Getting around during the holidays is more complicated than ever. With the forecast of rental car shortages for this summer, you may be stuck in your hotel or vacation rental. But there are new tactics to solve their ground transportation problems.
“This summer is very likely to be frustrating for travelers,” says Robert Walden, editor-in-chief of VehicleFreak. com, a car maintenance site. disrupted by fleet shortages, high fuel costs and growing demand. This truth doesn’t seem to diminish anytime soon, so travelers deserve other alternatives. “
For many travelers, ground transportation is the first attention when making vacation plans. During last year’s rental car shortage, Mark Beales didn’t rent his car when he visited Hawaii’s Big Island.
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He returned to Kona recently with his family, so he started buying a car through AutoSlash.
“AutoSlash, through its rate tracking service, informed us that car rental costs had been reduced so that one month’s rent was $1258, well below the originally set price,” says Beales, a retired loan banker from Mill Creek, Washington.
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There are other tactics to save on a rental car. “Find a hotel that has an airport, come and go and rent a car outside the airport,” advises Mark Mannell, managing director of Car Rental Savers. hotels have car rental counters. “
But there are other tactics to get from point A to point B when you travel. The trick is to think about ground transportation and use new apps and features to get around.
Travelers are beginning to reconsider ground transportation. Stan Caldwell, an associate professor of transportation and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, says the new “mobility-as-a-service” platforms offer commuters more features to get around.
If you’re traveling to Pittsburgh, download the Transit app, which has partnered with MovePGH to allow users to combine affordable shared mobility features with the city’s public transportation. facilities like Lyft and Uber,” he says.
If you’re heading to Europe, you can download an app called Whim that allows you transportation features in places like Antwerp, Belgium; Helsinki; and Vienna.
Get off the beaten track of car rental this summer. There are many other tactics for moving through cars, such as a limousine with a driver.
“As rental car shortages and emerging rental costs continue, many of our members are experiencing an increase in business as travelers turn to other modes of transportation,” said Robert Alexander, president of the National Limousine Association.
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It sounds counterintuitive, but with such high car rental prices, a limousine can be cheaper.
“Using chauffeured cars can definitely be more convenient if you rent a car for the holidays but only drive it a few times,” Alexander says. “Taxis and rideshare responses are not the cheapest options. “
Susan Beardslee, senior analyst at ABI Research, says car-sharing features like Turo, Zipcar and Avail are valuable this summer.
“Planning is key,” she says. You want to be flexible with days of the week, dates, and location. Tourists will have more luck if they select the most popular holidays and destinations. “
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Carpooling doesn’t have its challenges. Customers have complained about having high-mileage cars that smell like cigarette smoke. But car-sharing corporations are also more flexible than some car rental corporations.
“Travelers can share cars every hour, unlike the classic car rental model, which requires other people to devote themselves to a full day,” says Nick Tenekedes, vice president of Marketplace at the ride-sharing site. Move.
One of the smartest responses to your floor transportation disorders is to have them in the first place.
“Consider a destination where you don’t want to get around with a rental car,” says Narendra Khatri, director of Insubbuy, an insurance company. “In denser urban environments and island locations, it can rely on public transportation. “
But whether you’re renting, sharing, publicly shipping or taking a scooter, make your plans quickly, experts say.
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“This summer, book your trips online as soon as possible,” says Bryn Culbert, a spokeswoman for online transportation app Wanderu.
It is an undeniable fact about floor transport that should not be replaced in the short term: you can’t think about it soon enough.
Assume nothing. With bottlenecks in the chain of origin affecting ground transportation, don’t take anything for granted. “Find out if trains and buses are still running,” advises Frank Harrison, regional director of safety for North America and the UK at World Travel Protection. Are you looking to rent a car, carpool, carpool or something similar?In North America, there are resource constraints.
Buy harder. That’s the recommendation of Peter Hoagland, a representative from Warrenton, Virginia, who recently rented a car in Portland, Maine. “Tariffs were everywhere,” he recalls. He had to keep interviewing the same car rental companies that used other discount codes until they gave him a rate that matched his budget. “It will be worth continuing to buy groceries even with the same rental company. “
Run the numbers. Possibly, it would make more sense to take your own car to your holiday destination rather than fly. Once you’ve added up the prices of flying and renting a car, you may find it better to simply drive. This is especially true for some destinations in the northeast, destinations in the northeast. Renting a car can cost a lot or even thousands of dollars more, says Mario Medina, chief executive of drvn, a generation and chauffeur services company. .
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that empowers consumers to resolve their disorders and helps those who can’t. The outlook and reviews expressed in this column are those of those that do not necessarily reflect those of the United States TODAY.