Carlos Jeep Rental — Attraction in Culebra

PLEASE TAKE EXTREME CAUTION AND PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK if renting from Carlos‘s jeep rental. We called a month ahead of time but were told that we were not able to make reservations and we needed to inquire once we were on island. When we arrived, we were able to get a jeep and for the next day, no problems. On my wife’s birthday, we went to our Airbnb to get ready for dinner. As we were leaving, the Airbnb we rented was located at the top of a hill. I parked the jeep WITH the parking break initiated to ensure the vehicle was locked in position. The minute I stepped off of the vehicle, the jeep begins to slide, NOT ROLL, slide down the paved driveway. Please note, this was PAVED road on a roughly 30% grade. Jeeps are built to handle terrain much worse than this, especially if the car is in a parked position. Needless to say, we were shaken up by the situation and of course went through the typical protocol of calling the insurance company and so forth. By far the biggest issue we had was trying to get into contact with Carlos‘s jeep rental. We called them multiple times throughout the night with no response. Apparently they don’t have an emergency number for after hours emergencies (5pm). The following morning I was able to get a hold of someone. After explaining what happened, Yaritza, the owners wife, the first statement she made was that we were responsible for any damages to the vehicle and costs related to recovering the jeep. I didn’t say anything, but I felt a lack of basic human decency and instead of asking if we were ok, they immediately deflected and began with pointing the finger with whoever is responsible for incurring costs. While we waited for someone to arrive, there were items we needed to retrieve from the Jeep. For insurance purposes, we decided to take some photos and videos during which we noticed that the tires were COMPLETELY bald. After carlos the owner finally arrived, The impression my wife and I had was that he was more concerned about his vehicle and reimbursement then the safety of his clients. At this point I pointed out that this “accident” was likely due to faulty tires which we had taken videos/pictures of. He essentially blew us off and restated that we were responsible for towing and damages. When I explained to him that insurance would be responsible and he needed to deal with them directly, his disposition changed and he suddenly became responsive. I hate to speculate but the impression I got was that once he knew that Insurance was involved, this was his opportunity to milk the situation. Again, not really concerned about the well-being of his clients. For the next 36 hours, I attempted to contact Carlos and one of his associates. One of his associates ultimately called and he essentially tried to coach me into how to navigate with my insurance company to get them to pay. I explained that all communication needed to be between my insurance company, Carlos and whatever services he used. The following day I was able to contact the Airbnb host who was kind enough to give us a ride to town and drop us off at Carlos‘s car rental. When I arrived, i was initially told that it was Carlos’ day off. Shortly after, he was suddenly at work but the daughter lied to me about numerous other things. Of course I called her out on some of it but at that point I was exhausted and fed up. I again called my insurance company since I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to actually show up to the car agency to sign paperwork since I was ready to leave island and wasn’t sure how to proceed, etc. Here I am, 30 minutes away from catching my flight back to San Juan, and I still have not received a phone call from Carlos or anyone at his agency. My insurance company said they’ve left several messages w no success and not even a courtesy call. To summarize, this whole situation has been questionable to say the least. The way that Carlos and his agency have conducted themselves feels shady, and the fact that they continue to avoid me and my insurance only confirms my suspicions....

What you need to Know to prepare. MUST READ

INSURANCE YOU NEED A PHYSICAL COPY: They absolutely refuse to let you waive their insurance fees, which is another $16 per day for golf carts, probably more for jeeps.

They say “most insurance policies don’t cover golf carts, so you can’t waive it.”

Well, I contacted my insurance agent and confirmed that my policy DOES cover all rented vehicles, including golf carts. So I pulled it up my policy on my phone.

SORRY - WE CAN'T ACCEPT A DIGITAL COPY OF YOUR INSURANCE. They require you to have a PRINTED-OUT COPY of your insurance policy along with a written statement from the policy provider that clearly states that golf carts are covered. Even if your policy says it covers all vehicles, it must clearly say golf carts, and they want a physical copy!

They say this is so they can put a copy of your policy “on file.”

Yawn. That’s BS. They have my credit card on file digitally... The truth is, this is because they know no tourist will have any means of producing a physical copy of that information while waiting in line at the rental office.

