What Happened to Competition in Travel?

Question

Recently I was looking to book a rental car for a family trip. I was looking for a larger vehicle (6+ passengers) so we could take one car. Minivans are completely unavailable and even with high gas prices SUVs are running $200+/day. I searched the usual travel aggregator sites (Expedia, Kayak, Priceline) and prices were identical. The only interesting alternative that came up was Turo.Does anyone have any suggestions for finding rental cars?

smt88 · Accepted Answer

Travel is low-margin and sensitive to economic changes (making it risky), which means that travel firms are consolidating. This is certainly true of rental cars.The high prices you're seeing are a result of many factors, not just consolidation. One of those factors is that rental car companies sold their fleets during the pandemic to stay afloat, and they're now dealing with constant inventory shortages.