TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Rental Car (Late Arrival)

Does anyone have any experience in renting a car when arriving late? For our February trip, we arrive on AA's flight from Miami at 11 pm on a Saturday evening. Are any rental car companies still open at that time?

If not, we are staying at our condo at Les Balcons in Oyster Pond. Does anyone know if the rental car companies offer a drop off service to Oyster Pond?

Thanks in advance.

I would suggest you include your arrival time when you request a quote from several rental companies you are considering. I think you will be pleased with the responses you receive. Several threads have spoken about late arrivals and car rental accommodations.

We stayed at Les Balcons in 2015, liked it

We cabbed from the airport - Wilfred Brooks - and AAA dropped the car the next morning at Les Balcons. When we made the car reservation we gave a time [9:30 am] and it worked great - car was dropped, walk around, signature and done

One caveat re a late night cab, pretty sure you know, but for others, the rates change later at night per the cab schedule

Returning, we either get the car picked up the day before and cab back to the airport with Wilfred or drive back, drop our bags at the airport, go onto AAA, drop the car and they'll drive us back to whatever resto we want

J&B

If they have a reservation, the car rental guys will be there. That said, please know that most all of them that I have dealt with charge by the CALENDAR day, not by the hour, like places in the states. So you will pay the full freight for that one hour of the day that you have the car. Almost all of the companies will deliver the car to your hotel, if you want to do it that way. Usually it does NOT cost more to do that. If it were me, arriving that late, I might just do a cab and get the car the next day. As someone else pointed out though, cab rates go up, later at night, and I really don't know how much a cab would be to Oyster Pond late at night. You could check with Wilfred to see how much it would be. Someplace real close to the airport, it's a no brainer, just get a cab, that late.

And, not for nothin', but I LOATHE that AA has that flight arriving that late at night. It seriously stinks. That flight is the one that always seems to be available on frequent flyer, and that is just crazy, to arrive that late at night, from the US..

Couldn't agree more. The flight sucks. The only redeeming thing is instead of a flight out of Chicago at 5:30 or 6:00 am, our flight leaves at 11:00 with a three hour layover in Miami.

I agree with Carol, it would be much easier getting a taxi that time of night, your going to be tired when you arrive just having someone waiting is nice, helping with luggage, and dropping you off at the front door of your place, plus it's also safer. We always use Wilfred to go too and from the airport no matter what time we arrive or leave. For a car rental we've had good luck with AutoMax dropping off and picking up the car at our condo, plus he's on the French side, but I know a lot of people swear by Kenny's.

I guess I'm the devil's advocate here. For my upcoming November trip, I'm arriving on that icky 11 PM flight (the good part is that I can get there on the same day I leave the West Coast). Leisure will pick us up upon arrival, take us to their office just a few feet from the airport, and then we drive to our condo. I asked them which they preferred: pick up at 11 PM or delivery next morning, and they preferred the former. After I thought about it, I do too. After traveling nearly 24 hours, we might want to sleep in the next morning, and I didn't want to have an "appointment" to be up and dressed at a certain time to get the delivered car rental. So I'm happy getting the car late in the evening.

From the left coast, your situation is a bit different, for sure. I probably would want to sleep in also, considering your body clock would be 3 hours behind East Coast time, and as you say, traveling for 24 hours.

I just find it ridiculous that a flight from Miami should arrive at that time of night. I guess they think it makes sense for them. The plane overnights in SXM anyway, so I guess they don't care how much the passengers hate it.