So today I called about 7 or 8 rental car places here in CM including the three big boys, Avis, Hertz, & Budget, and not one has a single car to rent for this upcoming weekend. In fact the earliest I could book one (NorthWheels) was for this coming Tuesday. I wanted it for an entire week but due to other commitments I am only allowed to rent it for 3 days.

 

Also about 3 or 4 places I called no longer had their listed phone number still in service. I'm guessing COVID ran them out of business.

 

One has to wonder, why the shortage of rental cars. My guess is that tourism being essentially nonexistent the rental places drastically reduced their inventory available for rent.

Here on Samui, most of the well known rental companies have either put most of their cars in storage or sent them 'back to base'.

Hertz has closed its office at the airport. (Maybe others, I do not know.)

The smaller, private renters have been selling their cars in order to survive.

Every year, I warn my customers to book their cars early during Samui's 'very high season' (15/12 for about one month)

This year, finding a rental car is more difficult than normal. People are having to offer their private cars. (Be careful of the insurance!)

Good rental deals are as rare as rocking horse poop.

You asked to rent a car for one week, starting Saturday, on Thursday

555

2 hours ago, seedy said:

You asked to rent a car for one week, starting Saturday, on Thursday

555

Is there a problem with that? In the past I have walked in and rented a car on the very same day. As my posted eluded, currently it's more difficult to rent due to places now being closed and having a much lower inventory. Maybe it's not because of COVID but because it is so so cold in the Thailand mountains......  LOL...LOL...LOL

Wonder if it could be that the airports have been shut down for almost 2 years ?

Wonder if it is because peoples travels have been severely curtailed for almost 2 years ?

Seems these factors would have quite a affect on car rental agencies

Got one almost 2 weeks ago no problem, but booked ahead

15 minutes ago, seedy said:

Wonder if it could be that the airports have been shut down for almost 2 years ?

Wonder if it is because peoples travels have been severely curtailed for almost 2 years ?

Seems these factors would have quite a affect on car rental agencies

Got one almost 2 weeks ago no problem, but booked ahead

You obviously didn't read the first 2 posts in this thread as the reason was already provided....duhhhhhhh

 

I am sure booking ahead would had secured me a reservation but as I said, in the past I had always been able to walk in a get one within minutes. However it was a last minute need for me since I've always owned a car for the past 13 years or so and 13 years was the last time I needed to rent one.

 

Did you know it's extremely cold in the Thailand mountains now? I think it is probably too cold to snow....  ????

Actually quite easy: Weather in Chiang Mai is getting cooler, it's now high season here. It's also a long weekend Saturday to Monday, so many Thais make a trip to Chiang Mai and rent a car.

I just had a look at flight prices, Saturday morning BKK to CNX, and Monday back, 5000THB+, three times as much as on other days.

On any regular day you would probably not have this problem.

There’s a lot of people heading up to play disc golf. 

Did a cursory search. Found 4 places in CNX.  From tomorrow.

11 minutes ago, seedy said:

Did a cursory search. Found 4 places in CNX.  From tomorrow.

Nice.... Do all there cars have heaters in them because it might snow....  ????

51 minutes ago, dingdongrb said:

Nice.... Do all there cars have heaters in them because it might snow....  ????

*their

This shortage at CNX could be because many cars were sent to BKK & DMK airports. 

 

 

14 hours ago, Derek B said:

This shortage at CNX could be because many cars were sent to BKK & DMK airports.

Cars available if you look.

Numbers down for sure at airport - why keep cars there if no planes flying ?

Just starting back up

A couple of months ago i called for a car rental and the places were rather disinterested..

Look on the Classifieds and Kaidee. You'll find private cars for rent. Used to do this before when I lived in Chiang Mai. 

On 12/2/2021 at 9:26 PM, dingdongrb said:

On 12/2/2021 at 9:14 PM, seedy said:

Did a cursory search. Found 4 places in CNX.  From tomorrow.

Nice.... Do all there cars have heaters in them because it might snow.... 

This is a tropical country, are you determined to make your search as difficult as possible by needing a facility that most Thais vehicles do not have?   Are you requiring heated seats and steering wheel, also?  What about snow-rated tyres?

I just started looking for a rental car for this weekend from Bangkok and was a little surprised to find the main websites not even processing queries.  Has me a little worried… I know that in some parts of Spain the tourist shortage led to a lot of companies selling off inventory as it would just depreciate (rapidly) If left in the lot.  Salt air and sunshine. Then the tourists started coming back and they had so little stock they were asking ridiculous prices for high season.

 

Gonna have the Faen make phone calls but I’m starting to think long-distance taxi.

1 hour ago, FalangTingTong said:

I just started looking for a rental car for this weekend from Bangkok and was a little surprised to find the main websites not even processing queries.  Has me a little worried… I know that in some parts of Spain the tourist shortage led to a lot of companies selling off inventory as it would just depreciate (rapidly) If left in the lot.  Salt air and sunshine. Then the tourists started coming back and they had so little stock they were asking ridiculous prices for high season.

 

Gonna have the Faen make phone calls but I’m starting to think long-distance taxi.

Same as last week, a long weekend so more people than usually rent a car.

Next weekend it would probably be easier.