Alamo Rent A Car

I had reserved a Hyundai Santa Fe SUV when booking through Costco travel for 10 days. On arrival at Hilo that car was nowhere to be found. Aaron offered me a minivan which I did not want, then a Tahoe. The Tahoe seemed to wide for some of the narrow streets and caused parking problems.
Tahoe also had scratches on front bumper. Aaron said that is fine they only worry about the metal not front or back bumpers. So take a picture which will time stamp any damage you didn’t report. But it is best to do a walk round and report it.
So the next day I asked again for the car I reserved but it would be arriving too late and I would be on a Mauna Kea stargazing tour, so could not pickup and Keagan offered me a Jeep Wrangler, that was a bit if an issue for kids in back had a hard time getting out of as had no running boards.
Suffice to say those brakes on Jeep squeaked every time you used them, did not feel safe so called later and asked again for the Hyundai Santa Fe which they did not have so Shaila offered me another Jeep whose brakes squeaked less but still squeak as I am writing this.
The cheapest gas on Hilo is Tesoro and Costco on Kona side, feel free to use gas buddy app to find if traveling about the swing in prices can be as high as 60c per gallon. Was $ 2.57 in June 2016
I may try to switch out the Jeep at Alamo on Kona side to get the SUV I reserved. Staff were friendly and apologetic but I still wish I got the car I reserved the Hyundai Santa Fe!

1 word to describe Alamo car rental… AWSOME!
And I’m usually pretty skeptical and worried about car rental issues on trips. My debit car was accepted at the Hilo International Airport location with NO PROBLEMS. We were in and out with our Santa Fe all wheel drive in just minutes. And the best part was, no deposit! In fact my card wasnt even charged until 2 days AFTER I returned rental. I even saved 50 $ from the original reservation for Jeep Wrangler…
Which brings me to my next thought. Although the all wheel drive Santa Fe was a beautiful car, I wish my reservation for the Jeep Wrangler was available. Unfortunately it wasnt.
So keep in mind what you reserved online and what they actually have that day might be different. Thats the only downside.
Otherwise great company and very friendly staff. Thanks so much.
–Anthony and Renee
Hilo International Airport. May 4 — May 12^th 2016

I was in the line for Alamo at Hilo Airport, but a representative from National came to help us so that we were able to get our car faster. The process was fast. Our car, Hyundai Accent, wasn’t very clean but in good condition. We thought it’s ok so we left airport right away. Later, we found three roach running inside the car and ruining our food. Two were found late in the truck. It was disgusting. This is the first time I found out this problem with Alamo after I have been Alamo customer for so many years. :(

Been renting cars from Alamo for an extended trip now, so I’ve experience rentals on 4 islands. In context, the staff here was quite helpful and efficient on check in/​out.
Rented a mid-​sized car for 2 weeks on Big Island — wound up with a Ford Focus, which was unfortunately cramped, and very sluggish driving. Also found that the windshield wash was completely empty on pick up (something I’ve noted from other recent reviews). A day after pick up I also found one of the tires was dangerously low, so I added air — checked the pressures on the remaining tires and these were all low as well. Pretty sad to see things such as tire pressure and fluid’s not checked and verified before a car is put on the lot to rent…
Not happy with vehicle at all — if I had my time back I would have simply returned it and requested a different car.

Since we read so many reviews we choose to go with the best and it was slightly more. This is our 3^rd time using them and everyone has been the best. Got our car in minutes. Super clean, friendly and easy process. Forgot to fuel up. They only charged what we owed and not some crazy inflated price. We will be back and hope this amazing service continues.

Wow rented a SUV jeep for one day for about $ 28.00 awesome good service. Check in was fast and friendly and check out was the same. Would use them again

Spent a week in Hilo with a red convertible Camero. I enjoyed the car, but was concerned that lighting is insufficient to adequately discover old damage at night. It did not result in a conflict on this trip, but arguing old damage after the fact can be a nasty fight and with no documentation, the customer will lose 9 times out of 10. I was concerned because we discovered a decent door ding on the passenger door when we saw the car in daylight for the first time and it only had 1400 miles. Fortunately, they were not thorough when the car was checked in so the ding was never questioned.
Oddly, for a car with 1400 miles, the wiper fluid was completely empty. It took a full gallon. I would have thought that fluids get checked before rentals are released to a new customer.
On the plus side, the weekly rate was 20% lower than Hertz or Enterprise compact rates.

We stayed at The big Island and Maui and used Alamo because we got a better deal. Truthfully it’s not the company you generally use but our service on The Big Island went above and beyond. We knew we wanted to visit 2 island and one of the reasons we picked The Big Island is to take a full day to go across the Island to the waterfalls and volcano/​Lava. We waited till our last full day to go there but Late the previous evening we saw our tire was completely flat. We had ran over a nail or screw and the help line wasn’t very helpful. I said lets just see if we can turn it in a trade. As the «helpline’ only suggested using our tiny spare which would have been unsafe for such a long drive. My husband was a mechanic and changed the tire and headed to the Alamo. We called and explained our situation to the night manager. a very nice helpful Indian gentleman who very graciously stayed open a bit late as we raced there. The next day we had a very nice day and saw some amazing things. waterfalls, best botanical gardens I’d ever seen and volcano. all made possible by his helpfulness. I hope his supervisors realize what a gem they have in him and reward his work ethic. Nula you saved our day … Literally.

