Average Car Rental Rates Increase at Year's End in 6-City Analysis

All six airport locations — Boston, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles — saw average year-over-year rate increases in December.

by Staff

January 4, 2013

Average Car Rental Rates Increase at Year's End in 6-City Analysis — Rate data provided by Rate-Highway, a provider of revenue management services for the auto rental industry. Rates are an average of aggregator/OTA rates for all vendors present in the markets listed on the date of the survey.

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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 (BOS), Miami (MIA), Chicago (ORD), Houston (HOU), Seattle (SEA) and Los Angeles (LAX). The rates are based on weekly surveys and are published monthly.

Analysis and commentary provided by Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group. This survey is dated Jan. 4. (Click on the graph below for a larger view.) There will also be a session on rates and rate management at the next Car Rental Show, April 15-16, 2013 at the Rio in Las Vegas.

Rate data provided by Rate-Highway, a provider of revenue management services for the auto rental industry. Rates are an average of aggregator/OTA rates for all vendors present in the markets listed on the date of the survey.

December 2012 rate quotes more than doubled the year-over-year average increase that was seen in November. All six cities saw increases, with Miami’s slight $2.51 increase from $57.94 to $60.45, to a $37.58 increase in Chicago. (It was a Merry Christmas in some city managers’ homes in that city!)

The 12/7 rate quotes for pickup from 12/22 to 12/28 were the highest of the month at a 6-city average of $63.25, declining every week after to the lowest of the month at a $41.09 average in the 12/28 pull. This reflects a strong Christmas travel season, followed by the normal lull in the first half of January.

ICAR Average Rate Quotes - December 2012 Averages
	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
BOS	30.47	53.51	64.05	29.58	39.25	30.53	42.61	54.99
MIA	16.04	31.34	41.24	21.46	25.50	36.33	38.73	60.45
ORD	60.23	59.81	57.60	58.06	62.46	64.17	68.57	70.41
HOU	52.69	40.42	36.89	33.86	39.99	39.80	40.94	40.31
SEA	30.37	40.33	51.55	36.26	35.08	28.73	31.13	34.14
LAX	27.12	36.99	46.23	24.76	28.26	25.27	31.59	37.19
6-City Avg.	36.16	43.73	49.59	34.00	38.42	37.47	42.26	49.58

Rate Change - 2011 from 2012
	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
BOS	(5.12)	(8.65)	(16.74)	(0.21)	1.14	1.52	9.77	23.91
MIA	(12.15)	(25.58)	(24.27)	(11.98)	(6.02)	(10.35)	(9.11)	2.51
ORD	15.22	0.11	(2.86)	22.96	6.24	10.64	29.45	37.58
HOU	18.34	(4.75)	(5.01)	(6.54)	(9.46)	(4.50)	(2.94)	2.88
SEA	(16.17)	(20.34)	(23.25)	(22.59)	(2.61)	0.27	3.34	8.88
LAX	(11.44)	(14.32)	1.90	(7.87)	(6.05)	(8.18)	1.26	3.95
6-City Avg.	(1.89)	(12.25)	(11.71)	(4.37)	(2.79)	(1.77)	5.29	13.28

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, for two- and seven-day rentals. If the arrival date is a Friday or Saturday, the two-day rate will be a weekend rate, otherwise it will be a regular rate.

You can see last month’s rental rate survey here.

Topics:Airport Rentals Tennant Group Rental Rates Rate-Highway 6-City Survey Rental Operations