Sunny Cars has had a successful fiscal year. Thanks to enough available cars and prices that were lower than the previous year, the car rental specialist recorded 785,000 bookings spread across the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland markets. The booking volume thus significantly exceeds the previous years 2020/2021 (342,000 bookings) and 2021/2022 (600,000 bookings). Only 2018/2019 was an even better year, with a record 835,000 bookings. Sunny Cars has a broken fiscal year that runs from Nov. 1 to Oct. 31. “We look back on the past fiscal year with great satisfaction,” said Kai Sannwald, CEO and owner of Sunny Cars. “We have invested a lot in our product, our employees, our presence in the market and in our most important partner: the travel agencies. The result has been a sharp increase in reservations and even a record turnover. For us, it’s confirmation that we’re on the right track.’ Falling prices After a price explosion in 2022, rents fell over the past year. “Whereas in June 2022 the average price of a rental car was 650 euros, a year later it was 500 euros,” Sannwald said. ‘The high costs deterred some holidaymakers from booking a rental car in 2022. The last financial year 2022/2023 brought more supply, which resulted in lower prices and greater demand. At the moment, the average rental price at Sunny Cars is around 476 euros. Time of booking Remarkably, there have been no extreme peaks in the timeline since January 2023, but rather a consistently high level. More bookings are made each month than the month before. The large increase in bookings came in through all booking channels: travel agencies, ZRAs, OTAs, tour operators and direct. Travel period Despite the many advantages, Sunny Cars noticed a clear reluctance to book early in the past financial year. Customers were still cautious after uncertain times. “The booking date shows that most reservations were made for the current or next month,” says Sannwald. “We see in the figures that most rental cars reserved through Sunny Cars were on the road in September and October 2023. Almost 200,000 bookings were made for this travel period.’ Popular destinations Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United States are once again among the most popular car rental countries. This means that the top destinations remain unchanged from the previous year. South Africa, Germany, France, Canada and Curaçao also remain in the top 10. Coming financial year Sannwald is very confident about the new financial year 2023/2024.
“The fleet size of our partners will be sufficient to meet the high demand. Of course, bottlenecks can arise at popular destinations at peak times, but that will mainly apply to the last-minute booker.’ The expectation for the coming year is that the rent will decrease again. The most popular destinations in 2023/2024 are again Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Photo: Part of the management team of Sunny Cars (left to right): Thorsten Lehmann, Kai Sannwald, Suzanne Al and Hans Knottnerus (Archive photo TravMagazine).
