‘Sorry no availability’: renting a car is proving almost impossible this summer

Following a reduction in the size of fleets due to the pandemic and a boom in national and European tourism, people are finding it impossible to rent a hire a car this summer in the Canary Islands. A few weeks ago we warned that cars would become scarce and prices would increase, and it seems that is now the case.

As more people are flocking to the islands, they are wanting to explore them rather than stay in their hotel all day, but are finding that there simply no hire cars available in the non-capital islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, and it is not easy to find one in Tenerife and Gran Canaria where companies have more cars based.

The high demand for rent a cars, and the shortage of them, is closely linked to the pandemic. In March 2020, the Canary Islands experienced its first situation of ‘Zero Tourism’ which lasted the three months of lockdown and confinement and culminated in a summer marked by the closure of hotels and peoples fear of travelling. At that time of crisis, rental companies opted to sell practically their entire fleets to lower their costs and survive, since unrented cars generate numerous expenses, and are ageing and losing value without generating income.

However, long gone now are the images we all saw of thousands of rental cars parked up in the Canary Islands last year, as this summer has brought the start of recovery of sectors linked to tourism, and companies dedicated to tourism, and we are seeing our roads busy again with the hire cars that are available.

Mamerto Cabrera, co-owner of the rent a car company Cicar, has said that in the non-capital islands "practically the whole fleet of all companies is rented out this summer. In El Hierro we have more rented cars than ever, while in La Palma and La Gomera we have more or less the same number rented as in 2019", he explains.

Cabrera advises that, since "in the smaller islands it can be difficult to rent a car, tourists should book in advance to guarantee a vehicle". Of course, he points out that availability depends on the time of the month and the day of the week you want one, as there is currently more availability during the week than Saturday and Sunday, due to short trips by national travellers from mainland Spain at the weekends.

Cabrera says, that in his opinion there are three main contributing factors to the shortage of availability, one is that although there are fewer tourists on the islands, a higher number want cars and that tourists are choosing to rent both for safety against Covid, and for comfort when moving around the Islands. These combined with the reduction in fleets is what is causing the effect, however, he did add that in the case of Cicar, “the reduction is not that big, but it still shows."

Under current conditions, we have all had to plan more to travel by booking flights that we know we can change or refund, booking hotels that are definitely open, and now it is advisable to book your rent a car in advance too, especially as we enter the last third of the year which will see an increase in tourism in the islands… and hopefully an increase in fleet sizes.