Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Booking, requirements, deposits, delivery and airport pickup — answered in full, in one place. Search it, or work down the topic you came for.
Results appear as you type. Use the up and down arrow keys to move through them and Enter to open one.
Nothing on this page matches that. Ask us and a person will answer it.
- 36 answers
- 6 topics
- Open Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Booking & Availability
Getting a Vehicle Booked
How a booking actually starts, what you are agreeing to, and what happens when plans move.
6 answers
How do I book a vehicle?
Send us the dates, the class you think you want and how you would like to get hold of it — collect it from us, have it delivered, or meet us at SAT. The form on the support page asks the questions we would have had to ask you anyway, and an email gets to the same place.
You get the terms back before anything is booked: the rate for your class and your dates, the deposit, the mileage allowance and the cancellation terms, in writing. Nothing appears at handover that was not on the screen when you agreed to it.
Start an enquiryCan I get a vehicle today?
Often, yes. Same-day is a service we run rather than a favour we do, so the question is availability rather than whether we will consider it. Tell us the class you want and the hour you need it and you get a straight yes or no.
A same-day delivery has to be arranged earlier in the day than a same-day collection, because somebody has to drive the vehicle to you. If the timing is tight, collecting it from us is usually the faster of the two.
Same-day rentalsDoes sending the form reserve a vehicle?
No, and we would rather say so plainly than let you find out later. Sending the form starts an enquiry. Nothing is held until we have come back with the terms and you have agreed to them.
In practice that is one exchange, not a process. We check your dates against what is actually free, and if the exact class you asked for is not available for that window we tell you so and tell you what is.
What are your pickup and return hours?
We are open Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and that covers both directions — picking a vehicle up and bringing it back. Closed Sunday.
An after-hours drop-off is available on request. Ask for it while you are booking rather than on the night, and it becomes part of the booking.
What is your cancellation policy?
It is measured against your pickup time, and there are three windows:
- 48 hours or more before pickup — full refund.
- 24 to 48 hours before pickup — partial refund.
- Under 24 hours, including same day — no refund.
All three cover a booking that has not started yet. If a term already running needs to change, that is a different conversation and the answer is to tell us as early as you can.
Do I need to create an account?
No. There is no account, no app and no membership. You send us the dates, we send back the terms, and you reply.
That is deliberate rather than unfinished. Somebody sorting out a vehicle in a week that already has enough in it is not looking for another password.
Requirements & Eligibility
What We Ask For, and Who Can Drive
Age, licence, the card, and everybody else who is going to be behind the wheel.
6 answers
How old do I have to be to rent?
21 and over, on every channel. There is no separate age for booking directly with us.
From 21 to 24 a young renter fee of $20 a day applies on top of the rate. It is a published figure rather than a surprise, and it is in the quote you agree to before anything is booked.
Renting under 25What do I need to bring to the handover?
Three things, and the first one is the reason a handover most often cannot be completed on the spot:
- A valid, current driver’s licence, on you, for whoever is driving away.
- The card the booking is in, which has to be in that same driver’s name.
- Your insurance details, so we both know where you stand before you drive.
The handover itself is short — a walk-round, the fuel level, and a signature.
Can somebody else pay for my rental?
They can arrange it and they can pay for it, but the card has to be in the name of the person who drives away, and that person’s licence has to match it.
So a parent, a sponsor or a unit can absolutely set the whole thing up. What cannot happen is one person’s card and a different person’s licence turning up at the handover, because that is the pair we check.
Can somebody else drive it?
Only if they are on the booking. Every additional driver has to be named when you book and has to have their licence with them at the handover — we cannot add somebody at the kerb.
It costs you nothing to name one and it costs a lot to need one you did not name, so if there is any chance a second person drives, put them on it.
What insurance do I need to rent from you?
You need verifiable comprehensive and collision coverage that transfers to a rental vehicle. Liability-only is not enough on its own, and neither is nothing.
- What you need: verifiable comprehensive and collision coverage that transfers to a rental vehicle.
- If you do not have it: CDW and SLI offered at reservation.
- Where it is settled: on the booking, before the hand-over.
If that is not your position, it is not a refusal — CDW and SLI cover is offered when you make the reservation, so it is settled before you drive rather than at the hand-over.
A card benefit can also count. Many cards include rental cover when you pay with that card, so it is worth two minutes with your issuer before you add anything you may already have.
My licence was issued outside the United States. Can I rent?
Tell us when you enquire and we will confirm what we need from you before you book.
That is a deliberately careful answer rather than a brush-off. It is the kind of question where a confident yes on a website and a different answer at the kerb is the worst possible outcome, so we would rather settle it in writing while you still have options.
Pricing, Deposit & Payment
What You Pay, and When
How the number is arrived at, what is held, what comes back, and what happens past the allowance.
6 answers
How is the price worked out?