Service in Hilo was fine, car in good condition inside and out, rates typical but reasonable.

Service at Hilo Airport was good. Would be nice to have a quick check in since there are only 2 computer stations. Return was a breeze.
We had a Dodge Dart — it was a little busted up here and there. What surprised me is the inattention to detail when cleaning the car. It was free from clutter and debris on floor however the car could’ve used an internal wipe down, pretty sticky.
We rented through Costco which was cheaper than directly booking with Alamo (even being an Alamo Insider) and we got a free driver add-​on. By far I would say no matter how you book it’s a good deal.

Painless, easy, fast and they are the only ones that don’t charge a drop off fee if you want to rent in one location and drop off at another. Super easy and the best deal. Also, when I checked in at Kona to drop off, Brandon was super helpful and processed quickly so I could make the shuttle to the airport.

The staff was very helpful with everything… great price!

We received fast, courteous service both coming and going. Upgraded to a small SUV from standard car at no cost. The SUV was clean, reliable, and performed flawlessly! Even the windshield was wiped on both the outside and inside — a rare occurence!

another good rental
from alamo friendly staff as usual good price and the car was much cleaner this time then my past review
I was also impressed with the response from my negative review previously management contacted me almost instantly to address my concerns about the cleanliness of the car
alamo
remains my car rental
company of choice I have a number of rental with them
throughout the year

Their shuttle had us wait 30 min for pick up. Every other rental shuttle came and left while we wait for their shuttle. After that, the driver, Ashley, didn’t let us in the bus because she couldn’t find our last name on her list. So I had to pull my phone, go through my emails and go to their site and finally found the reservation number in the rain. And she didn’t do anything with it. Just wrote it on her list.

Had a great rental experience with Alamo @ Hilo Airport. Got upgraded to a convertible Camaro for a very cheap charge! It was great to cruise from Hilo to Kona with the top down! Pick up and drop off was smooth and quick!

Came to Hilo for a double celebration, my birthday and 3^rd year marriage anniversary. Booked a room, air, and car package… rental car from Alamo. Pick up time was at 8am and Peggy was our rental agent. She certainly help start our celebration on the right foot and blessed us with a better car than what was part of our package. My husband is not really a small guy and the car we were given would certainly keep him comfortable while driving us around. She even suggested a place for dinner for our anniversary. Appreciated her Aloha spirit that morning… thank you again Peggy! Posted a picture…#12 :-)

Easy car drop off. We got an adorable green Fiat 500 as a rental here. Cutest car ever. Could not believe they had such a cool car here to rent ! It was labeled a «mid size» car. Try to reserve one if you can. What a great car!

As most people know about car rental reservations, you don’t need a credit card hold for the rates. I’ve had my trip to Hilo set for 8 months prior and you bet I was montoring the rates every week or so to get the best possible rate. My target was getting a midsize or standard SUV due to unpredictable rains and lava roads. The rates for the this part of the Big Island was rather high unlike the more populated tourist locations. OK, I’ll get to bottom of this…
From another vendor, I gave up a reserved mid-​size «Ford Escape» SUV at $ 426/​week I had made months ago for a $ 487.00/week offer for a «Grand Cherokee» standard SUV offer from Costco. With this upgrade I at least knew I had a capable 4WD. At the Alamo Hilo rental desk I was presentented with a GMC Terrain AWD w/​a 4 cyl engine. I questioned if this was a standard sized SUV, and they stated that it was. I think most of us who are car enthusiasts would agree, a GMC Terrain is in no class with a Grand Cherokee, Explorer, 4Runner, etc. The Terrain is with the likes of the Rav4, Escape, Rogue.
I’m not the type to raise hell in front of my family who are tired from our long plane ride, so I got jipped $ 61. My lesson, Alamo and possibly most rental companies will jip you. Get the lower class car at the lower rate, then bargain up. This was the ONLY bad part of our wonderful time in the Hilo/​Puna area.

My experience with Alamo Rent A Car at the Hilo Airport didn’t start off on the right foot. We arrived at 7:00 pm as scheduled to pick up a midsize sedan that we were renting for 12 days. After waiting for quite a while, they drove a pickup truck up to the curb for us. If it had been just my husband and I, this would have been fine. However, in addition to a vacation, we were at the Big Island to visit and stay with my elderly grandmother and help her attend various medical appointments. There was no way my 84 year old grandmother was going to be able to climb up in that truck.
We waited about 20 more minutes and then they brought an Expedition. Again, I told the employee that vehicle was also too high, and I really just wanted the midsize sedan we requested.
After waiting about an hour and a half, they finally brought an Impala. To make up for the delay, they gave us our last day free and we didn’t have to fill the car back up with gas when we returned it.
Alamo redeemed itself for the inconvenience and ended up being a pretty good deal.