We looked for a number of companies to rent our car in Cancun, cross referencing yelp reviews and google reviews to try and find the one least likely to screw us over. Unfortunately, our first pick was out of rentals for our date period. After reading the reviews here, I decided alamo was going to be the safest bet.
I booked through their official website, and added on the mandatory 3rd person liability insurance. This is what you need for an accurate price. Price of car + Mandatory Mexican 3rd Party Liability insurance. My GF (who was driving) had collision insurance from her credit card, which isnt mandatory to purchase anyways.
For 10 days in a mid size vehicle, it was $310 USD, or some $7000 odd pesos. Unlimited miles. That's a steal as far as I'm concerned. They put a hold of about $400 USD on the card and said when we return they would confirm final price. And as a surprise, added a promotion that allows us to return the car without a full tank- she even wrote in big letters on the contract, "RETURN EMPTY".
When getting to the airport, I had my guard up, thinking that at any moment, they'd try to tack on additional charges or insurance.
This never happened.
We got to the airport booth, checked the confirmation number, and directed us to the alamo shuttle, which came in about 5 minutes. Another 5 and we were at the Alamo, and having everything sorted out. After about 10-15 minutes, our car was ready. Worth noting, they spoke good english here, even though I opted to speak spanish where possible.
I went over the inspection process with one of their workers, making sure he noted existing nicks on the car. I felt pretty confident that the car had enough small nicks noted that they wouldnt be able to pin an existing one on us, and probably wouldnt notice any wear from us unless we had a small accident.
They gave us directions out, and headed on our way. The whole process from the airport was maybe 30 minutes, no waiting at all.
When we came back 10 days later, we had no incidents with the car, and while the interior was a bit dusty from visiting cenotes and various ruins, the car was pretty much in the same condition. We ended up getting there about 20 miuntes late, because we did not know that Yucatan and Quinata Roo have different time zones, so while we planned to get there at about 2:20pm, we ended up adding an hour during the trip, making it 3:20pm, 20 minutes past the contract's end time. Despite this, they never mentioned it. We were charged the quoted amount of $310 without question, and given a ride to the airport.
I felt I had to leave this review after seeing so many bad reviews, because as far as I'm concerned, I had a perfect experience. Everyone was nice, friendly, handled our bags for us, got a free promotion so we didn't have to worry about full tank gas scams, etc.
My advice is just book through the site, add the $18 a day insurance, and have a copy of the quote. With that, not much can go wrong. read more