

[sir pball]

28. They're still bug, expanding as a matter of fact

In the last year or so they've expanded in NYC, nowadays every fifth block has special Zipcar parking spots. They're just not viable outside of urban areas, if you can't get to the cars on foot or by transit there's not much point, just get an Uber or have Enterprise pick you up.

I'm actually renting one for a move next month; a Honda CR-V midsize SUV is costing me about $100 more for three days than a compact sedan from a legacy rental agency is going for for ONE day.

[appalachiablue]

30. That's good to know, I used to see

them around Arl., Va. close- in, but maybe they're focusing more on DC.

Great deal you got for a rental, I've recently checked the usual companies which are sky high as you say. Happy & safe driving.

[sir pball]

31. They're definitely in DC

We're moving to Woodleigh Park, our new building actually has Zipcars in the lot!

Thanks for the well-wishes...as with all moves they're desperately needed

[appalachiablue]

39. Lucky you, that's a wonderful area with

so much to offer and accessible to everything. I lived and worked in DC and environs for quite a while.

After years located in Friendship Hts., AU Park and Wisc. Ave. neighborhoods, I decided to move to the close- in burbs for more family space, yardage for gardening, etc. There are some advantages, but there's nothin' like the city and DC. Enjoy!

[roamer65]

24. About double here in Michigan, from pre-virus days.

[mainer]

35. We reserved a mid-sized car in Phoenix. Hertz.

Arrived at the airport rental agency, told to go pick a car in the lot. (We're gold members.) Only ... there were no cars, just empty spaces. We went back to the agent, and he said we had to wait until someone else returned a car. Or ... would we like to rent a high-priced luxury SUV? They had two of those.

We didn't want to wait all day for someone to return their car, so we had to go with the luxury car. It was nice, but it was 2X what we expected to spend.

The car supply is way, way down.

[obamanut2012]

36. Supply is way down, prices are way up

No deals on most new cars, either, and I was going to buy one this summer. Waiting for a few months now.