Alamo Rent A Car

Overall, I was very happy with my rental experience with Alamo. The staff was friendly and courteous. My vehicle was a low mileage Dodge Charger (which pleasantly surprised me with its comfort and performance).

I had a reservation for a compact car.
When I came to pick up the car, they told me that there were no compact cars left. This happens, and when it has happened in the past the rental agency has offered me an intemediate-​sized car at the original price. I’m not thrilled when this happens, as there are gasoline and parking disadvantages to larger cars, but I’m used to it. I rent cars at an airport about three times per year, and once a year or so they give me the free mandatory upgrade. If Richmond Alamo had done that I would have been modestly annoyed but not nearly upset enough to write an unfavorable review.
Not so for this rental. They offered me a choice with three alternatives:
1: Accept an SUV
2: Accept a minivan
3: Accept an intermediate-​sized car, AND PAY $ 20/​DAY EXTRA.
I accepted the SUV — which turned out to be a frigging pickup truck. The truck barely fit in the hotel parking lot [which had a six-​foot ceiling].
I would have expected Alamo to send me out in one of the intermediate-​sized cars at the originally agreed-​to price, like every rental agency I have ever used has done when they run out of compacts. I get it that they prefer to run out of compacts than out of intermediates, since a compact customer can be somewhat satisfied with an intermediate but not vice versa, but I didn’t expect a huge premium for this change at their request.
I’m not sure it’s corporate. I think the clerk at the desk gets comissions or at least performance review upgrades for successful upsells. The reason I think that is that they tried very hard to upsell me for Collision Damage Wavier and GPS and pre-​purchase of a full tank of gas. I think he wanted a successful upsell of a vehicle size category for a substitution he would have been required to make anyway.
I called Corporate when I returned from my trip. I wanted $ 20/​day compensation, the amount they tried to upsell me, to compensate me for the white-​knuckled experience I had getting into and out of the hotel parking lot with about two inches of clearance. Corporate swore that clerks do not get rewarded for upsells, but they wouldn’t give me any compensation for my bad experience. They could have at least given me some reward points, which would at least have shown that they were of a mind to do something to make me a bit less unhappy.
–dk

I typically rent from Alamo and have no issues. Richmond airport Alamo provides decent car options (not many luxury options) and not bad customer service… Until this last experience! I returned my car about 11:30pm and there was a line of about 20 people waiting to pick up cars and 3 people returning cars. All of this with only ONE associate! Alamo has to do better with their night time operations.

Terrific job again Alamo all three employees at the Richmond airport were great.

We arrived at our destination airport (Richmond, VA) quite late and found an upgraded (for free) car waiting for us. Check out was easy, as is the usual case with Alamo. Two days into our trip Winter Storm Jonas hit, marooning us in our hotel room. Before the storm hit I opened the trunk of the car thinking it would be empty but no, Alamo had placed not one but two ice scrapers/​snow brushes in there. I took the brushes into our hotel room so we were able to go outside occasionally and keep the car free from ice and snow as the storm progressed (we really had nothing else to do). Once the weather cleared, we were on our way while other folks were attempting to chisel the ice off of their cars with their credit cards. Returning the car was easy too. Nice job, Alamo!

Worst car rental I’ve ever had.
I went on Priceline and found the best deal which was 173 ’ for the week and a day. At the end of it it was over $ 325 The counterperson said that even though my USAA insurance covered me if anything happened Virginia is a no fault state so they would take every penny they could get if I used my USAA insurance. Still I paid for the insurance and they said they would only cover $ 3000. Car was OK — the rest was not. Never Alamo again. I was screwed total bill was over $ 325 for 8 days with insignificant mileage. Felt very cornered to get additional services. Also many extra fees and taxes added that you never knew about. Awful.

Booked online with Alamo with an Insiders discount and upgrade. May have been able to get a lower price through hotwire or one of the other booking agents, but I like dealing directly. The wait in line took maybe 20 minutes due to only one clerk for both National and Alamo customers, but all went fairly smooth. Got the car size promised at the price promised and we were on our way in less than 30 minutes. I would like to mention that the car was actually clean and I could see clearly through the windows because they had been cleaned. So many times renting cars I’ve had to stop at a service station to clean windows inside and out due to water spots outside and a film inside. Overall great experience.

I booked through the Internet and having read the descriptions of how much luggage each car group would hold, opted for the premium class with cars that held five suitcases. We had three adults with a suitcase and several carryons each to stow in the car. Also used a Visa card for its insurance coverage on car rentals.
When we arrived at the counter, the service person looked at our baggage and immediately tried to talk me into a SUV. I told her that I had booked the premium car group because that car would fit all our baggage and we wanted it out of sight when we were sightseeing. I also didn’t feel comfortable driving a large vehicle. While we were talking, someone in the lot apparently gave away the one premium car left so we had to settle for a GMC Terrain at the same price. An SUV crossover. It had no cover to conceal the luggage area from view and an annoying Onstar announcement that came on every time we turned on the car. It told us to press the blue button to stop this demo mode but there was no blue button displayed. Of course there was no manual in the car. Online search provided basic operations but nothing about Onstar.
We were given a hard sell on basic insurance because the Visa coverage was inadequate – Alamo would not provide another rental if there was an accidental, Visa card would be held ‘hostage’ until car repaired, etc.
Except for the issues cited above with the vehicle (no cargo cover and Onstar annoyance) it rode well and gas mileage was all right. We mentioned the Onstar problem when we turned it in and the lady said she would see that it was disabled.

alamo did not honor the price and reservation I purchased through Priceline. My $ 18 per day deal was not honored, I was charged $ 42 a day. It is currently under review through Priceline.

