Go Alamo! Fast and easy reservations
Written: Sep 02 '01 (Updated Jun 01 '04)
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The Bottom Line
Fast and easy car reservations. Email confirmation almost immediately sent. Revising or cancelling reservations are a cinch. Would recommend Alamo as a choice for car rental company.
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| Full Review |
My 100th review. Rather than spending and wasting an entire review on my foolish thoughts, I decided to just submit something that could be helpful. Thanks to everyone who has placed me in their WOT and everyone who spends the time to read and rate me. Although I no longer can spend as much time reading and rating everyone in my WOT, I do try. Through the years of being in Epinions, I've discovered that although a great majority of us were lured by the money, we stayed for the recognition, the satisfaction of submitting a review that could help others, and of course, the community of talented and caring writers. I've greatly enjoyed reading and benefitting from the variety of reviews that are available and hope to continue to do so. Maybe when I reach my 200th review, I'll devote an entire review on my foolish thoughts....Nah! Enough foolishness. On with the review!
Over the years, I've always been renting vehicles from Alamo via their web site. I find that it's fast, easy and I can quickly calculate the cost. I just enter the relevant information on where I want to pick up the car, the time, what type of vehicle I want, any discount codes and be ready to pick up the car at the airport. And like most other online stores and sites, I can easily change any of the variables and check whether there are any differences in price. There is usually some kind of sale that Alamo offers at any one time. Check out the various specials they have on their web site whether you're renting for a day, 3 days, 5 days (a weekly rate), or a weekend rate. Compared with most other car rental companies, they're usually better priced or at least on par.
I was initially enticed by their unlimited mileage way back in the days when only a select few rental car companies offered it. Once I tried it, I never rented from anyone else. Depending on the location, I could be offered either American or imported cars. I always find that I had no problems with them, and if I did, it wasn't much hassle to get another vehicle. Just drive the car back and they'll usually give you another vehicle. One time I was at the Alamo in Las Vegas and the Nissan Maxima we rented was stalling so we drove it back and they switched us with another car.
The Alamo web site is fairly straightforward. At the top, there are buttons to choose from which include: business travel (for those business travelers), programs (outlining the various special rates & programs for various associations, businesses, etc), travel tools (links to maps & street directions for destinations, weather, city info, travel tips & rental tips) , about alamo (info on the company), sitemap (quick at a glance breakdown of the site), contact us (addresses and phone numbers), help (FAQs on alamo policies, rates, etc), rates & reservations (rental rate inquiries & reservations), locations (locations of alamo worldwide), cars (the types of cars available), hot deals (specials available). Also, they have links to other special deals available in various locations ranging from free upgrades, to great prices, affinity programs, etc. Once you've made a reservation, you can view, modify, or cancel your reservation online via the site. There's also something called "QuickRent". It's basically an online rental in which you digitally sign your rental contract rather than doing it at the Alamo counter and save time. Once it's done, you just go to the Quicksilver kiosk and pick up the car. You can easily convert a current reservation into a QuickRent just by entering in your reservation number, your name, and the pick up date. But, QuickRent is only available in select cities.
Renting online is fairly easy. Upon clicking the "Rates & Reservation" button at the main page, you will be prompted with US Reservations or International Reservations which will take you to the relevant page. Or, you could select the drop down menu of locations for "QuickRent" and create a QuickRent rental right there. Also, on the left frame, you can view, modify, cancel or convert your current reservation (if applicable) into QuickRent.
Once you click the relevant destination of car pickup, you will be take n to a page which will ask you for your country of residence (if non-US), the location of the car rental pickup, the pick up date, the drop off location and date. There are optional equipment such as ski racks and child seats that you can rent at additional cost per day.
Also, you select the number of drivers that will be driving the rental vehicle, any drivers between the ages 21-24, promo codes, corporate ids and other coupon codes you could enter for special discounts. Press Continue and it will take you to the next page.
Depending on the location and the franchise, you may be able to add an additional driver to the rental without the usual additional $7.00 a day charge. Some places charge it and some don't. The Alamo Anaheim near Disneyland didn't charge for additional driver and the Charleston Alamo did. So, check for the charge.
