Car hire price watch thread
 

I suggested on another thread it may be worth starting a car hire price thread. Prices for this year in particular are scary so I thought it might be good to have somewhere to post any glitches or good finds.

We go in September this year and the cheapest I’ve found is Virgin Atlantic. A standard SUV for 16 nights is £574. I’m considering booking to lock it in.

I have seen a deal with Hertz for a small Premium SUV but I think it’s too small for us.

Great idea I have a booking with dfch Oct 4th - 22nd full size suv for £900 hoping to get it cheaper as the same dates last year was only £500.

Good idea. We're booked for 19 nights from 19th September and an Economy with Alamo is coming up at £884 through DFCH. Last year we had an SUV booked with Alamo for 18 nights for £440!

Does anyone know why prices are so much higher this year? I would expect them to be slightly higher due to extra cleaning and lost business during the last year but these prices seem ridiculous.

No idea. I have noticed Sixt have more “normal” pricing though. They have a premium SUV for around £599 for 16 nights for our dates.

Thanks for this will keep an eye out

Absolutely horrendous prices for later this year. Thrifty Sapphire were giving good prices earlier this year, but they don’t appear on any search sites anymore

Check ebookers as they had good prices for Budget but only on certain groups. You need to be a member to get the cheaper prices.

We’ve booked with Andy for £1,150 (additional drivers and full tank of fuel with Alamo)

Full size SUV 30th July - 19th Aug (20 days).

Most we have ever paid by a long way so will keep checking for better prices.

Luckily I rebooked our April trip back at the start of Jan. Booked through dfch and have an intermediate SUV for 2 weeks 26th October - 9th November for £575. Just checked and same booking is now coming up at £900! No idea what's driving these crazy prices, never seen anything like it. One tip is to keep checking for Alamo Max options, it's a guaranteed upgrade to the next category, so you can book one below what you actually want. This is what we've got so we will actually get a standard SUV (which is currently £1200 to book) I check prices a couple of times a week, and the Max options seems very sporadic as to when it shows and when it doesn't, so defo worth keeping an eye on.

There are a combination of reasons costs are so high
Firstly a few firms, Hertz being one of them, filed for bankruptcy protection.
Because of the reduction in renters and the firms need for cash, they sold a lot of their cars.
New cars are delayed from the factories because of Covid work practices and a shortage of computer chips.
Car firms who sold in bulk at great reductions to rental firms will sell their limited output to the higher paying dealerships before the renters.
Because of bans, fears, restrictions etc. Americans are looking at road trip holidays which they think is safer than flying (covid risks etc.), therefore increasing demand for rentals.
This all means that the car rental firms are using the law of supply and demand. More people want rentals than they have, they can then charge higher prices.