This is a shady business practice at best and should be illegal to deny your proof of insurance. PRINT YOUR INSURANCE and get your insurance provider to highlight in the text where it covers your golf carts.

LONG WAIT TIMES: If you arrive in the morning between 8am to 10am, expect to wait at least 1.5 to 2 hours to get through the line. There are only 2 people working behind the desk. It takes 15 minutes per person. When there are 20 people in line, you can expect to wait a long time.

HARD TO RESERVE (Very Bad Website UX): The website interface is not user friendly. It is nearly impossible to reserve a golf cart online.

The website refuses to let you find an available cart to reserve without properly selecting the available pickup time and location and drop off time.

While waiting in line for 2 hours, I checked the website: “The selected location is not open at this time.”

Yea ok. I'm in line at that location and it's open with available vehicles. But the website doesn't acknowledge that.

Also, they say you cannot drop off at certain times when the office is not open. BUT they have a drop box at the airport you can leave your keys in. So, they don’t have to be open to drop off your vehicle.

CLOSED SATURDAY & HOLIDAYS: I don’t know when they expect that vacationers travel or arrive. But they are not open on Saturdays and they are closed on Holidays. The result of being closed at peak tourist times is that you are forced to pay for more days than you actually need the vehicle.

CALL in the afternoon: Do not attempt to call before noon. The line will be so long that they either will not pick up the phone or will not have time to answer your questions if they do. Call in the afternoon. It always appeared to be slower then.

FRIENDLY STAFF: Ultimately, the people were very friendly and are working hard. But the business policies are not customer friendly. It appears that they are set up to gouge tourists that likely won't be back anyways.

No issues...

HIGH ALERT !!! I would have given -100 but just need to give a minimum 1 rating so compelled to give the same,

No issue on Rentals though it's scam overall. These people are there only to find option to extract money out of you.

Visited Culebra around 1st week of April'2025. We have encountered one of the most unprofessional and dishonest bunch of peoples working in the main office including the female supervisor itself who seems to be the wife of the owner as per reviews heard. This is one of the weirdest bunch of unprofessional people and behavior i have ever come across in all my travel experiences where staffs/supervisor (herself) directly denies at the face of Customers for the presence of an important and priceless item (A DJI camera having all priceless memories from the trip) even though we clearly confirmed the Item was left behind in their rented jeep for sure during after hours drop of the rental vehicle keys. They have no intention or urge to help you out on your priceless lost item faking a search after removal of the item, sharing unnecessary video clippings and searching multiple times throughout the day, where it doesn't make sense once you move out the item first time. So its either the full staff or some within them is took advantage of our situation and just simply DENIED the presence of the priceless item we left behind. We even requested to at least give back the memory card from the camera which is too important for us, but they are not responding to confirm any responsible person or the owner's contact who can explain how a easy to find and seen item can just disappear ?

On the scam part: They will by default charge you $16+ as per terms and conditions which you cannot fulfil. There is only 1 gas station in the island which gets closed or run out of gas often. Even if gas is there there would be a big queue over a small place, the gas station is kind of broken down only. So for hardly $3-$4 dollar of gas used and not being able to fuel it back as the gas station gets closed within 4 PM EST they will charge almost every customer a default minimum $16+. BE AWARE OF THIS RENTAL AGENCY AT YOUR OWN RISK !! ALSO THE FEMALE SUPERVISOR OVER THERE !! SHE HERSELF CONFIRMED THAT SHE SEARCHED THE JEEP/VEHICLE & COULDN'T FIND THE LOST ITEM WHICH IS A BLATANT LIE. I will ensure a SPECIAL MENTION OF THE PATHETIC BEHAVIOR & RESPONSE from them in my Travel videos/vlogs to make all my friends and everyone aware of this scammed, unprofessional bunch of dishonest people & business in CULEBRA DO NOT SUPPORT THIS LOCAL BUSINESS AND THEIR DISHONEST OWNERS. Chose an alternative.

Till date they didn't confirmed back on the camera or its priceless memory card which they suppressed and denied completely. It totally ruined our beautiful overall trip to Puerto Rico and as the only bad memory in our travel...