Last Updated on Friday, 1 July 2011 07:32
Written by Admin
Friday, July 1st, 2011
Dealing with the New Trend in High Car Rental
Prices
It’s the strangest thing wherever you see – industries in
recession are trying to get more customers by paring their prices
- take your pick – hotel rates, airplanes and cruises – everyone
is open to negotiating for discounts. Everyone that is, except car
rental in calgary. When they find a recession and people
unable to afford their services, their first thought seems to be,
“Let’s raise our car rental prices! That’ll teach them to come
to us.” Last year in spring, putting your name down for a
hatchback to rent for seven days, booked a week in advance, on
average, would set you back about $350 – and that’s nearly twice
what was the previous year. In the very next month in June,
prices rose a further $10. No one seems to understand what on
earth is going on. With the economy tanking, and people losing
jobs, how come it doesn’t seem to get to the car rental industry?
The answer is, that calgary car
rental has been preparing for this eventuality, and has been
downsizing for a while now. They’ve been selling their fleets on
the used car market; if there aren’t enough cars available to
rent around the country, of course that drives the prices up, a
situation that suits these guys just fine. And they aren’t buying
new cars either; for all the money you’re paying, you’re usually
getting a car that has about 40,000 miles on the clock. And
you’re getting a car that’s about a year old on average (it used
to be that they were no more than six months to nine months old).
This introduces a little lopsidedness in your travel plans. In
the airline industry and the hotel industry, where it isn’t so
easy to put on or shed capacity, they are stuck with so many
vacant seats and free rooms that they have to let them go at
rock-bottom prices. You could waltz into the airport about 20
minutes before your flight and still get a great bargain – or
into a hotel after you get off the flight and ask at the desk for
a room, and still not have them stick it to you. The following
morning when you need that rental car, you had better have
thought about it and made your reservation about a month earlier,
if you don’t want your hotel and flight savings wiped out and
then some. If you get a car at all, that is. Any holiday that
turns up – take Independence Day – if you don’t have your
reservation in by May, you’ll probably not even get a car, no
matter what car rental prices you’re willing to pay.
So if this is how they do business, where do we go looking for
alternatives? One good way would be, to make it to town from the
airport on your own (maybe using that free transfer they offer at
the hotel) and then rent a car in the city. Right away, that
could save you something like 40%. The longer you need to keep
the car, the bigger your savings will be. And further, what with
everyone hankering for a fuel-efficient compact or subcompact, or
maybe even a Prius, the demand for larger sedans is not what it
used to be. So curiously, the larger the car your rent, the
cheaper it’s going to be. And while you’re at it, why not pick a
little car rental agency over the national chains like Hertz or
Thrifty? In fact, if you pick a site like Priceline, they will
show you the price you need to pay first (and have you pay for
it), and only then give you the name of your rental agency. If
you don’t mind renting from an agency thatisn’t big time, you’ll
get a really favorable car rental prices.
One of the best ways though, is to use virtual coupons for the
lowest possible car rental prices. Try googling for coupon codes
and see what you get. You can go to CouponWinner too; or use your
airline’s rental car partnership- you’ll probably save 20% on
your car rental prices.
