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Alamo
Category: Hotels & Travel Car Rental Car Rental [Edit]
920 University Ave(between 7th St & 8th St)
Berkeley, CA 94710
(866) 228-5004
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 8 am - 6 pm
Sat 8 am - 2 pm
MICHAEL W. said: "Rich and Todd do a great job. Cars are reliable. Rates are great. Casual atmosphere. And I understand their 20th anniversary of doing business is coming up soon. Here's to another 20 years!" read more »
8 reviews for Alamo
8 reviews in English
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Review from Kelly T.
1/24/2012
A friend of mine rented a car while he was in town and I was along as the "second authorized driver".
I was hesitant to rent from Alamo just because I've gotten good deals from another company before and sometimes I have a hard time going somewhere new when the old standby is so reliable!
This all being said...
I thought Alamo of Berkeley's rates were pretty reasonable. The people at the counter were nice, and tried to have a little sense of humor to accompany the zaney exchanges between me and my travelin' buddy.
I thought that it was nice that although we only reserved a compact they gave us a full sized sedan with no extra charges.
All in all, I thought it was a pretty good experience. I do wish they would do pick ups and drop offs, though. -
Review from Jessica L.
Berkeley, CA
6/25/2010
Note: To reach this local office, dial 866 228 5004 then option 6.
I've rented from these guys maybe 10 times in the past 18 months. The employees are always very professional and very helpful. Their prices are good, too. They're maybe a 15 minute walk from the North Berkeley BART, a little closer to the Amtrak station, and right by a bus stop on University. They're also very close to three cheap gas stations, which is handy when returning. I always opt to pay the few cents extra (tax) for the rental to earn me frequent flier miles, and they post them REALLY FAST.
A few tips:
- When making your reservation online, don't bother with the "Save Time! Fill in this information now so your rental is faster" bit. For one thing they're pretty fast at this place. But more importantly, I think the reservation system has a bug; the only two times I've tried that section, I've shown up for my car and they haven't had any record of my reservation. Weird, right? Maybe it's a Mac thing (once it was on my MacBook Pro and once on my husband's MacBook). Whatever, I gave up trying to use that feature. (Of course the employees were super helpful and honored the price I'd reserved for -- maybe I was lucky that I brought a printout of the confirmation email, and that they had a car available.)
- Unless you pre-pay, your reservation is only good for one hour after the time you say you'll be there! I told a friend that I got surprised by this, and she basically thought I was an a-hole for thinking they'd hold the car for even 30 minutes after my RSVP time, but just in case you're an a-hole like me, bear this in mind. Of course the employees found me a car anyway that time, because they are always awesome, but I did have to wait over an hour for someone to return one, then for it to be cleaned. So don't make my mistake!
- Note that their weekend hours are pretty limited, and there's no unmanned return.
Really, these guys are the best car-rental experience I've ever had. -
Review from Stephen H.
Oakland, CA
4/14/2011
Reserved a compact car at shockingly low rate through Costco. When I arrived, I was offered a nice Yukon but, seeing as I was driving 600 miles in the next 3 days, I did not want a gas hog so I politely requested the tinier, more fuel efficient ride. The manager, Ce-Ce, and her staff phoned around and found a Chevy Cobalt in Berkeley. A friendly employee drove me over there, and in minutes I was on my way.
I admit, at first, when there was so uncertainty if they'd have a smaller car, I began to loathe car rental agencies. But even if I did take the Yukon, Ce-Ce promised to give me a discount and some fuel assistance to offset the difference.
It seems a good manager can make a good branch. It is certainly true in this case. -
Review from Christopher Z.
Berkeley, CA
Updated - 1/28/2011
The parking lot is completely full sometimes because it's shared with a hotel. I had to park the rental car on 7th street in the closest spot to the entrance in order to go in and add an additional driver last summer. During the time I was inside (5-10min) someone smashed the window and stole everything in the back seat. I live around here, I should have known better, but if alamo just had a couple spots dedicated for their customers, this wouldn't have happened.
In happier news, I had a replacement within minutes and the credit card company eventually covered the broken window (which was fixed by alamo at the correct cost, no shady business).1 Previous Review: Show all »
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2/21/2010
I rented from these guys twice in the last month or so. The prices were about as good as the other… Read more »
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Review from Lisa T.
4/6/2010
We chose this place because it offered a decent price on a mid-sized car with Sirius satellite radio -- a must, if you're headed down to LA for the weekend.
Problem was, THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH CARS.
I reserved the car for 9 a.m. and Alamo didn't tell me that I had to wait for the previous renter to show up and return the car! They finally rolled in around 9:20, but then the car had to be washed and vacuumed (and you can imagine what a cursory job they did with that).
On top of it, the car smelled like cigarette smoke. "I thought the cars were no smoking," I told the manager.
"They are supposed to be, but we can't control if a person smokes in the car," he said.
"Then you can't guarantee the cars are no smoking!" I snapped.
Anyway, long story short -- my "activism" (you might call it bitching) led to his knocking a day's rental charges off to make up for the late arrival and the smoky car.
Guess what? I'd rather they get it right the first time. -
Review from Ryan C.
1/4/2010
I really don't understand the relationship between alamo and national, because they have the same office and only one dude working here who seems to represent both. And they share the same computer system. Anyway, they have the best prices and no hassle car rental, so why not come here! Out of all the rental places in Berkeley (and I've been to a lot) I like this one the best.
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Review from Anthony M.
Emeryville, CA
7/24/2011
After checking around online for the best car rental rates, we decided on Alamo by way of Costco. Everything went smoothly up until the day we picked up our rental. The rep who took our info asked if we wanted damage coverage from them and we declined, explaining that the credit card we were using to pay for the rental covered damages on car rentals. He tried to cast some doubt by suggesting that our credit card company probably wouldn't cover the vehicle we were renting. We've rented cars many times before using our credit card and always had coverage if there was an issue with a vehicle. Why would Alamo be any different?? We declined again and proceeded to do a visual inspection of the vehicle with the rep. While looking over the car, we noticed some small scratches and dents and let the rep know. After making note of the minor damages, he made a snarky comment that if there were other damages that were overlooked, "you have coverage from your credit card, right?" Aside from that incident, we had no problem with the vehicle for the three days we rented it.
When we received the final bill from Alamo, we noticed it was $45 more than the price we were given at the time we reserved the car. We looked over the bill and noticed that we were charged $15 per day for three days for collision damage. Apparently, that rep charged us for damage coverage despite the fact that we declined twice! Not sure if this was just a "mistake" or just plain dishonesty. But to us, this seemed like a shady business practice. We've rented many cars from different rental agencies and we've never encountered a problem like this, until we rented from this particular Alamo.
I called Alamo as soon as I noticed the extra charges and explained to the woman who answered that we declined damage coverage but were charged for it anyway. She didn't even try to offer an explanation or argue the point. She just gave an insincere apology and said it would be refunded to our card.
If you still choose to do your business with this Alamo, please make sure you check your final bill and statement for any fraudulent charges. I, on the other hand, will choose to use my hard-earned cash at businesses that have more integrity and are more honest and forthcoming, even if it means I have to pay more. -
Review from Judi O.
El Cerrito, CA
4/20/2010
So I made a reservation with a discount coupon, full size car, for eight days and then changed it to two weeks when I got there. They were so agreeable and easy to deal with in fact easier than any car rental agency I have ever dealt with. They only had one full size and that car had a engine light problem so they upgraded me to a brand new full size SUV and gave me an additional discount. I will review again after I take the car back but so far I am sold. Alamo/National is now owned by Enterprise so let's see if they can keep up the good work.
