TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin car rentals and prices

Starting to plan for our return and was wondering if there are shortages of cars to rent? Are the rental prices more than what they have been in the past?
We understand that tourism has been down, but we were wondering if there will be a shortage of rental cars in the near future?

Cars are available and normally this is the High Season that runs from December 15th to April 15th.

Yes, cars available. We just confirmed with Leslie at Kenny's car rental.

We are all set with Triple A for March. No problem.

There are plenty of cars, many have extra dents from Irma, and a lot of the companies are renting them for 20 - 25% less than last year.

Do not be surprised if your car has scratches, dents and other indications that it has survived a hurricane.

Check on the deposit that they will hold from your credit card.

For whatever it’s worth, we always ask our rental agency for the more ‘lovingly used’ cars whenever possible so the post-Irma look won’t be a problem for us at all, when we finally manage to get back to the island.

In honesty, IMHO, the roads are not great Island-wide and a few of the beach access roads are really the pits, and every so often when we do end up with a brand new rental car I cringe and spend our entire trip worrying about possible dings and dents we might incur not to mention the occasional pothole or unpainted ‘sleeping policeman’ that might be lying in wait for us. Our rental agency always treats us well and I’d hate to be the one to put the first wrinkle in his new car.

DDnBob.

I would have a backup plan if i were you. I confirmed with Alain Jan 25th for a rental on Feb 28 for 3 wks. He confirmed back to me. I sent him an email one week before arrival (2-21-18) to ask where we would meet for pickup at the airport to take us to pickup the car. I never heard back from him. We looked outside of baggage claim for over 1/2 hr. Asked multiple rental car people about AAA or Alain and no one could help. Don't know what happened to him. Have been using Alain for multiple years. Never happened before. Ended up getting a car from someone else. No email from him wondering where i was. Just an fyi. Good luck.

Sadly, you are not the first person this has happened to.

Thank you for the heads up. I emailed down to Alain so will see if I get anything back. It's too bad since we've rented from him for 16 years and always had great service.

Yes, we have rented from him several times without any problems.

Really hoping this was just a hiccup. Will keep you posted.

I've reached out to him twice and yet to hear back. I was hoping it was that I was reserving far in advance.

Just FYI I will be on the island in September and I have reserved a car with Lesley Bruce of Kenny's and he has quoted me a very reasonable rate of $150 for a Corolla (or similar) for the week.

An update to our car rental with Alain at Triple AAA. We called and left a message, also emailed him yesterday to confirm our reservation for our trip starting 3/18. We heard back from him this morning and are all set. Hoping for no hiccups.