At a time when true customer service is rare, and companies appear and disappear with alarming regularity, it’s reassuring to know of local firms on Ibiza that uphold the values of close personal contact with clients, reliability and continuity. One such company is the San Antonio-based Moto Luis, an island institution dating back over 65 years.
EARLY DAYS
Moto Luis was founded in 1956 when Luis López from Madrid opened a small scooter rental company in San Antonio to invite tourists to explore Ibiza's unspoilt beaches and landscapes along its largely unpaved roads.
At that time, it was the first company in San Antonio to rent scooters; a feat repeated in 1963 when it was the first firm in the resort to hire cars. And this was when there were just two or three other such companies on the island! Pioneers in the true sense of the word. The firm’s first fleet of vehicles consisted of eight Vespas before growing to include a handful of the tiny, iconic Seat 600 cars by 1963.
Seeking a reliable and handy partner, he found one in the local Ibicenco, Mariano Roig, who - at the age of fifteen - had already fixed motorcycles and attended to clients. Mariano was headhunted for the then generous sum of 25,000 pesetas and started working in the business in 1962. At that time, he still lived in San Jordi on the other side of the island, meaning he’d catch the bus into San Antonio each day and even stay overnight in a hostel occasionally.
Luis then retired from the business, and by 1966, things were really starting to kick off. Tourism, mainly Spanish and French - many of whom were divers engaging in underwater fishing in the waters around San Antonio Bay - was in its heyday. Moto Luis was stretched to capacity, dropping vehicles off at the resort’s glamorous hotels.
Getting hold of vehicles wasn’t easy back then. Mariano and his associates had to fetch them themselves from Barcelona - sometimes amid the high season - as no dealership existed in Ibiza at that time. Having a car delivered from the mainland in those days could take up to seven months!
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF CAR RENTAL ON IBIZA
By the 80s, British tourism was booming, with tour operators building huge hotels in and around San Antonio and flying in masses of holidaymakers eager to discover the attractions of Ibiza and bask in the sun on its pristine beaches.
Moto Luis forged close links with the iconic Pikes Hotel - then, far and away, the most glamorous on the island. Many of its high-end guests - world-famous pop and rock artists and the cream of European aristocracy were in need of transport. Given the close personal ties between Mariano and the hotel’s colourful owner and Ibiza legend, Tony Pikes, there was no question who they’d come to: Moto Luis!
Not that things always ran smoothly: far from staying on the island, rented cars often ended up all over Spain. One even had to be picked up from Lisbon after the couple who rented it had a mid-holiday meltdown! Worse still, others were found in scrapyards, broken up into parts.
Mariano fondly recalls how one car that had gone missing was eventually traced to Armenia after a call from the Customs Office there. Unable to retrieve it, the company donated it to a local charity.
On other occasions, clients pranged their hired cars on the island. This being the pre-credit card era, clients would have to cough up cash to pay for repairs and - in the case of non-Spanish nationals, they’d often get away scot-free, Moto Luis bearing all the costs themselves.
ENTER IBIZA SPOTLIGHT
Moto Luis first came on board when Ibiza Spotlight was still a printed magazine back in the 80s. However, the collaboration took off after 1999 when Ibiza Spotlight began taking baby steps online.
The website immediately began sending the car hire specialists many clients at the beginning of what was to become a cordial and fruitful relationship that has lasted up to the present day.
MOTO LUIS: THE SECRET OF ITS SUCCESS
Several factors have contributed to the firm’s long-standing success in the competitive car hire sector on Ibiza.
Firstly, its fast and efficient paperwork processing means that everything is handled by the time the customer arrives at the airport. Picking your chosen vehicle up is thus easy and super quick, as is dropping it off again at P1 at Ibiza Airport.
Moto Luis maintains the highest standards of personalised service, which is why so many of its loyal customers come back time after time and also achieves such a consistently high ranking on all the major search engines and travel aggregator sites.
The firm prides itself on the close relationship of trust it builds with its clients, who invariably express great satisfaction at the personal treatment they receive and appreciate the ease and flexibility of dealing with it.
Few, if any, of the other car rental firms - often multinational corporations nowadays - are still operating at 02:00 AM, allowing you to pick up your vehicle right there at the airport without having to catch a shuttle bus or wait in line for ages.
One last but clear sign of the firm’s integrity is that so many of its employees have stayed with it for decades - this in a sector notorious for rapid staff turnover.
Now just three years short of celebrating its 70th anniversary, Moto Luis - whose fleet currently numbers 500 cars (including some electric models) & 120 scooters looks to the future safe in the knowledge that its impeccable business model will continue to sustain it and keep its legion of satisfied customers coming back for more in the years and decades ahead.
