Tips to Take the Sting out of 50% Higher Car Rental Prices

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When making your travel budget, don’t assume that lodging and airfare will be your biggest expense. Now, more than ever, rental cars are shaping up to be one of the biggest—and stubbornly high—aspects of people’s vacation budgets.

While airfare and lodging prices are certainly near all-time highs, rental cars are among the biggest price increases of all travel expenses. When comparing prices for July 2022 versus July 2019 (the last normal summer pre-pandemic), hotel prices are up 7 percent , according to the latest set of Consumer Price Index data released in August 2022. Airfares are up 16 percent. But rental cars are up a whopping 48 percent.

When Did Rental Car Prices Get So High?

Like most travel costs, rental car prices sharply dropped in April and May 2020 as people began calling off vacations to stay at home. But things began to turn around at the beginning of 2021 when prices began increasing every month, building up to a record high set in July 2021.