JEK
Senior Insider
Car rental companies have limited breakage
American tourists saved the summer from fleet owners. At the beginning of September, the upcoming high season is still uncertain, with timid reservations.
"We had imagined the worst but we had a lot of people," this sentence uttered by a car rental company sums up the state of mind of many tourism players on the island. Several owners of car parks admit to being satisfied with the summer season, after the economically dead period of containment. As the Alamo National operations manager recalls, "March and April are usually busy months." This company had taken advantage of the gains of the high season to purchase ten new vehicles. The sudden disruption of activity prevented the company from initiating these purchases. Forecasts for the summer were mostly pessimistic. Except for the manager of TopLoc, confident in the loyalty of the island's clientele: "I did not expect a disaster, unless the prefecture kept the quarantine measures on arrival. "Arnaud Grandclerc sums up for his company" an almost normal summer, with almost the same figures as last year "for this
The watchword among car rental companies is relief, after a not-so-bad summer in terms of activity, thanks in particular to the Americans who came to protect themselves in Saint-Barthélemy. typically for three weeks to a month, some Americans have kept their vehicles for two full months. At the Gumbs Car Rental counter, the desire of tourists to extend their stay on the island is obvious: "They say they are better here than there". For this family business, many customers were metropolitan and particularly Parisians in August.
The inhabitants of the surrounding islands, in particular Martinique and Guadeloupe, have also participated in the tourist economy with fairly short stays. Some customers came from Saint-Martin, until the conditions of travel with the Dutch side hardened.
The rental companies have the high season as their next prospect. The feelings about this pivotal period for the economy are not unanimous. Some are more hesitant than others. Gumbs Car Rental has booked reservations for regular customers. However, the manager is not serene: "November,
December, it's not going to be the crowd. "For Arnaud Grandclerc, requests remain timid, which he understands in this period of uncertainty. At the neighboring counter, Tania Rodriguez decides to remain very optimistic even if the number of reservations is still low: “I think it's going to be a good season. The Alamo National manager is reassured with many customers due for Thanksgiving. It provides for an unchanged reservation book for the months of December and January. According to the owner of Toploc, the customers' hesitation can be explained by this single question: "Can we travel? The fear of a positive PCR test before boarding precludes any certainty about the future presence of customers. What can reassure travelers is the flexibility on reimbursements made by most rental companies. For the manager of Gumbs Car Rental, this policy is usual: “We work with tourists, so we have to keep them. "
For several lessors, the main clientele consists of villa owners or renters. They therefore benefited from the upturn in summer activity in this sector (read by
elsewhere). The Alamo National company notes that it has had a lot of Americans and Brazilians, surprisingly for this period when Europeans are usually the main tourists. At the Hertz counter, Tania Rodriguez made the same observation. These two rental companies
said they were surprised at a phenomenon noticed among hoteliers such as villa rental companies. “Many have extended their stay. It was surprising, first they booked for a few days, then they extended, ”says Tania Rodriguez. At Alamo where customers rent
