Car rental on the spot: Traveling to New Zealand without a car reservation
Learn whether it is advisable to book a rental car before you arrive in New Zealand or whether you should travel to New Zealand and then rent a car when you get there.
When I last flew into Christchurch airport and picked up my rental car, there was a couple who approached the car rental company’s counter and asked whether they could get a car.
After the attendant asked and confirmed that they did not have a car reservation, she gracefully declined and said: "We don’t have any cars".
There are two main things you need to look at when considering renting a car in New Zealand on the day you arrive: 1. The car rental location, and 2. Whether it is peak or off peak season in New Zealand.
Larger airports and cities in New Zealand tend to have a larger supply of cars. And during the off peak season in New Zealand, more rental cars are expected to be available than during the peak season in New Zealand.
Having said this, while Christchurch has a fairly large airport in comparison to other airports in New Zealand, the car rental company still ran out of cars.
And to make things worse, I flew into Christchurch in April, which is a month in which tourist activity starts to wind down. However, I must say that I arrived during a school holiday period, which would technically speaking make it a busy period according to the best time to visit New Zealand.
The takeaway from this is the following: New Zealand is a relatively small country if you compare it to the U.S. or Canada, so the supply of rental cars will naturally be low. On the other hand, many tourists who visit New Zealand, and even people like myself who live in New Zealand, rent cars from car rental companies in New Zealand.
So the law of supply and demand must be applied to car rental in New Zealand, and the only thing you can then conclude is that it is recommended to make a car reservation before you arrive in New Zealand if you don’t want to get stranded at the airport because there weren’t any cars available when you got there.
Filed under Car Rental in New Zealand, How-To Travel Guide
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