Alamo vs. Dollar

[TChrist05]

If you had the chance to rent from either Alamo or Dollar at MCO for the same size and price who would you go with? Thanks.

 

[MillauFr]

I would just go with the cheapest one. All of the major car rental companies are pretty much equal.

 

[ain0004]

Alamo you can pick out your car

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We are usually Alamo fans but this past weekend we rented with Dollar and joined the Dollar express. We had a great experience. We walked up to the counter in the garage no one was waiting they handed us our contract ( it had already been printed before we arrived) and we picked out a car and showed our license at the booth and off we went. It was faster then using the Alamo kiosk to check in.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Alamo you can pick out your car

We rented from Dollar in May, and picked our own vehicle. We signed up for Dollar Express before our trip, went straight to the garage, and on the board at the garage kiosk next to our name it indicated "see agent". A staff member indicated that we could pick from any vehicle in the aisle of the car class that we reserved.

OP, we have rented from both companies, and both were equally good. If prices are identical, I would go with Alamo as our only criticism of Dollar is that their vehicles seemed somewhat more "worn" than Alamo's fleet.

 

[wdwrich]

If prices are the same or even close, I would go with Alamo. We've always had good service from them (just returned from a two-week trip to two different destinations and Alamo was excellent at both locations). The only experience we've had with Dollar was so bad at the counter that I walked away and rented from another agency on the spot.
BTW, the advance check-in at Alamo (skip the counter and choose your vehicle) worked great for us.

 

[Jarmo]

I was not impressed with the cars at Dollar last week. Everything in the full size row was relatively beat up, and some had over 60k miles

 

[nacho113]

Alamo gets my vote.
I love being able to pick my own car and we are Costco members so you get an additional driver for free when you book with the Costco ID

 

[lovesdumbo]

Alamo has much more reasonable pricing on Sunpass use. You don't have to sign up for it & pay only $3.95/day actually used up to $19.95 plus actual tolls. With Dollar you must sign up in advance or pay $15 admin fee per use. If you do sign up in advance you pay $10.49/rental day up to $52.49.

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

Are they making you pay administrative fee at Dollar even if you drive tool less routes, have the $4.99 sunpass or pay the Tolls?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Are they making you pay administrative fee at Dollar even if you drive tool less routes, have the $4.99 sunpass or pay the Tolls?

We paid cash at all tolls in May, and were not charged an admin fee by Dollar.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Are they making you pay administrative fee at Dollar even if you drive tool less routes, have the $4.99 sunpass or pay the Tolls?

You pay the admin fee if you don't sign up in advance AND go though a toll without paying. There are some unmanned toll booths were you need exact change in the Orlando area. We ran into one on our way to/from Kennedy Space Center.

I like the convenience of using Alamos Sunpass. I generally only hit tolls going to/from airport so I only have to pay $7.90(3.95*2 days) plus tolls for that convenience. I could just pay cash but I like the ease of using Sunpass.

If I wanted to use Sunpass with Dollar I would sign up in advance but then have to pay for the 8 days of my rental so $52.49 instead of $7.90. I would likely just pay cash-Sunpass not worth over $50. So if Alamo price same as Dollar I would pick Alamo.

 

[TChrist05]

Thanks all...gonna stick with Alamo.

 

[richmo]

Yeah, with all else equal (meaning price), I'd go with Alamo. Sign up for insiders, do online checkin and go straight to the car. No counter, no kiosk, very easy.

Dollar has improved a lot in this regard too...still not quite as convenient as Alamo.

 

[kj2mom]

We rented from Dollar in May, and picked our own vehicle. We signed up for Dollar Express before our trip, went straight to the garage, and on the board at the garage kiosk next to our name it indicated "see agent". A staff member indicated that we could pick from any vehicle in the aisle of the car class that we reserved.

We paid cash at all tolls in May, and were not charged an admin fee by Dollar.

Change the month to July and sounds like my experience. The staff member also whispered if we didn't see anything we wanted in our car class we could choose from the next class up. We were happy with one in our class so we stuck with that.

 

[Keacc]

Too often with Alamo you end up with a smaller car. We reserved a midsize with Alamo and they gave us a Ford Focus. The Focus is a compact car at Dollar, National and Budget. It probably doesn't matter on mini vans but we've been burned twice by Alamo.

 

[Yellowjj]

Too often with Alamo you end up with a smaller car. We reserved a midsize with Alamo and they gave us a Ford Focus. The Focus is a compact car at Dollar, National and Budget. It probably doesn't matter on mini vans but we've been burned twice by Alamo.

Rental car companies fleets are not standardized among the competitors. Which location is this they "gave" you a car rather than you picking one out yourself? National and Alamo are sister companies so their fleets are standardized with-in each other as dictated by the parent company. The Focus may very well indeed be a midsize car there especially as most new model year cars that have been redone, have increased sizes somewhat from the outgoing models.