Decision to Rent From Santa Baby Rental
Last month we traveled to the little town of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, for a week with our toddler and 4-year-old. Airbnbs in the area were pretty expensive, so we decided to stay in a hotel room at Ventura Santa Teresa that had a kitchenette and two double beds. It was a fairly family friendly place to stay, but unfortunately they didn’t offer any kind of infant crib or pack n’ play that we could use for our toddler. We considered putting the toddler and 4-year-old together in one of the double beds, but knew it would be too difficult for them to fall asleep together. We always travel very light so there was no way we were going to be bringing our own pack n’ play with us, so I decided to look up baby equipment rentals in Santa Teresa, but was doubtful we’d find anything since it’s a pretty small place. As such, I was pleasantly surprised to discover Santa Baby Rentals in Santa Teresa! They had a five star Google rating from 22 reviewers and a decent website with an impressive selection of equipment for babies and toddlers (strollers, high chairs, car seats, safety gates, baby monitors etc) and a crib, pack n’ play, and inflatable toddler bed for sleeping options. As such, we decided to rent an inflatable toddler bed since it was the cheapest option and wanted to share our experience for anyone else looking to rent baby/toddler equipment in Santa Teresa!
How to Rent With Santa Baby Rentals
Santa Baby Rentals has a pretty good website with a list of all the products they offer complete with photographs and price per day. To rent a product, you simply complete their online booking form, send them an email, or text them via their provided WhatsApp number. I really appreciated the variety of options and started by sending them both an email and a WhatsApp message, which they responded to the very next day clarifying total price, delivery date, how to pay, and the best way to communicate.
Email response from Iwona to my booking inquiry
Products
Santa Baby Rentals offers more than just equipment like high chairs, cribs, and carseats. Their inventory also includes things you might not have even thought about renting but that could make a trip more enjoyable, like life jackets, a pop up sun tent for the beach, a beach picnic blanket, an outdoor water play table etc. They also have important baby items beyond big equipment like baby monitors, an infant tub, a little floor potty, a white noise machine, silicone dining set, back carry and front carry infant carriers etc. We honestly pretty impressed with their inventory!
An example of the variety of things you can rent from Santa Baby Rental
Pricing
The bed we rented cost $10USD/day, which we thought was pretty decent and the most expensive items on their website (stroller, crib, all terrain wagon, mini table and chairs, play kitchen with accessories!) are $25/day, so nothing is crazy expensive. The delivery and pick-up fee does increase the total cost unfortunately, but wasn’t unreasonable.
Good to know: Santa Baby Rental charges a $25USD round trip delivery and pick-up fee for the Mal Pais to Santa Teresa area. Additional fees apply if you’re outside that area as well as for rushed same-day or next-day orders.
Payment
Payment is due prior to delivery, for which they sent me their Venmo information. I found it really convenient to Venmo for payment and their Venmo account has their logo from their website and the same name, which helped to make it clear that it was the correct account. We communicated via WhatsApp during our stay and to arrange pick up when we left and that was super convenient too.
Good to know: You can pay for your rental equipment from Santa Baby Rentals with cash, Venmo, or PayPal at the time this was written.
Drop-Off and Pick-Up
Iwona from Santa Baby Rentals asked us when we thought we’d check in to Ventura Santa Teresa and dropped the bed off, already inflated, in our room before we arrived. It was awesome to walk in and find it sitting there ready to go! I had assumed they’d leave a pump and we’d have to inflate it ourselves, so it was nice to have it already set up. As mentioned early, they also messaged us through WhatsApp a day before our departure asking when we’d be checking out to arrange pick-up. They did ask that we leave it at the front desk of the hotel for easier pick-up, which we were happy to do.
Good to know: Our toddler bed was already inflated and dropped off in our room prior to our arrival so things were totally ready to go when we arrived. We really appreciated that! Do note that bedding was not included so we had to get an extra blanket from the hotel and just used an extra pillow from one of the beds to make it nice and comfy for our little one.
Our inflatable toddler bed set up and waiting for us when we arrived at our hotel :)
Product Quality and Accuracy
The bed was good quality, very clean (looked band new), had no air leakage the entire five days we used it, and was the exact same bed they had a photo of on their website. As such, I’d say their products are accurate to what they list on their website and are well maintained.
The bed set up for our toddler
Customer Service
Customer service was great in our experience! Iwona responded next day to our initial email and was really proactive on WhatsApp regarding delivery and pick-up. At the end of our stay there was a little mix-up where she thought our bed was supposed to be picked up a day earlier than what we thought we were renting it for, but we quickly sorted it our via WhatsApp and she apologized for having the wrong dates on her calendar.
WhatsApp communication from Santa Baby Rental during our stay to arrange pick-up
Good to Know FAQs
Here’s a screenshot of frequently asked questions and answers from Santa Baby Rental’s website to help you decide if renting from them is a good fit for you.
Final Thoughts
We had a great experience renting from Santa Baby Rentals. Their prices were reasonable, they were very responsive, and the bed they dropped off for us looked brand new. Potential downsides are the extra delivery fee that increases if you don’t book at least 48 hours in advance and the fact that you may not be able to do less than a 3 day rental (see the FAQs page above). However, since they are the only baby rental company in the Santa Teresa area (at least at the time this was written) you don’t really have another option if you want to travel light and need to rent something and we would definitely rent from them again!
Have something to add about renting from Santa Baby Rentals? We and our readers would love to hear it! Leave us a comment!