Rental Car Shortage Causing Rates to Skyrocket Across the U.S.

If you were thinking about renting a car this Memorial Day weekend or anytime soon for a little traveling, here's a big heads up for you. Rental cars are scarce and when you can find one, the rate could be up to triple what you're used to paying in some cases.

A Massechessets couple who reserved a rental car to take on their honeymoon recently got quite a shock when they were told by the rental company that the price would be three times what they initially reserved it for according to WDSU.com.

Why would that happen? They had a reservation for the vehicle at the agreed-upon price, so why did the price suddenly shoot up so unexpectedly?

Why Are Rental Cars So Expensive?

According to consumerreports.org, it's because of a boom in demand coupled with rental companies not being able to supply enough vehicles to meet that demand.

With everyone beginning to come out of quarantine, they're looking to get back out on the road and finally have a vacation. Travel is up 60% from a year ago according to AAA.

The other contributing factor is the whole global chip shortage that has crimped auto production. Many rental companies had to sell off some of their rental inventory throughout the pandemic to stay afloat. Obviously, car rental companies couldn't have predicted not being able to buy more inventory when demand finally rose again.

One place where the car rental apocalypse is causing a serious issue is Destin. Folks are flying into Destin and once they get there they can't get a rental car so they can get to their hotel. Sure, there are always cabs or Ubers but Destin isn't a huge city, therefore those types of services aren't as readily available as in larger cities.

In some cases, it's being reported people are renting U-Haul trucks and vans to use for transportation.

All hope may not be lost though! Consumerreports.org has some great tips and other ideas that may hopefully be able to help you out.