Hello - going to be visiting with my dive club for two weeks end of Mar beginning of Apr 2010 and will be reserving trucks in advance. I'm looking for recommendations, good experiences, bad experiences, what to look for, stuff like that.

Thanks in advance
Pam

Hi Pam and welcome to BT..There's plenty of material to peruse under this section. I think you'll find that everyone has their own favorites, the same with restaurants & dive ops.
There's a lot of competition on the island in this business and of course that's good for the consumer.

Here's a listing of the available companies.

http://www.infobonaire.com/transportation.html

Personally I use Hertz & really have not had any major problems. Good luck & enjoy your trip.

Hi Pam,
I have used a number of rental companies in 28 trips. Most of them are quite good. I really like Budget these days. GM is excellent to work with.
Bud

Hi Pam,Poppy, at Telerin Car Rental will take good care of you. She will meet you at the airport with your trucks, and handle everything needed. She is a doll, and has unpeckable costomer service!

Marcolva Henriquez (Poppy)
Cell: 5163001 (24Hrs)
Telerin Car Rental
telerin@bonairelive.com
marcolva@hotmail.com

we have used AB for both of our trips (august 2008 and just last week - we miss the island so much!). The staff is great - especially Ed.

We had rented a Tuscon saturday afternoon, drove to Cultimara that day (highly recommend the warehouse instead - great dutch pastries) and to town for dinner sunday (so total of 15 minutes of driving). when we went to our car monday morning in the lot, the side rubber panel on the front passenger door was falling off - looked like someone had kicked it. we immediately told Ed, who took us to the garage where they pulled it off. Ed told us we wouldn't be responsible for it. how nice to have a rental company that is not trying to rip you off. we will use them again when we return to bonaire.

I just recently rented from AB car rental and was extremely pleased with their car and personal service.

I have always used Ab (7 times) but I must admit that after the "inspection" it raises my paranoia level. Never had a problem with them but always found it a strange introduction to renting. Now that I think of it I did rent from Netty once. She was great and no "inspection". Unfortunately she is no longer in business or on the island.
anyway coming again this August and renting with AB.

I'm an AB fan as well. They were incredible this trip. I had flight issues and arrived several hours after AB closed. They had a driver waiting for me!!! Way to go AB!

Thanks everybody - AB sounds like a good choice.

Make sure you read prior posts on insurance. AB offers full and CDW. Last year we took full insurance at $11 a day - expensive. This year we declined all insurance because we went with Visa's car rental insurance which will cover driving in the National Park (Mastercard's insurance requires you to drive on paved roads, while Visa only requires you to drive on a road that is marked on a map). We had to sign a credit card authorization for $1500 in case we damaged the car, but they rip it up when you return the car with no damage. If they had charged us for anything, then we would have just filed a claim with Visa to get reimbursed. But the $1500.00 scares a lot of people.

Just a note on insurance. Our regular car insurance will cover rental cars, even international, but would not cover a truck on Bonaire. We had heard something about that but had to call our insurance company a few times to find that detail. So we ended up with the insurance from AB. We were pleased with their truck and their service.

Bonnie, If you don't mind, I would be interested in knowing what car insurance company you have that insures you internationally.

Bonnie.. A word to the wise..ALL auto insurance policies sold in the US use ISO approved coverage forms. To my knowledge, they (except specialized manuscript policies)provide very limited international coverage..Check your policy under the territories which will specifically list..Usually the US, it's territories & possessions & Canada. Bonaire is neither. If you went to the US Virgin Islands & Puerto Rico you'd be OK for liability coverage.

hmm...thanks for the information. We have Metropolitan and they specifically said they would cover a car rental in Bonaire. But we weren't sure we were talking to someone very knowledgeable, so that's why we called back to check several times. The final story was they'd cover a car but not a truck. I will check and get the answer in writing before we come again in February because we are planning to get a car this time.

Bonnie..what someone tells you over the phone & what's in your policy may be two separate things. Rest assured, the latter will rule.
Read you auto policy, specifically the section under covered territory.

Another question, what does "cover a car rental" mean? Are they talking physical damage to the rented vehicle or liability coverage? If it's liability, are you sure it's an auto policy & not an umbrella endorsed onto a homeowner policy?

