MUNICH/Cologne (dpa-AFX) - Anyone needing a rental car this winter usually gets a better deal than a year ago. During the Christmas vacations, prices in Germany are on average around 12 percent lower than in the same period last year, according to an analysis by the portal Check24. For other popular travel destinations, the decline is even greater: on average, prices in the 15 countries with the most bookings are 14% lower.

Figures from billiger-mietwagen.de point in the same direction. The portal analyzed the prices in the 20 most-booked countries for the period from the beginning of December to the end of January. Prices fell in just over half of them. In Germany as a whole, prices fell by 4 percent. In Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, prices fell by 9, 14 and 12 percent respectively, which is well above average. In Munich, prices have fallen by 5 percent, in Koln by 3 percent and in Frankfurt by 7 percent.

Andreas Schiffelholz from Check24 attributes the fact that prices are falling despite high demand to the fact that rental companies are once again offering larger fleets. This is also the view of billiger-mietwagen.de. In some cases, there is an oversupply again, which is why customers are being lured with low prices.

Given the evaluation period, the current rail strike is not expected to have any impact on prices./ruc/DP/zb