Our History

Alamo Rent a Car started in 1974 with four locations in Florida, pioneering the concept of Unlimited Free Mileage. Immediately carving its niche in the leisure car rental industry, Alamo Rent A Car focused its mission on providing a fun, low-cost, high-value rental experience to family and leisure travelers.

Alamo Rent A Car quickly became one of the country's largest vacation rental providers with programs to accommodate and encourage leisure travel. To facilitate the increase in leisure travelers, Alamo Rent A Car constructed state-of-the art rental plazas geared to serve hundreds of customers per hour in a modern, ultra-spacious environment. The first rental plaza opened in Tampa, Fla., in 1982, with more following in other major leisure destinations including Orlando, Fla., home of the world's largest rental facility. In 1985, Alamo Rent A Car introduced a new customized rental agreement the size of an airline ticket, and Instant Alamo Rent A Car, a program that stored a traveler's individual rental information for instant reference.

On April 19, 1990, Alamo Rent A Car set out to revolutionize collision damage waivers with the introduction of the first-ever price and coverage option for all renters. Alamo Rent A Car created three new consumer-driven optional collision damage waiver products in Florida, named Waiver Savers^®, which provided customers with three choices of price and coverage options tailored to their needs. To meet the needs of the "Web" consumer, Alamo Rent A Car became the first car rental company with real-time booking capabilities on the Internet in 1995. Customers could visit Alamo.com to find locations, view rates and select their vehicle. Soon, Alamo.com expanded to include a membership-services section and travel tools to find the weather, driving directions and fun activities for children to enjoy on their road trip.  Alamo Rent A Car launched the industry's first and only Online Check-In system in 2005. In addition, the company currently operates 159 self-service kiosks at 65 U.S. locations, which earned the company the "Extra Mile Award" from Budget Travel magazine in 2007.

Alamo Rent A Car's commitment to the leisure travel market has fostered longstanding partnerships with the airline industry, travel destinations, travel agents and tour operators around the world. In 1998, Alamo Rent A Car launched E-Process 2000, a group of technologically enhanced initiatives for tour operators, including electronic reservation links on the company's web site, voucher-less rental processing and electronic billing. In 2002, Alamo Rent A Car announced a partnership with Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort, making Alamo Rent A Car the official rental car company of the most frequented tourist attractions in North America.

In its more than 30-year history, the Alamo Rent A Car brand has continued to serve family and leisure travelers with fun, friendly service and low-cost, high-value vehicles. Today, Alamo Rent A Car serves customers at the most popular travel destinations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific Rim. Alamo is part of a global strategic alliance with Europcar, creating the world’s largest car rental network. In 2007, Alamo Rent A Car and its sister company National Car Rental were acquired by the Taylor Family of St. Louis, which also owns and operates Enterprise Rent-A-Car.