site.btaUPDATED Car Rent Reservations Evenly Spaced Out in 2024 Summer Season, Business Owner Says

The demand for rental cars (rent-a-car) is more balanced in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the observations of dealers at the end of the summer season, which is traditionally the strongest for holidays and trips.

"Travelers make their reservations in advance and seek a better price," Milen Marinov, owner and manager of Top Rent A Car, a company that manages the Top Rent A Car brand for car rentals in Bulgaria and major airports in the Balkans, told BTA. The company has been on the market in Bulgaria for over 20 years and is one of the leading providers of the service. 

According to Marinov, in previous years there has been an influx during the peak holiday months of July and August, and now bookings are more evenly spaced out to the other months that involve more travel - June and September. The company's aggregate observations indicate that the change in consumer habits is also a factor in lower service prices.

There is about a 20% price reduction compared to last year in the distinct summer months of June to August, Marinov noted. "It is also due to competition between companies. We are offsetting it with more cars and more bookings, which keeps the revenue level from 2023," he explained.

According to him, the profile of tourists has also changed compared to the strong year for this sector before the pandemic - 2019. 

"This year in terms of number of tourists, we are likely to match and even surpass 2019, but I believe the profile of tourists has changed. We had a lot of Germans, Scandinavians, English people, while this year it seems that most of them are Romanians, Polish, a lot of Czechs, who are not the typical customers for the rent-a-car business," Marinov said.

According to him, Israeli tourists have traditionally been between 10% and 15% of their customers. Now their percentage is down to around 3% to 5%.

"Unfortunately, Bulgaria seems to be losing the tourists who like to visit cultural and historical places and we are mostly visited by those who use the all-inclusive service," he noted. 

Booking data also show a renewed interest in Bulgaria's mountain resorts such as Bansko and Razlog, and Velingrad. 

Marinov pointed out that there are currently between 5,000-7,000 cars for rent in Bulgaria.

"We have started talks between the big companies to make an association in which we can partner to protect our interests and work with state institutions to develop the service," he said.

Marinov clarified that these are international companies, which on the principle of franchising in the country are managed by Bulgarian teams, following the rules and frameworks of the international brand.

According to him, there is still a very large grey sector in the car rental business from local companies that operate with fewer cars and employees. Marinov stressed that digitalization of the business will bring about more transparency in the field. 

Digitalization also allows the optimization of processes to handle more vehicles with the same number of employees. 

The company also reports another change in consumer behaviour - a decrease in the number of bookings and passenger traffic at Varna Airport and an increase at Sofia Airport. At the same time, rented cars in the capital are travelling to the seaside, which, according to their observations, shows that for people this is the more profitable flight option.