Entering the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday, people's travel needs are increasing, so self-drive car rental services are becoming "hotter" than ever. Currently, many self-drive car rental establishments have announced that they are out of cars or only have bad cars but the rental prices are sky-high.

Struggling to find a car to rent to take his family back to his hometown in Nam Dinh during the upcoming Lunar New Year, Mr. Do Duy Thinh said that in recent days he has contacted many self-drive car rental establishments to ask to rent but all received notices that they were out of cars or only had cars that did not suit his needs.

" If I rent a class A car like Grand i10, Kia Morning... it will cost more than 1 million VND/day. During the 10 days of Tet, my family will spend more than 10 million VND on renting a car to travel. Even though I agreed to spend a large amount of money with the desire to have a car to travel proactively, I still cannot rent one because it is close to Tet. I plan to rent a taxi to go home, next year I will learn from experience and contact to book a car earlier, " said Mr. Thinh.

The owner of a self-drive car rental facility in Van Phu urban area (Ha Dong, Hanoi) said that currently the facility only has one old Kia Morning manual transmission car with a price of 1 million VND/day, renting a 10-day Tet package will cost 10 million VND.

"Customers have to book a car a month in advance to get a good car. At the moment, it's impossible to rent a car. If there are any, there are only bad cars that no one wants to rent," he said.

This car owner added that due to high customer demand, although car rental prices for the 2024 Lunar New Year have increased sharply, they are still "sold out".

"For example, with a Mazda 3, the rental price is only 1 million VND/day on normal days, but on Tet holidays it will be 1.8 million VND/day. A customer renting for the entire 10 days of Tet will pay 18 million VND. The price has almost doubled, but there is not enough supply of cars. My facility ran out of cars about 2 weeks before Tet," he said.

His facility has more than 40 cars for rent, all of which have been booked and delivered before the Lunar New Year holiday, and is expected to earn nearly VND200 million. To be able to rent a self-driving car, customers need to provide a citizen identification card, driver's license, and a mortgage in cash or in kind such as a high-value motorbike.

Explaining this, the owners of the establishments said that renting self-driving cars has many potential risks because these are valuable assets, and at the same time, the owners of the establishments cannot foresee collisions, thefts or fines.

Consulting customers who are in need of renting a self-drive car, Mr. Nguyen The Phuc, owner of a self-drive car rental facility on Pham Van Dong Street said: “ Self-drive car rental services mostly approach customers through the social network Facebook, so when customers want to rent, they need to choose accounts that have been active for a long time, regularly update information to avoid situations where unreliable places cheat customers of deposits or do not deliver cars to customers on time.

In addition, customers need to research carefully when choosing a car rental facility based on the price posted on social networks. Many facilities advertise low prices of only 500,000 to 600,000 VND/day, but during the rental process, they will charge many types of fees such as car wash fees, gas fees and more commonly, fees for exceeding the distance limit. In fact, it will be very expensive and customers will suffer many disadvantages .

Not only are small self-drive car rental businesses "sold out" for the 2024 Lunar New Year, but the Green SM car company also announced that it has run out of rental cars in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Xanh SM has launched a Lunar New Year car rental package (from February 6, 2024 to February 15, 2024) with the following prices: VinFast VF e34 is 17.3 million VND/10 days; VinFast VF 5 is 11.9 million VND/10 days; VinFast VF 8 Eco is 19.5 million VND/10 days; VinFast VF 8 Plus is 21.7 million VND/10 days; VinFast VF 9 Eco is 31.4 million VND/10 days.

"The rental price for 10 days of Lunar New Year has been announced and listed by the company in advance, so there will be no change. However, the company's cars are currently all rented. The car rental service will resume normal operation after Tet," said a Green SM call center employee.

Thanh Lam