Transport: Wanna Rent a Car?

Online renting is nothing new for the car rental industry – major car hire companies were quick to spot the potential of the web in generating business and have been operating online for many years. The internet has since enabled a small number of car rental companies to strengthen their position as market leaders, by investing heavily in sophisticated e-commerce sites and powerful online marketing tools. Indeed, the European car rental industry – worth billions of euros – is n...

Tourism-review.com discussed the latest trends in the car rental industry worldwide with the Euromonitor International industry analyst Angelo Rossini. As many other industries, the car rental sector without doubt has been affected by the current economic downturn. How seriously has the industry been hit? In what ways? The current economic downturn has severely affected the car rental sector with all main industry players reporting negative results for the first two quarters of 2009. The econo...

The price of a rental car is very unlikely to drop next year despite the drop in rental days this year. The normal story entails a drop in car rentals per day leads to a drop in the cost of hire cars. Many companies that use fleet cars usually use this time of year to hedge their bets and see what other providers can offer them in the way of a better deal. This year and next seems to be a little different though as the hire car business is not dropping prices. They have stayed steady now for the...

Rental car companies large and small grapple with tight lending, lower demand and two supplier bankruptcies. Is the industry heading in the right direction? The car rental industry is in the midst of an unprecedented maelstrom. Just as the industry survived the thrashing it took in the used car market last year, the recession hit and weakened travel and rental car demand. With the collapse of the securitization and bond markets and lenders pulling back, the major rental companies down to the in...