Financial research concept

Car Rental Location Count: Airport and Off-Airport Network Footprint

Car rental location count measures the number of company-operated, franchised, licensed, airport, and off-airport rental locations under an issuer's definition, helping investors assess distribution reach and network mix.

By Lee BaileyPublished Sep 20, 2026
Research context

See what supports this page, how current it is, and where comparable or historical context is available.

Research date
Sep 20, 2026Use the dated article and cited sources for the definition, examples, and stated limitations.
Operating-model context
12 connected conceptsPart of the reviewed Car Rental Operating Model; issuer definitions remain distinct where disclosed.
Company examples
2 reviewed companiesRelationships reflect supported examples, not a normalized cross-company KPI ranking.
  1. Location mix can shape demand and cost structure
  2. Company-operated and franchised locations are not equivalent
  3. A location count does not measure capacity
  4. Primary-source examples
  5. Part of the Car Rental Operating Model
  6. See It in Company Research
  7. Continue Research

Car rental location count measures the number of rental locations in a company's network under the issuer's stated scope.

It is a distribution-network footprint measure, not fleet size or rental volume.

Location mix can shape demand and cost structure

Airport locations can benefit from concentrated travel demand but often carry concession fees, facility costs, and minimum guarantees.

Off-airport locations can serve local leisure, insurance replacement, ride-share, and neighborhood demand with different facility and staffing economics.

Hertz reported approximately 11,000 company-operated and franchisee locations across roughly 160 countries and jurisdictions at year-end 2025.

Avis Budget and its licensees reported approximately 10,000 rental locations worldwide in 2025.

Company-operated and franchised locations are not equivalent

A company-operated location uses the operator's own or leased fleet and contributes directly to rental operations.

Franchise or licensee locations are independently operated and can generate royalty or franchise economics instead.

Avis Budget reported about 3,800 licensee-operated locations within its worldwide network in 2025, while Hertz separately identifies company-operated and franchisee locations.

A location count does not measure capacity

One major airport facility can process far more rental days than a small neighborhood location.

Location count should therefore be read with average fleet, transaction days, utilization, geography, airport/off-airport mix, and franchise structure.

Primary-source examples

Car rental location count is most useful as a rental-network footprint measure. Preserve company-operated, franchise/licensee, airport, off-airport, brand, and geography definitions before comparing issuers.

Part of the Car Rental Operating Model

Connect fleet size, transaction days, utilization, daily pricing, revenue per unit, fleet cost, fleet investment, disposal proceeds, vehicle carrying value, vehicle-backed debt, and distribution footprint to understand rental-car economics.

How the model fits together
  • Fleet capacity and utilization: Vehicle utilization relates transaction days to available fleet days. Average fleet size and transaction days therefore describe supplied vehicle capacity and consumed rental days together.
  • Rental yield and fleet cost: Revenue per day monetizes rented days, while revenue per unit per month combines pricing and utilization at the fleet-unit level. Fleet cost per unit per month provides a key ownership-cost counterweight.
  • Fleet investment, financing, and distribution footprint: Revenue-earning vehicle expenditures add fleet assets while vehicle disposal proceeds recycle capital from vehicles leaving the fleet. Net fleet capital expenditures show the residual investment after those proceeds, fleet carrying value shows the balance-sheet asset base, vehicle debt shows financing tied to the fleet, and location count shows the network through which that fleet is deployed. These issuer-defined measures add capital and network context rather than forming a standardized cross-company formula.

See It in Company Research

These companies are examples of how the concept is reported or discussed in public filings. Definitions can differ by issuer; these links open company research rather than a normalized metric comparison.

Continue Research

Continue from the concept into the Grizzly Bulls research surface that best matches the next question. These links are research continuations, not recommendations or required steps.

Compare stocks

Compare car-rental companies

Continue into stock comparison for rental demand, fleet utilization, vehicle investment, disposal proceeds, fleet carrying value, vehicle-backed debt, network footprint, margins, and valuation context.

Continue research

Explore more topics in the Financial Research Encyclopedia.