Rental car prices in 2022

Rental car prices in some markets are exorbitant. Its a function of the COVID pandemic. Rental car companies sold off much of their fleet and its been difficult for them to build it back up. I've been finding similar. Prices dropping as the date gets closer, I think the companies price what they think they can get, and as the dates get closer, they may (or may not) find that they have to drop the prices. I travel to Hawaii frequently since my daughter goes to graduate school there. Rates are about $100/day and for the most part, the companies are getting it. For my last trip, I decided that I'd only rent for 4 of the 12 days, over a weekend when my daughter would have more time. As I got closer to the trip, they dropped enough that I decided it was close to a wash to just rent for the entire time. I think it came down to about $55/day. Turo has become very popular in Hawaii, as are rentals from Uhaul.

For Europe, it really varies by country. Initially when I priced out a car for Poland, we decided it was too high. A few weeks later when we'd developed an itinerary for train travel, prices dropped, but for us we just stayed with the train travel. I've been pricing for Sicily in the spring and I wouldn't call the rates reasonable, but they are considerably better than Hawaii.

Car rental prices in Portugal are always much more expensive during school holidays and the summer. So looking 2 weeks from now is very low season. April is Easter holiday time - I would expect prices to be higher then. Hiring a car on 31 March is usually cheaper than taking it 1 April.

There is a car hire shortage in much of Europe, as many companies disposed of many of their vehicles during lockdowns. Prices have therefore rocketed since last year. I have hired a car for our trip to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands in January/February. We booked it months ago at a daily rate double that of last year. We have recently extended our trip for another 7 nights and it has worked out €150 cheaper to make a second booking than to cancel and rebook for the whole 32 days (free cancellation policy).

Friends have booked a car for June in Fuerteventura and their daily rate is much lower than we are paying in January, so there it pays to book early.

I was looking at Portugal in April 2020 before the pandemic. I booked one-way rental from Europcar for like $250, for 6 days. No drop off fee.

In April 2022, it would be close to $1000 all-in, so 3-4 times the price and depending on the booking engine and agency, you'd see drop-off fees over 100 Euros.

But yeah, prices are better in March and even better in January.

I've also looked at Hawaii and was considering 5 days each on two different islands. For February, prices are in the $150-200 range and don't forget many places tack on parking fees on top.

I went to Europe 3 times this summer and in 2 of the 3 cases, rental rates were higher than pre-pandemic but not a lot higher.

I didn't think Europe was as impacted by low rental car inventory as the US. Of course now with the chip shortage, there's a shortage of new cars, which may be impacting rental agencies around the world.

Also, I suppose one could book for April and beyond now and book lower rates later and cancel the original bookings. But that means paying $1000 or more for some of the longer bookings upfront.

I booked a rental for Spain in May 2022 for 23 days and it was 608€. Insurance will be extra. I rented through Costco and the car rental company is Enterprise. Pickup and drop off are Madrid’s airport.

Are the rentals online through costco.com?

Costco Travel. From the main Costco site, click on travel, or use the below link.

https://www.costcotravel.com/Rental-Cars

Yes, it seems like most places in Europe are far better than Hawaii. I was just reading a news report and Hawaii is easily one of the most costly rental car markets in the world. The other thing, the taxes and fees on the rental cars in Hawaii are CRAZY high. I've tried pricing a car in the city over the airport and the taxes and fees are high there as well.

I have been incredibly frustrated by the rental car prices and beyond looking at options like Turo, perhaps the answer is a vacation where you can use public transportation. That was one of the reasons why we looked at something other than Portugal for this spring. We have done a number of trips in Europe without a rental car.

I have as well, including taking many long train trips.

But pandemic times may require changing that strategy, to minimize potential exposure from strangers.

Spending hours in a train car full of strangers is probably not the best idea these days.

aghast11 , I hear you. For the first year of so of the pandemic, we traveled domestically. We drove our own car and camped, bringing as much of our necessities as possible.

We traveled to Poland in September, after the first crowded 2nd class train ride, we changed to reserving 1st class seats. It wasn't really our style, but it was a way to reduce our exposure.

