Rate Pulse for tourism boards and consultants

Tourism boards and consultants need neutral numbers on what visitors pay to hire a car, and on what local events do to that price. Rate Pulse gives you both for 18 airports, free. The rates come from public search results, the ratings from customer reviews, and each event is listed with its source, so you can check every step.

What you're up against

• Anecdote. "Rental cars were sold out for the show" is hard to put in a board paper.
• Numbers you can't check. A rate quoted in a press release rarely says where it came from.
• Unclear methods. A number without a hire length, pick-up date and source can't be compared.

The views that help

Market rates by pick-up day. Typical and cheapest daily rate per car category, for each of the next 14 pick-up days.

Dates to watch. Events, public holidays and school holidays in the same window, each linked to a source.

Every brand, ranked by customers. Who operates at the airport, where their desks are and how customers rate them.

The method page. How it works sets out the source, the hire length and what the numbers can't tell you.

A worked example: Cup and Show Week

Say you're writing up the visitor impact of Christchurch's Cup and Show Week for a regional tourism board.

In the Rate Pulse sweep of 7 Nov 2026, Dates to watch at Christchurch listed Trotting Cup Day on 10 Nov, the Canterbury A&P Show from 11 to 13 Nov, Canterbury Anniversary Day on 13 Nov and New Zealand Cup Day on 14 Nov.

The typical economy rate was NZ$139 a day for a pick-up on 11 Nov and NZ$203 for 12 Nov. That's 46% higher, and the dearest economy day in the 14. A 3-day hire from the 12th covers the show's last day, the holiday and Cup Day.

Compact moved less, NZ$196 to NZ$202.

What you can say: in that sweep, advertised economy rates at Christchurch Airport rose 46% from one pick-up day to the next as the show week peaked. What you can't say: that the event caused all of it, or that it happens every year. It's one snapshot.

How to cite it

Use "Rate Pulse sweep, 7 Nov 2026", with the airport link, such as /rates/chc/. Add the method in a line: 3-day hire, advertised prices on rentalcars.com, searched from New Zealand.

Each sweep replaces the last, so screenshot or note the figures on the day you use them.

For a deeper read across all 18 airports, see car hire prices at 18 airports.

Questions