El Monte RV

Terribly disappointing. Trip from NJ to Michigan on Thanksgiving weekend. Windshield wipers that fell OFF the RV 3 hours into our 10 hour trip during a rainstorm, customer service hard to reach on Thanksgiving weekend, no truck stops nearby for repair, generator that stopped working in the middle of the night with loss of heat, refridgerator that also stopped working with loss of food, loss of time, tense driving without windshield wipers, loss of paid preferred RV parking space due to delay in arriving and a tiny, tiny adamant reimbursement for our troubles.

Terrible customer service and hundreds of dollars in unexpected charges have left me furious after my experience with this company. To recount from the beginning -
1. The check in process was extremely vague and unclear. We left feeling totally unprepared to operate our RV, not to mention totally unclear on why we were paying $ 700+ over the amount we had already paid to reserve the RV (insurance, state fees, bedding, kitchen kit, you name it). If I had known I was going to pay $ 225 to use their kitchenware and cheap bedding, I would have brought my own!
2. We also were given no advice or instructions on how to drive in the direct area, let alone everywhere else we went. We didn’t get 20 miles from the rental center before being pulled over twice for being places we weren’t allowed to be. Some advice on this would have been appreciated. as there is real danger of being on bridges or under low overpasses if you don’t know to watch for them.
3. Upon returning, we were charged another $ 50 for an unexpected cleaning fee (negotiated down from $ 100) because the dog (which we specified we had in the reservation) left too much dog hair in the RV. The guy checking us in said we should have done some preliminary vacuuming or sweeping to avoid that. How would we have known? No idea. Is the judgement call to charge or not charge the cleaning fee totally subjective? Seems like it.
4. We were also told upon returning that we were supposed to refill the gas tank, which was not clearly explained to me. My options? Go back out and fill it (btw, everything takes twice as long in an RV) or pay $ 6/​gallon for them to do it. We had time restrictions, so tack on more fees.
5. I made it clear that I wanted the credit card used for the security deposit to be used only for that. Everything else was to go on the other card. But $ 700+ was charged to the security deposit card, and I was told it was impossible to correct it. So my husband just paid for his own birthday trip because of that mistake. Thanks guys. No willingness to help, once again
5. I got home to look at the final bill, and NONE of it made sense to me. I had to detail it out and speak to their corporate office to understand why I paid almost twice as much as I expected at the end of it ($ 700 of $ 900 worth of charges were a surprise to me)
6. Just to add a bit more fuel to the fire, they are closed on Sundays and holidays. When do most people return from vacations? Oh right, Sundays and holidays. And there is no after hours drop off. In New York City, you can’t exactly park the RV in your driveway for the extra day you are paying for and don’t want, so we had to spend the night in a crappy New Jersey RV park just to have it there on time the next day.
We actually had a lovely trip in our RV, but the experiences at the beginning and end were so frustrating and horrible that it unfortunately put a bad taste in our mouths about the entire thing, which is such a shame. I left the office in tears yesterday because I was so frustrated. All throughout, the people working there seemed totally uninterested in engaging us or helping us. Next time, I will gladly drive further outside the city to do this somewhere else.

Be careful to Bed Bugs. Im in the hospital now and this is my first Unilocal review.,
We rented an RV from this place by the recommendation of the festival ‘s website called Further Future. We had bed bugs bites everywhere on the second day of the festival. When we went to drop the RV, i talked to Manager, he said they are not bed bugs, they are mosquito bites., i show the bites to a doctor, and they agreed on that they were bed bugs.,!
Do not rent an RV from this place not only because of bed bugs also the manager and employees are so hands off and tired of working there.
Also it took us 3 hours to find a cab from there when our way to a hotel plus $ 1k laundry bill from the hotel and no refund from the company.

