We have a minivan reserved through Alamo Car Rental in February and don't fly in (from Aruba) until 9:30 PM on a Saturday evening. Are they reliable at Alamo and will they wait for us to get through customs before they close? It will be very close to their 10PM closing time by the time we get to them. Thanks for any help with this.

i think the rental offices stay open until after your flight arrives...at least that's been my experience in the past.

Have found Alamo one of the best to deal with. They know your flight arrival time and will wait for you to claim your car. They are good about being there early for you if you have an early flight out too. I have had good dealings with them on past occasions when schedule was a concern.

Regards, D. Paganelli

Watch out for these folks! We reserved an SUV and got a tiny Toyota with which we could not get to half the dive sites or Washington/Slagbaai reservation park. The Alamo people were never there (they knew of our arrival/departure times which were very reasonable). They charged $6 per extra driver per day when the contract stated $3 per day. Some other company did the check out in the dark without a flash light, but when we brought the car back, they did a thorough inspection with flashlight and started complaining about some scratch that I'm sure was there before but was missed in the dark. We had a great time on Bonaire, this was the only mess we got into. It figures, an American company. Oh well, that's why you can dispute anything on a credit card. Stay away from them. Everyone on the island recommended AB Car Rental, although I personally do not have any experience with them.

Who is the local rep for Alamo on Bonaire?
I've never heard of them being here and I don't see a phone number or yellowpage listing for them in the phonebook. Very strange. Do they have a real booth at the airport?

I do not know who the local rep is for Alamo, but they do have an actual booth at the airport. The people that checked us in and out was Total car rental. The Alamo booth was always dark/closed. I'll let "Bonaire Talk" know more after I have talked to Alamo and found out what they are going to do about this situation. Again, Bonaire was fantastic, the people were great and let's not talk about the diving :-) I'm looking forward to coming back this fall!

I do not have any bad experiences with Alamo, they are very helpful, caring and courteous. I have rented 4 times with them and never had any
problems.

Whenever I would arrive at night, there was always a host(ess), because I would doublecheck everything before leaving home.
So I would mail or call them if they could confirm everything if they had the correct arrival time, if 'my' car/truck was still there.
Last year december (2003) I was delayed in (SJU) and I made a few phonecalls to them and they waited for me at the airport, and also they were so polite to call my hotel and tell them I was delayed. (Great service)

This year I will be coming to Bonaire again and I will rent a car from them again.

Devon, I am really glad that you've had good experiences with them. From what you're describing, it actually sounds like excellent service. Too bad we were not as lucky.

We did double check everything at home before we went and we had confirmations in writing. I did not feel that I had to call them before leaving home, since the reservations were "guaranteed" and I had rented from Alamo several times in the USA and Europe without a single problem.

As I stated before, I'll wait and see what Alamo will do about it. All I can do right now is report my experiences with them on Bonaire. By the way, we were not the only ones that had problems returning the car....

Linda (and others) - Alamo and National merged in the U.S., so the Alamo franchise on Bonaire is the same as the National franchise on Bonaire (see http://www.alamonationalbonaire.com)

Jan - did you try to get hold of the manager of Alamo on Bonaire while you were here? I know the folks who run the company and they are quite conscientious about making sure their customers are well taken care of. You can try reaching them now at info@alamonationalbonaire.com too, I would suspect.

Jake

Jake,

I just received an email from one of the people at Alamo, asking me to get in touch with them, which I will do here shortly. I hope we can resolve any issues locally, and if so, I will post this on the board right away. I do not want to cause anyone's business any harm if a mistake was made and the company makes it right.

Thank you for your help!

Best regards,
Jan

Unfortunately, my e-mails with Alamo on Bonaire have resulted in them not taking any responsibility for their mistakes and lack of customer service, and to take it up with Alamo in the USA.
We are disputing our whole charge while we're exploring all of our options at this point.
Too bad it had to come this far.
Jan