Car Rentals: Back to Boom Times Despite High Gas Prices

Web Traffic To Car Rental Sites Soars 146% From Pandemic Low 

Travel demand across the board has been exceptionally strong. Where does car rental fit in? Similarweb data shows that despite worries about recession, rising gas prices, and inflation in general, consumers are still traveling the world and renting cars while they do it.

Key takeaways 

• Traffic to car rental sites worldwide in May 2022 was up 146% from the pandemic low recorded in May 2020. May 2022 traffic was also up 10.2% over April and up 22% year over year.
• Conversion data (the number of website visits that results in revenue generating activity) has steadily climbed as well. Converted visits in May 2022 were 449% higher than the pandemic low recorded in April 2020, 16% higher than April 2022, and up 23% year over year.
• Enterprise leads the pack in web visits, conversions, and visit duration (time spent on a website). Bounce rate (% of visitors who leave after only viewing one page) was worst at Avis at 29% and Budget at 28.9%.

With travel exceptionally strong, where does car rental fit in?

As seen in the chart below, travel demand is strong across the board. Car rental is no exception. Despite worries about the economy going into recession, along with a stock market decline, consumers seem intent on pursuing travel this year. This comes after over two years of travel wiped out by COVID-19. Travel is showing high resilience, and car rental is a big part of that. Car rental activity is spurred by trips of both short and long distance, with and without air travel.

Worldwide visits to car rental sites have surpassed pre pandemic levels

Taking a look specifically at trends in car rental, the chart below shows monthly web traffic over time. From the pandemic low recorded in May 2022, May 2022 was 146% higher. Traffic was up 10.2% over the prior month and 23% over the prior year.

Clearly car rental activity has not been daunted by worries about the broader economy and inflation. While growth rates may not be as compelling as for airlines and cruises, that’s because car rental activity did not crash as sharply. During the pandemic, many consumers saw car rentals as a safer way to travel than air, train or bus.

Car rentals seemingly not impacted by high gas prices 

To further drill down on the relationship between car rentals and rising gas prices, take a look at the chart below. It shows that even though fuel costs have surged, demand for car rentals has remained undaunted. While we have moved from an average of $3.08 a gallon in May 2021 to $4.55 in May 2022 (and much higher in California and many other states), car rental activity continued to grow throughout that time.

Of course, there is likely some point where inflation, gas prices, a potential recession, and the stock market decline will hit the sector. Similarweb data shows that consumers remain resilient, possibly choosing travel over other discretionary purchases.

Similarweb data shows Enterprise leading the pack

The chart below shows monthly web traffic to five leading car rental companies from May 2019 through May 2022. Enterprise leads peers by a wide margin, with May 2022 traffic of 13.4 million visitors well above second place Hertz (7.7 million).

However, the data shows that Enterprise’s lead over peers has narrowed over time. As a percentage of the five leading car rental companies we looked at in this report, Enterprise represented 37% of the total traffic in May 2022. This is down from 42% prior to the pandemic taking hold in December 2019. Avis has grown from 15.5% share of these five companies to 18.9%, while Budget has moved from 13.8% of the pie to 17.3%.

Enterprise leads in converted visits as well (the number of visits resulting in a sale or revenue generating activity). On this metric, you can see below that Enterprise is leading peers by a wide margin. But like overall web traffic, the slope of the chart clearly indicates that the gap between Enterprise and peers is narrowing.

Organic search is the major digital channel for car rentals

Looking at marketing channels below, you can see clearly that organic search is the main way that consumers find their car rental company. Organic plus direct makes up the vast majority of web traffic, with paid search accounting for only a very small percentage. Enterprise’s traffic lead may be a result of spending more on customer acquisition – they get roughly 12.6% of their website traffic from paid search, while peers get much less (Hertz 8.4%, Avis 6.0%, Budget 6.4% National 8.2%). This could erode some of the benefit of their market share lead somewhat, as margins on paid search typically are lower than for organic and direct search.

Conclusion

Car rental demand remains robust, dispute inflation, high gas prices, and concern about the economy. Enterprise leads peers by a wide margin, but their lead has eroded over time. It remains to be seen at what point the weakening economy impacts this sector, but Similarweb data shows it is not happening yet.

The Similarweb Insights Newsroom is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.

Contact: For more information, please contact Richard Krueger at richard.krueger@similarweb.com.

Citation:  Please refer to Similarweb as a digital intelligence platform. If online, please link back to www.similarweb.com or the most relevant blog post.

Report By: Jim Corridore, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology 

Disclaimer: All data, reports and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb are based on data obtained from third parties, including estimations and extrapolations based on such data. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of the materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on the materials.