Have you checked out the price of rental cars recently? Yikes. Even the LA Times is taking note.

I had a friend fly down to Billings on a Cape Air flight from Northeastern Montana last week. He had some appointments and wanted to check out some of the Western shops in downtown Billings, and hit some spots on the Billings West End.

Normally, he would just fly into Billings and snag a rental car for the day by stopping at one of several rental car counters at the Billings aiport. Not this time. The only car he said he could find was a small SUV that was going to cost him upwards of $250 just for the day.

What about Bozeman? The LA Times on Monday morning reports that you will be able to fly from Burbank, CA to Bozeman, MT for $38 round trip. The rental car? That will cost you over $2,000 for the week. They did the search by using the travel website Kayak.com.

I figured I would do a Kayak.com search myself and see what renting a car for one day in Billings would cost. I set up a search for Monday, May 3rd through Tuesday, May 4th. The daily rate? The best rate I could find was a Chevy Equinox or a Hyundai Santa Fe for $361 a day. A Chevy Suburban is going for almost $550. And we aren't even in the peak summer/ Memorial Day travel season yet.

Maybe I should look at renting out my old pickup?

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