Three things move it, and nothing else does:
- The class you take.
- How long you need it for.
- Whether we deliver it to you or you collect it from us.
You get the figure for your class and your dates in writing before you commit, with the deposit and any delivery fee shown alongside it. The counter model — a headline rate on a board and the real number at the desk with your bags on the floor — is the thing this business exists to not be.
What can I pay with?
Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, on credit or debit. The deposit is the same either way — it is set by the vehicle class you pick, not by the card you pay with.
Whichever you use, the card has to be in the name of the driver on the booking.
How much is the deposit?
A refundable security deposit is held for the length of the rental. It is taken once, at the start, not weekly.
- $250 to $400, set by the vehicle class.
- Taken once at the start, not weekly.
- Refunded in full when the vehicle comes back in good order.
The figure varies upward by vehicle class, so which one applies depends on what you take. We confirm the exact amount for your class before you commit to anything.
When do I get the deposit back?
The release goes out once the vehicle is back in good condition with no breach of the rental terms. It is not held for the sake of it.
After that the gap is your bank rather than us — how quickly the release shows up on your statement is between the card issuer and you, and it is usually a few days behind the release itself.
Is there a mileage limit?
There is a daily allowance and it varies by vehicle class, so the honest answer is that it depends on which class you take. Past the allowance, additional miles are charged at $0.50 to $1.50 or more depending on the vehicle.
The allowance that applies to your booking is in the terms you get back, alongside the rate. Tell us roughly what you have planned when you enquire — a commute across town and a run out to the coast every weekend are not the same rental — and we will tell you which allowance you are on before anything is final.
How does fuel work?
Bring it back at the same level it left at. If it comes back lower, a refuelling charge applies.
There is no prepaid tank to decline and no fuel package to be sold at the counter, because there is no counter.
Delivery & Airport Pickup
How the Vehicle Reaches You
Delivered to an address, waiting for you at the airport, or collected from us — and what each one costs you.
6 answers
Where will you bring the vehicle?
Anywhere across San Antonio you can actually meet a vehicle. In practice that is usually one of four places:
- Your home.
- A hotel.
- Your workplace.
- The shop your own car is going into.
We work the whole city rather than a downtown radius, so the question is normally the hour rather than the address. A delivery window is agreed with you before your pickup time rather than on the day, and we confirm the exact spot — not just the street.
Vehicle deliveryIs there a delivery fee?
It depends on where the vehicle is going, and three of the four answers are fixed figures you can read before you enquire:
- Collected from our San Antonio office, inside opening hours: free.
- Delivered to and returned at SAT's long-term garage: free.
- Round trip to any of the 5 military installations in the metro: $50.
- The airport and on-base runs need 24 hours' notice on the booking.
Anywhere else — a home, a hotel, a workplace, a repair shop — a fee applies and it is worked out from distance and the pickup time. We quote it while you are booking rather than adding it afterwards, so the number you agree to is the number you pay.
How does an airport pickup at SAT actually work?
Your flight details go on the booking, at least 24 hours out. We plan the timing around your arrival rather than around a counter opening, and we confirm the spot with you before you fly rather than leaving you to find us.
The vehicle waits in SAT's long-term parking garage, so you walk out of the terminal to it instead of taking a shuttle to a rental centre and queueing behind everybody who landed before you. Returns run the same way in reverse, to the same place, and neither direction carries a delivery fee.
San Antonio International Airport pickupDo you serve the Joint Base San Antonio community?
Yes, and it is most of what we do — Lackland, Randolph and Fort Sam Houston, across active duty, Guard, Reserve, retired and the families who move with them.
A round trip to any of the 5 military installations in the San Antonio metro is $50, out and back, on 24 hours' notice. The hand-over point is agreed with you rather than assumed.
It is arranged at a time that works for you rather than one that assumes your week looks like a nine-to-five, because PCS timelines and TDY windows almost never do.
Where we deliverWho takes the vehicle back at the end?
Either. If you want us to collect it, arrange that with the booking so it is planned rather than improvised, and it is confirmed in your terms along with everything else.
If you would rather bring it back to us yourself, that is free inside opening hours — the same as collecting it from us in the first place. An after-hours drop-off is available on request.
Do you go outside San Antonio?
The whole city is routine and so is Bexar County. Past that, tell us the address and the hour and you get a straight yes or no immediately.
We would rather say no while you are still booking than say yes and leave you waiting somewhere for a vehicle that is not coming.
The Fleet
Which Vehicle You Actually Get
Six classes, what each one is for, and what "you reserve a class" means in practice.
6 answers
What kinds of vehicle do you have?
There are six classes, all automatic: Economy, Sedan, SUV, Truck, Van and Luxury.
You pick the class rather than a specific car, and the class is what describes the space, the seats and the kind of driving it is for.
