Demand for Rental Cars May Exceed the Supply

Travelers--who this year are waiting until later than ever to book rental cars--may find when they do call for a reservation that there are no cars to be had, say several major car rental agencies. Heavy travel this summer, prompted by discounted U.S.-to-Europe air fares and the improved power of the dollar over foreign currencies, will place demands on rental car companies that may outpace supply in some key areas. “The pattern is to book very, very late, I assume in anticipation of a better deal. But car fleets are very tight,” said Peter Rasmussen, vice president of international marketing affairs for the Hertz Corp. Rasmussen explained that although car rental companies are aware of the coming demand, they have not been able to increase their fleets as much as needed because car manufacturers are producing fewer cars and are more eager for retail than fleet sales.

Chief among the places where rentals may be in short supply are: Hawaii, which already has fewer cars because of the closing, earlier this month, of Thrifty Car Rental; all major European gateways, including London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Milan; traditionally popular tourist destinations such as Nice, and islands such as Ireland or the Greek Islands that typically have limited numbers of cars because of the high cost of transporting them to and from locations.

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Travel Quiz: What European capital is entirely below sea level?

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Manhattan Dino Dining: As further proof that we’ve gone dino crazy, the American Museum of Natural History in New York has opened the Diner Saurus restaurant, featuring a dinosaur decor and menu motif. The restaurant offers fast-food items such as sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers, and special meals for children. For example, the $5.95 Meal-O-Saurus for kids includes a hamburger, drink, dinosaur-shaped fries and a dino toy. The restaurant--open daily, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.--also serves “health foods,” including fruit salads, yogurt and vegetable burgers. The museum is located at Central Park West at 79th Street.

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Warning for Cambodia: The State Department is advising U.S. citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Cambodia until the vote tally for last week’s nationwide elections is complete in mid-June. The Khmer Rouge had threatened to sabotage the voting, although at press time Wednesday had taken few actions to do so. But violent attacks by bandits and Khmer Rouge troops staged since January around Siem Reap--near the popular tourist destination, the Angkor Wat temple--have prompted the State Department to recommend that visitors avoid the area even after travel to Cambodia is resumed. Recent incidents involving travelers near Angkor Wat have included armed extortion as well as petty crimes such as pickpocketing.

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Quick Fact: Contrary to often-voiced criticism that last year’s restructuring of domestic airline fares did not accomplish anything--in April, one year after the move by American Airlines to simplify, there were an estimated 400,000 fewer fares than before the restructuring, according to Official Airline Guides, a company that processes airline fares worldwide.

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Westin Hotels to Donate to CARE: From now through Labor Day, the 44 Westin Hotels in the United States and Canada will donate a lump sum, plus a percentage of revenues from guest visits, to the private relief organization CARE--in particular CARE’s Wawawasi (“children’s houses”) Project in rural Peru. It is the first project CARE has undertaken with a hotel chain, according to a CARE spokeswoman. Some 17,000 children are expected to benefit from the Wawawasi Project, which provides food to children under 6 and health education to their parents. Westin will donate an initial $50,000, plus more money, depending upon hotel bookings, according to a Westin spokeswoman. In addition, all hotel guests will receive coupons, called “CARE packages,” for discounts with such companies as Northwest Airlines and Starbucks Coffee Co., as well as local merchants. For example, the CARE package from the Westin St. Francis on San Francisco’s Union Square includes discount coupons for businesses in Ghirardelli Square and other Westin hotels and resorts.

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It’s Value, Not Discrimination: A new study of African-American travelers says the group’s biggest concerns on vacation are the cost of travel and transportation snafus--with less than 1% citing racial discrimination as a serious problem facing travelers. In what it calls the first-ever study surveying the travel habits of African-Americans, the Travel Industry Assn., a nonprofit organization representing the travel industry, interviewed 300 African-Americans by telephone in March. The survey also found that the average African-American took 2.2 leisure trips last year, three-quarters of them with family members.

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Travel Crime Rises: Crime risks should be taken seriously by all travelers, according to the May issue of Money magazine. The magazine reports, for example, that in a recent 18-month period, “a 1,000-room convention hotel in Las Vegas suffered 800 crimes--400 of them burglaries, one a murder” and similar “epidemics are sweeping hotels in other cities.” The article said an average of 34 rental cars were stolen per day in the United States in 1991. And that crime victims repeatedly said they got ripped off “just when they felt most secure,” at a good hotel, for example.

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Mendocino Free-for-All: Where is the house that is the fictional home of TV’s “Murder She Wrote” heroine Jessica Fletcher? Where can you rent a horse to go riding on the beach? These and other tourist issues are addressed in two free publications offered by the Ft. Bragg-Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce. The two brochures, “Mendocino ‘93” and the “1993 Visitor Information Guide,” also include restaurant, hotel and B&B; listings, as well as a schedule of upcoming events and festivals. For copies, write: Ft. Bragg-Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 1141, Ft. Bragg, Calif. 95437.

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Quiz Answer: Amsterdam.