A car rental, rent-a-car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time (ranging from a few hours to a few weeks) for a fee. It is an elaborate form of a rental shop, organized in numerous local branches, primarily located near airports or busy city areas and often complemented by a website allowing online reservations. There are also third party websites (such as online travel agencies) which compare quotes from the major car rental agencies.

Car rental agencies primarily serve people who have a car that is temporarily out of reach or out of service, for example travellers who are out of town or owners of damaged or destroyed vehicles who are awaiting repair or insurance compensation. Because of the variety of sizes of their vehicles, car rental agencies may also serve the self-moving industry needs, by renting vans or trucks.

Car rentals are subject to many conditions which vary from one brand to another. The vehicle must be returned in a good condition and must not exceed a maximum driven distance, otherwise extra fees may be incurred. Additionally, some companies set a minimum age for the vehicle driver, which in some cases is as high as 25, even in countries where the minimum legal age to hold a driver's license is much lower.

Recent conditions have utilised GPS technology to limit maximum speeds or driving to specific regions. Renewable fuel vehicles are available in certain areas.

The vast majority of car rental companies require the use of a Credit card to make it easier for them to trace a person should they attempt to steal a car, or to charge additional fees at will if a defect is later found with the car.

There are two major types of car hire companies. The first group of companies own their own cars (known as a fleet) and may have agreements with car manufacturers to provide all the cars for that fleet. An example of this type of company would be Alamo or Europcar.

The other type of car hire company operate on a broker model and have commercial agreements with car hire companies to provide access to their fleets of cars.

To allow for a uniform classification and easy comparison of car rental prices, the Association of Car Rental Industry Systems and Standards (ACRISS) has developed the ACRISS_Car_Classification_Code coding system. This describes the size, dourcount, gearbox type (manual/automatic) and whether the car is air-conditioned in a short code.

See also

• Carsharing