Don't rent a car from Avis or Hertz on the island.....

[Ron Lee]

Does one still have to take a van from the airport to their office...??

Perhaps but verify. You know the taxi/airport shuttle unions.

Personally I walk out to the road and take a taxi.

 

[PeterNBiddle]

Dang! Wish I had thought of that! Several years ago we did the same thing when Park Royal first opened. Our offer was for a jeep for 24 hrs and a bottle of tequila. We ended up spending nearly 2 hrs in there! Every time we said "no" they handed us off to a more high pressure salesman! We finally got out with the rental voucher and the crappiest tequila I have ever had! (Poured it down the sink!) Your idea is pure genious!

Some old friends of ours did the opposite - they were young and in Mexico and were robbed. They had a week left and only the cash they were carrying. They used it to buy an engagement ring then passed themselves off to everyone as looking for a place to get married and for their rich parents to buy them for their honeymoon. They got wined and dined the entire week for free.

 

[judydivescoz]

I love renting the $30. beetles. I had the silver one for 5 weeks this winter with no problems. My all-time favorite is the purple one, someone already had it when I arrived.

 

[mstevens]

My wife is currently driving a Beetle from Isis and my parents rented a very nice Chevy Tadeo with automatic and A/C last week. The Tadeo was in a completely different class from the topless Beetles we always rent and barely more expensive. My son vastly prefers the Beetles, though.

Margarita has been totally honest with us through multiple rentals, including ones during which I dented her cars. She's a pleasure to work with. Her nephew Edgar runs Isis Playa del Carmen, which is nice for when we take the ferry and head out to various places. His cars are fancier and less island-y, which is both good and bad.

I finally got to meet Isis last week, btw. She's Margarita's daughter.

---------- Post added April 30th, 2012 at 05:26 PM ----------

Does one still have to take a van from the airport to their office...??

Yes.

Mysteriously, no taxi drivers know where it's located. The fact that it's across the street from Kinta and practically next door to Zermatt make it easy to get to. From the airport, it's the 57 peso fare for Centro.

 

[DandyDon]

Yes.

Mysteriously, no taxi drivers know where it's located. The fact that it's across the street from Kinta and practically next door to Zermatt make it easy to get to. From the airport, it's the 57 peso fare for Centro.

Oh, they know where it is. But they can't pick up from the airport if you carry too much luggage to walk to the road, so take the sardine van huh.

 

[BigFloyd]

Oh, they know where it is. But they can't pick up from the airport if you carry too much luggage to walk to the road, so take the sardine van huh.

Three of us are heading down on May 13th and I have a VW conv reserved with Margarita.

Would it be better for us to 1) all take the sardine van to ISIS with our bags or 2) me to walk to the road, catch a cab to ISIS, and then come back to the airport to pick up the other 2 guys and all the bags?

 

[DandyDon]

Three of us are heading down on May 13th and I have a VW conv reserved with Margarita.

Would it be better for us to 1) all take the sardine van to ISIS with our bags or 2) me to walk to the road, catch a cab to ISIS, and then come back to the airport to pick up the other 2 guys and all the bags?

You think you can get 3 people and bags in a VW?! :shocked2:

If you didn't have bags, you can save time by all 3 of you taking the van to the Isis location. If the 2 left at the airport wouldn't be too bored waiting, you'd save a few bucks with just 1 going for the car I guess. I think I'd send 2 with bags in a van to the hotel and 1 go to Isis to get the car as I just can't imagine much luggage in the VW - but then my home bud & I travel with 150# of bags each.

 

[WOODMAN]

We had 7 bags total- 3 big checked bags, my pelican hard side roller carryon (camera bag), two backpacks stuffed to the limit, and Judy's little roller carryon, (about 250# in all) and we got it all in that VW GOL which we got from Isis. We took it all to the airport, and Judy stayed to guard it, (although one of those guys with a roller cart descended on us immediately and took all of our stuff, and then stayed with us until they checked our bags in. Very nice.) I then drove back to Isis, settled up, and they drove me back to the airport for free. Very smooth. They would like to pick up at the airport, but the fight with the taxi union isn't worth it, says Margarita. Oh well, 57 pesos per person in the taxi van, which is currently less than 4 1/2 bucks, and you are at Isis, and no dragging luggage out to that darn roundabout. What more could you want? Woody

 

[mstevens]

Oh, they know where it is. But they can't pick up from the airport if you carry too much luggage to walk to the road, so take the sardine van huh.

I know they actually know where it is. It's just that all the taxi drivers, including the airport van drivers, claim not to.

---------- Post added May 1st, 2012 at 11:32 AM ----------

You think you can get 3 people and bags in a VW?!.

Done it numerous times, including a few days ago. However, with 6 people it took 2 trips.

 

[Mike]

I just got back today from another Coz vacation and another disaster with another rental car company. We rent a car, because we have a 2 year old who requires a car seat. We were in Cozumel in January and rented a car from Hertz. Long story short, we booked it through Expedia and they said it would cost $360 and that included insurance and taxes we had that in writing. We arrive at the airport to turn the car in and they tried to say it is $720 something. We refused to sign and handed them the keys. Sure enough, they tried to charge us that and we contested it. The bank said you signed the contract agreeing to $700 and I said BS we didn't sign anything. They scanned over the document and it was a forgery of my signature that was done by Hertz. The bank had my signature on file and took the money from them, so they didn't get a penny extra.

We thought we would have better luck with Avis... wrong. My in-laws rented a car and it was supposed to be $400 and we signed the credit card slip. Got back and she checked her acct and they hit it for $590.. here we go again. Are there no honest car rental places on the island? My in-laws loved Cozumel, but are talking about not going back due to this incident. They knew of our prior incident and we all thought that was a one time deal.

I've rented many rental cars from the major carriers in Cozumel, I've also rented them thru Expeida.com. I've even waited until after being on the island for a few days and gone on Expedia's website and rented a car. I've never had a single problem with any of them in regard to charges.

There seems to be some confusion with how the charges are made I'm pretty sure it all revolves around the insurances.

When you rent thru Expedia, all the insurances are never included. Expedia clearly states that they aren't included. I attached some pictures showing this. Every time I've rented through Expedia those insurances cannot be added on the website and be included in your fee, they are added at the end of the rental. You agree to them at time of pickup of the car and pay the total upon drop off. They are listed as Conditional Charges on Expedia.

You can see if you read the details of what I posted that my example $128 weekly rental went to $300 with the insurance. I would have had a reservation for $128, but when I gave them back the car I would have had a total of $300 for the rental.