Features
11 aoû 20

Car rentals up to 57% cheaper

More than three quarters of car rental companies polled carry out specialist sanitation of each vehicle. At the same time, average car rental prices have gone down by up to 57% in the case of Sweden. Those are the findings of a survey carried out by DiscoverCars.com, a car rental comparison website.

In June 2020, DiscoverCars.com surveyed close to 400 partner companies and observed a reassuring increase in the provision of COVID-19 safety measures.

Sanitation

84% of the car rental firms polled said they carry out specialist sanitation on each of their cars across all locations to protect the wellbeing of their customers.

On top of that, 27% of companies offer additional COVID-19 protection such as antibacterial gel (60%) and wipes (17%), face masks (46%) and gloves (10%) for customers free of charge. Another 12% provide them at an extra cost.

Car quarantine

Some providers ask customers to sign a document stating that they do not have Coronavirus symptoms or that they have not been in touch with anyone who has had them. If a customer states, when dropping off the car, that during the time they were using the vehicle they started experiencing such symptoms, the car goes into quarantine.

At the time of the survey, COVID-19 protection measures were the third most popular customer request on DiscoverCars.com’s booking system, only preceded by automatic transmissions and air conditioning. However, this third place only represents 4% of searches.

Prices

As a result of the current health crisis, car rental prices have gone down across the globe with the biggest drop in Sweden, where the average price went from €81 in 2019 to €35 in 2020 (-57%). Locations that were less affected by the virus also witnessed a lower drop, e.g. Poland and New Zealand (both -5%). The only country that saw an increase was Norway, where prices were up 13% compared to 2019.

Image copyright: Shutterstock

Authored by: Benjamin Uyttebroeck