Book Economy Rent a Car car rentals in Quepos

Everything was fine until I returned the car

Pros: Car (Hyundai Tucson) was clean and worked great for the 3 days I had it.

Cons: My experience with Economy Rent-a-Car was great at first and awful at the end! In the Quepos office, the attendant took care of all the paperwork, and we reviewed the car for dents and scratches that were already present so I wouldn't be responsible for them upon returning the car. The car, a Hyundai Tucson, worked great throughout the trip and I had zero problems. 3 days later, when I returned the car to the airport location in San Jose, the attendant opened the trunk and reviewed the spare tire. I had no flats or any problems with the car, and never looked at the spare. Lo and behold the spare, while still 100% inflated, was dirty and had a big gash on it. The attendant says "looks like you changed the tire after putting this gash in it!". This was all to my dismay, as I had no problems and NEVER looked at the spare or was shown it by the Economy attendant at the pickup location. I explained this to him to which he replied "No, we always show the spare to our clients prior to delivering the vehicle". I said "well, no one showed it to me!" He didn't believe and said I would be responsible for paying $231 to replace the spare as I had only bought the cheap insurance and not the comprehensive one. Further details: after checking with several Costa Ricans, they told me the cost to replace the tire would be $50, not $231. I asked several other people on my trip who had rented cars from different agencies if their attendant had shown them the spare prior to releasing the car. Universal answer: NO! The icing on the cake: from the window of the office, I watched as a different attendant showed a customer their car and reviewed it for scratches and dents. Did they open the trunk and look at the spare? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I pointed this out to the attendant who replied "yes he did show them the spare on that model is not in the trunk but under the car" LOL, I'm almost positive that was not true. Learned my lesson! Review the spare I guess! Make sure it's not dirty or gashed! What a joke. Avoid this company if possible. Be extra aware if you are picking up in a remote satellite location. Awful return experience but the car was fine and did the job. I also filed two complaints against the company and have yet to hear back on any process/resolution 3 days later. I have not been charged yet for the spare - they say they are going to review my case before charging me so yet to be seen if I actually have to make the payment. In the end, an awful way to end an otherwise amazing trip to Costa Rica!

Decent vehicles, WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than advertised

Pros: Flexibility w/ confirmed pick up time after issue w/ travel and getting there on time. Staff there tried to help a little bit w/ insane hidden fees that don't even match the carrentals.com contract terms.

Cons: insane hidden fees of $33/day for liability coverage. they offer cheap rental rates knowing that the liability cost is hidden and only hits you when you pick up car in their office. would have rented for fewer days IF we knew UPFRONT about hidden fees. Very shady by economy rent a car, carrentals.com, and KAYAK.

ECONOMY IS A COMPLETE SHAM! DON'T YOU DARE RENT F

Cons: This is the worst customer experience I have had in my 25 years of traveling!! Ordinarily, I am not one to complain, but this company's entire business model is predicated on DECEPTIVE PRACTICES AND LIES! The company will entice you to reserve a car through them by baiting you with the lowest price online before arrival. For us, they offered ~$150 for a 7 day rental. When arriving at the car rental pickup and while standing in line, I watched the Economy sales reps insist that each customer purchase insurance that amounted to 3x the cost of the reservation. For most people in line, this amounted to $600+ beyond what they were quoted online. Having done my research, I was able insist that we did not need any insurance above what was government mandated, and despite very aggressive upselling, we were able to escape with only the gov. mandated insurance. Others were not as lucky. The company's reps insisted that additional insurance was mandatory, even though these were flat out lies! Still, the worst part was when we tried to return the car. We had scheduled a 'one-way' rental, dropping the car off at Liberia Airport. During the dropoff inspection, the branch manager--named LUIS BARILLA DUARTE--walked up to the front right bumper and pulled on it until the clip that held it in place came out. I watched him literally pull the bumper out! Then he insisted that I had caused some sort of damage to make the piece loose in the first place. When I simply snapped bumper back into place via the clip that attached it, he refused to look at it. Instead, he handed me a tear-off complaint form that was clearly well-worn from others with similar stories. Convinced that my complain form quickly find the trash can shortly after I left, I documented the entire thing on video, including pictures of an undamaged bumper. I have still yet to resolve the matter completely and secure my deposit back, but the company was quick to charge me $1200, the very hour after I left. While being shuttled to the airport, another passenger simply said he bribed Luis with weed, and it apparently did the trick. The overall experience was a nightmare! To watch the branch manger INTENTIONALLY TRY TO DAMAGE THE CAR in front of me, and then have him refuse see me simply re-clip the bumper back on, was the most abhorrent customer service experience I have witnessed or been a part of. When I uselessly tried to get another sales rep to just look at the car, I was turned down and given the line "you should have purchased the [$600] insurance." The irony was that, at that very instant, I was standing next to another sales rep trying to push $100,000 of 'mandatory' insurance on a customer for a $15,000 car. I wish there were better channels to report this type of fraud, but given that it's Costa Rica and that the company preys upon non-repeat tourists, I should have headed the advice of other reviews I read. You've now been warned! DON'T YOU DARE RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!