Car rental rates during the pandemic

[jonboixxx]

Who are qeeq.com?

They changed their name from EasyRentCars a while back. They are an aggregator and are often cheaper than booking directly. Some companies esp Alamo seem to place excess capacity at cheap rates through them. I have used QEEQ often; also Autoslash and this year carrentals.com had a run of cheap rates.

 

[suze2000]

With car rental costs upwards of $120 per day, if you are in a capital city, you'd be better off in taxis/Ubers with PT to take you the longer distances.

 

[Happy Dude]

There were reports of tourists cancelling their Tassie holiday due to hire car costs. I have a friend complaining of the extortionate prices being asked for accommodation on Hamilton Island and my family baulked at the accommodation prices in Jindabyne recently which were significantly inflated compared to pre-covid.

I'm perplexed as to the need for ongoing government support of the tourism industry, such as the voucher give-away for Brisbane residents. The tap can't be turned off now.

 

[jastel]

Cairns could do with another couple hundred hire cars according to the local paper a week or so ago...then this week probably has too many as it has been raining hard all week.

The problem with most of Cairns...and more than likely other tourist hotspots...is nobody want to work anymore. There are no wait staff, cooks, chefs, cleaners, taxi drivers, boat crews etc to service the influx we had over Easter. Many workers left during covid and wont be back. Business is restricted not by lack of customers but lack of staff.

The situation is worse inland...lots of local tourists around in country towns but no backpackers to look after them. And the grey nomad rush has barely started.

 

[Flashback]

Cairns could do with another couple hundred hire cars according to the local paper a week or so ago...then this week probably has too many as it has been raining hard all week.

The problem with most of Cairns...and more than likely other tourist hotspots...is nobody want to work anymore. There are no wait staff, cooks, chefs, cleaners, taxi drivers, boat crews etc to service the influx we had over Easter. Many workers left during covid and wont be back. Business is restricted not by lack of customers but lack of staff.

The situation is worse inland...lots of local tourists around in country towns but no backpackers to look after them. And the grey nomad rush has barely started.

If the borders internationally were open maybe there would be some backpackers available to work

 

[jastel]

We know the borders are shut but it shows how much we rely on them...

So if you get bad/slack/no service blame an Aussie.

 

[jakeseven7]

Cairns could do with another couple hundred hire cars according to the local paper a week or so ago...then this week probably has too many as it has been raining hard all week.

The problem with most of Cairns...and more than likely other tourist hotspots...is nobody want to work anymore. There are no wait staff, cooks, chefs, cleaners, taxi drivers, boat crews etc to service the influx we had over Easter. Many workers left during covid and wont be back. Business is restricted not by lack of customers but lack of staff.

The situation is worse inland...lots of local tourists around in country towns but no backpackers to look after them. And the grey nomad rush has barely started.

It’s a massive massive issue in Melbourne, Sydney and SE QLD as well - no international students either, hospitality is struggling to fill shifts. It’s actually incredible. Front page of the Age the other day.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

We hired a car - Toyota Corolla in Tas for 9 days and it was $1,300. Crazy pricing. But it was a hybrid and used 4.5l for every 100km. So cheep to run.

 

[Flashback]

It’s a massive massive issue in Melbourne, Sydney and SE QLD as well - no international students either, hospitality is struggling to fill shifts. It’s actually incredible. Front page of the Age the other day.

Just like the mining boom days, most people went FIFO and left the hospitality jobs in the cities to do so.

 

[jakeseven7]

Just like the mining boom days, most people went FIFO and left the hospitality jobs in the cities to do so.

Worse apparently and zero light at end of tunnel for more staff....

It’s easy to see walk past any (good) restaurant or cafe in the eastern states and they have multiple job openings on their window, it’s all over their social etc

 

[jonboixxx]

I just booked Alamo 5 days CNS in Feb 2022 for $295, which is about what I've been paying for the last 3-4 years. At short notice though, rates have really accelerated.

 

[kookaburra75]

We hired a car - Toyota Corolla in Tas for 9 days and it was $1,300. Crazy pricing. But it was a hybrid and used 4.5l for every 100km. So cheep to run.

