Auto Rental News publishes monthly auto rental rate surveys based on rate quotes collated by Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway Inc. and analysis by Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group. The following report is based on weekly rate surveys of six major airports in Western Europe. All quotes have been converted to U.S. dollars and do not include fees and taxes.

This survey is dated April 17, 2012 (click to enlarge table).

The rates pulled are from daily rate quotes for a two-day rental for every Tuesday and Thursday from now until the end of 2012. This yields between eight and 10 quotes per month, which are averaged to give us an average quote for each month at each airport. The vehicle examined is a compact car, manual transmission, with air (CCMR), the most common rental vehicle size in this part of the world.

There is a very large difference between cities, with rates in Paris (CDG) almost twice those in Dublin (DUB) and London (LHR) over the nine-month period.

Most cities have remarkably stable rates over the months surveyed; however, Dublin, and to a lesser extent Madrid (MAD), show significant seasonal variation more typical of the American market.

In the months ahead, we will look at how these rate quotes in six major Western Europe cities have held up. Will they go up, down or stay more or less the same as we get closer to the actual pickup date? We shall see.

For March's U.S. car rental rate survey, click here.