About Military City Rentals
A Local Operator in a Military City
We proudly serve the transportation needs of our military members and their families by providing affordable, reliable vehicle rentals.
San Antonio · Lackland · Randolph · Fort Sam Houston · SAT
Who We Are
Veteran Owned, and Operated Like It
Founded in 2021 by U.S. Navy veteran Johnny Rios, for a problem he had first.
Military City Rentals is a vehicle rental agency in San Antonio, owned and run by people who served. That is not a marketing angle bolted onto a franchise — it is the reason the business is arranged the way it is, around a city where orders move, household goods arrive late and somebody still has to be somewhere on Monday.
Johnny Rios was a young enlisted sailor in the early 2000s, at “A” school at Great Lakes and then at duty stations around the world, and at every one of them the same thing was true: getting hold of a car that was convenient, reliable and affordable was harder than it had any right to be. He started this company in 2021 because nobody else was going to.
What follows from that is practical rather than sentimental. We work the Joint Base San Antonio community the way a local does, we publish the terms that apply to your booking before you make it, and when something changes there is a person here who can decide what to do about it. The rest of this page is the detail of that, set out in full.
Veteran Owned and Operated
- Who we rent to
- Army · Navy · Air Force · Marine Corps · Space Force · Coast Guard
- Where we work
- San Antonio · Lackland · Randolph · Fort Sam Houston · SAT
- Since
- 2021 · Toyolex LLC
- What that buys you
- Not a discount, and we are not claiming one. Knowing what a PCS timeline looks like, and answering when it changes.
In Renters' Words
What Renters Say About Johnny
Reviews renters left after their trips, reproduced word for word. Each of these names him.
Rated 5 out of 5
“The car was amazing and the owner even better!!!! Thank you so much for being so kind Mr. Johnny!!!!”
NaaralyToyota Corolla Cross 2024 · Rated 5 out of 5
“Car was of great quality and everything we needed! Johnny was also a fantastic host!”
KaitlinToyota Prius 2024 · Rated 5 out of 5
“Johnny made picking up and delivering the Toyota very easy with detailed instructions! The vehicle was spotless on both the exterior and interior. The size of the vehicle was perfect for my sister in law and I to navigate through Hill Country with our luggage! Also, my sister-in-law is 6’ tall and leg space was adequate for her. I would rent this vehicle from Johnny again, as he was responsive and nice to communicate with.”
WendiToyota Corolla Cross 2024 ·
Who We Serve
Every Branch, and Everyone Who Moves With Them
The six seals are who we rent to. The list under them is who that actually turns out to be on a Tuesday morning.
- Army
- Navy
- Air Force
- Marine Corps
- Space Force
- Coast Guard
- Active duty
- Reporting in, moving on, or somewhere in between with a date that has already moved once.
- Guard and Reserve
- Drill weekends and annual training, where the vehicle is needed for exactly as long as the orders run.
- Retired and veterans
- Still in the city, or back in it for a ceremony, a reunion or an appointment.
- Families
- The people who move when the orders do, and who usually need the vehicle before the household goods arrive.
- Visiting for a graduation
- Flying in for a basic training graduation and needing a vehicle for a weekend, not a fortnight.
- And civilians
- Contractors, instructors and anyone else working alongside the installations, on the same terms as everybody else.
How We Operate
The Whole Standard, on One Page
Every term that applies to a booking here, in one place instead of scattered across five service pages. Nothing on this list is new — it is just never been in one column before.
One thing is deliberately not on it: a price. No daily rate is published for any class yet, so rather than print a number nobody has confirmed, we quote your dates and your class before you commit to either.
- When we are open
- Monday to Friday, 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Saturday, 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. For collection and for return.Closed Sunday. An after-hours drop-off is available on request — ask when you book rather than on the day.
- What you bring
- A current driver’s licence and a payment card in your own name, on you at the hand-over.Minimum age 21. From 21 to 24, a young renter fee of $20 a day applies.
- The deposit
- $250 to $400, set by the vehicle class. Refundable, and released once the vehicle is back in good order.It moves upward with the class, so the figure for yours is confirmed before you commit to it.
- How you pay
- Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. Debit works too, on the same deposit.The card has to be in the name the booking is under.
- Fuel
- Back at the level it left at. No refuelling charge if it comes back where it started.
- Mileage
- A daily allowance applies, and additional miles run from $0.50 to $1.50 each.The allowance itself varies by vehicle, so we confirm yours against the vehicle rather than quoting one figure for the fleet.
- Changing your mind
- Full refund 48 hours or more before pickup, partial refund 24 to 48 hours before pickup and no refund under 24 hours, including same day.All three are measured before collection. A booking already running is a conversation, not a window.
- Insurance
- You need verifiable comprehensive and collision coverage that transfers to a rental vehicle.Liability-only or no policy at all is not a refusal — CDW and SLI cover is offered when you make the reservation.
- Delivery
- Free from our office in opening hours and free at SAT's long-term garage. A round trip to any of the 5 military installations in the metro is $50.Anywhere else, a fee is worked out from distance and the pickup time and quoted while you book, never added afterwards. The airport and on-base runs need 24 hours' notice.
What to Expect
Four Things That Are True of Every Booking
Not a sequence — these hold at every point between finding this page and handing the keys back.
- You get the terms before you commit
- Everything above applies to your booking, and anything that would change it you hear from us while you are booking rather than at the hand-over.
- You book the vehicle, not a category
- Tell us what has to fit and we will narrow it with you. It is a faster conversation than a model name and it ends in the right vehicle more often.
- You choose how it reaches you
- Collect it from us, or tell us where the trip starts and we will bring it there. Neither is the exception.
- You talk to someone who can decide
- Reach us and you get a person local to this city who can make a call about your rental, rather than a queue and a script.
The exact terms — age tiers, deposits and holds, accepted cards, mileage, fuel and cancellation — are set out in full on the requirements page rather than summarised differently on every page of this site.
Where We Go
Across San Antonio, and to the Terminal
Collect the vehicle from us, or tell us where the trip starts and we will bring it there — a home, a hotel, a workplace, or San Antonio International Airport (SAT). We work the whole of San Antonio and the Joint Base San Antonio community at Lackland, Randolph and Fort Sam Houston.
Give us the address when you book and we will confirm it and what the delivery comes to before anything is agreed.
See the full service area →Veteran Owned and Operated
Now let us get you a vehicle
See the fleet →Service area →Requirements & policies →Open Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM