With the help of Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group and Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway Inc., we are conducting rate surveys on a weekly basis and providing analysis and comments where appropriate. We publish this monthly recap in our electronic edition and more comprehensive looks in the print editions.

The six-city rate quote monthly average continued its strong performance through August, now up for nine of the last 10 months.

The rate surveys for August 23 and 30 include rental car pickups from September 7th to 13th and 14th to 20th respectively — well past Labor Day, the traditional end of the strong summer season in most markets. These two weeks are up $11.53 and $8.84.

This bodes well for the fall since the mix is changing from leisure to business travel, and the rates are still holding.

Boston’s rate quotes were down from the lofty heights seen in July, but Chicago, Houston and Seattle continued strong performances. Only Los Angeles has failed to see substantial increases in the past year.