Spare Wheels Transportation

I used Spare Wheels for transportation to and from my wedding venue (Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park). All in all my guests seemed to be pleased with the service. Everyone made it safely on both the arrival and return trip. Really my only complaint was some of the communication between Spare Wheels and the hotel my guests were staying at (Holiday Inn — Aurora North — Naperville). I was told all coordination would be done on their behalf, but I ended up having to call a couple days before the wedding to square all the details away. In the end I would definitely recommend this service to anybody looking to stay on a tighter budget! It was definitely the cheapest option I found in the Chicago suburbs.

We used Spare Wheels to shuttle our guests to and from our wedding venue. Leading up to the wedding, they were fantastic with communication. Our emails were returned promptly, they were flexible with us as we made changes to the schedule, and they were very friendly on the phone. The day of the wedding, the shuttles were on time, the vehicles looked great, the drivers were courteous, and again, they were flexible as we made changes to our timeline, which I really appreciated.
The missing star is because we went through a lot of trouble to buy and bring champagne and beer (from Chicago out to Aurora) to be stocked in the limo bus the day of the wedding, and they forgot to do it.
In spite of that last detail, I would still recommend Spare Wheels for your transportation needs.

I have used Spare Wheels for about eight years for a once-​a-​year business event to drive us from Chicagoland to Springfield. They have always been reliable and I have never had an issue.

We used Spare Wheels to transport our wedding guests from the hotel to the wedding location on a farm (about 5 miles apart).
To us, the price seemed very reasonable and I was pleased by the lengthy phone call I spent with the logistics coordinator a week prior which assured me they knew what they were doing and how much time it would take to transport our guests.
Our main issue was we did not account for as many people to take the bus as ended up wanting a ride. The bus had to go back to the hotel for an extra trip which delayed our ceremony and I think also frustrated some guests.
Overall — Spare Wheels did a great job with the information they had. If I was doing it over I would not «estimate» how many people would use transportation but ask for people to indicate that on the RSVP or a wedding website so you can give the logistics team exact details when planning the transportation. At the end of the day, this did not ruin our awesome day and Spare Wheels was incredibly nice about the extra trip so we were pleased.

We used spare wheels for our wedding transportation, and were quite pleased. We got the party bus for our wedding party, and another smaller shuttle for guests (we did not have many staying at the hotel). The service was very prompt (actually early) and made all of our stops for us with no problem. I even thought it was cute that the shuttle drivers stopped in to the back of our ceremony to watch and then complimented it all night.
The price of their services have definitely gone up since last I used them, but the limo bus was definitely just as nice as a limo with a lot more space. Appreciated them calling to confirm everything with the wedding in advance as well.
My only negative comment is that we were told the party bus would have ice on it, and it did not have any ice at all so our drinks weren’t cold :(

