Renting a car in Lanzarote today is a practically impossible task. Either there are none available or those that are available are at very high prices. A fact that, as explained on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero by the president of the Association of Car Rental Business Owners of the island, Rita Hernández, is a consequence of the pandemic, since, during it, there have been "companies that have had to sell almost 75% of their fleet" in order to survive.
"Just like hotels, restaurants and shops here, there and everywhere have had to close, rent a cars had it worse, because they had to sell to pay for that fleet," Hernández pointed out. And it is that, although car rental companies were able to benefit from the ICO credits, these "have to be returned".
"Not the ERTEs, but the ICOs yes. So, most of the rent a cars on the island sold everything they could from the fleet," she said. "And thank God it could be sold, because the financial companies want the money month after month," added Hernández, stating that they are "going all out" with the businessmen.
Thus, she insisted that the companies have had no choice but to "sell in order to pay and survive" and thanked that, during the pandemic, there has been "a lot of demand for second-hand cars." "But what happens now? Apart from the problem of car supply that exists, who dares to buy?" added the president of the Association of Car Rental Business Owners of Lanzarote, pointing to the "uncertainty" that still exists in the tourism sector.
"Until yesterday we were waiting to see what the British said, whether they would close again or not. And if they close, we will go back," said Rita Hernández, who nevertheless hopes that "this will continue to move forward" and that this crisis will be overcome "more strengthened."
However, Rita Hernández believes that we still have to be "prudent" and "take it easy." Therefore, although she said she felt "sorry for the people who want to come to the island and have found that there are no rental cars or that those that are available are expensive," she also hopes that "we will not fall back to where we fell three or four years ago, when cars were at 12 or 15 euros all day." And she believes that companies will not be able to get "anywhere" like that.
"We pay the highest IGIC after alcohol and tobacco and that is a lot of money that we have to pay," she said, criticizing that people want to "pay four duros" for a car when they come on vacation to Lanzarote when in other places like Madrid they charge you "an arm and a leg."
"I have to say I'm sorry to those people who come to the island, but there are buses and public transport doesn't work badly, it works well," concluded the president of the Association of Car Rental Business Owners of Lanzarote.
