Deals
Car Rental Companies Discover Mergers, and You're Going to Pay for It
While you weren't looking, Hertz and Avis followed the airline playbook to maximize profit.
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Not long ago the U.S. had eight national airlines, each fighting the other for scraps in an economic cycle of boom and bust. Now there are just four, and they make billions of dollars.
While those carriers consolidated in huge takeovers, out in the parking lot the sleepy car rental industry began to take notice. They took a page from the same playbook, and over the past few years pushed through a series of mergers of their own, leaving three large rental companies with more than 90 percent of the market: Hertz Global Holdings Inc., Avis Budget Group Inc., and Enterprise Holdings Inc. The goal? Charging as much as possible—just as airlines do.