Rental-Car Shortages Frustrate Travelers
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Here's your Money Briefing for Friday, April 15th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. Widespread vaccinations and cities reopening are expected to result in a summer travel surge. But when you book your flight in your hotel room, be sure to reserve a car, too, if you can.
Why are rental-car lots empty this summer despite past inventories?
There's a shortage of rental cars, and that's putting the brakes on a lot of people's travel plans.
A lot of people are reporting that even when they have a reservation, even when they have a prepaid car, they get there and there are no cars. And so you end up in a line of people waiting for a car to come back on the lot.
So where did all the rental cars go? And what does it mean for costs? Our Middle Sea columnist Scott McCartney has been getting to the bottom of it all. He'll be here with answers and tips to help you avoid rental car frustration. That's after the break.
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So you're finally on vacation. You get off the plane, get your luggage, head to the rental car counter. But before you can start to de-stress, you might find yourself facing an empty rental car lot and extra long lines. More travelers are facing exactly this situation. So we called on our Middle Sea columnist, Scott McCartney, to help explain what's going on and what you can do about it. He joins me now. Scott, thanks for being here.
Sure. Good to be with you, JR.
So, you know, Scott, we usually see rows and rows of rental cars at the airport. And a lot of those cars were probably sitting idle while travelers were grounded last year. So why is it so hard to get one now? And where'd they all go?
Well, they went to used car lots. They got sold. Hundreds of thousands of rental cars got sold out of rental car fleets. And it really was a matter of survival for the industry. And Hertz still ended up in bankruptcy court reorganization. So what the rental car companies found was a very hot market for used cars. They got really good prices. Avis said they profitably disposed of, I think, 250,000 cars. And Hertz, a similar number. Enterprise, a whole lot of cars. But we know that in total, hundreds of thousands of cars ended up sold. And now they're having trouble replacing them. Travel is surging and it's hard to get cars.
Now, is this just at the airports where we're seeing this issue?
No, it's really throughout. Now, some of the car companies say they may have more availability at some of their city locations. So it's certainly worth checking. But even there, the inventory is tight and people are realizing that that's an option. And it's all over. It's not just the popular destinations either. I looked at, you know, Memphis and Houston and others. Plenty of people going to Houston to see family, but not necessarily as a vacation destination. And business travel is way down. And yet, I looked, you know, a couple days out, there were no cars available in Houston. So it's tight everywhere.
And so how is this affecting the price of renting the cars that are available?
Price has gone way up in many locations, and people are kind of shocked.
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