why is car hire so expensive this christmas 2012

belcampprisoner

its double the price of the summer

874 euros and thats the cheapest one many are 1200

the summer paid 385

coylemj

The hire companies get rid of most of their stock in the autumn so probably have fewer cars over the winter and there'd be big demand from emigrants home for Christmas so they can afford to jack up the prices.

Supply & Demand.

There won't be similar demand again until Paddy's Day so you can't blame them.

repsol

belcampprisoner wrote: »

its double the price of the summer

874 euros and thats the cheapest one many are 1200

the summer paid 385

The Irish way.Charge the absolute max you can get away with.The fact that people who are ripped off may never return is irrelevant. And this "Gathering" nonsense? Should probably be called the fleecing.Expect prices for everything to increase to milk every last cent out our "visitors".I cannot for the life of me see why any foreigner would holiday here.We have nice scenery etc but prices are ridiculous and service is generally poor

coylemj

repsol wrote: »

The Irish way.Charge the absolute max you can get away with.

That is how private enterprise works the world over, the price is driven by supply and demand, there isn't anything 'Irish' about it.

Less cars are available for hire during the winter months when there's very few tourists around and then there is an almighty spike in demand during Christmas week so prices go through the roof. The higher rates are to compensate the hire company for the fact that most of the cars they rent out at Christmas are sitting idle for most of the winter, the same applies to hotel rooms at Christmas & New Year's Eve.

Try renting a car from Hertz in Heathrow next Sunday (23rd) for four days, I just did and there's none available. Are you suggesting that Hertz UK haven't jacked their prices up as well?

repsol

coylemj wrote: »

That is how private enterprise works the world over, the price is driven by supply and demand, there isn't anything 'Irish' about it.

Less cars are available for hire during the winter months when there's very few tourists around and then there is an almighty spike in demand during Christmas week so prices go through the roof. The higher rates are to compensate the hire company for the fact that most of the cars they rent out at Christmas are sitting idle for most of the winter, the same applies to hotel rooms at Christmas & New Year's Eve.

Try renting a car from Hertz in Heathrow next Sunday (23rd) for four days, I just did and there's none available. Are you suggesting that Hertz UK haven't jacked their prices up as well?

The Brits are just as bad.The same profiteering doesn't go on in Canada/USA as consumers there wouldn't stand for it.I run a very successful business myself and do not change prices at busy times as it puts people off.My competitors do and customers have told me that they paid the higher price but will never deal with them again.And by the way,"private enterprise" as you call it operates on the fact that there are 52 weeks in the year.Its no good making a killing for 1 or 2 weeks and being quiet the other 50 weeks because you have the name of being a rip off operation.

ardmacha

The same profiteering doesn't go on in Canada/USA as consumers there wouldn't stand for it.

This is nonsense. In some places there is a lot of business car rental traffic and in such places there may be ample supply at Xmas and so decent prices, many places in the US are like this as they don't bother with Christmas much. Other places are different. If the price does not go up, then all that would happen is the fleet would book out early and some people would get a cheap car while others would get no car at all.

coylemj

repsol wrote: »

The Brits are just as bad.The same profiteering doesn't go on in Canada/USA as consumers there wouldn't stand for it.I run a very successful business myself and do not change prices at busy times as it puts people off.My competitors do and customers have told me that they paid the higher price but will never deal with them again.And by the way,"private enterprise" as you call it operates on the fact that there are 52 weeks in the year.Its no good making a killing for 1 or 2 weeks and being quiet the other 50 weeks because you have the name of being a rip off operation.

So it costs the same to hire a car for the Thanksgiving weekend in the US as it does in the middle of October?

Pull the other one.