Car hire rate sky rocketed?!

[shoei]

So I was just doing a dummy booking for early next year. I have luckily already booked car hire for October because rates have literally doubled with Alamo! Tried other dates and they are consistently the same rate...

Has anyone else found this? Any idea why?

[Nelly7]

Not booked one myself, however I understand that a lot of hire companies dumped stock when COVID struck and now don’t have the stock.
Additionally due to the shortage of computer chips in the car industry, they haven’t been able to replace the stock very quickly.
Therefore cost have shot up as they can’t meet demand.

[spinone lover]

Shot up is an understatement, they are astronomical,even more so for us as we like to hire a car for at least 45 days.

[State27]

Yes and also they overbook car rentals lots of reports of people arriving at MCO to no pre booked cars available.

My neighbor works at MCO at a National car hire chain and they are prioritizing direct books over third party vouchers.

[Orlandoguy]

Prices have been crazy for the last few months, I booked my car hire for sept last Oct and it was at what I’d class as a “normal price” I tried booking for my November trip and prices have tripled , hopefully in next few months prices go down as more cars are available

[Mj1980]

I keep reading that people are getting turned away from the car hire counters because of a shortage of cars, was this just over spring break or is it a regular occurrence does anyone know.

[State27]

No it’s still happening . They overbook cars same as plane seats and certainly where my neighbor works will give priory to direct bookings over voucher ones

[shoei]

I remember the first time we went to Florida in 1998 and they had overbooked the hotel! It was packed everywhere on I drive and we (8 of us in 2 cars) had to drive around on the hunt for a hotel! I was only a child and distinctly remember it!

It would be horrendous for that to happen with car hire... particularly as we will be driving straight down the Sarasota and have specifically booked a pick up for the Kayaks!

[ashy]

I think a lot of rental companies sold their cars to get cash as there has been a huge drop in demand thanks to the pandemic.

This will probably be worse in places like Orlando because the tourism demand this year is like 20% of what it was in 2019 so there will be a lot less cars available (and bigger prices for them).

We've booked and my worry isn't the prices but rather whether a car will be available when we arrive...

[Mj1980]

British airways have replied to my email and said (As long as you have the confirmation email for your car hire, then there will be a car available for you).