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 Oct. 2. (Click on the graph below for a larger view.)

Rate quotes have now been collected weekly since May 2011, giving five months of year-to-year comparisons.

Rates have been lower every month in 2012 compared to 2011 in the data available, but the gap has narrowed considerably in the last two months from the large differences seen in June and July. September 2012 was just $2.79 lower than last year — a considerable improvement from the $12.25 drop seen in June.

Looking at the year-to-year results in individual cities, Boston and Chicago were up in September, while Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles and Houston were all down and in the sequence named.

In absolute terms, Chicago’s more than $60/day shows considerable strength, and Houston, Boston and Seattle in the mid- to high-$30s are about where one would expect. Miami reflects the low shoulder season period, while Los Angeles is surprisingly low at under $30.

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.

See the car rental rate report for August here.