Our rental from Taylor's

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DavidKram
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Our rental from Taylor's

Post by DavidKram »

We rented our car from Taylors rentals. When searching the web, we only found a few comment s about them – nothing that would dissuade us from renting from them. They had what seemed to be the best prices on the island so we took a chance.
Initially, we were very disappointed with the rental, but overall, they made up for the problems and our week turned out fine.

We were met at the airport on time and they escorted us back to our villa where we completed the paper work and were to pay for the rental. This is where the first problem occurred – for some unknown reason, they thought we were paying in cash (of course we were not - why would I pay cash for a 9 day rental?). So, they needed to run our credit card. Well, the villa we had did not have a phone, and while the rental agency had a cell phone – they could not use it to connect to the machine to run our credit card. For some reason, they could not simply call their office and take my credit card over the phone. So, here we are just arriving on the island and we had to trek back to the airport where they had to find some business with a phone that they could borrow to connect their machine to run the card. Ugh – what a waste of 30-40 minutes.
The car that we received was in fact an older model and the tires were not in very good shape – not much tread left on them.

The second problem occurred on one of our treks across the island. As we were heading up a hill in Castara, every time we made a turn, there was a horrible grinding noise on the car. We carefully drove the car all the way back to Bon Accord and called the agency to report the problem. They sent someone out the next morning with a replacement vehicle. It ended up being that the brackets that hold the muffler up had broken, and the muffler was rubbing against the axel causing the noise.

We ended up with a much newer model car and were very happy with that the rest of the trip.

All in all, the rental was okay. I guess if we went with a higher priced agency we could have gotten a newer car and avoided some of the troubles. My biggest complaint was how they handled the paperwork on our arrival – not a nice way to start a vacation on the island.
Thank you,
David
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Paul Tallet
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Paul Tallet »

David

You should take up a career as a travelling reviewer.

I have been to Tobago so many times and when things go wrong I just scream and scream and scream and it gets sorted and then I forget about it ... then I come home and forget the detail and, as a consequence, I could not convey it in the way that you do.

You are an absolute asset to this forum in my opinion ... please keep it coming ... you have given some of the most constructive feedback that I have seen in years.

Thank you and please enjoy Tobago again.

Regards
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Jen
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Jen »

We were considering renting a car from Taylor's when we arrive in Feb. After reading David's comments we're a little leary now, although David's experience was two years ago. We notice from the website that Taylor's offers payment by Visa and Mastercard. It's important that we know we're getting a newer model SAFE car with good tires. Taylor's is not one of the recommended car rental companies on the island according to MyTobago. Why is that? Wondering if anyone has rented from this company recently and what are your comments? Thank you! Jen
Robert T
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Robert T »

Jen
Why don't you try KCNN. We've been using them for years and they are excellent. And also cheaper.
https://www.tobagocarhire.com

Rob
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Julian »

+1 on KCNN
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Steve Wooler »

Hello Jen

Don't be concerned just because we don't 'officially' recommend a business. We only recommend businesses that we use personally - and used/know well enough to put our name to. Yes, in an ideal world (and if someone else was paying) we would make a point of hiring from lots of different agencies so that we could pass opinion on each. The real-world truth is that there are so many cowboy rental firms in Tobago (and elsewhere) that we frankly see no reason not to stick with the agency we have used for the last 10 years (and who better have a nice car ready for us when we arrive in 3 weeks time. :lol: ).

Taylor's are a small agency based in Castara. Like most local small car rental firms, they started with a couple of old bangers (no offense meant) and built from there. Taylors are the only 'organised' car rental agency (as opposed to property owners who have a couple of cars they hire out to (mainly) resident guests) in the village and have done well. Their small fleet has been upgraded and expanded quite dramatically in the last couple of years. They now have some really swish modern vehicles.

Yes, credit card payment was an issue until a couple of years ago. It still is for most small businesses - the local banks still treat credit card as devil's spawn and outright refuse, or force (small) businesses to run through hoops, to get a credit card merchant account. Taylor now shares a sales office with Alibaba and have proper working credit card payment facilities.

KCNN have a great reputation and are the preferred choice of several prominent forum members. They are a good choice. However, if you are staying in Castara and only want to hire a car for a few days, then Taylors would probably be the easier, more convenient choice.

Don't be fooled by car rental prices on Tobago. It is impossible to do a direct comparison between agencies because none of them publish (or possibly tell you) the age of the vehicle concerned. In truth, they often don't KNOW the age of the vehicle because the vast majority of cars imported to Tobago are Roll-on-Roll-off cars. In other words, they are pre-owned vehicles shipped from Japan. There are no decent main agent servicing facilities in Tobago and every rental agency services its own vehicles. The age and condition of the vehicles varies hugely. So, when you see agency ABC advertising the rental of a DEF for US$50 per day, don't be taken in by the fact that agency GHI offers the same model for US$35 - it is probably 10-15 years older. You will notice this on the Taylor's website where he has multiple listings for a couple of models; the difference being simply that the more expensive one tends to be a newer version of the same model.
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Mark Entz »

Jen, I had a wonderful experience with Taylors in March 2014 and will be renting from them again in March 2015. We stay north of Castara, Taylors picked us up at the airport and delivered us to our guest house. The next morning they were there with the rental car and business was handled at the guest house using a credit card. Don't be concerned at all. If this is your first visit to Tobago I hope it is as wonderful as ours was last year!
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Jen »

Hi Rob, Julian, Steve and Mark,
Your experience and insight is greatly appreciated. We're fairly seasoned travellers who research our destinations beforehand to know what to expect, particularly in regards to travelling safely. It appears Taylor's is a well known reputable rental business in Castara; their car rental is apparently no exception. I'd like to add that ensuring one reads and understands the car rental insurance agreement is also prudent. We may rent for a day here and there and will take our chances with availability in high season but will definitely consider Taylor's now.
We always have an amazing time wherever we travel and we know our experience in Tobago will be just that! (So excited!)
Thank you!!! Jen :)
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by Rick Hernandez »

hi - I've been to Castara 4 times and have always rented from Bruce's car rental and have had nothing but great courteous service and will rent from him the next time I go. -Rick
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Re: Our rental from Taylor's

Post by KFT »

What a great company this is so helpful, we were collected on time from the airport upon our arrival at our apartment we discovered it was down a very steep hill and then up several steps to the apartment, the driver carried all our bags up there to which was a great relief because I recently has some knee problems.

I then decided to hire a car straight away, they gave me a great rate and a free lift back to the airport, we cannot rate them highly enough
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