Alamo car rental???
 

I have been searching the car rental agencys for a good price. The best one I found is Alamo, but I have never done business with them. Any comments. Will I get just as good a car as from Hertz? Welcome all comments. Thanks

The car will be just as good, but Alamo's office is sometimes not at the airport, so that's why they are less expensive.

Sometimes various agencies will vary from location to location, sometimes even by shift if the manager is no good.

I've rented from Alamo several times and my only discontent is that they often really try to "stongarm" you into buying the unnecessary overpriced "insurance".

You might wish to post at what city/airport you are renting at.

Your right, I should have said which airport. We will be renting a car at LAX, Los Angeles, CA.

I've never had problems with Alamo and I've been renting from them for years, as well as Budget and Enterprise. I've rarely rented from Hertz because they just don't seem to ever have cheap prices compared to the other agencies. I've never rented from the Alamo LAX location though.

Rb, totally agree with you about how they strongarm you into buying the insurance, but it's not Alama where I've encountered that....it's more so with Enterprise!

We recently rented 2 cars from Alamo and both times there were no problems. I usually just go for the agency which gives me the best price at the most convenient location and only once had a problem (Budget.)

I've rented several times from ALamo in the past 6 years - in the US as well as England and Ireland and have had no problem. I have always reserved over the internet and gotten very good rates.

If you have several affinity connections, then check out all of them to see which gives you the best rate.

I have rented many, many times (average 30 days per year) from Alamo. I really like their cars, and have never had any major problems.

However...My husband hates Alamo. Always has problems, to the point that he won't use them.

Two weeks ago, I had reserved two cars at LAX for us and some of our employess. Long story, butI was not there when they arrived.

The woman who was at the counter "Brianna" was so unpleaseant that he almost left. She tried to force him to get extra insurance, kept saying a van would work better than two cars (at a higher price and less flexibility, yea that sounds like a great deal!). Even our employees felt uncomfortable. As one guy said, "she had that whole swap meet thing going on".

In the end they got two 2-doors cars (we'd reserved 4 door cars) and the agent put the wrong price. DH didn't know it till I looked at the contracts that night.

When I called to resolve this, Alamo gave me huge flack about wanting 4 door cars. Said there was no diff between 2 and 4 doors rates, despite my confirmation saying clearly "4 door automatic".

In the end, they offered me a choice of $20 or a couple of free day coupons- for our inconvenience on 14 total days of rental! I'm waiting to see if the free day coupons have strings attached. If so, I will not be using Alamo in the future.

I've rented from Alamo several times and never had any problems. No one tried to force extra insurance, etc. on me. They always ask - but so does all the other car rental agencies. I always say 'no' and that's it. Everyone has been quite pleasant.

I agree with Lori. No problems and often the lowest prices. Just rented Jeep Laredo in Colorado for a month and it had less than 2,000 miles when we got it and the cost was over $200 less than competitors.

I guess you didn't see ipako's recent thread on ALAMO.

Alamo is fine. Any problem can occur with just about any rental company. Most rental companies are away from the airport now and you have to shuttle to them.
That said, have you looked on Hotwire and Priceline for a better price.

We just rented from Alamo last week in Boston and from them in August in Pennsylvania. We had no problems and will rent from them again. We rented from Hertz 2 times before that and we had problems with Hertz in Pennsylvania (this was in 2004). The car and customer service were awful. We were happy with our car and customer service with Alamo. Plus, we waited less with Alamo.

Alamo offers a customer program called "Quicksilver" you can join online for free. You get better deals and better attention and it is free.

I have used Alamo in Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and Boston and never had a problem

Just had great experience with Alamo and a 10 day rental out of Seattle. I'll use them again.

Always use Alamo, never have had a problem - they are often the best deal and half the time we rent, we get upgrades (for free)b/c the car we selected is not available. Nice, clean and reliable cars!

Just as good. You may also want to try Thrifty and certainly you get a great deal on Priceline. They always get you a deal with one of the major companies

We rented from Alamo in 1998. No problem because there's a shuttle from Alamo taking you free from the airport to their facilities. The thing you should take care from is that the personnel will try to do their utmost to sell you more ionsurance or an upgrade in car choice. Dont listen to them. We were warned here in Belgium about that. Paul

Few if anyone points out the Alamo and National are owned and operated by the same people these days.

Sometimes they operate out of the same private facility and their cars are interchangeable.

So National's reasonable and bigger reputation reflects well on Alamo these days.

I remember about 11 or 12 years ago when there was a big flack about how poorly Alamo treated their employees, but that seems to have become mostly a thing of the past.

I'd go with Alamo if I were you.