I grew up in St. Charles but my family moved away from the area a few years ago. I planned my wedding back in St. Charles though and planned to use all local St. Charles businesses. We have used Spare Wheels before in the past and been a part of outings where Spare Wheels has been hired and we never had an issue. However, they completely messed up the day of my wedding and for that, I would recommend that NO ONE uses them.
We reserved Spare Wheels more than 12 months in advance of our wedding date and we were in contact with them numerous times throughout the year confirming details. A week before the wedding, my mom confirmed with them the pickup schedule for the hotels and the drop off times at the wedding site. They said they would take care of everything from there — including coordinating with the hotels (we had 3 hotels they were scheduled to pick up from) and arranging for signs to be posted at all 3 locations with the pick up times. Since they said this was taken care of, we didn’t do anything on our end. It was only when I, the bride, got a frantic call from one of my friends staying at one of the hotels 2 hours before I was supposed to walk down the aisle, saying that the hotel knew NOTHING about the shuttle service, did we realize that something was wrong. Spare Wheels did NOT call the hotels and notify them that there would be a shuttle. NONE of our guests knew what time to be in the lobby for the shuttle. When we tried to call Spare Wheels the day of to find out what was happening, the person who answered the phone said the manager was out until Monday so that there wasn’t anything that they could do, but to appease, us for the time being, they would send the larger bus.
The bus finally arrived at the first location, but then waited for 30 minutes and said it was OUR fault that they had to wait so long because our guests weren’t ready. Our guests were not in the lobby because they didn’t know what time the bus was picking them up. The only reason why anyone was able to get on the bus at all was because the manager at the hotel individually went to each guests room to notify them that the bus was ready. Then, because the bus was so late, they missed the other 2 stops where they were supposed to pick up people. Because of the 2 missed stops, numerous guests missed the ceremony (including members of the brides family) and they had to find alternate transportation options.
When we FINALLY were able to get in touch with the manager a few days after the wedding, he took no blame in the situation and he said we never confirmed any of the details (despite numerous emails back and forth with my mother and him CONFIRMING via email, all the details and the time frame). When we complained further about the service and asked for a reduction on the invoice (which we had to pay 100% up front before the wedding), he said that he would not reduce the invoice since it was not their fault. When we threatened to write a bad review, he said that if that was the way we wanted to conduct business, then fine.
We ended up getting a reduction of $ 100 on the invoice, which only covered the fuel surcharge that he added in at the end, so basically, we didn’t get any type of deduction.
NEVER USE THIS COMPANY!!! They were the ONLY vendor that we had an issue with. I can understand things happen the day of, people make mistakes, etc. but the way that the manager handled the situation afterwards and his attitude is no way that an owner should speak to a client. If they had accepted fault and took responsibility for their errors, then I would not be writing this review, but their actions after the issue were unacceptable. We paid almost $ 750 for a service that was not provided.

I recently used Spare Wheels as our limo a shuttle service my wedding. I needed to rent two large shuttles, one to transport our guests from the hotel to the site of our ceremony, and then also a limo shuttle to transport the wedding party to the ceremony, then all around the city to take photos, and then finally to the reception.
Of all of the vendors that I was handling for our wedding planning, I was most nervous about the shuttle/​limo service. For most of the other things, we had recommendations from friends or other sources, but as far as a shuttle service, I didn’t have any personal leads and had to go by what I read online.
I e-​mailed Spare Wheels to inquiry about availability and pricing. Cathy (possibly owner or manager) responded promptly answering my questions and even sent some photos of the shuttles that I had requested. When spoke with her on the phone she was very professional and even gave me a slight discount since we were renting two shuttles from them. However, after I put down a deposit with them I e-​mailed a few more questions and never got a response, so then I started worrying again about whether they would show up on time at each location as we had a pretty tight schedule on the wedding day. The week before our wedding someone from Spare Wheels contacted me over the phone to finalize the details.
I’m happy to report that both of the shuttles we hired were on time and did a great job of transporting our guests and wedding party. Of course, the city of Chicago decided to begin construction in my neighborhood just before our wedding, so the driver for our limo bus had to be creative in finding places to park and wait for us while picking us up. He was very patient and professional the entire day, even while navigating the heavy downtown traffic while taking us to four different locations for photos. At one point we were trying to get to the Kinzie St. bridge and he missed the turn and didn’t realize it, so luckily one of my groomsmen who lives in the area was able to direct him the right way. I can’t blame him too much though as it is tricky to navigate down there if you don’t live in the area.
The limo bus only provided ice and a built in cooler, while we brought all our own beverages and snacks. It also had a stereo system that you could plug an iphone into and our wedding party had it cranking with some dance party moments while we were being shuttled around the city.
All in all, Spare Wheels came through with good, prompt and professional service.

