Want to rent a car? It’ll cost you Drivers struggle to find wheels amid low inventory, high prices
High demand and short supply that are causing exorbitant prices for rental autos have also been a boon to locally owned rental car companies on Maui.
The 140 working cars in Kimo’s Rent-A-Car fleet in Kahului are “all out,” Manager Daniel Biho said with a chuckle on Wednesday. “If we had 400, we would be all out, too.”
For weeks, visitors and locals alike have taken to social media to sound off about the scarcity of rental cars and their skyrocketing prices. A reservation for a Hertz car from April 19 to 24 showed prices of more than $1,000 and $2,000 for the five-day span, depending on the size of the vehicle. Other third-party booking sites showed no vehicles for rent for various dates in April.
After a year in which travel stopped and thousands of rental cars sat idly in open fields, locally owned rental car companies are welcoming the business.
