With only about a week left until Tet, the demand for renting self-drive cars has skyrocketed. Car rental prices in Ho Chi Minh City have doubled compared to normal days, many owners of establishments providing self-drive hire car service only accept long-term rental contracts. However, they should necessarily pay attention to legal situations in the contract to avoid disputes.
Since mid-January, resident Ngo Cuong in Thu Duc City has contacted a number of self-drive car hire establishments to rent a car to take his family back to the Central Province of Quang Nam. He planned to rent for 6 days, from December 29 to the 4th of Tet according to the lunar calendar. After searching for a long time, he still couldn't find a car model that was satisfactory to him as he wanted to rent a 7-seat car to transport many family members. However, he couldn't find a car because some places were out of cars, and other places only agreed to rent for 8 days or more, said Mr. Cuong.
Representatives of a number of self-drive car rental service establishments in districts 12, Tan Binh, Go Vap said that they had rented all their cars from a week ago. Mr. Nguyen Tuan Hai, owner of a car rental service business on Pham Van Chieu Street in Go Vap District, said that the number of people contacting to rent a self-drive car is currently 4-5 times higher than usual. According to him, currently, there are only rental packages of 10 days or more, the price is high but there are only enough cars for regular customers to rent.
In addition to the shortage of cars, prices of self-drive hire cars during the Tet holiday are also increasing rapidly. Compared to the beginning of January, the rental price during traditional Tet holidays has doubled. In addition, compared to the same period last year, car rental prices also increased by about 10 percent to 20 percent.
On the other hand, the prices also depend on the type of car including 5-seat car, 7-seat car or 16-seat car, manual car, automatic car, regular or luxury car. The rents for 4-seat car models such as Toyota Vios, Honda City, and Hyundai Accent last year ranged from VND900,000 (US$37) -VND1.2 million a day, but now increased from VND1,000,000 to VND1.5 million a day.
Similarly, 5- and 7-seat high-clearance cars such as Kia Seltos, Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Xpander, Suzuki Ertiga, and Toyota Fortuner have rental prices ranging from VND1.7 million-VND2.5 million a day while the rents for high-end car models such as Toyota Camry, Mercedes are from VND2.5 million to VND4 million a day.
Representatives of some establishments providing self-drive hire car services pointed out people’s increasing demand this year than usual. They added that this year many people did not choose to buy a car due to economic difficulties, but they still want to have a car to use during Tet, so demand is higher than supply. In addition, renting during Tet also increases the management and care costs of the facilities, especially for customers with problems during use, or even collision or crash, said Mr. Thai, owner of a car rental facility in Tan Binh District.
To be able to rent a self-drive car during Tet 2024, customers must present personal documents such as chip-based d citizen identification cards, driver's licenses and a deposit of about VND20 million-VND30 million. Some establishments accept deposits of valuable assets such as mid- to high-end motorbikes from Honda Sh Mode and above.
For those who want to rent a car to drive by day, they can find a car at a number of car rental applications. The list of prices on Sigo floor shows that rental prices range from VND800,000 to a maximum of VND2.5 million a day, depending on the type of vehicle. However, it is very difficult to rent a car as per customers’ demand during the Tet holiday. Additionally, customers can search for prices on several other online car rental applications such as Booking, Mioto, TripX, and OGIS.
Currently, most car rental services on applications also require customers to rent for 5-10 days, if the rental period coincides with the Lunar New Year. This year, people in need also have another option they can rent a self-drive VinFast electric car. This is a self-drive car rental service provided by Green GSM transportation company of Vingroup. GSM's 10-day Tet 2024 package rental price ranges from VND11.96 million- VND34.4 million. VinFast electric car models for rent include VF e34, VF 5, VF 8 and VF 9.
According to initial statistics, Ho Chi Minh City currently has more than 50 businesses providing self-drive hire car service in addition to hundreds of small car rental establishments (each establishment has 5-10 cars and many other businesses providing self-driving cars and chauffeur services.