Seems that you can only book a manual transmission (was looking at Spain and France options) through Costco's connection.

I've been trolling prices for a while now, not traveling (HOPEFUL) until end of April through mid-June 2022. Prices change practically daily, even the rate for adding on an extra driver. I'm finding the best prices on Europcar

Better basic price now for Europcar through Expedia but website won't let me add an additional driver, etc. at time of booking. So if I add the driver on when I pick up the car, am I going to be charged some crazy high amount?????

one more comment - the cost to add an extra driver for the time period we need a car is more than the cost of renting a second car! We have enough free parking at our accommodation to make me consider renting one car in my name and a second in hubby's. Seems ridiculous but we could drive "my" car the times I want to drive, drive "his" car the times he wants to drive. We'd be saving somewhere around $450!!!!

Wow Costco - learned something! Thanks. It seems cheaper but I have to look at insurance. June 3- 9

The new normal going forward may never match our normal from the past. We are just back from our traditional TG in Hawaii. Didn't go last year. Nearly everything was at least double and some times triple what we paid two years ago. A car rental, if available, was well past the hundred dollar mark. I think it take at least another 18 month before the new normal is fully established. Unless absolutely critical I would not rental car till 23.

Anybody make bookings recently?

The pattern still seems to hold, the quotations further out are higher than those say in a week or two.

I know reservations are refundable but I wonder if they will balk if you book something and then canceled later only to re-book at lower price.

aghast11--Yes, we were in Iceland a week ago and booked a car for one day, the day before we wanted it. It ran us $295 for a one day rental of a Toyota RAV 4. This past August we were in Iceland as well and rented a Land Cruiser for 11 days and it ran right at $3000.

I hope this is a short blip. I'm looking at $1300 for an 11 day rental in England in September. No matter if I try booking direct or via one of the multiple online agencies such as Expedia, prices are ridiculous. I've booked with the 'pay later' option and hope prices change as we get closer to the date.

We were supposed to leave for San Diego tomorrow but had cancelled a month ago, and a 7 day rental was going to be over $700.

Allan, try different dates for the same duration on the same search engines.

See if you get lower price for a rental of the same length next week vs. several months out.

I've never seen this pattern before but the quotes for rentals further out are much higher.

That wasn't the case last year either.

Don't forget to either clear your cookies or search incognito mode (and possibly disable location tracking) ... the less data they know about your search the better price you may get ... and if you use a VPN or other location masking trick, you may get the locals price instead of the tourista price.

A few years ago, I checked prices on a UK car rental agency.

There were big differences in prices if you entered US as your residence vs. the UK.

No way to actually book as if you live in the UK because obviously you have to provide a billing address.

Aghast11, for rental in the UK I used the UK AutoEurope site and prices are were much lower than using the US site. Don't know why. I entered my US address and said I was a US citizen.

I just rented a car for 4 days in Germany through Auto Europe for a mid-May trip, and the cost is only $130 for all-inclusive (except the airport p/u fee). And that is for almost 3 months out.

I did check to see if I could pick up and drop off in the city (Münster) instead of Münster airport, but that was going to drastically increase the cost (it went from $130 up to $340). Have you checked picking up at the airport vs. in town to see if there is a cost difference?

I have but you usually get more choices at the airport, especially if you're going to do a one-way rental and especially if you're going to rent an automatic.

I just rented an 8-day, taking from Lisbon airport and returning at Faro airport, paid about $950. This is an automatic and compact size, so that you could at least get a large suitcase in the trunk, keep it out of view. For mid April.

On Autoeurope, the price was over $1000, in fact close to $1100 IIRC. But if I searched for the same 8-day, one-way rental say within a month from now, the price was like $350. Price seemed to flip around the 5-6 week out mark.

The other thing is, there are a number of Portguese rental companies and their prices are really low, often half what the international agencies charge.

I asked on TA if anyone rented with them but no responses.

I'm going to check a month out and see if the prices change. Then I will cancel the existing reservation and rebook.

