How To Rent a Car in Cancun

Renting cars in Mexico has a bad reputation. Companies are known for scams like charging for scratches that already existed and overcharging by requiring cash payment.

I have rented a car in Mexico twice.

The first rental was from Enterprise. Overall we had no major issues with the rental or billing. What we were surprised with was that our credit cards would’t work and we couldn’t book a car in advance! We tried twice to reserve a car ahead of time, but in the end we had to go rent it the day before!

The second time we rented a car went a little differently. In an effort to save a bit of money we decided to go with Alamo, which ended up giving us a big headache. Our “adventure” started when we had to wait for 2 hours for the Alamo representative to return from lunch. Not only did they take a 3 hour lunch, they were not reachable during this time. We complained about this and were promised an upgrade free of charge. I guess upgrade means something different in Mexico, because the car we got could not have been much worse. It had lots of dents, NO RADIO, and NO AIRBAGS. Not only did we get a crappy car, we had to pay in cash. I’m pretty sure the attendant was pocketing some of the fee. We complained and were offered a late drop-off time. We arrived 15 minutes before our time and the representative was not there. When he did arrive he told us he had not given us a late drop off time and proceeded to charge us for an extra hour. I was furious. I will give Alamo some credit though. When I informed Alamo headquarters of what had happened they responded quickly and reversed the charges. For this reason I HIGHLY recommend renting from a company that has headquarters in Canada or the USA.

As long as you are careful, get insurance, and check for dents you should be fine to rent a car in Mexico. Don’t let fear stop you from travelling and exploring!