Cheated is a place to begin.
This company totally cheated us. My family and I rented a Class A RV for exactly one week to drive from NJ to FL. The day we picked up the RV was the longest, most complicated process. We received a phone call from the company telling us we will not be receiving our RV because we missed an appointment (that we were never told about, not in our contract or via telephone). After speaking with the company, we arrived immediately to the location to prevent anymore complications (ya, right). We waited 45 minuted before someone began the paperwork (photocopying drivers licenses, signing contracts, money). We were then directed to a room with a TV and were told to pay attention because it will teach us the different function to the Class A RV (heat, AC, generator, etc.) and they gave us a very thick manual in case we forgot anything.
After 2.5 hours of last minute checks we finally hit the road.
40 minutes into our trip down the NJ turnpike, the motor on the windshield wipers break and the wipe blades no longer are cleaning the windshield. We called the 1800 roadside assistance number they gave us and were told that there is nothing they can do for us until the morning and to pull over and wait till tomorrow. We tied a rope to the wipers and manually moved them ourselves to assure our schedule was met.
By the time we reached Maryland, the generator STOPPED working, along with the heat. Travelling with a 6 week old baby who needed a warm bottle every 2 – 3 hours created a HUGE problem with a broken generator causing us to stop and get warm water every bottle. The companies solutions to this… HEAT IT UP ON THE STOVE.
Finally in Orlando, they traded out our RV for a worse RV. Instead of broken amenities inside, this RV drove as if it was going to crash an burn at every corner.
Long story short, we FLEW back to NJ to reassure our lives. The company still tried to charge us more and more fees because leaving the RV in Orlando was inconvenient to them… ridiculous.
STAY AWAY from this company.

My husband and I recently rented an RV from El Monte in Linden. We went to look at them beforehand and went for the 22 foot camper for a 6 day trip to Illinois. The staff was very helpful and went over everything with us. We were thrilled to hear that almost the entire fleet of 22 footers was 2013 and 2014. A few days before we left I received the exact make, model and VIN for the insurance certificate and they confirmed it was a 2014 with only 12,000 miles. When we went to pick it up everything was perfect, and off we went.
When we were on the road we had some questions, the 1 – 800 number was very helpful and nice. The camper was very clean and operated exactly like it should have. Drop off was equally easy, we were a few minutes late and they had no problem with that. Later, my husband thought he lost something in the camper and they went back and checked for the item and called us back.
Angie and Martina are really helpful and nice and so is the rest of the staff. The only reason I did not give them 5 stars is because it’s hard to find with the GPS. I’d rent from this location again, definitely!

Cheated, and Betrayed are some words that com to mind when I think about this company.
We were 4 pilots and a small boy we wanted to go to an air show in Oshkosh WI from NJ. We booked an RV with a deposit, from El Monte more than 6 months in advance of our trip. We called a month out to confirm and were told everything is fine. We called a week out and were told don’t worry your reservation is good. We stop by the day before to clear up the paperwork to speed us up the next day and we are told they could not do that till the next day. And were told again «Don’t worry you reservation is fine».
OK so departure day is here and we arrive and we are told sorry we don’t have any of the style of RV you reserved in stock. would you like to take a larger one for a larger fee? Bait and switch it’s getting late so we go for it. Do the paper work and they show us a rig with a broken awning dented and scratched exterior. With rain water leaking down the center of the floor coming in from the roof! So We don’t want it but that is all that is available now it’s even later.
Load up and start the engine to find the check engine light is on. An hour later the mechanic comes out and plugs a scanner device in the the rig and clears the code. The code was a transmission fault and mechanic only cleared the code he did not fix anything. That light was going to come back on. We decided to bail and drive up 4 men and a small boy in a pick up truck with all our gear in the back for 17 hours.
The really painful part of this saga is while we were there we video taped 6 brand new rigs leave with German tourist driving. There were other new rigs in the back reserved for other people. It seem that they only cater to the tour companies and screw the one time renters.
Stay far far away from this place. They have the worst business practices I have ever seen