Rental car has become considerably cheaper in high season

The delivery of new cars is picking up again and the rental car sector is also noticing this. Where last summer the prices of rental cars were still unprecedentedly high due to limited availability, they are now considerably lower in many destinations. Enterprise took a closer look at prices in popular destinations and is on average down 35 percent compared to last year.

Thomas Wolters, director of Enterprise Netherlands, explains that prices were two to three times higher in some places last year than before corona. This was not only due to limited availability of cars, but also to fleet shifts due to corona. “At typical holiday destinations – mainly islands – for example, under the influence of corona effects, it has been decided to move (partly) the scarce rental fleet to the mainland or elsewhere and concentrate it. Permanently or not or for an entire season, which means that some offices (temporarily ) were closed.”

Things can now return to normal on various fronts and that is reflected in the prices. By the way, not everywhere. In some places rental cars are even more expensive than last year, such as in Venice and in Sicily and Malta. Below are the average prices for one week of a compact mid-range rental car at airports of European holiday destinations. This year that is for the period Saturday July 29 to Saturday August 5, last year the period Saturday July 30 to Saturday August 6. We see the largest price decrease in Antalya (-61 percent) and you are cheapest in Malaga.