PhilFAQS

I get queries about car and van rentals, either self-drive or with a driver very often. It wasn’t many tears ago that this sort of information was really hard to find. It still is, a bit, today but the Internet is really opening up business. Here, in no particular order are car rental agencies I will post as I come across them. Unless I say differently these are not people I recommend or don’t recommend, just a resource to help my readers with some of their most frequent questions.

Here are a previous car rental post for reference Car Rentals It’s Not Like Home and a few sites I found i8n Saturday’s paper.  A year ago one never even saw web sites for car rental companies, now  I saw 4 on one page:

I liked this company the best of the four I looked at closely, mainly because they seem quite innovative.  Like many Philippine businesses that seek to copy their US counterparts a lot of local offerings here are, well, boring.  They sell the same things you are used to and often with more restrictions or less customer service.  CarLines goes a little farther dozen the road of innovation and I applaud them for it.  As an example they have Coaster (small Toyota bus) rentals which would be just the thing when some family celebration turns into a huge undertaking and you can’t figure out how all the relatives are going to get to the same place at the same time.  They also have a very cute "Wedding Car" package … a lot of people reading sites about the Philippines are planning a wedding … or a renewal of vows … here someday and this would be a lovely addition.  Worth a look at any rate.

RedWheels has a pretty comprehensive web site and a good selection of vehicles.  Their site is certainly worth a look if you are in the market.  They are only in the Manila area and I found that their identification requirements are among the most onerous.  As Americans we are so used to walking up to a counter at the airport, showing a driver’s license and a credit card and getting a set of keys in seconds.  I doesn’t happen that way in the Philippines.  Most places expect several days notice for a reservation and you had better be prepared to bring a lot of identity documents and a wad of cash (few agencies rent on credit cards).  This is one of the things about the Philippines that is either good or bad, but which you must prepare for.  Many people don’t bother to find out the differences before they come and as a result they begin their own "horror stories" about their trip before they even get underway.  Some things here just … well … "are".

CitiWheels has some good features but I don’t see much difference in any of these guys’s rates.  I wouldn’t want to say that price-fixing is alive and well, but the market apparently sets its own level pretty accurately and the differentiations between any of these guys is much more likely to be service and responsiveness rather than price.

These folks, ToyCo Rent a Car,  seem to have the most comprehensive program.  They have offices in many major cities, direct US reservation numbers and are the only ones I notice who offer trip packages and allow their cars to travel via the Philippines RoRo (Roll On, Roll Off) ferry system, so you can drive from Northern Luzon all the way to Southern Mindanao.