Also, if you wish to prepay for gasoline fill up, you can also opt to add that option. Personally, I find it almost a scam because there is no way you can know how much gas was actually filled up. I'm not saying that the car rental companies scam you, but it's something I'd rather be sure myself. So, I always fill up the tank before I return my car.
And collision damage waiver and extended protection (personal insurance) are also extra charges you may or may not wish to add. My advice is to take some time before you rent to enquire your car's insurance company about coverage of rental vehicles. Most times, your car's insurance company will cover for any damages to rental vehicles. Or, if you use a credit card that includes car rental collision damage coverage, the better. Many gold or platinum credit cards have car rental collision coverage. But, also make sure you inquire about what is actually covered. I think the car damage is covered but the liability and the personal damage isn't. So, do your homework.
From there, you can select via radio buttons your vehicle class ranging from Economy - 4 door to Fullsize 4 door to Sport Utiltiy 4 door. For each vehicle "class" there is a graphical representation of how many adults, youths, infants, and luggage each class can carry as well as the rental price for the rental period. Select your choice and press Continue to take you to the next step.
The next page will provide an overview of and confirmation of your rental: the pickup date, location, the drop off date and location, the rental price, taxes and extra charges to calculate the total price of the rental. To reserve your rental online, you'll need to enter the usual info such as your name, address, phone, email address, and your Alamo QuickSilver number (if you have one). If you make any mistakes or wish to cancel, you can do so, or go back and make changes or continue and make your reservation. You can select whether to receive an email confirmation of your reservation for your records to which you can print out to ensure that you were "guaranteed" a rate and reservation. You never know what could potentially happen if the Alamo computer terminals are down and they can't retrieve your reservation. Thus, I always print a record of the confirmation to avoid such hassles. As the site uses the well known Verisign encryption connection, you can be assured that any info entered will be safe. And if you have registered your online profile at the site, you can easily log in next time you're looking to reserve a car and can easily skip re-entering all your info.
Like many other online rental car sites, Alamo is fairly easy to reserve a car. You pretty much do the same thing: enter the relevant info and get the rates pretty quickly. It's always a good idea before committing to a rate to do a bit of research on the rental and shop the rates from various car rental companies. And, it always never hurts to check whether there is any online specials from the rental company's web site before reserving because they don't do that by default. And, even after doing so, checking out if there are any promotions that are currently offered from well known travel portals like travelocity, expedia, and my favorite: smarterliving.com. I've been able to drop my lowest reservation price by a few dollars just by using the coupon code offered there. And, smarterliving.com also offers weekly email newsletters of the latest specials as well as promotion codes for hotels and other travel sites.
Like other online sites, you can sign up for a weekly specials newsletter called "Hot Deals" which gives the latest specials offered.
Alamo.com is a very simple, fast and convenient way to reserve a car. The colors are visually appealing and not distracting. Like all other online sites, it's almost always up and ready to take your business. I have made all my Alamo reservations this way and have yet to encounter any problems. I would recommend giving Alamo.com a look before settling on a car rental reservation.
Alamo, like many other rental companies takes American Express, Visa or Mastercard.
As for the physical Alamo car rental store, I also really haven't gotten much problems with them either and I've rented from them for a number of years from a variety of their franchises. Most of the airport locations are usually very good and can quickly get things set up in a snap. Some of them require you to call for the shuttle bus pickup at the airport where they'll transport you to their off airport location. Others are located right at the airport, although there's still a bit of a distance to get to. The worst one I've visited would be the one in Anaheim, near Disneyland. It's a very small location that is also a National car rental and there's only one person handling a line up of people. And the lot isn't big either. I guess it must be because land prices in Anaheim aren't cheap. Anyway, if you ever decide to rent from that location to make sure you set enough time to be in a line up because most likely, you will be in line for 30 minutes or more. Other than the small location and the waiting, and the lack of selection of cars, it was fine. And don't forget that it is close to Disneyland so just imagine the number of Disneyland visitor renters. I just don't understand why it's understaffed. But most other Alamo franchises seem to provide more cars, better service. And if you compare the smaller franchises with other competitors, I doubt that there is much difference.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Canada
Reviews written: 129
Trusted by: 152 members
About Me: I hardly have time for Epinions anymore but do try to read and rate.
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