See the fleetI want a particular make or model. Can you do that?
Not as a guarantee, no. What you reserve is the class, and what you are guaranteed is the class you booked — the seats, the transmission and the space it describes.
If a specific vehicle genuinely matters for your trip, tell us when you enquire and we will tell you honestly what is in that class for your dates. What we will not do is put a model on a booking and hope.
I am not sure which class I need. How do I pick?
Do not start from the vehicle. Tell us the trip and three things settle it:
- How many people are travelling.
- How much luggage or gear is going in.
- How long you need it for.
That is enough to take six classes down to one, and it takes about a line of an email. It is also the part people most often get wrong on their own, usually by booking a class down and finding out at the airport that the luggage does not fit.
How many people will fit?
Each class describes a range rather than a fixed number:
- Economy — 4–5 seats.
- Sedan — 5 seats.
- SUV — 5–7 seats.
- Truck — 5 seats.
- Van — 7–8 seats.
- Luxury — 5 seats.
Tell us the party size when you enquire and we confirm the class — and the exact vehicle’s capacity — before you book.
Do you rent trucks and vans?
Yes. Truck and Van are two of the six classes — a truck for a move, a haul or anything that will not fit in a trunk, a van for a group or for a lot of gear at once.
Both are automatic and both can be delivered to you or collected from us, exactly like every other class.
See the fleetAre the photographs on this site your actual vehicles?
No, and we would rather tell you here than let you work it out at the handover. The photography on this site illustrates what each class is — the size, the shape and the kind of driving it suits. It is not a picture of the specific vehicle you will be handed.
What is guaranteed is the class you booked. Real photography of the fleet replaces these images when it exists.
Military, PCS & TDY
The Part We Were Built For
Who we are, who we rent to, and what happens when the dates were never really yours to set.
6 answers
What does "veteran owned and operated" actually mean here?
It means the people who own and run this business served. It is not a badge on a franchise and it is not a marketing angle bolted onto a counter operation.
What it changes is practical rather than sentimental: the operation is built around how military travel actually runs. Arriving on a PCS with no vehicle and no idea when your own one lands. A TDY window that moves twice before it starts. A handover that has to happen before the working day starts, or not at all. Those are the normal cases here rather than the awkward ones.
About usWhich branches do you rent to?
All six — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force and Coast Guard — across active duty, Guard, Reserve, retired and veterans, plus the families who move with them.
And civilians. Being built for the military community is a focus rather than a restriction, so if you found this page and you have never worn a uniform, you can still rent a vehicle.
I am PCSing in and have no vehicle yet. What can you do?
That gap is one of the main things we exist for. Weekly and monthly arrangements are available for the stretch between arriving and having your own vehicle, and the term is quoted as one figure for the whole stretch rather than a daily rate multiplied out.
We will deliver it to wherever you are staying, which on a PCS arrival is usually a hotel rather than an address you do not have yet. Tell us roughly how long the gap looks and we will quote the term against the dates you actually need.
Long-term and weeklyMy TDY dates might move. Is that a problem?
Say so when you enquire rather than after. Dates that are not really yours to set is the normal case here and it is much easier to plan for than to react to.
Before a booking starts, the cancellation windows above are what apply. Once a term is already running, changing it is a conversation rather than a published rule — so tell us as early as you know and we will tell you straight away what is possible.
Where does the handover happen if I am on base?
We serve the JBSA community at Lackland, Randolph and Fort Sam Houston, and we agree the handover point with you when you book — a time and a place you name, confirmed before your pickup time.
We settle that with you rather than publishing a rule about it, because where it works best genuinely differs by installation, by gate and by the hour you need it.
Are you affiliated with the DoD or with Joint Base San Antonio?
No. Military City Rentals is a privately owned business operated by Toyolex LLC. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Base San Antonio, or any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.
We say it plainly because the name and the audience invite the assumption, and an assumption about who endorses a business is not one to leave standing.
What We Quote Rather Than Publish
Three Answers That Have To Come From Us
Not everything on a rental has a number that is true before we know your dates. These three are quoted for your booking, in writing, before you commit to anything.
- The rate for your class and dates
- It moves with the class you take, how long you need it and whether we deliver it. You get the figure for your booking, not a headline number that changes at a desk.
- The mileage allowance for that class
- A daily allowance is included and it varies by vehicle, so which one you are on depends on which class you take. Past it, additional miles are charged at $0.50 to $1.50 or more depending on the vehicle.
- The delivery fee for your address
- Worked out from distance and the pickup time, and quoted while you book rather than added afterwards. Collecting the vehicle from us carries none at all.
Answered? Then Let Us Sort the Vehicle
Send Us the Dates and You Get the Terms Back
The rate for your class, the deposit, the mileage allowance and the cancellation terms — in writing, before anything is booked. Nothing turns up at the handover that was not on the screen.