St John car rental agency that allows its cars on St. Thomas

St. John Lover · Post by **St. John Lover** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 3:28 pm

Do any of you have recent experience with a St. John car rental agency that allows you to take their vehicles on the car barge to St. Thomas?

deejayjay · Post by **deejayjay** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 3:32 pm

I don't believe any STJ car rentals are allowed on STT. Sorry.

St. John Lover · Post by **St. John Lover** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:25 pm

Any suggestions on recent positive experiences with St. Thomas car rentals that allow you to take their vehicles to St. John?

I just called Discount and was shocked to discover that their rates are actually over $100 more than the St. John agency that I usually use (actually than all 3 of the St. John agencies that I've used in the past!).

It seems that most posters here suggest that St. Thomas car rentals are cheaper than St. John but so far NOT the case at all. Rather than waste my time calling all around, I would really appreciate hearing from some of you with recent, reasonable rate experience with St. Thomas car rentals.

Thank you in advance for your help!

CBama · Post by **CBama** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:49 pm

We have rented from Amalie on St Thomas for our upcoming trip..it was a little higher...BUT we make up it for it in savings with no taxi fare from airport to ferry...and only a per car fee on ferry...no charge per person and bag...

and less hassle...move luggage one time...unload at villa!!! and on flight back we have jeep to explore some on St Thomas..

depends on how many people you have for the savings...

St. John Lover · Post by **St. John Lover** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:52 pm

<depends>

That's the problem, only me for a couple days and then only 2 of us for the remainder so probably no cost savings if the STT cars cost more plus the $50+ for 2 barge trips. The problem is I need to be on both islands while I'm there so the STJ car rental doesn't seem like an option at all...

I'm totally confused about this though because I remember a couple months back when everyone was upset because they weren't going to allow STT cars on STJ, that some of the arguments defending or explaining the action is that the STJ car rental agencies felt threatened by the STT car rental agencies having more licenses etc. BUT if the STJ car agencies don't allow you to go to STT, what on earth other option is there? Why don't they just go after the business that's obviously there and allow their cars to go to STT? I must be missing something here...

GotToGetAway · Post by **GotToGetAway** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:33 pm

I posed the question a few weeks back during the day the law went into and then out of effect.
No one answered me at all on the forum.
If rental vehicles are allowed to travel between the islands by law, why would STJ companies not let you take their vehicles over?
I don't get it and hope someone can offer some expertise.

Teresa_Rae · Post by **Teresa_Rae** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:06 pm

Individual companies make up their rules. Some STT companies allow you to take cars to STJ, some don't. For whatever reason none of the STJ companies allow cars to go to STT. I guess it's just a business decision they've made and maybe it does hurt them.

We always rent from Budget on STT and just found that you can get a better rate through sites like Travelocity or Orbitz. The base rate for a week in August is $305 for a small SUV. Going direct through Budget's website the base rate was $365. Of course there is tax on top of those figures, but the STJ car rental places only list their base rates, which appear to be in the $425 to $450 range.

I made our reservation through Kayak.com, which took me to CarRentals.com, which offered a slightly better deal than Travelocity or Orbitz.

Pia · Post by **Pia** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:08 am

I don't believe individual companies make up their rules. The law has been on the "books" if you will since I believe the 1960's and all but Hertz decided to ignore the law. I was told that Hertz never allowed their vehicles to St John as there was (at one time) a Hertz agency on St John.

No company on St John allows vehicles to St Thomas

Pia

Teresa_Rae · Post by **Teresa_Rae** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:10 pm

Doesn't that seem illegal? If someone wants to start a business and restrict where you can take their cars, that should be their right. It could have something to do with their insurance, they might choose to pay for lesser insurance that doesn't cover the cost of cars falling into the ocean if God forbid a car ferry were to go down.

St. John Lover · Post by **St. John Lover** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:18 pm

DK if that's the reason Theresa Rae or if it's just 'tradition' and there really isn't any logical reason.

Regardless, thought I'd update you all on what my final decision was. Actually it was a decision made for me as Discount ended up being $200 and $300 more than Amalie and Dependable respectively for the 2 weeks. Amalie was all out of cars (this is for the 2 weeks AFTER St. John's Carnival--remember when last part of July used to be considered SLOW season???) and Dependable had just a couple cars left so I grabbed one.

The islands are definitely getting busier during what used to be the 'slow, summer months.'

usvi-on-line

Login or Register with your Facebook account

St John car rental agency that allows its cars on St. Thomas

St John car rental agency that allows its cars on St. Thomas