Thanks, Rob and Jeff for highlighting this issue for your readers. The situation is quite critical. At AutoSlash we’re turning away customers because there is simply no availability. Even when we can find availability, prices are sky-high (like over $100 per day in some cases for a basic car).
The problem is most acute when booking for a pickup in the next couple of weeks on Maui and Big Island, although Honolulu doesn’t seem nearly as bad–yet. Kauai on the other hand still seems to be OK, but as BoH has reported, that’s probably a case of the island being a bit behind in terms of sorting out their Cv-19 travel regs and requirements.
I will share one trick with your readers that our team figured out. If you search for a rental and none are available, try extending your return date. Now I don’t mean that you should actually fly out later–I just mean keep adding days to your rental until availability starts to show. The reason is that you can book say a 9-day rental but return after 7 days and usually get credit for returning early. It still may be an expensive proposition, but at least you can get a car. Being on a beautiful Hawaiian island without any way to explore it is a special form of torture IMHO, so I for one wouldn’t want to plan a trip without a rental. Hopefully, this helps someone.
The other more obvious ‘trick’ is simply to book as early as possible. Be sure to book a pay-later rate in case your plans change as you don’t want to be locked in. You can also track the price of your rental with AutoSlash so you can re-book when prices drop.
Forbes recently called attention to this ‘Car Rental Apocalypse’ (it’s not just a Hawaii thing):
Lucky Owl car rental on Oahu is awesome!! They are the old “rent-a-wreck” company, and honestly have always provided us with solid cars. Most are a few years old, but they’ve all been trouble free!! And, locally owned!! They will pick you up from the airport and back again as well. We found they are usually half of the “big guys'” rates!!
Aloha,
I have used Discount Hawaii Car Rental several times. I reserve my desired vehicle as soon as I know our travel dates then check about once a month, if the price goes down I reserve at the lower price and cancel the higher priced reservation. This has saved me quite a bit of money. Picking the vehicle up at the airport isn’t always the cheapest way to go. In 2017 I waited until the following day of our arrival, picked up in Waikiki and save about a thousand dollars.
Happy Travels!
Aloha Kakou…just a note, make your reservation as early as possible and check back frequently for changes. The prices vary day to day, and hr to hr. There’s a lot of competition. Make your reservation with no upfront fees and cancel/change at anytime if the rates go down.
Do I remember seeing a story with hundreds and hundreds of rental cars being moved off the islands and back to the mainland? That could certainly account for part of the supply problem…
On Maui, you need to know about Kihei Rent-a-Car. Located in South Kihei away from airport but with free shuttle service, they offer the best of rates on the island (IMO). And they differentiate between winter (Dec 15 to Mar 31) and summer, with winter rates as low as $255 a week, and summer rates starting at $170 per week, both for a Nissan Sentra (their most popular, but other types are available (Jeep, van, and several brands of discount cars. It’s a family owned business so thay certainly would appreciate your support and recommendations.
Good timing with this article. I have always found Hawaii car rental among the cheapest in the nation (20 years of Hawaii travel). I have been researching a 13 day Kauai Car Rental. $2,000!!! What is going on here? My guess is that they still haven’t taken all the cars out of long term covid storage. Maybe rates will be adjusted when they do? BOH, can you confirm 1,000’s of cars are still parked off site? I saw the sites a few months back.
So just like hotel rooms, tourists are now being gouged for car rentals. And just as Airbnb/VRBO massively undercut hotel rooms in Hawaii, Turo and similar companies will do it with car rental agencies.
Give it a few months and these car rental companies will be crying to the state for regulation on Turo/etc to protect their bloated profits, instead of really attempting to reduce their costs.
I always use Turo when traveling to neighbor islands now, the quality of the cars is mixed (some are much more beat-up than rentals from the big agencies) but the value is so much better.
Isn’t this price gouging? Doubling and tripling rates during a pandemic is despicable.
Thanks, Rob and Jeff for highlighting this issue for your readers. The situation is quite critical. At AutoSlash we’re turning away customers because there is simply no availability. Even when we can find availability, prices are sky-high (like over $100 per day in some cases for a basic car).
