Lady in Red

[Mark Hall]

Just sounds like the song!!!

Has anyone recently hired a taxi from the Crown point area. Taxi owners name is Carmen, she is also known as the "lady in red".

I was checking through MyTobago & noticed a mention of expansion work in the area of the hire car companies, near the Airport.

Well that was the area that "Carmen operated from".

Having not visited for a couple of years I wondered if the area is still under expansion as well.

Thanks Mark

[Mark Hall]

Well, having just returned from Tobago I can now answer all my own questions.

Carmen, known as the "Lady In Red" is operating on Store bay local Road, about 300 metres before The Toucan Inn / Bonkers on the same side of the road.

Taxi operator, very friendly drivers & good rates although we only used them twice.

Hire Vehicles, very good, cheap rates. Having been repeat customers we managed to negotiate a very, very good rate.

First car, we had was a Suzuki Swift, in need of TLC ( I later found out).

Air con not very good so we returned it.

After being greeted by Carmen Who said "Why you bring me baby back, ok I change it for you, me just cant part wid it"

We swapped the car for a Diahatsu Terios, dealt with everthing we done, ample power for the small roads even though I think it was a 1.3 engine. ( I even managed to like the roads a little between Speyside & Charlotteville)

Seriously, very helpful, convenient to the Airport area. Even if you are not near the Airport, they will arrange to collect you free & drop you back at your hotel at the end of your rental.

Always has a cold drink in the fridge for customers, Makes the form filling a bit more bearable..

Mark

[Jenandbob White]

we met mark on our holiday he advised us to hire from 'lady in red' good car good price she even keeps a cold beer in the fridge!! highly recommended

[Mike Spencer]

We also met Mark and Bob, and on their recommendation hired from Lady in Red. Car was fine no problems at all and a very good hire rate. My only concern was regarding Collision Damage Waiver. When asked about CDW they said that they dont offer it in order to keep the price down. If you have a small scratch or scrape you pay, (what is small?) if it is a major incident then they claim on their insurance.
Even though we did hire I must admit that I didnt feel at ease.
Certainly Hire from Lady in Red, but make sure you are happy with the Insurance.

P.S. Thanks Mark, Bob for showing us life outside Rex Turtle.

[Steve Wooler]

May I please add a word of caution here.

If you are going to use Lady In Red, may I STRONGLY urge visitors to check every square inch of the vehicle in their presence and make a note of EVERY scratch and dent and other 'problem'. You MUST ensure that this note of damage is signed by both parties and insist upon a copy of the damage report. Repeat the same procedure when returning the vehicle and get signed confirmation that you have returned the vehicle without damage. In fairness, you would be advised to apply this procedure when using any of the smaller agencies. The larger ones will/should do this automatically.

I have received a number of disturbing reports about visitors finding that credit card charges have been applied for "damages" that they were unaware of. There is a disturbing pattern in that the same rental company names appear time after time in these complaints. We know of four different people who were charged up to TT$2000 for the "same" scratch.

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Steve,
To be honest you can't just label the small hire companies with this, Europe Car once charged me £180 because one of the wheel trims was missing when I returned a car in the UK.

I had a car from the LIR on our last visit. The price was very good and I had no issues with the service. I did get charged an extra 15TT$ to get it cleaned but I can live with that, it was very muddy.

Your advice is true for any hire car company; all ways check the car and agree on any damage no matter how small before taking the car. One point people may not be aware of if there is a fault on the car and you get stopped by the police you will be the ones prosecuted. Not the hire car company. One of the guys I work with recently was picked up by the police for no brake lights and on checking they found that the switch was not even fitted even though the vehicle was not new and had been passed by the company pre hire checks a number of times.

He is still waiting for the outcome of the court case.

Kevin

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Kevin

No, I wasn't just labelling the small agencies. However I was responding to warnings from Tobago-based tourism-related businesses who are becoming increasingly worried by visitor reports of what are believed to be fictious claims of damage to rental cars. I have no reason to believe that Tobago car rental firms are any less honest than services over here, but where the same name crops up time and time again, I'm going to mention it.

[Thomas Riemer]

Hallo !!

1st time in this section i want to add one thing.
One thing you should check is the tires !!!
I rented many cars by now and must say that i had to refuse
several due to the condition of the tires. Once there was the
metal reinforcement peeping out already. Don`t forget the spare !!
Tires getting damaged quite easyli on these roads here and you will
be happy to find a (good?) spare once your tire says good bye in a remote area.
I had to pay TT200,- for a damaged (spare) tire and had a real big argument with the hirer ( was in Trini) and called in a police officer.
He just said that this is my problem and i should have checked upfront !
We do recommend "Sunbird Holidays" but i also had the above mentioned good experiences with " Lady in red".
Thomas

[Sue-S]

We used Rollocks car hire at the airport. Excellent 4 door air conditioned car, very good condition for 460 TT dollars ( approx £46 per day including CDW). I would highly recommend them.

[Henry Crichlow]

Just spent some time in Tobago before Christmas.
Rented a car from the LIR (Lady in Red).
She is a quite personalbe business woman, easy to deal with, professional and her cars were clean and well kept.
I rented a Mazda 4 DR, white, fully equipped and the wife and I were very pleased with the service.
I am going back shortly and intend to check out LIR again.
Did I mention, her rates were very competitive.

[Steve Wooler]

Hello Henry

Welcome aboard, Henry!

Since arriving here 8 weeks ago, I have been speaking to a lot of local businesses with reference to the warning I issued about Lady In Red, above. While everything you say may be the case, I also believe that the problems highlighted in my warning were only the tip of the iceberg. Too many tourists have been charged damages for what appears to be the same damage to the same car for it to be coincidence. More than three firms in the hospitality industry here tell me they have stopped sending business to LIT. You must make your own decisions, but I can only say that based on all the evidence and letters I have received that I would not use LIR.

I obviously do not issue such warnings without AMPLE evidence and unless I am totally confident that I can prove the case if neccessary.

[Phillip F]

Similar comment as Steve. Rented car from Lady In Red last weekend, picked up Sat afternoon and return Sunday. We only drove as far as Black Rock and back Sunday afternoon and found gas station closed so we cannot fill up the tank. We were told the gas will cost TT$50 (to be taken out of our TT$100 deposit). We offered to pay $30 but told that was not enough (and I have 5 local friends with me that knew how much gas costs in Tobago)

I know gas is expensive but I did not know that expensive in Trinidad! No milage marked on the rental form to check exactly how far we went, nor were we warned that "some" gas stations in Tobago may not be open on Sunday!

It is not the $20 that we are p about, it is not informing us that gas stations may be closed that the locals should be well awared of. The man said we could have gone up to Scarborough (but he was not sure if that station was open either), sure sure, and return pass the due time so they can charge us for another day of rental!

Overall, overpriced and not recommend for anyone.