Back in late January, I looked at booking a Corolla for one day at the start of April (noon Sat to noon Sun) - picking up and dropping off at Hobart airport. The quote was for $324 - no insurance/LDW included. They did say there was a minimum 2 days hire period. Needless to say, we used Uber to get around.

 

[Carrots]

I just booked Alamo 5 days CNS in Feb 2022 for $295, which is about what I've been paying for the last 3-4 years. At short notice though, rates have really accelerated.

I'd forgotten about them.... just checked for Cairns in June. $1000 for 4 days with no inclusions (Mitsubishi ASX sized car). It was actually $50 cheaper to book it for 5.

Does anybody need a kidney? Might need to sell one!

 

[Peter78]

Not sure whether this is appropriate but having been born in Germany, I frequently check German websites for car rental, especially when local fares are high and for one way rentals. On the weekend, I booked a one way rental in NZ for early June, collecting in Nelson and returning in Queenstown. The booking is with Europcar (they wanted close to $NZ1,000 for the three days, mostly due to the one way fee), the website I have used several times brought that down to 167 Euro. This also includes excess free (!) insurance, the website is www.billiger-mietwagen.de!

Google Translate is your friend, I guess. Friends used it in Cairns during school holidays (early April) and they paid a third of what Europcar wanted, and the booking was with Europcar. Food for thought.

 

[eastwest101]

Just did a quick test of this theory - hire car in Canberra (Airport) 1st June - 4th June, same pickup times, so here is the official Avis .au site:



And this is the German web site you mentioned, I found some Avis cars which are in a similar class/category.




Note the price difference, no matter how bad the exchange rates on your credit card are from EUR to AUD it would seem that this sort of price discrepency seems inexplicable unless there is a large deposit or some other price component missing?

 

[OZDUCK]

For comparison I had a look on VroomVroom. They wanted $463 for a Rio from AVIS on the same dates. Reviews seem to be ok for the German site as well.

 

[jonboixxx]

Not sure whether this is appropriate but having been born in Germany, I frequently check German websites for car rental, especially when local fares are high and for one way rentals. On the weekend, I booked a one way rental in NZ for early June, collecting in Nelson and returning in Queenstown. The booking is with Europcar (they wanted close to $NZ1,000 for the three days, mostly due to the one way fee), the website I have used several times brought that down to 167 Euro. This also includes excess free (!) insurance, the website is www.billiger-mietwagen.de!

Google Translate is your friend, I guess. Friends used it in Cairns during school holidays (early April) and they paid a third of what Europcar wanted, and the booking was with Europcar. Food for thought.

Many thanks, I will definitely be checking this out. I sometimes use USA and Euro sites, with some success, especially if the starting price is unconscionable.

 

[hachoo]

This also includes excess free (!) insurance, the website is www.billiger-mietwagen.de!

Google Translate is your friend, I guess. Friends used it in Cairns during school holidays (early April) and they paid a third of what Europcar wanted, and the booking was with Europcar. Food for thought.

Thanks for the tip. I've been wanting to book a car for Tassie but really had to search and cut back on days I wanted the car because of the costs (lots are $250+ per day). Waiting for the booking to be confirmed but with europcar it works out to be about $90 per day and includes more insurances. Still got travel insurance just in case to compliment.

 

[Scarlett]

I find similar with overseas based aggregators, even one that is apparently the same company. I seem to recall one holiday checking holidayautos.com.au, <same>.co.uk, and the US-based .com website. Different rates for the same booking from all three and the differences were more than just due to the exchange rate.

 

[Tiki]

Car hire rates killed my proposed trip to Uluru. $1200ish for 1 week small SUV plus pay km over 100 km per day. We will wait until we have our own SUV and do this as a road trip. Hotel rates are exhorbitant as well. We would need to camp $47 per night so need to bring the tent.

We went to Norfolk Island instead after QF took over the route. Used Amex voucher and points for accommodation and $135 for 3 days car hire which was ample to drive around and see all the sights.