February Continues Strong Rate Trend
February, 2013 continued the trend of the previous three months, with a 6-city average rate quote $5.32 higher than a year ago.


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.
February, 2013 continued the trend of the previous three months, with a 6-city average rate quote $5.32 higher than a year ago. The year-over-year increase was smaller than January, but it was pulled down by the $14 decrease in Houston. Houston’s rates for February through May, 2012 were extraordinarily high and are now back to more normal levels. The other five cities’ year-over-year increase averaged more than $9 – a very respectable increase indeed.
Boston and Los Angeles were the two lowest average quotes, but their increases were both double digit and the highest of the six cities. Chicago continues to have the highest quotes.
For an Auto Focus blog on a pricing analysis based on the public companies' full-year and fourth quarter conference calls, click here.
Year-to-Year Comparisons
May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BOS | (5.12) | (8.65) | (16.74) | (0.21) | 1.14 | 1.52 | 10.11 | 24.44 | 12.32 | 10.52 |
MIA | (12.15) | (25.58) | (24.27) | (11.98) | (6.02) | (9.79) | (7.28) | 11.67 | 5.74 | 8.24 |
ORD | 15.22 | 0.11 | (2.86) | 22.96 | 6.24 | 10.64 | 28.72 | 37.24 | 12.14 | 6.81 |
HOU | 18.34 | (4.75) | (5.01) | (6.54) | (9.46) | (4.50) | (2.88) | 2.88 | -2.76 | (14.00) |
SEA | (16.17) | (20.34) | (23.25) | (22.59) | (2.29) | 0.53 | 7.10 | 19.31 | 4.90 | 8.65 |
LAX | (11.44) | (14.32) | 1.90 | (7.87) | (5.50) | (7.91) | 4.11 | 9.64 | 5.29 | 11.73 |
6-City Avge* | (1.89) | (12.25) | (11.71) | (4.37) | (2.65) | (1.58) | 6.65 | 17.53 | 6.27 | 5.32 |
*This is the total 6-city average compared year-over-year, not the average difference of each month.
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