By Rachael Blakey

The vehicle rental industry keeps moving, and 2026 has already started off strong. Changes in how people travel, how businesses move their teams around, and what customers expect when they rent a vehicle is shaping demand right now.

One of the biggest shifts is in travel patterns. Demand is no longer focused purely on traditional holiday peaks. Instead, bookings are staying steady throughout the year, with people taking shorter, more frequent trips rather than one big seasonal break. On the business side, travel has become much more project led, with more and more companies needing vehicles at short notice for site visits, temporary contracts, or regional work.

Even though demand is more spread out, busy periods still book up quickly, especially when it comes to larger vehicles and vans so planning ahead really does make a difference, both for availability and pricing.

We’re also seeing customers pay much closer attention to value and reliability. Fuel efficiency, good specification, and dependable vehicles are higher priorities than ever. For that reason, Motorent has taken a small step back from having predominantly German makes and models on fleet and focused our fleet on Kia, Toyota, and Hyundai. Put simply, the specification is better and you get more vehicle for your money without compromising on comfort or quality.

What This Means for You

The way people rent is changing, and planning ahead has never been more important. With demand spread more evenly throughout the year, booking early helps secure the right vehicle, keeps costs predictable, and makes the whole process smoother.

For our corporate clients, managing multiple bookings and team travel needs to be simple and efficient.

I am pleased to say we launched our new Corporate Booking Portal this week to some of our exclusive clients. They are the first customer to trial the booking portal before we fully roll out to all corporate customers.  It’s designed to make booking easier, give better visibility, and streamline the whole experience so managing rentals takes less time and effort. I can’t wait to find out what they think of it!