Car hire costs 2009 - What is going on?

[Mark1875]

Same place, roughly the same time every year, world in recession, things a bit tight, people not travelling? What do most car hire companies renting for the Mallorcan summer do? Put their prices up to often ridiculous prices. I have been quoted as much as over £1000 for a two week hire on a 6 seater vehicle!

Where do car hire companies think they will get bookings if this continues?

It baffles me?

 

[Sun Properties]

Just gone through the same exercise myself and discussed matter with UK car hire firms. The apparent explaination is that (worldwide) hire firms were often happy to have the odd car sitting around not on hire/earning them money however most firms are now looking to try and hire out ALL their vehicles ALL of the time so they are cutting back on their new car purchases plus they know they can get higher rentals on larger vehicles which pro-rata do not cost them a lot more to buy. So in the recession you will start seeing lesser vehicles available plus the smaller cars (Ka etc) will also be in short supply. The result is higher rental costs plus the need to book earlier.

 

[pollensa]

We're finding a big increase in car hire prices this year compared with last. I also found that quotes for this March & for April have suddenly jumped from only a few weeks ago. I kept putting off booking - my mistake!

So yes it is costing a lot this year & it pays to book as early as possible!

 

[its cd]

Just booked a berlingo from Record for last week in May

103 euros ............ started at 130 but I have 13 euros regular user discount and then 10% forum discount

I thought that was pretty reasonable and no more than previous years

Yes I will get stung for the fuel ......... but will use is as we plan to do a bit of travelling around

 

[Chemical Dave]

After reading about the car hire costs going up, I thought I better book now for our 2 weeks in May. I like to use one of the big car hire companies and tried a few comparison sites but thought they were all expensive. As we were flying out with Ryanair, ( I know ! - but easyjet and globespan were more expensive) I thought i might as well check them out. I am glad I did ! They have an arrangement with Hertz and if you book from the ryanair website you get a discount.

I managed to get an Astra for 2 weeks in May for £187. I am well pleased. Still bargains to be had if you look around.

 

[ryansclan]

That looks like a good price although last time we booked through Hertz they wanted about £12 per day extra for full 'excess' protection insurance. It might be worth checking on this because you can buy annual policies to cover these costs much cheaper.

 

[pollensa]

That looks like a good price although last time we booked through Hertz they wanted about £12 per day extra for full 'excess' protection insurance. It might be worth checking on this because you can buy annual policies to cover these costs much cheaper.

See www.puertopollensa.com/car-hire-majorca.html#insurance for annual excess cover.

 

[Chemical Dave]

Ryansclan, I checked the details again. The hire includes theft protection and collision damage waver. The optional extra is super cover which you can only buy at the airport. It is just under £17 per day if you want to take it out and eliminate the excess on the insurance. I never bother with the additional insurance myself.

 

[El Gordo]

Dave

See Pollensas post regarding Insurance4carhire for peace of mind.

 

[Chemical Dave]

Thanks Pollensa and Gordon. The annual policy price looks very good. I will probably take it up for peace of mind. If I didn't this is bound to be the year I have a mishap!

 

[Rangers1]

Hi

I booked a car in January for 2 weeks in july via Amigo autos for 304 euros car(focus estate) is wirth goldcar and now the same car is 450 euros. Always have Amigo very good on price.

 

[Mark1875]

I booked a Zafira for two weeks in August in January for 435 euros with doyouspain, its now €527.