Alamo Rent A Car - 48317 Puerto Vallarta

PLEASE DO NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE, we have rented many cars all over Mexico and have never had anyone attempt to scam us. We booked a car online, with the total price for 3 days, including liability of 150,000 for $80.00, when we arrived, we were taken from the airport to this location and told it would cost us an extra 550.00 canadian 3 days of rental in total. Wouldn't want their karma Of course we said no way. Rental Agencies, by law in Mexico are required to have appropriate insurance on their vehicles up and of course you can by more coverage but it is not required. There is a bus stop directly outside of this agency, the busses that stop here will take you to the Hotel Zone or Anywhere in Puerto Vallarta as well as Bucherias and Sayulita. . . you do have choices. Any canned response, including apologies are just that canned, lack remorse and there are many of them here. In other words, apologiing without changing your beaviour is meaningless. YOU ARE INTENTIONALLY RIPPING PEOPLE OFF, THIS IS NO ACCIDENT

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE OR YOU WILL BE SORRY! My car was prepaid before I picked it up. When I pick the car up they tell me I have to pay this mandatory insurance which is supposed to be about $25 for the week. When I drop off the car I was told I was being charged 500 peso for the insurance and the fuel I used. When I returned home I find out I was charged 5000 peso. I was charged double than what the original cost of the rental was. When I called them no one seemed to know what the charge was even for and was told several different things. Still trying to get my money back. Never expected such unscrupulous business practices from a name brand agency. What they are doing would be illegal in the U.S. Bunch of scammers!

UPDATE: As you can see below, Alamo requested that we reach out to them so I did. Their response was interesting. I’ll summarize: So sorry you had a bad experience with us but this just how it works out here. Hope you rent with us again soon. LOL! Thanks guys, appreciate the great customer service. And no, I won’t be renting with you again. Original Post: RUN AWAY! Avoid this place like the plague! Seriously, save yourself the headache and use Uber! Super cheap and really convenient. Even with a family of 7, we were able to get everywhere we wanted to go, no problem. Plus, it saves you the headache of having to find parking downtown. So we booked a 4-day reservation with a total price of $93 which included the third-party liability insurance that is required by Mexico. We also knew and understood that Mexico requires special insurance on all rental cars so we anticipated the possibility of extra costs. Plus, we were just in PV a couple months ago and ended up paying an extra $10 a day for our rental on top of the price quoted online from Expedia. It was a bit frustrating to incur this extra fee but we could live with it. After a long flight, we just wanted to get to our Hotel. HOWEVER, this time around, Alamo wanted almost $100 a day for the “special insurance.” We inquired about the price quoted online, the agent states that the online price was for "advertising" only and did not reflect the actual price. This statement immediately raised some red flags. We asked her why the insurance would cost significantly more than the actual car itself. The agent responded that it was a "requirement." Despite attempts to reason with the agent and figure out a solution, we left without renting a car. We called an Uber from the rental office, jumped in and got dropped off at our Hotel.

Do not rent from these people - they will not honor your reservation. I made a reservation through Expedia which included third party liability insurance coverage. My reservation stated the total rental cost would be $180 USD (including the third party liability coverage), but they told me they could not rent a car to me for that rate and I would need to buy higher liability limits (in the research I did, my limit was more than adequate). The rental would cost me $430 USD for a sedan instead of $180 USD. I walked out and took an Uber to my lodging. Speaking with an American acquaintance who lives in the area half the year, he recommended GECKO. We rented from them the next day, and they were great. No bait-and-switch - all rentals include full insurance - liability, collision, and medical - and they are very reasonable at $55 USD per day for a sedan or $95 USD per day for a van (those costs include all taxes and fees). To compare GECKO costs to the Alamo costs, GECKO was about $10/day cheaper but also included collision and medical insurance, whereas the Alamo rate only included liability coverage. Also, GECKO provides VIP pick up and drop-off to/from the airport, takes you to their location, and gets you going very quickly from there - the paperwork is prepared ahead of time. Hopefully more of these rental companies will learn that honesty and integrity are a better way to run a business instead of forcing you into unexpected expenses.

Read the insurance papers carefully. The prices will double from what you were quoted.

This place is horrible. I would book with a different company. Upon arriving they told us there were no cars. After some arguing they told us our car was there but it was more expensive than what we had booked it for. They quoted us more than $400 USD more than our booking rate. After calling Alamo Mexico we were able to negotiate and get a reasonable rate for the car and insurance. This location is clearly running a scam on tourists and if we didn’t speak Spanish we would have been very screwed over. I don’t even understand how am international company can be operating in this way - it’s completely ridiculous and unprofessional. Take your business elsewhere.

Horrible experience. After reserving a car online we arrived to be told they had no cars. We were told they would have a car the next day, so we made a booking online for the following day. The online rate we were give was $17/day. After taking a half hour taxi ride again to pick up our car the next day, we were told they now did have a car for us, but instead of $17/day required insurance changed our rate to $150/day! I understand the mandatory insurance, however the insurance detailed on Alamo’s website is much, much less than what this location told us. When I asked to see a breakdown of the pricing and the insurance, I was told they did not have that. Avoid this place at all costs as they will do whatever they can to screw you.

This Alamo has gone downhill. The past few times I've rented here it was a fully prepaid reservation and it still took 45 minutes to do the paperwork and there was nobody else in the store. Cars are in bad shape. Fully cracked windshields, dents and scratches. 4/5 times you will get a car with less than a quarter tank and immediately have to go fill it up. You can not be 20 minutes past you time due back or they will charge you for another "hour" which is basically the price of another day! Zero grace period. I've rented here a lot over the years. Next time I'll be trying another store.