Wherever you look, it’s the strangest: Recessed industries are trying to acquire more customers by cutting their prices; Take your pick: hotel, plane and cruise rates – all are open to negotiating discounts. All that are, except car rental companies. When they discover a recession and people can’t afford their services, their first thought seems to be, “Let’s raise our rental car prices! That will teach them to come to us.” Last year in the spring, putting your name up for a seven-day hatchback rental, booked a week in advance, would normally cost you about $350, and that’s nearly double what it was the year before. Within the next June, prices went up another $10. Nobody looks to realize what is happening on earth. With the economy collapsing and job losses, why doesn’t it seem to be coming to the car rental industry?

The answer is that the car rental business has been preparing for this eventuality and has been winding down for now. They have been selling their fleets in the applied car market; If there aren’t enough cars to lease across the country, it goes without saying that drives up prices, a situation that suits these guys very well. And they’re not buying new cars either; For all the money you’re paying, you’re typically getting a car that has about 40,000 miles on the clock. And you’re getting a car that’s about a year old on average (it used to be that they weren’t older than six months to nine months).

This introduces a small imbalance in your travel plans. In the airline market and in the hotel sector, where it is not so fast to increase or reduce capacity, they find themselves with so many vacant seats and free rooms that they need to let them go at full speed. low prices. You can walk into the airport about 20 minutes before your flight and still get a good deal, or go to a hotel after you get your flight and ask at the desk for the room, and even now not get stuck. . The next morning, when you need to have that rental car, you better have thought about it and made your reservation about a month in advance, if you don’t want your savings on hotels and flights to run out and then some. In case you get a car, that is. Any holiday that comes around, take Independence Day, in case you don’t have your reservation by May, you almost certainly won’t even get a car, no matter what car rental prices you’re willing to spend.

So if this is how they keep company, where do we go for alternatives? A good way would be to get to the city from the airport on your own (perhaps using the free transfer offered by the hotel) and then rent a car within the city. Granted, that could save you something like 40%. The longer you have to keep the car, the greater your savings will be. And what’s more, with everyone craving any fuel-efficient compact or subcompact, or maybe even a Prius, the demand for larger sedans isn’t what it used to be. So interestingly, the bigger the car you rent, the less expensive it will be. And while you already are, why not choose a small car rental agency instead of national chains like Hertz or Thrifty? In fact, if you select a website like PriceLine, they’ll show you the cost you need to spend first (and ask you to spend it), and only then give you the name of their rental agency. If you ever don’t mind renting from a not-so-important agency, you’ll get really favorable car rental prices.

However, one of the ideal methods is to use virtual coupons for the lowest possible car rental prices. Try googling coupon codes and see what you get. It is also possible to go to CouponWinner; or use your airline’s rental car company; you will almost certainly save 20% on car rental prices.