The few vehicles at Tampa's airport go to travelers with reservations, and unless their itinerary is hurricane-related, they're paying the price.
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published October 15, 2004
TAMPA - Peter and Jimmy Cali flew into Tampa International Airport from New York City about noon Thursday to attend their mother's funeral. Coming on short notice, the two men arrived without a car reservation. That's when they learned about the statewide shortage of rental cars.
After stopping by six rental counters and coming up empty-handed, Jimmy Cali was incredulous.
"I do a lot of traveling," he said, before getting a cab to track down a rental possibility in Clearwater. "This has never happened to me before."
While car rental companies are honoring all reservations, they have been unable to accommodate walk-up customers for the past few weeks. Frustrated travelers can blame it on the hurricanes.
Rich Broome, vice president of corporate affairs at Hertz Corp., said the shortage started immediately after the storms but should ease by the end of the month.
Walk-up customers, about 20 percent of Hertz's business, are being turned away. And even getting reservations might not be a sure thing.
"If you're trying to book a car for rent in Florida this week, it's going to be tough," he said. "And if you're able to get a car at all in the next week or so, it will probably be more expensive than normal."
The unprecedented shortage was triggered by a series of storm-related events.
First, thousands of Floridians fled the storms, driving rental cars out of state. Then emergency relief workers arrived, often renting cars for extended periods. Finally, Floridians whose cars were damaged by wind and water plucked up rentals for long-term use.
And in the past few weeks, demand from travelers has returned more quickly than expected, Broome said.
"Though business and leisure demand is slightly lower at this point compared to last year, we were anticipating it being much, much lower," he said. "The rebound is faster than anticipated."
On the supply side, some rental fleets were damaged by the hurricanes. More importantly, however, the storms delayed the companies' traditional replenishment cycle.
"Late fall is when we bring in the newer fleets," Broome said. "And that's been held up because the storm made some roads impassable."
While Hertz is not bringing cars in from outside Florida to ease the shortage, at least one competitor is. A spokesman for Enterprise Rent-a-Car said his company has brought in thousands of vehicles from outside the state. It is also pulling cars from its locations outside airports to meet demand.
That might be one reason a search of two Internet travel sites Thursday showed Enterprise as the only rental agency with cars available at Tampa airport today. But the shortage has driven up the price: Orbitz and Expedia listed the rate for an economy car from Enterprise at about $76 a day.
Hertz' spokesman said it has maintained a rate freeze on rentals if they are related to the hurricanes. For all other travelers, however, price is strictly a matter of supply and demand.
"If you're here to check on property damage from the hurricanes, we're holding the line on price," Broome said. "But if you're flying to Orlando for vacation, you're going to pay market rate."
Despite the fact that the shortage is common knowledge in the auto rental business, it has come as a rude awakening to unsuspecting renters.
Keisha Hayes, a 27-year-old Tampa resident, kept a Budget rental car for an extra week while she tried to arrange a replacement. Her car is out of service. "I couldn't get anything online or through the 800-numbers," she said. "They said they had nothing at all."
Rick Powell drove a flatbed truck from Salt Lake City into Tampa Thursday and arrived at the Tampa airport expecting to pick up a rental car to drive home to Ohio.
"I've been all up and down this row of car places and had no luck," said Powell, who was trailed by a skycap with a cart full of luggage. "I don't want to fly, but I don't know what I'm going to do."
