Demand forecasting for car rental operators

Demand forecasting tells you how full each car type will be on each future date, early enough to do something about it. We build it from your own bookings. You get booking pace by car type for the next 90 days, compared with last year and with the pace your fleet needs. The weeks filling too fast and the weeks lagging show up early.

What the work involves

1. A 30-minute call

   Your fleet, your markets and what's hurting.

2. A short written scope

   What we'll build, how often you get it and a fixed price.

3. Connect your data

   We pull your bookings and fleet list, and set your rules with you.

4. Forecasts on a rhythm

   Weekly or daily, whatever suits, plus a monthly look at what worked.

Behind step 3, we line up every booking by pick-up date and by the date it was made. That gives a booking curve for each car type. Then we compare where each future week sits today with where the same week sat last year, the same number of days out.

A worked example

Say you run 25 compacts. The week of 14 December holds 175 car-days (25 cars × 7 days).

Six weeks out, you have 105 car-days on the books. That's 60% full.

Last year, six weeks out, the same week had 84 car-days. It finished at 150, or 86% full.

You're 25% ahead of last year's pace (105 ÷ 84). If that holds to the end, you'd need about 188 car-days (150 × 1.25). You only have 175. So that week will sell out early, probably at rates you set months ago.

That's the signal to lift compact rates for that week now, not to discover it on 10 December.

What you get

• a 90-day view by car type: on the books, last year and target pace
• the weeks running hot and cold, flagged
• the market rate for each car type next to it, from the Rate Pulse benchmark
• a short note on what changed since last time

It feeds straight into rate management. Start with the free rates for your city, then book a call if you want it tied to your bookings.

Questions