The Top Cities for Recent Car Rental Reservations

Global car rentals rocketed during the end-of-year holiday break, with more than three times the amount of seven-day bookings compared to the 2019 winter holiday period.

According to data from global car-hire comparison site DiscoverCars, there were 12,646 seven-day reservations for the festive period, more than three times the amount in 2019-20, which saw 3,826 bookings.

The data is based on the 18 days from Dec. 20, 2022 to Jan. 7, 2023. Seven-day rentals tend to be the most common duration for vacations.

Portugal has meanwhile proved a popular tourist destination over the past two years, not least as a top digital nomad destination, but the rental figures show just how resilient the country is.

Capital city Lisbon has more than doubled the number of car rental pickups in recent weeks, compared to before the pandemic. In the space of 18 days there were 4,220 pickups, compared to 1,782 in the same period in 2019/20.

Another Portuguese city, historic Porto, was the third most popular destination with 1,985 pickups, trailing Auckland in New Zealand. The Portuguese islands of Madeira also made it into the top 10.

Late last year, European destinations had the edge slightly over other parts of the world.

The comparison site also predicts car rental companies’ fleet composition will change within the next three years, with electric vehicles likely comprising a majority of rentals by 2025.

This week Hertz announced a push into Europe, making 25,000 Tesla and Polestar cars available to Uber drivers.

DiscoverCars reviewed internal data from 143 countries.