Need a rental car in Myrtle Beach? You’ll wait hours, and the car might not be clean
After waiting for nearly four hours, Patricia Wall Erbe watched as the keys dangling on the wall of the Avis Budget Group rental car station at the Myrtle Beach airport dwindled into the single digits.
It was late on June 19, nearly 9 p.m., but she got lucky. She was able to get a Toyota RAV4, so she could still drive across town to her friend’s house in North Myrtle Beach. Behind her stood a lot more people, she said, and she wasn’t so sure they would be able to get a rental themselves.
But when she opened the door to her rental car, she didn’t feel as lucky as she had after standing in line for ages.
“The car was filthy,” Erbe said. “There was dried white stuff on the driver’s seat. Milkshake? No, I don’t think so. The floorboard was worn down the the metal. I think somebody was smoking weed in there. The smell was horrible.
“I did not feel safe in that car,” Erbe added.
Erbe said she had rented cars in Myrtle Beach before, but her experience had never been this bad.
Erbe’s experience is just one example of the rental car shortage in Myrtle Beach, a result of a nationwide supply-chain issue that has been unable to keep up with the rapid return to vacation travel this summer.
In Myrtle Beach, the rental car shortage has made it harder for the quickly growing number of travelers flying here to get around. Uber and Lyft drivers are still scarce, another nationwide issue, and the region lacks a strong public transit system, making driving really the only way to get around.
Rental car company Avis Budget Group, in a statement to The Sun News, blamed Erbe’s bad experience and others like it on the “Rapid, uneven global recovery from COVID (that has) led to unpredictable fluctuations in demand and rental patterns.”
“We are working with customers at all locations to minimize the impact of this industry dynamic and ensure they can get their vehicles as safely and efficiently as possible,” the company said in its statement.
Erbe had rented her car through Costco Travel, which she praised for its customer service and said they were working to make sure her case was fully resolved.
Her frustrations with Avis Budget Group, the company ultimately handling her rental pickup, didn’t end with the car itself. She was also angry that the company failed to notify her ahead of time that she might have to wait for hours to get a car. She only learned of the dire situation once she arrived walked out of the airport and saw the lines.
“The people in the back of the line were saying they had been there for three or four hours waiting to get a car,” Erbe said. “No water, no food, nothing. The machines were all empty because people had been waiting for hours.”
Nationwide rental car shortage
Erbe isn’t alone. Across the country, rental cars are in short supply due to the worldwide shortage of the microchips used to make new cars. Many rental companies also sold off much of their fleets last year, according to Jefferies Group, an investment bank, leaving few cars left when travel suddenly surged back.
“It’s the hunger games out here with people fighting for cars because you have none…in the Atlanta airport? NONE?” actor and singer Audra McDonald tweeted at rental car company Hertz earlier this month. “And when one comes up people are all running for it? This is ridiculous.”
There is one bright spot: Waiting for a rental car isn’t a daily issue. Like with security lines at the airport, which peak on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons, rental car waits peak on weekends. Those picking up a car on a weekday can expect a much calmer experience, though issues with car availability might still persist on those days.
Some people have resorted to renting U-Hauls for their vacations because so few cars were available, according to Washington Post travel blog By The Way. In Myrtle Beach, WBTW reported last week that some visitors were renting U-Hauls for their visit because of the lower price. U-Haul even touts itself on its website as an affordable alternative to traditional rental car companies.
Because of the nationwide shortage, Myrtle Beach Hospitality Association CEO Stephen Greene said it’s essential to book rental cars as far in advance as possible to ensure you get one.
Is the car drivable? Then you can take it.
Dennis Buron, of Parker, Colorado, also had a frustrating rental car experience at the Myrtle Beach airport. He rented a car for his family of seven more than six months in advance. But unlike last year when he flew into Charleston, there weren’t any large SUVs available when he made his car reservation for this summer. He settled for a minivan, hoping it would still have enough room.
Yet when he arrived in Myrtle Beach, the clerk working for Avis Budget Group said there weren’t any minivans available, instead offering him a Chevrolet Traverse, which still had seven seats. A Traverse wouldn’t work for Buron, though, because not only did he have seven people to transport, he also had a week’s worth of luggage for seven people, which couldn’t fit into such a small vehicle.
The agent checked again, Buron said, and he’d gotten lucky. A minivan had just been turned in, so the agent told him that “as long as the tires are tires aren’t flat and windshield isn’t cracked, we can get you in it,” Buron said. All he had to do was wait about half an hour for the car to be cleaned and brought up.
“It was probably one of my worst experiences with Avis, but they did take care of me and they did get it right,” Buron said. “Given the constraints and everything else that they’re going through, I think they were probably doing about the best they could.”
That day he flew in, July 3, was also one of the busiest days the Myrtle Beach Airport has seen in months, according to the TSA.
“We have seen high demand in the Myrtle Beach area, but in both instances, we were able to quickly assist the customers once they reached our counter,” Avis Budget Group said in a statement responding to Erbe’s and Buron’s experiences.
Karen Riordan, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce CEO, said she was at the airport several weeks ago and overheard a people saying that they hadn’t booked a rental but planned to “see if they had any rental cars available.”
“I looked at the gentleman shocked, like, ‘Oh my god, you’re thinking about asking now that you’ve landed? You needed to do that back home, online,’” Riordan said. “I think that’s an old carryover bad habit based on past experience where there have been plenty of rental cars.”
In today’s travel environment, Riordan said reservations are essential at all levels of trip planning, from plane tickets to hotels to, in some cases, even restaurant reservations.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time for people to realize that planning ahead is going to save them so much aggravation down the line,” she said.
Even the most well-prepared travelers are affected
Buron and Erbe had done their due diiligence, though, and made reservations well in advance. Their experiences show how disaster can strike even the most well-prepared in the current travel environment. Both felt lucky to get rental cars at all.
Neither spent much time driving during their time in Myrtle Beach, but Buron said going without a rental isn’t really much of an option here. The region lacks widespread public transportation and has been part of the nationwide shortage of Uber and Lyft drivers.
“It would be very difficult to get around, especially if you’re staying on the south side,” said Buron, who rented a house in Garden City. “Maybe if you were staying more centrally in Myrtle Beach, maybe it would be easier” since there are more attractions, restaurants and grocery stores close together in Myrtle Beach proper.
Greene, the Hospitality Association CEO, said the area’s lack of public transit is influenced by its relatively small residential population compared to cities like Washington, D.C., or New York with extensive subway and bus systems.
Without a rental car, visitors might find it hard to get around. “We’re a 60-mile long destination,” Greene noted.
As for when the rental car situation might get better, that’s up in the air.
The earliest estimates are next year, but not until after the microchip shortage gets better, the Washington Post reported. In May, the daily median price for an Avis car rental nationwide sat at $68.07 and could jump to $103.40 in August. Other rental car companies are not much better. The daily median price for Hertz in August is expected to reach $114.49, nearly 150% higher than its pre-pandemic rate.
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Need a rental car in Myrtle Beach? You’ll wait hours, and the car might not be clean."
