Quiet Expected After Rash of one-way Rentals

Quiet Expected After Rash of one-way Rentals

The car rental industry was overwhelmed with a demand for one-way rentals in the wake of the Sept. 11 disaster, but the rush of business was expected to be followed by an ominous quiet in the days to come. Many stranded airline passengers attempted to rent a car to get home, but at some locations the firms quickly ran out of cars. Barbara Conell, manager and vice president at Alvensa Travel Related Services in Washington, D.C., said that one group of corporate travelers stuck in Las Vegas were unable to rent a car. They rented a U-Haul and drove to Grand Junction, Colo., where they hoped to have better luck—only to find there were no cars. Instead, the group rented a mini-van for the long drive back to the East Coast.

A National Car Rental spokesperson said the firm was averaging three to five times more one-way rentals than during normal times. At Las Vegas and Charleston, S.C., where a number of flights were diverted, the number of one-way requests was 10 times greater. For those stuck with rental agreements at the time of the disaster, all the companies were waiving the one-way fees. But even after the immediate crisis, several firms were giving travelers a break on one-way rentals, which are vastly more expensive than rentals returned to the point of pick-up. Avis Rent A Car System has increased the availability of one-way rentals and reduced the rate at most locations for rentals through Oct. 15. Alamo introduced a special $49.95 per day rate on one-ways throughout the United States, with no drop-off fees. The rate is valid through Oct. 5. Budget Rental Group is offering one-way rentals for intermediate or full-size cars from corporate and downtown locations—not airports, with the exception of New York's Islip, JFK and LaGuardia—starting at $29.99 per day through Nov. 14. Budget's promotional rentals must be booked by Oct. 1. However, the drastic fall-off in air travel also is resulting in numerous cancellations.

"Everyone's pretty worried about the impact on travel in general. It's already been a tough year," said Thrifty Car Rental spokesman Chris Payne. "We're coming in with a record number of transactions for the year, but the rates are so low it's hard to be profitable. The opinion here is, 'Let's ride it out.' Our executives think that at some point a level of normalcy will return." Even though travelers' reluctance to fly might result in them choosing a rental car instead, the slight uptick in rentals would pale in comparison to the expected loss of airport business, which is the mainstay of the industry, he added.