DOHA: The idle summer season compounded by stiff competition with big car dealers has taken its toll on small car rental shops in Qatar.
Many car rental operators have complained that big car dealers of different known brands are now also engaged in rent-a-car services causing their business to lose more customers even in this off-peak summer season when most of the people are out of the country taking their annual vacations.
Mohammad Mizar, a car rental shop owner, said it is not true they are exacting high car rental rates to their customers considering that they still follow rates at an affordable levels.
He, however, said the current rates are higher than before practically because it goes along with other operational expenses to sustain the business particularly the high rentals on their shops. "For example, the rent before was only between QR1,000 and QR2,000 and now it has reached to QR16,000 a month," he said.
Mizar also blamed a lot of customers who are nationals in the Gulf region committing traffic violations yet they have a hard time getting them to pay for the penalties causing them to lose more on their finances. He said the QR80 to QR100 daily rental is just fair enough considering all the prevailing factors they now experience in the industry.
Another operator, Ibrahim Haman said the recession their industry has now experienced has indebted him more than one million riyals in the last five years.
© The Peninsula 2011