Re Katheryne's comment about checking the UK AutoEurope website versus the US site: hadn't thought trying that but just did it and it resulted in a cost saving of over $400 for me for a 2 week rental in June. Great advice.

I just tried the UK AutoEurope site.

So their search results includes a lot of Portuguese rental agencies which have lower review ratings than international agencies like Sixt.

The Sixt price is about what I paid, when you convert UK Sterling price to USD.

The Drive on Holiday price is lower by almost $200.

But it's an agency unfamiliar to Americans so hard to say if they are as reliable or trustworthy as the bigger brand names?

When prices in one place get high, I often will switch to Plan B and go elsewhere that's cheaper.

It's the same way with rental cars. Although we prefer to drive, trains are an option. Even ride sharing is an option. And European buses are often cheaper than trains and much more comfortable. But I'm only good for 4 hours on either.

Unfortunately the availability of automobiles is a worldwide issue in 2022. Electronics and component shortages due to the Pandemic have less available cars available to rent everywhere. And supply and demand gets to be more of an issue.

Just time to roll with the flow.

I am planning a trip to Galicia & Asturias in July, and all major rental agencies quoted about €500/week.
I found a local agency at €320 or so, which is already more reasonable, and I'll see how it goes! I do speak and write Spanish so I'm not too worried if something happens.
And I plan to check the rates of the big-names again in April or so.

Aghast11, for rentals in Portugal try https://www.autoeurope.eu/car-rental-portugal/ instead of the UK autoeurope website. Your quote will probably be in euros.

We don't have any trips on the books just yet, but we just returned from Iceland again.

Just this last August, we had a car for 11 days and it was right at about $3000 US dollars. We were there again just the other week and rented a car for a day, booking just one day ahead, and it was $295 for the day.

Our next trip there we are wanting to do a camper van. That won't save much money at all, but will be a fun experience.

Katheryne, I got 850 Euros at Sixt for a VW Golf, including one-way fee.

So about the same as the $950 I've booked for so far.

Wow, here's a new wrinkle about car rentals in Europe.

I booked a flight to Nice and out of Marseille in June.

Plan was to fly into Corsica for about a week.

Well I find out that there are all kinds of complaints on TA and Google reviews about car agencies forcing electric cars on people.

There are some accounts that people are given EVs and when they booked they didn't choose EV but the T&C allow them to substitute any car.

I just searched Sixt and they only show EV options.

Problem is these EVs have short ranges -- Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500e and Peugeot 208 electric.

Not a good choice for driving long distances between cities in mountainous roads. One TA person complained that they'd have to go back to the airport and get charging at the rental agency. Another complained of paying 7 Euro an hour and after a session, only having 10 miles or range.

Hotels would have to let you hook up to charge, even if they had outlets outside.

I may not be able to go to Corsica if it's a widespread issue.

Dont you think the increase in price looking out several months is demand related? Summer being more expensive for everything? (which is not related to why the price is higher this summer has 2020 which I suspect is related to the sell-off Jules mentioned maybe)

Your case maybe localized to that location. I checked the dates for my Span trip, and there were plenty of non EV vehicles listed. There is a reality that within about 10 years, all rentals in Europe will be EVs.

Well right now, the EVs they have may get 120 miles in best conditions.

You're running AC or heat and you're climbing hilly roads.

Then you have to deal with whether small hotels in small towns have any kind of way for you to charge the car overnight.

There are some accounts that people are given EVs and when they booked
they didn't choose EV but the T&C allow them to substitute any car. I
just searched Sixt and they only show EV options. Problem is these EVs
have short ranges -- Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500e and Peugeot 208 electric.

Those cars have real world ranges between 200 and 300 km. Corsica is around 180 km north to south. What is the problem?

Not a good choice for driving long distances between cities in
mountainous roads.

Actually, electric cars are excellent for mountainous roads.

Where do you charge them?

Does Corsica have a lot of super chargers?

Doubt it's like Norway.

At a charging station. You can look up Corsica here: https://chargemap.com/map