Christmas Car Rental: Where Hawaii Ranks 8

You say you’re all packed and ready to spend your Christmas holiday in Hawaii? Great!

You say you got your airline tickets far in advance for you and your family? Great!

You say you’ll be doing your Christmas shopping here so you won’t have the hassle of trying to get presents through airport security? Great!

Did you reserve your rental car far in advance? No? Uh oh.

Then I need to tell you to bring extra money. You see, Honolulu’s average Christmas-time car rental rates this year are the highest in the nation, ‘way ahead of Miami, which placed second in a study by CheapCarRental.net.

The average daily rate for a car rented at Honolulu International Airport from Dec. 23 to 28 is $147. That’s a 194% increase over January of this year, when the average daily rate was $50.

Yikes!

Here’s how the top 5 in the nation play out this year:

1.       HONOLULU ($147 a day)

2.       Miami ($111)

3.       New York ($99)

4.       Boston ($70)

5.       New Orleans ($60)

The supply is dwindling too, as most companies have rented all of their cars already. It’s worse on the neighbor islands; there aren’t any cars available.

I kid you not!

The solution? Walk, catch a bus, or catch a cab. Sorry, that’s just the way it is this year.