Pickups are not covered under Amex card insurance unless you pre-enroll in the Amex premium program, which costs $17.50 extra per rental. There is no liability coverage.

KEn I also use my AMEX when renting on BON, One charge for lees than 20.00 USD is sure a lot cheaper than a full coverage charge that is being billed daily. Just make sure you decline all other insurance, AMEX requires that they are the ONLY insurance coverage in force on the rental.

Jim, I used AMEX on my last trip when I rented a pickup, but I also got the CDW because AMEX did not cover liability.

wow that's news to me. I'll have to give AMEX a call and find out when and why they changed their policy.

Has anyone used Bonaire Rent A Car rental agency? We have used AB and were happy, but Bonaire Rent A Car is a bit less expensive, which means money for something else (like diving!) However, we would rather pay a little more for less hassle if necessary. Thanks for any help.... Can't wait to get back to Bonaire in 3 weeks!!

We sailed into Bonaire April of 2009. Rented a truck so we could do a lot of diving. Chose Voyager Rental Cars as they were a few dollars cheaper........per month. Not worth the few dollars as John, the owner will charge you for anything and everything he can think of. We have had 3 credit card disputes with him, all settled in our favor. It is not worth the few dollars you may save on rental fees, when he will try and charge you for everything imaginable. And then you have to fight it.
Do NOT give him your credit card. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND him to anyone. If you need details, let us know. Just DO NOT do Business with him.

maggie you stated it once and that is enough...
please don't make me delete a post because of spam. please tell us what happened and then John can answer as well..

We were charged $5,650.00 initially as a "security deposit". Supposed to be $565.00. Took over 2 months to get removed, after our credit card company had to fight. First time in 15 years as credit card holders that we had a dispute. Hit and run ocurred. Police report said not our fault as did John. He said he could charge per island custom, but would not as we were renting for a month and were to be on island for many more months. So we chose to rent a truck for another month. Paid him in cash at his request as it saved hime 9% from the credit card companies. We are always happy to help a small business man, as that is our background. He changed the truck 3 times in four days. One was sold, don't know why on the second truck. I drove the 3rd truck 1/2 mile when the tire blew. Disintegrated. Not just flat but beyond repair. They came out and changed it. Then we got a bill for $145.69. We asked "why"? They said we are responsible for all repairs. The contract states $20.00 for a flat tire.
I don't know what you mean by did we rent a wreck as those were the only trucks offered to us. For $20 less a week than the other rental companies, if I had known we were renting a wreck that we would be responsible for all maintenance and repairs, we clearly would not choose this as a viable alternative.
We turned our truck in on Friday and we all shook hands that there was no damage or further charges. I looked at our credit card today and he has charged $393/50 for the hit and run in May that he agreed was not our fiscal responsiblity. I would not trust his word. He says one thing and does another. The credit card companies have agreed with us and rejected his charges.
We love every other aspect of Bonaire and have spent four very memorable months here. We would recommend anyone to come to Bonaire. We have been reef volunteers for our four months of diving here and just love it.
We have never been involved in a dispute such as this with a merchant and felt compelled to alert others. Everyone we have met who has rented from other car companies has had no problems. As people who travel constantly, we just did not want anyone to have the negative experience we have had with one merchant.
He has of today, charged another credit card for the hit and run accident back in May that he had agreed was not our responsibilty 3 1/2 months ago.

Maggie, thx for the explanation. We all learn something of it. Sometimes less rental charges means a lot of trouble. Too bad Netty isn't in business anymore.

Just my 2 cents....We used AB in March and had no problems. Just a bit of waiting to check in and get the car as many others were also waiting for their vehicle. They were helpful and professional.

We used Poppy at Telerin two weeks ago and she was, IMHO, top notch. Nice truck, great service and fast. Would definately use her again.

Hello, My wife and I will be spending two weeks on Bonaire in Feb. to snorkel and would like your opinion on two things:

Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with Island Rental Car Company?

Second, we are trying to decide if we should rent a pick-up or the Landwind X-pedition. It looks like a small station wagon.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Steve S

Over the years, I have used Budget, Island, AB, Nettys and Telerin. All were at least OK and one was great (Telerin). Hope that helps...