Are car rental companies ripping us off?

We normally go to Florida for four weeks twice a year and rent a seven-seater minivan carrying a couple of bicycles. With hopes of making it back there this autumn, I began looking at rental costs and was shocked. Prepandemic, we would have paid around £1,000 for a late September rental with unlimited mileage and supplementary liability insurance of $1 million – vital for UK drivers in the United States.

Now we are being asked to stump up at least £3,300. The rise isn’t restricted to larger vehicles, either. My son normally pays around £1,000 for a mid-size car during the school summer holidays but he is being quoted £1,750 for this August. Are we being ripped off?

– Jevan Lees

A

When Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in May 2020, it sent shock waves through an industry battered by the pandemic. The company has now been rescued by new investment, but it has led car rental companies to take care to match supply with demand. This caution, coupled with supply problems limiting new car production, has caused rental rates to rise sharply – though they do seem to be coming down slowly as lockdowns ease.

Mr Lees sent me a set of quotations obtained from car rental companies at the beginning of June, for a 34-day rental of a seven-seater Chrysler Pacifica from Orlando Airport. Hertz was charging £5,000 for the rental, including unlimited mileage and full insurance, while Avis’s quote came in at £3,295 for a similar car.

When I checked a month later, Hertz had reduced its rate to £4,641 while Avis remained the same. Holiday Autos, which offers cars from a number of different rental companies in the US, says it believes there will be a slow return to “recognisable figures” but it’s impossible to give a timescale for this. My feeling is that rates won’t fall significantly until next summer.

Flexibility is key; most rentals can be cancelled up to 24 hours before pickup. Holiday Autos also says being flexible over pickup location can pay. As ever, it’s important to shop around for the best deal. Sixt is offering a 34-day rental of a seven-seater GMC Acadia for a more reasonable £2,318, though it has a free mileage limit of 2,426 for the hire. Similarly, there is a wide price spread for smaller cars. A week’s rental of a midsize saloon through Holiday Autos costs £465 with Sixt, £529 with Dollar and £652 with National from Orlando International Airport.

Feel the freedom! – but shop around, compare prices and be flexible about pick-up locations if you want to be the one in the driving seat