The problem is most acute when booking for a pickup in the next couple of weeks on Maui and Big Island, although Honolulu doesn’t seem nearly as bad–yet. Kauai on the other hand still seems to be OK, but as BoH has reported, that’s probably a case of the island being a bit behind in terms of sorting out their Cv-19 travel regs and requirements.
I will share one trick with your readers that our team figured out. If you search for a rental and none are available, try extending your return date. Now I don’t mean that you should actually fly out later–I just mean keep adding days to your rental until availability starts to show. The reason is that you can book say a 9-day rental but return after 7 days and usually get credit for returning early. It still may be an expensive proposition, but at least you can get a car. Being on a beautiful Hawaiian island without any way to explore it is a special form of torture IMHO, so I for one wouldn’t want to plan a trip without a rental. Hopefully, this helps someone.
The other more obvious ‘trick’ is simply to book as early as possible. Be sure to book a pay-later rate in case your plans change as you don’t want to be locked in. You can also track the price of your rental with AutoSlash so you can re-book when prices drop.
Forbes recently called attention to this ‘Car Rental Apocalypse’ (it’s not just a Hawaii thing):
forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2021/03/11/a-car-rental-apocalypse-is-coming-heres-what-you-need-to-know
And AutoSlash has covered it in our blog as well:
blog.autoslash.com/how-to-escape-the-coming-car-rental-apocalypse
Good luck to everyone finding a decent-priced rental!
Lucky Owl car rental on Oahu is awesome!! They are the old “rent-a-wreck” company, and honestly have always provided us with solid cars. Most are a few years old, but they’ve all been trouble free!! And, locally owned!! They will pick you up from the airport and back again as well. We found they are usually half of the “big guys'” rates!!
Aloha,
I have used Discount Hawaii Car Rental several times. I reserve my desired vehicle as soon as I know our travel dates then check about once a month, if the price goes down I reserve at the lower price and cancel the higher priced reservation. This has saved me quite a bit of money. Picking the vehicle up at the airport isn’t always the cheapest way to go. In 2017 I waited until the following day of our arrival, picked up in Waikiki and save about a thousand dollars.
Happy Travels!
Aloha Kakou…just a note, make your reservation as early as possible and check back frequently for changes. The prices vary day to day, and hr to hr. There’s a lot of competition. Make your reservation with no upfront fees and cancel/change at anytime if the rates go down.
Do I remember seeing a story with hundreds and hundreds of rental cars being moved off the islands and back to the mainland? That could certainly account for part of the supply problem…
On Maui, you need to know about Kihei Rent-a-Car. Located in South Kihei away from airport but with free shuttle service, they offer the best of rates on the island (IMO). And they differentiate between winter (Dec 15 to Mar 31) and summer, with winter rates as low as $255 a week, and summer rates starting at $170 per week, both for a Nissan Sentra (their most popular, but other types are available (Jeep, van, and several brands of discount cars. It’s a family owned business so thay certainly would appreciate your support and recommendations.
Good timing with this article. I have always found Hawaii car rental among the cheapest in the nation (20 years of Hawaii travel). I have been researching a 13 day Kauai Car Rental. $2,000!!! What is going on here? My guess is that they still haven’t taken all the cars out of long term covid storage. Maybe rates will be adjusted when they do? BOH, can you confirm 1,000’s of cars are still parked off site? I saw the sites a few months back.
Hi Bobby.
We too saw the lots full of cars around, but haven’t noticed them for a number of months. Not sure where they have gone.
Aloha.
It’s not just Hawai’i. Orlando for the next two weeks is almost sold out and prices are ridiculous. A week for a Ford Edge is running $1200.
So just like hotel rooms, tourists are now being gouged for car rentals. And just as Airbnb/VRBO massively undercut hotel rooms in Hawaii, Turo and similar companies will do it with car rental agencies.
Give it a few months and these car rental companies will be crying to the state for regulation on Turo/etc to protect their bloated profits, instead of really attempting to reduce their costs.
I always use Turo when traveling to neighbor islands now, the quality of the cars is mixed (some are much more beat-up than rentals from the big agencies) but the value is so much better.