Post-Pandemic Travel Planning: Tracking Rental Car Prices
In response to seemingly real-time (“dynamic”) pricing by the airlines the last few years, I now routinely shop for flights using tracking software.
I’m sure there are others, but Google Flights lets you set up multiple searches for upcoming travel destinations and dates, then notifies you when there are changes.
Once you watch a given route for 7-10 days, it’s apparent what the typical price range is.
Then, when Google Flights (or some other software) flags an especially attractive fare . . . you pounce.
Fast-forward to early Summer, 2021 and the resumption of travel, post-Covid.
Today, it’s not just air fares that gyrate hour-by-hour (if not minute by minute) — so, too, are rental car prices.
Post-Covid Sign of Normalcy
Unfortunately, the cost of rental cars now seems to oscillate between “expensive” and “shockingly expensive.”
So, in just the last 10 days, I’ve seen rental car prices for the same four day stretch in San Francisco later this Summer fluctuate between $350 and $800(!).
For the exact same mid-size sedan.
Ahh . . . complaining about travel.
Maybe things really ARE getting back to normal . . .🙂
