CTNYC

I've been renting a car for the weekend almost weekly since January 2014, and it has only been ~$20/day all in for a regular car (Economy - FCAR) per weekend day. However, lately I've noticed the prices have gone up. Last weekend, I ended up paying $40/day all in, and next weekend is around $53/day all in, and the week after that is ~$78/day all in... I realize these are bargains compared to NYC rates, but it is far more than the $20 all I've been paying for the last 3 and 1/2 months... Anyone know if there was a promo that expired or anything else?

There has even been reports of cars being $10,000/day to rent (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz...-day-rent.html)

jvanderster

Confirmed: Holland: want to rent a car form New York JFK: last week eur 1700, now eur 1925 I had to wait for new credit card...

CTNYC

I'm hoping that Hertz is just trying to update their website or something and that they raised prices to make sure there aren't a thousand people snatching up rates crazy low... But something tells me that these higher rates are here to stay... until Hertz starts losing business...

HLEWorker

Not sure what your area looks like, but for our area it's spring break, which has driven rates up considerably. Where full sizes would normally be in the $200/wk range, they're currently closer to $485/wk.

Doesn't even have to be your town specifically. If the area is sharing a pool of cars, and one town's vacation starts March 21st, another's March 28th, and another's April 4th, rates will go up because of the much higher than average influx of 10 day vehicle rentals as opposed to seven (leave on a Friday, return on the next Sunday night when your vacation is over).

Prices go up incrementally each week because anticipated availability isn't there. Cars from March 21st that any other time of the year would be back the 28th are now coming back the 31st. It complicates things, and with a higher than average number of reservations at most HLEs that they struggle to get cars for, makes the rates climb.

CTNYC

That's a good point... As far as I know, most of the DC area schools (colleges) had it in the last 2 weeks or so. I've looked past the spring break area and summer as well (into Sept/Oct) and still are around the $40-$45/day weekend rate I paid last weekend...

CTNYC

Just wanted to report that many airports (more than what I saw previously) have good weekend rates again...

Checked the following airport locations for a 5/9 - 5/12 res and got rates between $12 and $27 per weekend day

-DCA
-BDL
-JFK
-PHL
-BWI
-PVD

I'm sure there are many more, but those are the locations that I have checked... Also, remember that there are drive out of Florida rates for ~$10/day w/ RQ ICFLT1 until the end of May

jason87

For some reason at LAX the rest of the cars have gone up £30 or so but the convertible has come down over £150, what reason could this be? its for June which isnt exactly winter.

BigJC

Some of the rates I've been getting with Hertz are the lowest I've ever seen and I've been with them for about 15 years. I've got an upcoming weekend rental at PHX for a Camaro SS for $41/day (pre-paid, pay later rate was $52). I just rented a full size last month @ KOA for a base rate of $86/week. It pays to keep checking their rates after you reserve- when I made the original booking for KOA in October I had a Jeep for $550/wk because that was about fifty dollars less than a full size at the time!!!

N1120A

I'd imagine June Gloom factors into that. Doesn't get sunny in coastal California (basically all 900 miles of it) until after about noon in June.

jason87

what would DTLA and around the valley be like? the same?

GW McLintock

Here in SLC rates seem to be up $5 on average since last year. I think this isn't actually because of rates, but rather a new concession fee of sorts.

SLCIA is trying to build a new terminal. I spoke with the finance folks the other day and they keep telling me the rental car gods have been very good to them. And people wonder where they are when they need their upgrades

-J.

CalItalian

Rates are definitely up. Consolidation, only 3 car rental companies really now, and in many markets tourism as well as business travel are up are big factors. I had a bunch of low priced weekly reservations I made last year when the Hertz AAA site had the same rate nationwide (including New York City area) but my last one is coming due in early May. This year, my lowball reservations are up 50%, rates I recently caught on the AAA Hertz site but are still much better than what is on Hertz.com (plus coupon - PC - values are down...although the recent 20% off Hertz AAA coupon can be a good one). For example, I reserved a $25 daily rate for LAX over July 4th a couple of weeks ago on the Hertz AAA site but it's currently $78.49 per day ($65.04 AAA). I've never seen weekend rates that high at LAX (except Christmas/New Years).

You have to on a daily basis check rates to see if they go up or down (especially check on Monday & Tuesday). Play with the pick-up times, too, as rates can vary by the time of day (something I have seen for ages on Alamo.com but more frequently lately for Hertz rates).

I already have my reservations in for Thanksgiving and Christmas and although they are higher than last year, they're low compared to what I expect them to be (and have already gone up substantially since I caught the lower rates at LAX for those time periods a few weeks ago).