With the help of Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway Inc. and Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group, Auto Rental News will conduct weekly auto rental rate surveys for six major cities and will publish the findings in our e-newsletter the first Wednesday of each month. A more comprehensive version with an analysis and other appropriate comments will be featured in our print edition.

Rates are an average of aggregator/OTA rates for all vendors present in the six cities — Miami, Boston, Orlando, Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles — listed on the date of the survey, which is Sept. 6. These tables and graph show the average of all base rate quotes per day for an ICAR at the six airports shown for arrivals 15 to 21 days ahead of the date of the survey, and for two- and seven-day rentals. If the arrival date is a Friday or Saturday, the two-day rate is considered a weekend rate, otherwise it is considered a regular rate.

The tables and chart show the early results of the month, which we must admit are quite startling. The combination of a shortage of vehicles and  stronger-than-anticipated demand has resulted in sharp peaks and valleys.

Of particular note are the sharp increases in early June in most cities and the equally sharp falloffs in some but not all cities in August. Rates recovered somewhat Aug. 26 and Sept. 2, but are nowhere near the June and July rates.

Rates in Seattle and Boston were particularly volatile, whereas Houston and Los Angeles rates were comparatively stable.

For the first report, click here.