Apollo RV Rentals USA Review

I've been meaning to write a review for a while - but we used Apollo rentals in Denver, USA for our September 2018 holiday to hire a motorhome. The staff were super friendly when we first arrived, carrying our bags for us and so on as they showed us the rental and saw us off on our trip.

Everything went pear-shaped the moment we arrived back however - we greeted the staff with a smile and they didn't even say hi, they ignored us and started looking for damage to the campervan (of which there was none!). They spotted a tiny mark on the windscreen (which had been there all along before we'd collected, as the screen had been covered in squashed flies when we picked it up so we had assumed it was another!) and they said we had done it - they had obviously been trained and briefed on what to pick up on each camper, as they honed STRAIGHT in within seconds. Of the 4 groups of people returning back campers at the same time as us, every. single. one. had been told something was wrong and they owed money. The staff were rude to the point of downright offensive and it really put a huge downer on the end of our trip. I would not recommend purely for their customer service, but the RV itself was fine!

Also - make sure you print bedding, as the very expensive package we had to buy from Apollo was just a thin blanket and single cushion, it was freezing most nights.

Hidden fees and lies all along, beware of what you are going for if you decide to rent anything with these crooks, or be prepared to pay much more than you expected. Amazed that this company is still operating and has not been closed by a law suit already, as it should be.

Some details in our case:
- RV rented online before the trip, to go to burning man. In the rental agreement, it was mentioned that an extra cost of US$1,500 was applying to all vehicles going to burning man. Expensive but no choice, BM is an extreme environment.
- We wanted to return the RV on Sept 2nd, but because it is labor day, agency was closed, we had no other choice but to return it on the 4th, and pay accordingly. This was clearly stated online, and 2nd could not be selected as a return date
- Upon arrival to the agency, we discovered that we were not allowed to use the awning the RV is equipped with (and the awning was blocked for that purpose on the RV), because it was "company policy" for all RVs (burning man or not). Needless to say, this was never mentioned online.
- When renting , we were told that we had to return the car spotless or would incur severe penalties. The BM extra fee $1,500 did not include cleaning, just going to BM. We then agreed that we would clean the car, the agent became somehow threatening, telling us that only a professional cleaning company could get the car impeccable post burning man, we would not be able to clean it ourselves, etc...Given that we were driving back on Sunday, we started to worry that we would not find a pro cleaner open that day. The agency proposed a solution, called "hasslefree return" package, where you can return the car dirty, for a whooping US$1,200 extra!! We were outraged but had not much more choice left so had to go with it, because otherwise we would have to pay the cleaning fees + penalties if we didn't select this option now.
- While renting, we were told that finally the agency was open on 2nd, so could return that day, but no compensation for the extra 2 days possible, since we selected return on 4th at the time we did the booking online (reminder: when we booked online, returning on Sept 2nd was not possible, the agency was supposed to be closed...)
- When returning the car on the 2nd, the lady who received it told us it was dirty so we had to pay an extra US$300!!! Then she realised that we had this "hasslefree return" package so she agreed that we did not have to pay the $300. At that point we understood that we should have paid only $300 and not $1,200 (!!!) for the cleaning, so start arguing about it, and how misleaded, or even clearly lied upon, we had been when renting the car. The agent turned extremely rude, yelling at us that there were other benefits included in the hassle free package, such as a "windshield insurance (...??!!!) and the free usage of the generator of the car. That's when we also realized that the use of the generator integrated in the car (which is needed for air conditioning and other things such as charging battery for fridge, water pump etc..., so basically everything you need to use inside the rv) was at an extra fee, by the hour ! Lucky us we did not have to pay for that thanks to our "hassle free return" remarkable $1,500 package!
- We though still had to pay for every mile we drove, since miles were not included in the rental, which we ignored as well, adding another $300...
- We ended up the conversation with the manager (did not want to talk to the super rude agent and got a "goodwill gesture" down of $150
- ALL other customers in the agency were also yelling and fighting against all the hidden and extra fees, was incredible
MORALITY: Avoid these crooks at all cost, or it will cost you. Greatly...

Decent rv but they’ll try to screw you over at checkout. Not recommending Apollo.

We have just recently rented an RV from the Denver branch for a period of 12 days. The vehicle was overall OK except that we believe that we were mislead regarding what was actually needed. The vehicle had a generator, which we thought was part of the package. When we picked up the vehicle we were told that we would probably need the generator and that this would cost us 300 dollars for the period that we were renting the vehicle. During our whole trip the generator was not required. We would just like to make you aware, that you should you be extra careful if asked about the use of a generator as this will cost you extra money which is a waste. On returning the vehicle there was a small scratch the size of a nickel on the windscreen. In fact it was so small you would need a magnifying glass to see it. We were still charged 75 dollars for having an accident and are now waiting for the insurance to see what the actual cost is going to be. Again, please be careful as these people will try every which way they can to extradite as much money from you as they can. When we started arguing about the fact that our awning was taped up and that at every turn the fridge door opened, we were kindly asked to leave their office. Our overall view of Apollo RV, was be careful and do your home work. We certainly will never rent from them again and they still have my 1500 dollars until the insurance claim is sorted. We are certain that the windscreen will not be fixed and this will be passed onto the next customer.

Everything with Apollo went exactly as I wanted and expected. I would use them again