Car Rental Prices Surge as Industry Rebounds from Pandemic Slump

According to the president of the Association of Automobile Rental Companies without Drivers of Marrakech, and vice-president of the Association of Automobile Rental Companies without Drivers in Morocco (ALASCAM), "the price adjustment is an occasional phenomenon that has been going on for a month, or even a month and a half, and this is the result of a long period of inactivity where no one cared about car rental companies," reports the newspaper Les Inspirations Eco.

For years, he confides, the sector has remained at the mercy of large companies in the summer, exploiting car rental companies with a revenue of 12 euros per day. "But for an SME, this amount does not even represent 50% of the price at which these rentals should be made," he argues.

Today, this price increase is justified, as the newspaper reports, by the combination of several factors, starting with "the closure of 40% of agencies and the sale of more than 50% of the vehicles making up the available fleet, due to disputes with creditors, particularly banks and insurance companies". These stocks could not be reconstituted, given the crisis.

The official assures that the summer period will allow the recovery of 90% of the revenues of the year 2021 and that the prices will go down, because the demand should subside. "Prices will fall from September 1st, stabilizing between 150 and 200 DH, which is below the actual cost price of a utility vehicle," he reassures.