Glossary of Car Rental Performance & Financial Terms
07 August 2025
This glossary includes key financial and operational terms relevant to the car rental industry. It is designed to support rental business owners, analysts, and journalists in understanding and interpreting the metrics that shape rental fleet performance and profitability.
| Term / Abbreviation | Full Name | Description / Use in Car Rental |
|---|---|---|
| GBV | Gross Booking Value | Total value of all bookings before discounts, cancellations, or refunds. |
| RevPAC | Revenue per Available Customer | Revenue per potential customer. Used to measure booking efficiency. |
| RevPAF / RevPACar | Revenue per Available Fleet / Car | Daily revenue per available car. Key fleet profitability metric. |
| UOR / FUR | Utilization of Rental / Fleet Utilization Rate | Percentage of the fleet actively rented during a given period. |
| ADR | Average Daily Rate | Average daily rental rate. Total revenue divided by number of rental days. |
| LOS | Length of Stay | Average rental duration in days. |
| OTB | On-the-Books | Value of future confirmed bookings. |
| Cancellation Rate | – | Percentage of bookings cancelled before start date. |
| Yield | – | Revenue efficiency per fleet unit considering rate and utilization. |
| CPO | Cost per Order | Total operational cost per booking processed. |
| CPA | Cost per Acquisition | Marketing cost to acquire one customer. |
| ROA | Return on Assets | Net profit divided by total fleet value. |
| NPV per Car | Net Present Value per Vehicle | Estimated lifecycle profit of one vehicle discounted to present value. |
| TCO | Total Cost of Ownership | Overall cost of owning a vehicle including depreciation, insurance, service, etc. |
| ADR Index | Average Daily Rate Index | Comparison of your ADR to market benchmarks. |
| Booking Lead Time | – | Average days between booking and rental start. |
| Upsell Rate | – | Percentage of clients upgrading or adding extras (GPS, insurance, etc.). |
| No-Show Rate | – | Percentage of customers who don’t show up for their bookings. |
| Turnover Time | – | Time between vehicle return and next rental. Impacts availability. |
| PPA | Profit per Agreement | Average net profit per rental agreement. |
| Revenue Mix | – | Share of revenue from different segments: daily, luxury, EV, leasing, etc. |
| Vehicle Days Available | – | Total number of days a car was technically available to rent. |
| Average Fleet Age | – | Mean age of all cars in the rental fleet. |
Prepared by Rentradar.ae — The Car Rental Analytics Platform