THE WORST DECISION OF OUR WEDDING. Do not use this company if getting the bride to her own wedding is a priority.
We have had easily the worst experience possible with an apparently terrible company. Their manager, Cathy, is rude, unhelpful, and combative. Their owner, who we eventually got in touch with, was marginally nicer but still refused to rectify our situation.
We rented a bus for three hours (2:30 pm to 5:30 pm) for transportation of our bridal party to the venue. Long story short, when THE BRIDE was ready to travel to the venue at 4:45 pm, their bus broke down.
They had no backup plan. They were unapologetic and unaccountable. They offered to try finding a limo for us with a wait time of over an hour, which obviously will not work during a wedding. They apparently don’t service their fleet enough, as they can’t even send us a shuttle that will work for three hours and drive maybe a total of ten miles within the city.
So, being that it was pouring in Chicago on a Saturday afternoon with Lollapalooza going on, the bridesmaids were forced to go outside and try to hail taxis. For 45 minutes. They didn’t get to the venue until 6:00 pm, when the ceremony was supposed to start at 5:30. We paid $ 575 to Spare Wheels, a supposedly reputable company, specifically so we would not have to deal with cabs/​weather/​uncertainties.
Their offered solution: refund us for one of the three hours because «the bus worked fine for the first two hours». Seriously. They failed to get the bride to her own wedding and their only response is that should count as one hour we don’t have to pay???
I’ve since spoken with Cathy several times. She still hasn’t offered an apology. We’ve been given the runaround about her first needing to wait a day while she speaks with the driver. And now today we are waiting for the owner to call us, because she wouldn’t give us his contact information because he’s «on vacation».
She has argued vehemently that they did a fine job for the first two hours and that the most they will do for us is refund one hour of driving. As far as customer service, reliability, and intelligence goes, this company is easily the worst.
Because of their bus breaking down, the entire wedding started 30 minutes late. This means we incurred additional fees from the string quartet that was waiting to play for the ceremony, we lost 30 minutes of our reception, we could not arrive to the venue early for planned photos, and the bride had to show up to her wedding in a Cab.
We’ll never get back the half hour of our wedding and the photos that we missed out on, but we figured that they could at least refund our money. All we’ve asked from Spare Wheels is a full refund for their complete lack of reliable service on such an important day. They don’t have enough heart, and not nearly enough brains, to realize that the right thing to do is accept that they severely screwed up and refund the full amount of our (breached) contract.
Update: The owner eventually offered a 50% refund, because he got half of us to the wedding (seriously???). The offer is still, in my opinion, completely absurd to not recognize that they did not in any way fulfill their part of the contract.

We hired this company for our wedding after seeing an advertisement in a wedding magazine. We had had some experience with company in the past.
We were able to talk through with the company exactly what we wanted and it was provided no problems. We decided on a party bus for transportation to and from the hotel to the wedding. The drivers got there on time, did exactly as we expected. This was one of the few vendors from our wedding that I did not have to worry about
We got exactly what we expected. It was so simple.

I fought my husband on this vendor from the beginning. I am glad that we got the party bus and shuttle for the guests but it was still a pretty penny. I love the fact that we weren’t crowded in the party bus and it was nice and cool for our July wedding. The drivers were prompt and got us everywhere in no time. I felt like they were difficult to get on the phone and we constantly were leaving voice mails back and forth. They stop the clock for the ceremony and picture spots for their 3 hour minimum which is something I’m told is rare and saves the couple money.

Before the day of our wedding, I would have given Spare Wheels five stars because they were helpful, accommodating and friendly. We made a location change a few days before the wedding, and called them to record the change; however, on the day of the wedding, our party bus was nowhere to be found and the ceremony started in an hour. My bridesmaids and I had to frantically locate a vehicle that we could all take to get us there on time. Come to find out, the party bus had come to pick us up… at the wrong location. Apparently, they never alerted the driver of the change so he went to the old address. This was pretty frustrating, especially when I couldn’t get a hold of anyone to find out what had happened. To their credit, they did make things right by us in the end, but I probably wouldn’t be confident in hiring them again.

This referral was a gem. They could not have been more helpful, professional, and overall wonderful. Our driver was prompt, courteous and they even will contact hotels and post pickup times. It does not get any easier than this to keep everyone safe and get them where they need to be ~ all at the same time!

We’ve used Spare Wheels several times for our transportation needs while in the area. Friendly people, great service and reasonable rates. We’ll definetly use them again!

Last night we took a charter bus from Spare Wheels to the Cubs game. When we were calling other local bus companies, Spare Wheels offered the best price for the charter services. When we hit traffic in the city the driver had a ninja short cut that got us to the game on time. I will definitely use Spare Wheels next summer when I get married for my bachelor party.