Rental Car Prices are Insane!

[HeatherC]

Anyone else try to book a car rental recently? I knew they were expensive but am shocked at the prices I am seeing.

We were looking to possibly book a trip to revisit Utah and the Grand Canyon. We are seeing rates over $1000 a week depending on the dates.

I have also priced different cities, different dates, etc. and they are all ridiculously high.

Looks like we will be traveling closer to home and taking our own car on a road trip.

Anyone else change plans as a result of the car rental prices?

 

[JLemaire7]

We purposely booked vacation destinations this summer that do not require rental cars. I agree that the prices are insane. Hopefully in the next couple of months things will settle down as car rental companies feel confident and are able to replenish their inventory.

We did book a rental car in Phoenix for Thanksgiving 2021 but more as a nice to have and not because its necessary and also because the price was reasonable so I have hope that things will get better. A lot of the advice I have seen is to check rental car prices first before booking flights or hotels. Crazy.

 

[neverlandsky]

It was $500 total for 2 days last month. Couldn’t change plans as a car rental was needed a day after Uhaul was dropped off. Airport was out of car rentals entirely so booked the closest hotel walkable to car rental place about 20 minutes away from airport. DH walked to pickup rental car and walked back to hotel after rental dropoff. Got 2 relatives to pick him up from Uhaul and then again to take him to the airport. Couldn’t do a one way rental pickup at one location and drop off at the airport’s location. Hence the Uhaul storages as well. Lift/Uber was up to a 3 hour wait. Definitely have logistics down beforehand.

 

[wenrob]

Yeah, it’s nuts. Going to cost me almost twice as much as the hotel. I sucked it up and paid it. After the last year plus, there’s just nothing that’s going to stop me from seeing my kid. Because we didn’t have any kind of vacation last year I’m trying to look at it as a wash. I think they’ll eventually come down but it’s never going to go back to $35-$50 a day.

 

[Kittyblue]

Rates are definitely a lot higher now where I need a car, but not enough to price me out yet.

 

[descovy]

Oh yeah. We have a ton of unused Southwest Airlines points and earned a companion pass in 2020. SW was so great about expanding the the deadline on the companion pass for this year. We were planning on traveling BIG this year… lol.

now everything else is high. Hotels are high, car rentals high, Uber is high (sigh…)

We do have 2 car rental trips this summer. Early June we went to Milwaukee Fri-Tues and got a rental car at the airport for $218.

In July we go to Spokane Friday-Monday (so one less day) and our rental car is $330 and we have to get it in downtown… all sold out at the airport.

Both cars are for 2 un-picky adults (any size will do). Neither are in a tourist-y area either.

 

[leahgoogle]

Oh yeah. We have a ton of unused Southwest Airlines points and earned a companion pass in 2020. SW was so great about expanding the the deadline on the companion pass for this year. We were planning on traveling BIG this year… lol.

now everything else is high. Hotels are high, car rentals high, Uber is high (sigh…)

We do have 2 car rental trips this summer. Early June we went to Milwaukee Fri-Tues and got a rental car at the airport for $218.

In July we go to Spokane Friday-Monday and our rental car is $330 and we have to get it in downtown… all sold out at the airport.

Both cars are for 2 un-picky adults (any size will do). Neither are in a tourist-y area either.

We are in the same boat with the Companion Pass! We want to use it, but everything else is high!

 

[Dan Murphy]

I have seen on the news where people are renting U-Haul trucks, more reasonable than cars.

 

[Christine]

My son's going to be giving Turo a try. He is going to Hawaii and there was zero availability, but he's found a car through Turo. I've heard good and bad about it so we shall see.

 

[descovy]

I have seen on the news where people are renting U-Haul trucks, more reasonable than cars.

I actually tried that. Not a chance in Spokane! They’re on to us!

 

[EACarlson]

Yeah, it’s nuts. Going to cost me almost twice as much as the hotel. I sucked it up and paid it. After the last year plus, there’s just nothing that’s going to stop me from seeing my kid. Because we didn’t have any kind of vacation last year I’m trying to look at it as a wash. I think they’ll eventually come down but it’s never going to go back to $35-$50 a day.

This is very much what is going on. The pent up demand to travel added to all of the issues that happened last year. Fleets slashed due to bankruptcy, fire in Ft. Myers that took out a lot of cars in FL, cancelling all of their new vehicle orders, manufacturers can't get chips to make new cars, the Feds flooding the economy with money raising prices on everything. That said there are still some deals to be had out there if you book far enough in advance or last minute. I've got a 5 day rental in October that I booked in March for a mid size SUV for $43/day.

 

[MillauFr]

We were planning on going to Kauai in August but no cars were available. Going to Las Vegas instead because we won't need to rent a car to get around there.

 

[wenrob]

This is very much what is going on. The pent up demand to travel added to all of the issues that happened last year. Fleets slashed due to bankruptcy, fire in Ft. Myers that took out a lot of cars in FL, cancelling all of their new vehicle orders, manufacturers can't get chips to make new cars, the Feds flooding the economy with money raising prices on everything. That said there are still some deals to be had out there if you book far enough in advance or last minute. I've got a 5 day rental in October that I booked in March for a mid size SUV for $43/day.

Yeah, it would have helped if I’d been able to book months ago but I just wasn’t confident we’d be able to go until the last month or so.

 

[EACarlson]

It does seem to be better now that it was a month ago. I recheck my rates periodically. My October 5 day MCO trip came down $100 from where it was 4 weeks ago. If it comes down another $100 I'll start seriously considering moving my reservation from Fox to one of the companies at the terminal.

 

[howardlee2]

yikes, it looks like most weeks at MCO are low 500s even with Costco

 

[White Cat]

Anyone else try to book a car rental recently? I knew they were expensive but am shocked at the prices I am seeing.

We were looking to possibly book a trip to revisit Utah and the Grand Canyon. We are seeing rates over $1000 a week depending on the dates.

I have also priced different cities, different dates, etc. and they are all ridiculously high.

Looks like we will be traveling closer to home and taking our own car on a road trip.

Anyone else change plans as a result of the car rental prices?

Been like that for awhile now.

 

[tvguy]

Hopefully in the next couple of months things will settle down as car rental companies feel confident and are able to replenish their inventory.

Hopefully. No cars for them to buy, New car dealers are literally out of new cars here.

 

[princesscinderella]

Our trip to Yellowstone in a few weeks the car prices are crazy ($2500 for 9 days in a compact car now). I reserved our full size car back in February before everything really exploded but now my flights change due to a SWA schedule change and we have to come in the day before. I booked an overnight near the airport and I still plan to pick up the car at my scheduled time because I don’t dare make a change and lose my great pricing.

 

[mjkacmom]

Paying $800 for 2 days for a SUV in SC for college move in (no minivans available 4 months out).

 

[kanerf]

One of the reasons I am looking into the Auto-Train from DC to Sanford. It costs about $470 for the car and whatever for the seat on the train which I have seen as low as $75 one way. Sounds like a lot, but these days it can easily be over $500 for a 10 day rental in Orlando which is the normal length of time I stay. Also consider that there is no airfare involved here which normally costs me around $300. Another consideration is that I have a Kia Niro PHEV which costs me next to nothing to drive as long as I can keep it charged. I understand there are some charging stations at some locations in WDW.