Car Rental Rates Continue Strong Year-Over-Year Results in January
In the monthly 6-city survey, Boston and Chicago continued to have double digit year-over-year increases and only Seattle had a small decrease from last year.
by Staff
February 5, 2013
(Click to enlarge.) 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.
2 min to read
(Click to enlarge.) 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.
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 Feb. 4. 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.
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Please note that some extraneous data was inadvertently included in the last four months of surveys. Results for September through December 2012 have been revised, although only the December revision was significant.
The strong year-over-year results that we saw in November and December continued into January. While not as strong as December, the January 2013 increase of $6.27 over the previous year is still an impressive result.
Boston and Chicago continued to have double digit year-over-year increases and only Seattle had a small decrease from last year. The year-to-comparisons of Jun 2012 through January 2013 is available below.
Year-to-Year Comparisons
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
BOS
(8.65)
(16.74)
(0.21)
1.14
1.52
10.11
24.44
12.32
MIA
(25.58)
(24.27)
(11.98)
(6.02)
(9.79)
(7.28)
11.67
5.74
ORD
0.11
(2.86)
22.96
6.24
10.64
28.72
37.24
12.14
HOU
(4.75)
(5.01)
(6.54)
(9.46)
(4.50)
(2.88)
2.88
(2.76)
SEA
(20.34)
(23.25)
(22.59)
(2.29)
0.53
7.10
19.31
4.90
LAX
(14.32)
1.90
(7.87)
(5.50)
(7.91)
4.11
9.64
5.29
6-City Avg.*
(12.25)
(11.71)
(4.37)
(2.65)
(1.58)
6.65
17.53
6.27
*This is the total 6-city average compared year-over-year, not the average difference of each month.
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.
LOR overall continues to trend downward, but ongoing market and economic conditions could affect future results while the industry deals with staffing and productivity challenges.
West Coast disasters pose unique challenges and liabilities for rental fleet operators, who are advised to take steps tailored to their specific situations.
Angry car renters are storming social media, the mainstream media, and online ratings platforms to complain about charges they claim are either unfounded or excessive.
