August Car Rental Rates Down Year Over Year
With the exception of Chicago, rates dropped an average of $9.84 for the five other cities in the survey: Boston, Miami, Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles.
With the help of Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway Inc. and Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group, Auto Rental News publishes monthly auto rental rate surveys for six major airports in the cities of Boston, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles. The rates are based on weekly surveys.
Analysis and commentary provided by Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group. This survey is dated Sept. 2. (Click on the graph below for a larger view.)
August 2012 car rental rates, with the exception of Chicago, followed the patterns seen in June and July.
The five cities other than Chicago averaged a drop of $9.84 in the month compared to August 2011. This is in the same range as July’s drop of $11.71 and June’s $12.25. However, Chicago’s strong 2012 rates — up $22.96 over the same month last year — were enough to bring the six-city average reduction down to $4.37.
Looking at the other five cities individually, Boston was down negligibly, Houston and Los Angeles next, followed by Miami. Seattle continued to be down significantly from 2011 and was most recently down $22.59 — almost double Miami’s drop.
Year-to-Year Changes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 11 | Jun 12 | Change | Jul 11 | Jul 12 | Change | Aug 11 | Aug 12 | Change | |
BOS | 62.15 | 53.51 | (8.65) | 80.80 | 64.05 | (16.74) | 29.79 | 29.58 | (0.21) |
MIA | 56.92 | 31.34 | (25.58) | 65.51 | 41.24 | (24.27) | 33.44 | 21.46 | (11.98) |
ORD | 59.71 | 59.81 | 0.11 | 60.46 | 57.60 | (2.86) | 35.10 | 58.06 | 22.96 |
HOU | 45.17 | 40.42 | (4.75) | 41.91 | 36.89 | (5.01) | 40.40 | 33.86 | (6.54) |
SEA | 60.67 | 40.33 | (20.34) | 74.80 | 51.55 | (23.25) | 58.86 | 36.26 | (22.59) |
LAX | 51.30 | 36.99 | (14.32) | 44.33 | 46.23 | 1.90 | 32.63 | 24.76 | (7.87) |
6 City Avg. | 55.99 | 43.73 | (12.25) | 61.30 | 49.59 | (11.71) | 38.37 | 34.00 | (4.37) |
ICAR Average Rate Quotes - Monthly Averages | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan 12 | Feb 12 | Mar 12 | Apr 12 | May 12 | Jun 12 | Jul 12 | Aug 12 | |
BOS | 34.54 | 34.76 | 28.70 | 29.85 | 30.47 | 53.51 | 64.05 | 29.58 |
MIA | 37.37 | 44.16 | 49.45 | 17.76 | 16.04 | 31.34 | 41.24 | 21.46 |
ORD | 53.95 | 53.37 | 51.84 | 62.16 | 60.23 | 59.81 | 57.60 | 58.06 |
HOU | 48.96 | 65.26 | 68.62 | 64.28 | 52.69 | 40.42 | 36.89 | 33.86 |
SEA | 36.20 | 41.42 | 39.47 | 32.26 | 30.37 | 40.33 | 51.55 | 36.26 |
LAX | 32.74 | 33.22 | 34.82 | 28.15 | 27.12 | 36.99 | 46.23 | 24.76 |
6 City Avg. | 40.63 | 45.36 | 45.48 | 39.07 | 36.16 | 43.73 | 49.59 | 34.00 |
The rate quotes are for pickup 15 to 21 days out. The Aug. 10 quotes — for pickup Aug. 25 to 31 — show a significant drop, probably marking the end of the summer travel season.
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