Terrible experience with Donnella on May 14, 2015. Management should prepare for trouble ahead, because it won’t stop unless you do something.

I rented a car for the weekend, got a great deal on
. 3 days for $ 63.00! The clerks at the counter were super nice, The guy who helped me was brand new, his 2^nd day if work actually. He struggled through the computer but did well, his personality made up for his inexperience.
I will be sure to use them again.

Great service at the Richmond, VA airport location, from the agent at the counter, to the quality of the vehicle, to the ease of rental and competitive pricing. Thank you.

Everything worked well. I arrived after 10 p.m., got my luggage and found — no line. (On a previous visit, at another rental agency I spent about 45 minutes in line). Alamo and National share a counter, and the National person waved me over. She did try to push the insurance, which I refused. A bonus: you can buy a half tank of gas (returning a car on «empty» is too nerve-​wracking), and she had the price of gas locally, which was somewhat more than the Alamo charge. Her information was, by the way, correct.
I had ordered a mid-​sized car, since I have a Toyota Corolla at home and this was actually the least expensive. The clerk had no mid-​size cars available and wanted to move me to a standard, which sounded larger. I asked for a smaller car, but at the price I was quoted. She had to check — and found that the smaller cars were indeed more expensive. However, she did honor the American Airlines mid-​size price on a smaller car.
There was no problem with the vehicle. Check-​out and check-​in were quick and easy.

Service was fast and friendly. They did not push to add on all the extras other car rental companies do. Clean and nice vehicle. I certainly recommend.

The man that helped me was very kind and helped me get the best price.
I booked an economy car with Payless through Expedia and was quoted ~$ 150 for 5 days only to be told at the counter that they didn’t have any cars for me and was sent to the Avis desk where the person was very rude and also quoted me $ 350 for an economy car for 5 days. She said she wouldn’t accept same day bookings so I couldn’t go on Expedia to get a lower rate. I wasn’t going to pay that.
I went to the Alamo counter and talked to the man and he quoted me a price and I asked if it would be cheaper if I booked through Expedia and he told me to go ahead and try that. I booked through Expedia and was quoted $ 230 for 5 days. (This doesn’t include the $ 25 a day charge extra for being under 25.) He was able to lower that price to $ 215 or so and when I was ready to sign he told me not to because he thought he could get the price a little lower. The total ended up being $ 202 for 5 days and I was not charged an under 25 age fee.
I highly recommend Alamo and will rent from them again. I’d also like to add that since they were out of economy cars I was upgraded to a Chrysler 200 which was great.

Will NEVER rent from Alamo again…
— CSR’s rude and really couldn’t give a sh! t, especially Crystal @ the RIC — Richmond, VA airport.
— I was 4 minutes early to pick up my car, they tried to raise my daily rate by $ 4 per day. Lady beside me was 9 minutes early — they tried to raise her daily rate by $ 6.04 per day.
— Man in front of me had to return his car because charger didn’t work.
— Next lady exchanged her car because the oil change light was on.
— And my key literally broke off when I hit the release button!!! (see pic)
Car was dirty (checkout lint crap on window)!
I chose Alamo on purpose because my last car rental a few weeks ago was with the ATL (Atlanta, GA airport) location and they were awsome!
Alamo: y’all are losing customers thanks to poor employee choices like Ms. Crystal in the parking garage at the RIC airport location!

Having had a blowout 200 miles from rental start, Alamo worked well with a remote office and had the cars switched out in timely fashion. Could not drive far on the doughnut spare, so they came through for me and recognized how valuable my time was. Will choose them again next time.
RO

UPDATE: Was instructed to email customer care. Was then asked to call Tim– the Customer Service Manager for Richmond.
I called and went over again my dismay @ lack of electric seat, floor mats & cruise control. In a nutshell: I was told if you want those things pay more for rental. How disappointing yet again. In all our years of renting cars in all classes, I have never rented one w/​out the aforementioned basic amenities. Exactly what belonging to and being a frequent renter w/​Alamo Club entitles one to, I have yet to discern.
We were Offered nothing-​not even an apology
Actions speak louder than words–
GOODBYE ALAMO–

We had some troubles with flat tire through no fault of our own. Alamo charged us $ 75 and we had to fight it because Volkswagen said the car rental was still under warranty… Took them 3 hours to help repair. We kept telling our credit card company to reject the charge but they continued to charge us. I was irritated so I wrote a review on here and problem was resolved within 24 hrs! Thank you for the response and help Ben!!! Really appreciate it.